California police authorities have begun an investigation into a series of desecrations of synagogues and Jewish student clubs which have taken place in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Berkeley.
The first vandalism was reported from Hollywood where hoodlums entered Temple Israel and tore an ancient Torah to pieces. They also scrawled swastikas and anti-Jewish slogans in German on the walls of the temple. Threatening letters were sent to Dr. Max Nussbaum, rabbi of the temple, after the case was reported to the police.
Several days later the Temple Both Sholom in San Francisco was desecrated. The vandals painted a cross and the letters KKK on the walls. Police authorities believe that this act of vandalism, the first of its kind in San Francisco, is not the work of children, but of anti-Semitic adults.
In Berkeley, vandals damaged the club house of Zeta Beta Tau, a Jewish collegiate fraternity. They broke into the house and turned on a hose in the rooms. In Los Angeles a cross was burned on the lawn of the same fraternity.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
