Vandals ransacked a synagogue in Norwich, in central New York State.
The vandals broke into the Jewish Center of Norwich sometime between Saturday, when services were last held, and Wednesday, when co-president Leslie Dopkeen was to have met caterers to plan a communal seder.
Dopkeen discovered smashed windows, anti-Semitic graffiti on the walls, furniture and the ark smashed, although the Torahs were left intact. There were signs the vandals tried to set a fire, said Larry Rosenblum, a congregant and Dopkeen’s husband.
The congregation, which welcomed an influx of German Jewish refugees in the 1930s and 1940s, has existed since the 1920s, he said, and is the only synagogue in Chenango County.
State police were classifying it as a hate crime, he said.
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.
