(JTA) — A Copenhagen church was vandalized hours before a rabbi spoke there.
“Free Gaza” and “Close the Death Camps” was spray-painted on the door of the Anna Church in the Norrebro district overnight Sunday, the Local reported. Bricks also were thrown through some of the church’s windows.
Bent Melchior, Denmark’s former chief rabbi, presented his address as planned on Sunday about the 70th anniversary of the country’s liberation from the Nazis.
“Without being totally immodest, I have to admit that it was directed at me,” Melchior told the Danish newspaper Politiken. “I am sorry that there are such idiots around, and I am full of regret that I had to be the occasion for such a thing.”
The rabbi reportedly had received repeated death threats, some very specific.
Copenhagen Police are treating the incident as being politically motivated, according to the report.
In February, a terror attack outside a Copenhagen synagogue left a Jewish volunteer security guard dead.
