CBC News: Anti-Semitic vandalism in Edmonton not a prank: police

According to the CBC: "Edmonton's police hate crimes unit is investigating an act of vandalism at a synagogue where swastikas and lettering were painted on its walls on Christmas Day."

From the article:

Vandals had painted a metre-wide black swastika, along with the acronym ZOG, with a circle and line through it on Beth Shalom synagogue.

ZOG stands for Zionist Occupation Government, a fictional body cited in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, which claims Jews control global seats of power.

Const. Dave Huggins said the symbol was not commonplace, leading police to suspect the vandalism was a definite show of anti-Semitism and not a childish prank.

The symbols are commonly associated with neo-Nazi skinheads and white supremacists.

Rabbi David Kunin said the slogan suggested the vandal or vandals had a sophisticated knowledge of anti-Semitism.

On Monday, religious leaders spoke out in solidarity with the rabbi. Officials from Christian, Muslim, Sikh and Unitarian faiths denounced the graffiti.

"It is the kind of act I think that all of us understand is not a part of what Canada is," said former politician Larry Shaben, who was Alberta's first Muslim cabinet minister and is a member of the Edmonton Interfaith Centre.

The vandalism was on Christmas and at the start of the eight-day Hanukkah festival, making it even more disturbing to the leaders.

"We're standing together, saying that we need to move forward to create a season of light, not a season of darkness as these things represent," said Kunin.

Beth Shalom has been the target of vandalism and other forms of harassment in the past five years. It has received racist phone calls, letters and e-mails. In the fall of 2000, it was firebombed twice.

The damage was minor but the incidents startled the Jewish community, which has since increased security at synagogues.