Southland Jewish leaders Friday condemned an overnight vandalism attempt at a Century City synagogue, where surveillance video captured a man try to throw a block of concrete through two windows.
The synagogue's windows are made of reinforced glass, and the concrete bounced away without causing significant damage. But the attempt -- on the heels of other high-profile anti-Semitic attacks of Jewish people in the Southland -- drew the ire of local leaders.
“In my 35 years as rabbi of this beautiful synagogue, I have never, ever experienced such an act perpetrated against our house of God,” said Rabbi Elazar Muskin of Young Israel of Century City.
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The attempted vandalism occurred at about 1 a.m. Friday. Synagogue officials said the man first broke a window at a nearby restaurant called Pat's Next Door, then tried to do the same to the synagogue.
“The first time he attempted to break the window, it actually ricocheted because... it's a very strong shatterproof glass,” said Steven Silver, a synagogue security official. “And you could see he was surprised it actually didn't go through. And he picked it up again, threw it at the next window, it ricocheted again, and then he decided to leave.”
The incident comes about two weeks after a pair of highly publicized attacks that were caught on video, showing assailants in caravans of vehicles waving Palestinian flags. In one case, the assailants tried to run over an Orthodox Jewish man who fled on foot and escaped injury. In the other, a group of diners at a Beverly Grove restaurant were attacked.
“Our president, our Congress, our Senate have to pay attention to it -- that a person has nothing better to do, 1:30 in the morning, a beautiful synagogue like this, he wants to attack it,'' said Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
