NEW YORK (JTA) — The windows of a synagogue in Brooklyn were broken during Rosh Hashanah services.
A video showing people throwing milk crates at the the Rivnitz synagogue in the Williamsburg neighborhood was circulated Wednesday on social media.
Police said that the incident took place on Monday afternoon and they were searching for two females who were seen in the video, according to WPIX-TV.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo both condemned the vandalism.
“This is a shocking act of hate,” de Blasio wrote on Twitter. “We WILL find the perpetrators and hold them responsible.”
Cuomo said in a statement that he was “disgusted and enraged” by the incident and that he was directing the State Police’s hate crimes task force to work with the police on the investigation.
The Anti-Defamation League said it was “deeply disturbed” by the video.
“At a time when the Brooklyn Jewish community is already on edge in the wake of a series of anti-Semitic incidents, it is extremely upsetting to see this congregation targeted during what is otherwise supposed to be a joyous celebration of the Jewish New Year,” Evan Bernstein, the regional director of the organization’s New York-New Jersey office, said in a statement.
There has been a spate of attacks in recent months against visibly Orthodox Jewish men in Brooklyn.
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