HANCOCK, MI – A day that was meant to celebrate multicultural inclusiveness in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was marred by an act of vandalism.
Nazi symbols were found spray painted on a synagogue in Hancock on the same day as the community’s Parade of Nations that annually includes about 3,000 visitors from more than 60 countries, The Daily Mining Gazette reports.
The graffiti was discovered Saturday, Sept. 21, by a passerby who called police, David Holden, president of Temple Jacob, told the Gazette. Spray-painted on the synagogue were swastikas and the symbol of the SS, a Nazi paramilitary organization.
Nothing inside the building was damaged, Holden said.
Police are investigating the incident.
People helped clean off the graffiti the same day the damage was reported in what Holden called a “remarkable response,” according to The AP.
Temple Jacob is the northern-most Jewish place of worship in Michigan and the longest continuously operating synagogue in the U.P. It was dedicated in 1912. It is also the only active synagogue in Michigan listed in the National Historic Registry.
Only a few anti-Semitic acts in the area could be recalled by Susan Burack, former president of Temple Jacob, the Gazette reports. Those included vandalism in the Portage Township cemetery’s Jewish section and the hanging of a Nazi flag from a railing at the synagogue.