Bomb Threats, Vandalism at Synagogue Investigated

Los Angeles police are investigating recent bomb threats and vandalism at a synagogue in Tujunga as hate incidents, authorities said Thursday.

Swastikas about four feet square were etched into the doors of the Verdugo Hills Hebrew Center on May 12, said Detective Gaspar Oliveras. Anti-Semitic slurs were scrawled on signs and brass plaques at the temple’s entrance that same day, police said.

On May 11 and again on May 16, bomb threats were telephoned to the temple, which serves about 85 families, Oliveras said. He said that the vandals may have been inspired by desecration of Jewish graves in a cemetery in southern France in early May, which received widespread media attention, and a wave of other anti-Semitic incidents in recent months.

Police have no suspects, but Neo-Nazi skinhead youth groups are believed to be responsible, Oliveras said.

The firebomb caused about $8,000 damage, Oliveras said.

Officials said the center is the only synagogue in the area, making it a convenient target for anti-Semitic crimes.

“We don’t call them hate crimes; hate is not a crime,” Oliveras said. “They are hate incidents.” However, he said they are an ongoing problem in the Police Department’s Foothill Division, especially in the Sunland-Tujunga and Sylmar areas.

The center’s president, who asked that his name not be used, said temple officials had tried to keep the incidents out of the news.

“We don’t want publicity,” he said. “We’re trying to keep a low profile.”

A woman who answered the phone at the temple said synagogue members fear they will be harassed or harmed at their homes if the incidents are publicized.

“The problem is that we have a lot of copycat crimes when incidents like this get a lot of publicity,” Oliveras said. Other recent incidents of hate crimes have included an attempted cross-burning at the home of a black family in nearby La Crescenta in February, authorities said.

Mary Krasn, a spokeswoman for the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, agreed that some people fear copycat crimes, but added: “It’s very important to confront each hate crime so that it can be fully investigated by police.

Krasn said hate crimes nationwide are becoming more frequent. A recent Anti-Defamation League audit found anti-Semitic incidents in the United States during 1989 rose to their highest level in at least 11 years.

The county Human Relations Commission listed 167 racially motivated hate crimes last year, a 75% increase over 1988.