A newly renovated synagogue in the former East Germany was defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti, police reported.
It was the third act of vandalism against a Jewish site reported in the former East Germany in the last two days.
According to reports, perpetrators painted anti-Semitic statements and illegal symbols in yellow on the front door of a synagogue in Goerlitz covering more than a square yard. The vandalism was discovered Monday.
Reached in Vienna, Alex Jacobowitz, the chairman of Goerlitz’s small Jewish community, said he would comment after seeing the police report.
The synagogue in Goerlitz, originally dedicated in 1909, was the only synagogue in the state of Saxony to survive the Kristallnacht pogrom of 70 years ago. It was reopened to the public following extensive renovations on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, Nov. 9.
Also Monday, two Jewish cemeteries in the former East German state of Thuringia were found defaced with red paint. In one case, the bloody head of a pig was hung on the cemetery’s iron gates. Police reportedly were able to retrieve evidence at the cemeteries in Gotha and Erfurt.
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.
