(JTA) — For the Chevra Mishnayes Synagogue in Winnipeg, Canada, a swastika spray-painted on its property has become an all-too-familiar sight.
It happened again last week when a bright yellow swastika was spray-painted on a garbage bin behind the synagogue. Chevra Mishnayes has been similarly targeted in recent years and in other anti-Semitic incidents, including having its mailbox and the mail inside set on fire.
“I am a child of survivors, both my parents are Holocaust survivors, and they witnessed that throughout their whole youth and onward,” Laya Keller, whose husband is president of the congregation, told the Winnipeg Free Press. “And then seeing that in my own backyard … it hit hard. That’s my place, that’s my place of worship.
The swastika was discovered on Thursday night and reported Friday to local police and to B’nai Brith of Canada.
The congregation has been meeting in the same building for 55 years, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
“It’s the intent that really shocks me,” Keller said, “that someone would go out of their way to do something like this.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
