Palestinian supporters vandalized the Persian Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Skoki, Illinois ahead of the Shavuot holiday, local media reported this week.
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Surveillance video showed several masked people enter the synagogue at approximately 3 p.m. Sunday after smashing one of the windows. The suspects left several Palestinian flags and antisemitic banners behind.
Steve Hoffman, the former president of the synagogue, told reporters that no one was in the building at the time, and therefore, no one was injured. He also said they had hired security to protect the place of worship.
Persian Synagogue in Skokie, IL vandalized pic.twitter.com/yJFozdzUA8
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Lonnie J. Nasatir, President of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, said: "This was clearly not freedom of speech, this went right into actually a real assault, and quite frankly, a terrorist act on a religious place of worship.
Local police said they were investigating the hate crime.
"The authorities are taking this incident seriously and we are working hard with the local authorities and the Jewish organization to put an end to such incidents," Daniel Aschheim, Consul for Public Diplomacy at Israeli consulate in Chicago, told Israel Hayom.
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