Vandals targeted a menorah outside a temple in Sun City, Arizona, and a synagogue in Santa Monica, California, over the weekend as Hanukkah got underway.
A member of the Temple Beth Shalom in Sun City discovered that two of the branches of a menorah displayed outside the temple were upside down on Sunday morning, according to a report from local TV station KPNX. The temple’s Holocaust memorial was also damaged.
KPNX reported that the incident, which is under investigation by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, has not been classified as a hate crime.
In Santa Monica, Rabbi Boruch Rabinowitz found the front window of the Living Torah Center Chabad smeared with feces and rice on Sunday morning, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. No anti-Semitic messages accompanied the discovery.
According to the LA Times report, police officers came to the synagogue and took a report, but there were no witnesses.
