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Synagogue vandalized near Tel Aviv, Arabs suspected

The synagogue sexton showed how the assailants tried to forcibly open the ark, where Torah scrolls are kept.

By World Israel News Staff 

A synagogue in Lod, near Tel Aviv, was vandalized overnight, as assailants forced their way into the place of worship and tried to open the locked holy ark.

The gabbai of the synagogue recorded a video showing the extent of the damage.

The door at the entranceway was broken down. Prayer items were flung across seats, a table covering was lifted, and drawers were opened as the perpetrators ransacked the small sanctuary.

The gabbai showed how the assailants also tried to forcibly open the ark, where Torah scrolls are kept.

Small Israeli flags were strewn along the floor.

Some members of the Indian Jewish community who pray at the synagogue voiced suspicion that the attack was linked to May 15, the anniversary on the Gregorian calendar of the date in 1948 when the British Mandate was abolished and the Jewish State of Israel was established.

Lod has a mixed Jewish-Arab population. Some in the Arab sector mark this date as Nakba, a ‘day of catastrophe.’

However, community members acknowledged that it was necessary for police to complete their investigation before reaching conclusions.

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A deputy mayor told Arutz Sheva that another synagogue in Lod had been vandalized this past weekend on the Jewish Sabbath.

United Right Member of Knesset Ofir Sofer said the scenes of the ransacked synagogue conjured up memories of the Holocaust. Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom Hashoah, was observed in Israel less than two weeks ago.