Police are searching for three men who spray-painted a swastika on the door of a Manhattan synagogue early Wednesday morning.
The three individuals were seen on surveillance video spray-painting the anti-Semitic symbol on the door of the Sutton Place Synagogue on East 51st Street near 2nd Avenue. A police spokesperson described the suspects only as "male," and said the incident occurred around 5 a.m. on Wednesday morning. The individuals fled the location shortly after.
Rachel Ain, a Rabbi at Sutton Place Synagogue, said there is no permanent damage to the building, according to CBS New York.
"I am so sad to report that I was woken up this morning to a phone call alerting me to a swastika that was spray painted on the front door of Sutton Place Synagogue," she wrote in a Facebook post. "It is hard to believe and extremely hurtful to think that someone walks around with that level of hatred in their heart. The only way to combat hatred is to stand together, pray together and love each other."
The NYPD said last month that the majority of the 273 hate crimes reported in New York City this year, through September 14th, were anti-Semitic in nature. Last year, there were 328 reported hate crimes through November 13th, up from 250 reported hate crimes for the same time period in 2015.
A police investigation is ongoing.
Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
