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Chicago synagogues hit by hate crime spree
Jerusalem Post ^ | 1-11-09 | GIL HOFFMAN

Posted on 01/11/2009 2:15:48 PM PST by SJackson

Vandals struck four Chicago-area synagogues early Saturday morning, shattering glass doors and windows with bricks and rocks and spray-painting anti-Israel graffiti.

The caretakers at Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation in the normally quiet village of Lincolnwood just outside Chicago woke up to the sound of shattering glass and saw two adults running through the synagogue's parking lot in ski masks. Four bricks were thrown through the building's front doors, but the vandals were unable to gain entry.

"Death to Israel Free Palestine," was the message left behind on the walls in bright orange spray paint.

Similar incidents occurred around the same time not far away at three synagogues and schools in Chicago's West Rogers Park, a neighborhood dominated by Orthodox Jews. Two windows were shattered at Young Israel of West Rogers Park, "Death to Israel" was spray-painted on the wall of Congregation Anshe Motele and rocks broke a glass window at the Lubavitch Mesivta school.

Lubavitch Mesivta's Rabbi Moshe Perlstein told the Chicago Sun-Times that cameras captured video of the men damaging his school at around 4:40 a.m. The footage shows one man spray-painting the side of the building while the other ran around to the front and threw rocks at the front door, breaking a glass window, he said. The video has been turned over to police.

Lincolnwood and Chicago police and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force will check whether there was a connection between Saturday's incidents and the December 29 throwing of a Molotov cocktail into Temple Sholom, one of Chicago's oldest and most ornate synagogues, in the Lakeview neighborhood.

The city's Ida Crown Jewish Academy high school received a mailed bomb threat two weeks ago that warned of attacks at other Chicago-area Jewish institutions, including day schools.

A pro-Israel rally was held at Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation on Sunday afternoon to respond to the spate of hate crimes and support Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip. The synagogue's rabbi, Joel Lehrfield, called the perpetrators of the hate crime "cowardly thugs who support Hamas."

"We're more worried about Israel than we are about ourselves," Lehrfield said.

Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago executive vice president Michael Kotzin said it was ironic that he was on a solidarity mission in southern Israel when he heard about the attacks back home.

"I wouldn't say that we're in the front lines in Chicago like here, but there are people who are hostile to and hate Jews here and there, and we have to address it," Kotzin said. "It's important that law enforcement takes it seriously. But we won't be frightened or intimidated, just like the people of Israel. Their behavior strengthens us."


TOPICS: Front Page News; Israel; News/Current Events; US: Illinois; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: chicago; immigration; immigrationjews; islam; jews; muslims; obamathugs; sandnazis
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To: A_Former_Democrat

And yet..... They vote demorats time after time.

When will they realize the truth?


41 posted on 01/11/2009 4:18:37 PM PST by Glacier Honey
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To: SJackson

So we now know 0bama has a ski mask .


42 posted on 01/11/2009 4:34:35 PM PST by Deetes (God Bless the Troops)
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To: popdonnelly

That’s because we are civilized here.

For now


43 posted on 01/11/2009 4:40:07 PM PST by lookout88 (Combat search and rescue officer's dad.)
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To: SJackson
"We’re seeing the European intolerance that led to the founding of this nation."

Agreed. And that's why we need to crack down harder on that than simply opportunistic or impulsive crimes.


44 posted on 01/11/2009 4:53:09 PM PST by familyop (combat engineer (combat), National Guard, '89-'96, Duncan Hunter or no-vote, http://falconparty.com/)
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To: Jacquerie
Islam is a gutter religion

Worse than pagan. A religion that calls for blood sacrifice is a religion of Satan.
45 posted on 01/11/2009 4:56:03 PM PST by SisterK (the UN Headquarters needs to relocate to Iran)
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To: SJackson

Chicago Jews caused this so please exclude me from feeling sorry for them.

Vote Democrat, and this is what you get.


46 posted on 01/11/2009 5:25:56 PM PST by Morgan in Denver ( Obama & Biden = Beevis & Butthead)
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To: Joe Boucher

I agree but my fear is if attacked again 1/2 the country will blame Bush and think we deserve it


47 posted on 01/11/2009 5:41:56 PM PST by Glacier Honey
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To: GAB-1955

78% of (liberal) Jews voted for Obama. I like the other 22% and I support Israel a lot more than the 78% of half wits.

Israelis were for McCain by 3 to 1.


48 posted on 01/11/2009 7:24:11 PM PST by Frantzie
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To: SJackson
Let's see.
Jesse "hymietown" Jackson, Home town, Chicago.
Elijah Muhammad, Founder, Nation of Islam. Hometown: Chicago
Louis Farrakahn, Current Head, Nation of Islam. Hometown: Chicago
Rev. Jeramiah Wright, Hometown: Chicago

You're absolutely right. What could a filthy Chicago "community activist" named B. Hussain Obama, who scammed his way into the White House, have to do with a bunch of anti-semites?

