Seattle, WA – Temple De Hirsh Sinai in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood has once again been vandalized with antisemitic and anti-Israel graffiti. Temple leaders discovered the damage Monday morning.
“My first reaction was shock, disgust, and sadness,” Rabbi Daniel Weiner said. “I’m heartsick to say so, but this unfortunately is the current state of where we are as a society.”
The temple was also targeted in a similar incident back in 2017. Temple leaders said they’ve had minor incidents ever since.
“Just because it’s 2023 doesn’t mean that somehow we’ve transcended these acts of hate. In many ways we have regressed to a darker, more abysmal place,” Weiner said.
Stephen Paolini, the associate director for the Anti-Defamation League, said this type of hateful rhetoric is part of a growing trend of trying to hold Jewish communities accountable for the acts of the Israeli government.
“What we’re concerned with is when they then hold a Jewish institution, a Jewish community or Jewish person here in the city of Seattle somehow accountable to the actions of a government thousands of miles away,” Paolini said. This also happened the day before Holocaust Remembrance Day, which Paolini said is not a coincidence.
“It’s really attempting to turn a time of deep remembrance and observance into one of fear and uncertainty,” Paolini said.
