A red swastika spray-painted at a Pawtucket synagogue was widely condemned by local and state leaders Sunday, as Pawtucket Police opened an investigation into the vandalism.
�This is the kind of thing that makes your whole body roil inside if you�re a Jew,� said David Pliskin, the president of Congregation Ohawe Sholam. It�s the only Jewish house of worship in Pawtucket.
The vandalism was immediately condemned by many, as the Mayors of Providence and Pawtucket called for a joint news conference Monday morning to address the issue of anti-Semitism in the area.
This is one of several recent incidents of anti-Semitism in the area. Several blocks from the Pawtucket synagogue on Providence�s East Side, flyers were distributed in October that contained racist and anti-Semitic remarks, along with bags of a substance that turned out to be rice.
The flyers referred to solving �Jewish pollution.