Tucson police launch investigation after synagogue vandalized

Built in 1948 as Congregation Young Israel, the building holds historical significance as Arizona’s first Orthodox Jewish synagogue before merging with Chabad Tucson.

By Jewish Breaking News

Tucson police have launched an investigation after antisemitic graffiti was discovered on a historic synagogue this week.

Members of Chabad Tucson-Young Israel arrived for morning prayers around 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday to find purple spray-painted messages reading “End Apartheid” and “Abolish Israel” on the wall directly beneath the synagogue’s Star of David emblem.

“As we’re driving in, we see this very hurtful graffiti on our exterior wall,” Associate Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin told local 13 News. “It made the prayer very different following that.”

Built in 1948 as Congregation Young Israel, the building holds historical significance as Arizona’s first Orthodox Jewish synagogue before merging with Chabad Tucson.

By late afternoon, nearly two dozen volunteers gathered with paint supplies to remove the graffiti.

Despite the shock and pain caused by the vandalism, Ceitlin emphasized the community’s resolve to respond constructively.

“We’re involving their mind, their heart, their hands, their feet, everything is involved in trying to do better and make this world a better place,” he said.

Local Jewish leaders note this incident isn’t isolated.

Last November, vandals struck Catalina in Pima County, Arizona, twice in under a week, defacing mailboxes on Golder Ranch Road and later spray-painting backward swastikas, the word “Jews,” and Donald Trump’s name on a Cloud Nine Drive street sign.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitic incidents have risen 23% since Oct 7, 2023, when Hamas launched its deadly massacre against Israel, killing over 1,200 innocent civilians.