Tacony synagogue hit by vandalism yet again

A Tacony synagogue that has been repeatedly vandalized in recent months has been hit again.

Someone recently threw a baseball-sized rock into a side stained-glass window at Temple Menorah Keneseth Chai at 4301 Tyson Avenue, Philadelphia police said.

The damage was discovered by a maintenance worker just before 10 a.m. Monday. The window was believed to have been damaged sometime between 9:30 p.m. Friday and 9:30 a.m. Monday, police said.

No one was harmed, and nothing inside the religious site was damaged.

Police said the investigation into the most recent incident was ongoing. No information about any suspects or their motives was available.

The nearly century-old synagogue also had windows shattered by vandals in December and again in January.

Those incidents also left damage to the buildings but did not cause any injuries. No arrests have been made.

The repeated vandalism has rattled the synagogue's community, but have also prompted an outpouring of kindness, support and donations for security cameras.

"I know that some of my congregants are nervous when they come to synagogue now, but they haven't stopped coming," Rabbi Robyn Frisch wrote in a commentary piece last month. "I know that the congregation isn't leaving the neighborhood — we're going to continue to pray where members of our synagogue have prayed for the past 92 years. We won't be kept away because of what you've done. We're not going to take down the sign outside of our synagogue announcing the time of our services. We have a right to be here and to let people know we're here."

The synagogue has been at the site since 1925 and has been described as the oldest synagogue in Northeast Philadelphia.

Other Jewish sites in the Philadelphia region have also been targeted by vandalism and threats in recent months.

Mount Carmel Cemetery, a Jewish burial ground in Philadelphia's Wissinoming section, was heavily damaged by vandalism last month, when about 100 headstones were toppled.

Local Jewish community centers were among many nationwide that received bomb threats in February; a 19-year-old Jewish man suspected of being behind the bulk of those incidents was arrested in Israel last week.