Menorahs Vandalized in Park Slope and Prospect Heights (Updated)

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Public menorahs in Prospect Heights and Park Slope were vandalized over the holiday weekend, according to Rabbi Mendy Hecht, the director of the Chabad Jewish Center of Prospect Heights. The news was first reported Tuesday by The Yeshiva World News.

Hecht said the damaged menorahs were holiday displays located in the Park Slope Playground and the Underhill Playground. The Park Slope Menorah had one of its arms broken off, he said, while the one in the Underhill Playground was knocked down. The damage was discovered early Tuesday, Hecht said.

The damage done to the Park Slope Playground's menorah.

The Underhill Playground menorah was temporarily removed by the city's Parks Department, Hecht said, but was subsequently returned to its place, as it hadn't sustained damage. The Park Slope Playground menorah, however, was replaced Wednesday with a sturdier one, during a ceremony at which Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams lit its "shamash," or central candle.

Eric Adams lights the shamash.

Adams said he didn't have any updates from the NYPD about who might have targeted the menorahs but decried the action all the same.

"We don't have to be of this faith to see [the vandalism] as an attack on our faith," he said, before referring to Brooklyn as "the Jerusalem of America."

"We might not know who did this, but the act itself was definitely an act of hate," Hecht said. "We have to answer with good. We have to answer with kindness."

Hecht also made a point of linking the vandalism to the international scene, likening it to a recent UN Security Council vote demanding that Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem,” while also stating that the nation's settlements have “no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.”

"We have an act of hate in the UN and an act of hate in Park Slope," Hecht said. The rabbi spoke of the Jewish people's historic claims to Jerusalem, adding that the UN "calls out Israel more times than any other country," while allowing nations like Syria to avoid public castigation.

"It all comes from a place that's not good," he said of both the vote and the attacks on the menorahs, explaining that the animating sentiments behind each were "anti-Jewish" and "anti-Israel."

Adams, second from left, with Hecht, second from right.

In a Wednesday speech, Secretary of State John Kerry explained the U.S.'s decision to let the anti-settlement vote pass the Security Council by stating that, "the status quo" of Israeli policy "is leading toward one state and perpetual occupation."

“Friends need to tell each other the hard truths, and friendships require mutual respect," he said, referring to the U.S. and Israel.

And on Dec. 13, America's UN ambassador, Samantha Power, offered a blistering rebuke of Russia, Syria and Iran's actions in the ongoing Syrian conflict.

"Aleppo will join the ranks of those events in world history that define modern evil, that stain our conscience decades later," Power said. "To the Assad regime, Russia, and Iran, your forces and proxies are carrying out these crimes."

"Are you truly incapable of shame?" she continued. "Is there literally nothing that can shame you? Is there no act of barbarism against civilians, no execution of a child that gets under your skin, that just creeps you out a little bit? Is there nothing you will not lie about or justify?"

Pictured at top: a damaged menorah in Park Slope Park. Photos by John V. Santore.