PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, USA – JUNE 20, 2026. Photo: Weston Hancock/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect.

Los Angeles County authorities are investigating an act of antisemitic vandalism at the fire-ravaged campus of the Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center after swastikas and an anti-Zionist message were spray-painted across a community mural symbolizing recovery from the devastating 2025 Eaton Fire.

The vandalism was discovered Friday on the synagogue’s property along North Altadena Drive. The graffiti included several swastikas and the words “Zionzim is not welcome,” misspelling “Zionism,” according to synagogue officials. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the incident as a hate crime.

The mural was painted on the only major exterior wall left standing after the Eaton Fire destroyed the synagogue’s campus in January 2025. It had been commissioned following an earlier act of antisemitic vandalism in January, when the same wall was defaced with the words “F— Zionism.”

Featuring a large California poppy, a peacock, and the Hebrew phrase Kol Yisrael Arevim Zeh Bazeh—“All Israel is responsible for one another”—the mural was intended to represent regrowth, communal responsibility, and solidarity among residents recovering from the fire. Synagogue members, local young people, community volunteers, and artists helped create it.

Melissa Levy, executive director of the Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center, described the decision to target artwork dedicated to rebuilding after the fire as an “extra type of cruel.”

“Why would you do that at an American synagogue that burned down in a fire, that has done nothing but try to lift up after tragedy?” Levy said. “It’s heartbreaking.”

Rabbi Josh Ratner said the congregation would not allow the vandalism to intimidate its members or obstruct its rebuilding efforts.

“We are deeply saddened and outraged by this act, but we refuse to let it define our community,” the synagogue said in a statement, adding that it intended to restore the mural.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Capt. Ethan Marquez, who commands the department’s Altadena Station, condemned the attack.

“Crimes motivated by hate have no place in our community,” Marquez said, adding that investigators were committed to identifying those responsible and standing with Jewish residents and other faith communities.

The vandalism comes amid persistently elevated levels of antisemitism across California. The Anti-Defamation League recorded 817 antisemitic incidents in the state during 2025, the second-highest total in the country behind New York. Nearly half—398—occurred in Los Angeles County, including 165 incidents targeting Jewish institutions statewide.

Although California’s total declined 39 percent from the previous year, the ADL attributed much of the reduction to a steep fall in bomb threats and campus incidents. Nationally, the organization recorded 6,274 antisemitic incidents in 2025—the third-highest annual total since it began tracking such activity in 1979—and a record number of physical assaults.

The Pasadena congregation, founded in 1921, has operated from temporary locations since its historic campus was destroyed in the Eaton Fire. Levy said the latest attack had strengthened rather than weakened the community’s resolve.

The congregation, she said, is “determined to be very, very Jewish.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.