‘Broad City’ star Ilana Glazer’s event canceled after anti-Semitic graffiti found in synagogue
A political event hosted by “Broad City” star Ilana Glazer at a Brooklyn synagogue was cancelled on Thursday night after a vandal wrote anti-Semitic messages inside the building.
The New York Police Department said anti-Semitic messages were discovered in the stairwell of the Union Temple in Brooklyn Heights, The New York Post reported.
A custodian told the publication that the vandal had written “Kill all Jews” on a door and slurs were found on two floors of the building.
Glazer planned to host a political discussion during the event, interviewing several state Senate candidates inside the synagogue.{mosads}
Police told The New York Daily News that the graffiti was written in black marker and read “Hitler,” “Jews better be ready” and “Die Jew rats, we are here!”
An attendee posted on Facebook that Glazer said the synagogue had been “vandalized with anti-Semitic slurs and other hateful words two hours before the talks were to begin.”
“As such, she didn’t feel comfortable ushering 200 people into the enclosed space,” the attendee, Kathryn Gonzalez, wrote.
Gonzalez told the Post “there was a lot of anxiety, especially given last weekend’s events and the upcoming election, the tension and fear feels heightened.”
The anti-Semitic messages come less than a week after a gunman killed 11 at a synagogue in Pittsburgh while reportedly yelling “All Jews must die.”
A swastika appeared in the same Brooklyn heights neighborhood just one day prior.
Police on Friday arrested a 26-year-old man suspected of vandalizing the synagogue.
James Polite is being charged with four counts of criminal mischief as a hate crime in connection with graffiti written in the synagogue. He is also being charged with multiple arson fires at Jewish gathering places, including one at a yeshiva and another at a Jewish banquet hall, according to local ABC affiliate WABC.
Authorities said he was taken to a local hospital for a mental evaluation.
— Updated Nov. 3, 11:20 a.m.
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