49 posted on 01/11/2009 7:52:10 PM PST by jonascord (Hurray! for the Bonny Blue Flag that bears the Single Star!)
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To: Eric Blair 2084
They voted for the color of his skin, not the content of his character.

The real hoot is that most small town evangelicals admire Jews because they are G-ds chosen people. I fear secular American Jews do not understand who their friends are.

] They support people who want to kill them instead of people who would give their lives for them. Go figure...

50 posted on 01/11/2009 8:05:06 PM PST by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
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To: SJackson

It’s starting. Coming to a city near you shortly!!


51 posted on 01/11/2009 8:35:45 PM PST by Napoleon Solo
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To: Napoleon Solo

So what should we do as a response to these low lifes?


52 posted on 01/11/2009 8:37:17 PM PST by Napoleon Solo
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To: SJackson

Not Jewish, but I used to live in West Rogers Park, just off Devon....bought the really great bagels at Gittel’s.

The neighborhood has changed a lot...mostly Indian and Pakistani now.


53 posted on 01/11/2009 9:09:44 PM PST by cookcounty ("A ship in harbor is safe, but that's not why the ship is built." ---Governor Sarah Palin)
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To: SJackson
Of course a partial solution to this sort of thing would be to have armed guards at the Synagogue, like those at that Church in Colorado (and other places too I'm sure.) But this is Chicago, where the law abiding are disarmed by law. I'm sure the vandals have no problem with violating that law as well.

If it was around here, I'd volunteer, gentile that I am, to help guard the Synagogue or Temple. However while there are Muslim Mosques, Hindu Temples and Buddhist Temples, as well as Christian Churches of many denominations and using many languages, I don't know of any Synagogue or Jewish Temple in the local area, other than one of the Chapels on post which conducts Jewish services on Friday nights. There are 4 within 50 miles, but the closest one is 47.5 miles away.

54 posted on 01/11/2009 9:40:36 PM PST by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: SJackson
I think that's irrelevant.

No it's not. Chicago politicians are as a group very much against mere citizens being able to obtain, keep and bear the means of self defense. This most specifically includes the one about to move to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, DC.

Racist thugs prefer unarmed victims.

I hope they try this in a Texas Temple or Synagogue, outside of Dallas, Houston or Austin. Things might end up a bit differently. They very well might even in those liberal bastions.

55 posted on 01/11/2009 9:47:47 PM PST by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: Dr.Zoidberg
Have some stalwart young men stationed outside these Synagogues and when evil comes looking for trouble, let them have it.

With what? Baseball bats maybe? It's Chicago, peaceable folks are not allowed to own the most effective means of self defense. Although that effectively doesn't really apply to the thugs willing to break the laws against vandalism or worse. (The next step after graffiti and rocks is firebombs). (Chicago bans handguns, Cook county bans "assault weapons", very broadly defined)

56 posted on 01/11/2009 10:07:15 PM PST by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: Eric Blair 2084
They are petrified of Evangelicals in small town America.

Who are probably the biggest supporters of Israel in the country.

For a while I had Jewish neighbors on both sides. One had a 9mm before I ever got a centerfire handgun. I suspect the other, from Tennesse, IIRC, was also armed. Both were engineers. The ancestors of the guy with the 9 (and a Timber-Shepard :)) came to the US through the port of Galveston, and were never part of the socialist Jewish scene in New York City or other eastern cities.

And that BTW, is the reason Amercian Jews vote for Democrats, a long history of Socialism, in spite of their own rather industrious nature. Golda Meir, who despite being born in Kieve, grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was a socialist. Israel is a socialist country, a somewhat different sort of socialism to be sure, sort of like Sweden

57 posted on 01/11/2009 10:16:18 PM PST by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: El Gato

Baseball bats work in sufficient number as do fists. You just have to out do the cowardly scum in numbers and level of aggression.

Any sort of resistance would be an improvement over a passive, “look what they did to us, isn’t it terrible.” response.


58 posted on 01/11/2009 11:20:37 PM PST by Dr.Zoidberg
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To: Dr.Zoidberg
Baseball bats work in sufficient number as do fists. You just have to out do the cowardly scum in numbers and level of aggression.

True, but an M240 on the roof would be a great deterrent.

59 posted on 01/11/2009 11:35:55 PM PST by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: GOPGuide; rocksblues

Okay, blaming the Amish is getting old. It was the Hutterites.


60 posted on 01/12/2009 1:23:03 AM PST by beaversmom
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