(JTA) — A 6-foot-high, 100-pound menorah was stolen from a park in San Francisco.
The menorah in Washington Square Park was reported stolen Sunday after having been lit the night before, the first night of the Hanukkah, the San Francisco Gate reported. It was installed two weeks ago by the local Chabad.
Police believe the menorah was stolen by metal recyclers and not by someone with anti-Semitic intent.
“We didn’t think somebody could make off with something that big,” Miryum Mochkin, co-director of the North Beach branch of Chabad, told the Gate. She said Chabad considers it a hate crime.
“At the end of the day, someone that evil, who would target a religious symbol, is a person of darkness,” Mochkin said, according to the Gate. “We’re a celebration of light. They’re stuck in a dark place.”
Chabad, which had been scheduled to hold a public lighting of the menorah on Monday night, called on families to meet in the park at the scheduled time with their own personal menorahs.
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