Video: A Loop Synagogue Was Defaced With Swastikas Saturday

By Rachel Cromidas in News on Feb 5, 2017 8:05PM

Police are investigating a hate crime this weekend after someone defaced the entrance to a Loop synagogue with swastikas.

A vandal, caught on video at about 12:20 a.m. Saturday, climbed out of an SUV, stuck two stickers depicting swastikas, a Nazi symbol, on the front entrance of the Chicago Loop Synagogue, and then smashed the front window of the 16 S. Clark St. synagogue.

Police told the Sun-Times that the suspect was a white man, wearing dark clothing and a dark face mask. Police were called to the scene after receiving a call of criminal damage in progress at a house of worship, but no one is in custody as of Sunday morning. Surveillance video, above, shows the vandal fleeing in the SUV he arrived in.

According to NBC Chicago, construction workers across the street from the synagogue witnessed the vandalism. Local and national religious groups have spoken out about the vandalism, including The American Jewish Committee, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, who Tweeted "hate will not prevail."

The incident comes amid a troubling uptick in hate crimes, particularly anti-Semitic hate crimes, around the country. Locally, there have been reports of swastikas, hate speech and Nazi symbols drawn or stuck on walls and windows on the University of Chicago campus, a Beverly garage, the South Loop, and elsewhere.