Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Vandals defaced the sign marking the only synagogue between Key West and Homestead over the weekend. It was the second such incident in as many weeks at the Keys Jewish Community Center.

"It's time for cameras," said Jim Boruszak, the center's former president, who discovered the most recent defacement on Monday morning.

The graffiti was more evangelical in tone than it was overtly anti-Semitic. In black permanent pen, vandals wrote "SOS" 23 times. Deputies told Boruszak the cryptic message is likely an acronym for "save our souls," he said.

The vandal also invoked an oft-quoted phrase from Christian tradition, "And he was the king of the Jews. Belive (sic) that one," the perpetrator wrote.

The messages were printed on the northerly facing portion of the sign. They were scribbled while the sign's other half was still at a shop being repaired from vandalism the previous week.

During that strike, which took place overnight Nov. 15, vandals also wrote "SOS." But their other message took on a more political bent.

"Make love not war," it said.

Executive Vice President Stu Sax said it's ironic that someone would desecrate religious property in order to send a message of peace.

"It is obviously anti-Semitism," he said.

The recent graffiti incidents are not the first to plague the center. In 2003, vandals spray-painted a swastika on the synagogue sign. Shortly thereafter, a brick was thrown through a window.

In Key West, the B'nai Zion Synagogue and Chabad of the Florida Keys reported no similar incidents.

"We have not had any problems, but I am shortly setting up a security system at the synagogue because of that," said Chabad's Rabbi Jacob Zucker, who teaches at the Upper Keys center and saw the vandalism firsthand. "In general, I feel there are more anti-Semitic acts going on around in the world, but I don't know if it's due to the economy or other issues going on."

rsilk@keysnews.com