A Reform synagogue in Jerusalem was targeted three times by unidentified individuals before and during Yom Kippur, bringing the number of hate incidents the congregation has experienced to five in just over a month.
The latest incidents began Saturday evening, the day before Yom Kippur began, when plates and other breakable objects were thrown into Kol HaNeshama in the Baka neighborhood through a window, tearing its screen.
On Sunday night, after Yom Kippur had begun, an intruder broke into the synagogue and tore down a Pride flag and a rainbow-colored sign bearing the words “Love your neighbor as yourself,” Debi Shoua Haim, one of Kol HaNeshama’s rabbis, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Tuesday.
On Yom Kippur morning, two youths arrived at the synagogue with a large dog and, in apparent mockery, asked to meet with a female rabbi to arrange a bar mitzvah Torah reading for the animal. They left only after congregants guarding the synagogue warned them that police would be called.
The three incidents followed two earlier attacks on Kol HaNeshama in recent weeks. In August, vandals broke into the synagogue, smashed a window and tore down a Pride flag. On Rosh Hashanah, youths threw eggs at worshippers arriving for services after making comments that Shoua Haim said were homophobic and bordered on harassment.
The congregation filed complaints with police over the attacks, including providing security-camera footage from the Rosh Hashanah incident. No arrests have been announced in connection with any of the incidents.
Israel Police told (JEWISH REVIEW) on Tuesday that the cases remained under investigation, with officers “pursuing all relevant leads.”
Authorities appeared to begin taking the threats more seriously after the congregation asked Democrats MK Gilad Kariv, who is also a Reform rabbi, to intervene, Shoua Haim said.
Before the incidents on Yom Kippur, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion called Oded Mazor, Kol HaNeshama’s leading rabbi, to say he was taking the situation seriously. The congregation’s executive director, rabbi and members of its leadership also met with the chief of the local police station.
Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Yosi Havilio, whom Shoua Haim described as a supporter of liberal causes in the city, also joined the congregation for Neila, the closing Yom Kippur service, and addressed worshippers.
Jerusalem City Council member Eran Ben Yehuda also attended Neila at Kol HaNeshama, writing on X afterward that there was “no more fitting place to conclude Yom Kippur prayers” in light of weeks of attacks, vandalism and harassment endured by the congregation.
“We will not allow extremists to sow fear in Jerusalem,” he said.
Anna Kislanski, the executive director of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, said the repeated attacks were being fueled by “systematic incitement against Reform Jews, including by elected officials.”
“Those who portray us as traitors to Judaism give a tailwind to those who break into our synagogues,” she said, according to Channel 13.
In a response to the August attack on the synagogue, Kariv also accused the government, which relies on the support of Haredi parties, of contributing to hostility toward Reform and other liberal Jewish denominations. “This is a government that specializes in spreading hatred for free and in delegitimizing the liberal Jewish streams,” he wrote on X at the time, calling the vandals “incited hooligans.”
Last month a heavy paving stone was thrown through a window of the Reform congregation Darchei Noam in Ramat Hasharon.
Kol HaNeshama has also been targeted in previous years. In 2018, a large rock was thrown into its courtyard while more than 200 people were celebrating Simchat Torah. In 2023, the synagogue reported two break-ins within several weeks in which Pride flags were torn down.
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