Police are continuing to investigate the occurrence of anti-Semitic vandalism at five synagogues and a Jewish day school. The buildings were plastered last week with posters declaring “Death to the Jews” and “Long Live the PLO,” with a large swastika in the center.
Peggy Isaak Gluck, a Northern Califomia Jewish Bulletin staff writer, reported that Inspector Tom Dickson, liaison to the Jewish community for the San Francisco police department, said the police would examine each of the affected synagogues in the hope of finding the perpetrators.
Two worshippers on their way to Tisha B’Av services discovered the posters. Identical posters were found on Congregations Adath Israel, Ner Tamid, Beth Sholom, Sherith Israel, and Chevra Thilim, plus Hebrew Academy, Gluck reported. Similar posters were found on San Francisco synagogues about three years ago. But, according to Dickson, “they weren’t as threatening as this one. This is a threat to all Jews. We suspect it may be the same person or group who did the last one.”
Dickson said his investigators would “call people who deal with the PLO,” but noted that he suspected vandals other than that group. “This is an out-and-out threat and very serious,” he said. Theodore Seton, chairman of the Jewish Community Relations Council, who visited the synagogues and school, indicated that he shared Dickson’s uncertainty about the origin of the posters. Gluck reported Seton as saying that “the combination of pro-PLO and pro-Nazi sentiments in these posters is not traditional for most anti-Semitic groups.”
He added, “We are doing everything possible to cooperate with the police to find the source of these outrages,” and expressed gratification that the police department “has been responsive and has launched a serious investigation.”
Rabbi Michael Samuel of Congregation Chevra Thilim, one of the target synagogues, said, “It should be a reminder to Jews — and other minority groups — that in this country these hate groups are unfortunately alive and well and will do anything to promote their campaign of hatred.” But, he added, “we are not phased by this.”
Rabbi Malcolm Sparer, president of the Northern Califomia Board of Rabbis, blamed weak political leadership in the United States for the growth “of seeds of hate and bigotry that have permitted disgraceful incidents like this to flourish. In retrospect, when a whole country is enjoying goosebumps and renewed patriotism because of the Americans at the Olympics, Jews in 1984 find that on Tisha B’Av things are not really that different than the days of the original Tisha B’Av.”
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