For the second time in two years, a Reform synagogue in Jerusalem was vandalized this week, with attackers throwing stones at its windows and breaking its main door, the congregation's director Sam Shube told Anglo File yesterday.
The attack on the Mevakshei Derech Congregation in the San Simon neighborhood occured in the early hours of Tuesday, following Lag Ba'omer celebrations, Shube said.
The attackers did not enter the building and no items were stolen.
Mevakshei Derech, which has about 200 members of which some 25 percent are Anglo-Israelis, is affiliated with the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ, the Reform movement).
"We believe we were targeted because we are associated with the Reform movement," Shube said, adding that the synagogue was the target of a similar attack in 2001.
"I would say that I am amazed that, at a time when Jews are under attack by terrorists, there are Jews who use violence against other Jews. We will not be deterred from promoting an open, democratic and pluralistic Jewish identity."
The congregation is now considering installing reinforced glass panes in the building, at a cost of $5,000.
IMPJ chairman Paula Edelstein, along with the director of the Israel Religious Action Center, Anat Hoffman, have written to the Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky, urging him "to express solidarity with the congregation and shock at the attack against it." They also invited the mayor to view the damage.
A spokesman for the mayor was unable to say if Lupoliansky would take up the offer but said the mayor "was against all acts of vandalism and violence that occur in the city."
In June 2000, Yaar Ramot Synagogue in Jerusalem, which is affiliated to the Conservative movement, was the target of an arson attack - believed to be the work of ultra-Orthodox Jews
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
