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Friday April 22, 2005

‘Jihad’ vandalism strikes Palo Alto Chabad

by joe eskenazi
staff writer

Students arriving Monday, April 18, at Palo Alto’s Torah Academy were greeted with a disturbing sight.

An unknown number of vandals hit the Chabad of the Greater South Bay’s house and the school, tossing around paint, penning “jihad” (holy war) and some Arabic-looking text and writing a few obscenities and “Islam” on one of the classroom’s maps and dry-erase boards with erasable pen.

Additionally, the vandals poured black paint on the seat of a Chabad van and scrawled “jihad” on the vehicle as well.

The vandalism was discovered at 8:15 in the morning by Rabbi Shmuel Volovik, Torah Academy’s principal. At that time, the paint was still wet.

According to Volovik, all of the materials used to deface the school were stored on-site, in a supply shed or in the classrooms. And since the vandalism was done with dry-erase pens and children’s paint, cleanup was not problematic. Not physically, at least.

“Yes, I can have a janitor erase it. It’s not too hard to take off. But the damage to the children, I can’t take off,” he said. “The school is supposed to be a safe place for a child, not a place you feel fear.”

The vandal or vandals left the front of the Chabad house untouched while defacing one of its sides and a trailer serving as one of the school’s classrooms. Volovik said the trailer’s lock “isn’t working too well,” so it had been left unlocked.

Apart from writing on the dry-erase board, the perpetrators didn’t damage the classroom or make off with any materials.

Palo Alto Police Officer Jose Martinez said he believed the vandalism was the work of juveniles and noted that anti-Asian graffiti had been reported in the neighborhood this month. Those responsible could be charged with felony vandalism and a hate crime, he said.

Martinez estimated even a single vandal could have defaced the school in 10 or 15 minutes. Both the can of paint and the markers used in the crime were recovered by police.

Rabbi Yosef Levin, the spiritual leader of Chabad of the Greater South Bay, said the vandalism came out of the blue. A stone was tossed through Chabad house’s window several years ago, but there hasn’t been a blip on the radar since.

Volovik noted, however, that a teacher working into the wee hours earlier this month heard noises she figured were raccoons, but now she’s not so sure.

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