NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- Antisemitic graffiti was scrawled on an Upper East Side synagogue over the weekend, police said as the Anti-Defamation League warned separately that dozens of synagogues nationwide have been targeted with fake threats and "swatting" recently.
The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force released images Monday of the suspect in the vandalism. He's believed to be about 25 years old.
Surveillance video from 7 p.m. Saturday shows him using a marker to write the hateful messages on a display screen outside Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun at 125 East 85th St., police said.
He was last seen fleeing westbound on East 85th Street.
It's only among the latest displays of anti-Jewish hate in the city and beyond.
On Sunday, the ADL said dozens of synagogues across the U.S. have been targeted in recent weeks with unfounded bomb threats and "swatting" calls in which fake emergencies are phoned in to cause a major police response.
"Their primary focus for the past four weekends has been to disrupt Shabbat services at synagogues," Scott Richman, the director for the ADL’s regional office covering New York and New Jersey, told 1010 WINS.
"They tend to target synagogues that have livestream services, so they can watch what's happening," Richman said. "They want to see law enforcement arrive, and they want to see chaos ensue."
The ADL Center on Extremism found a small antisemitic and racist group has been targeting religious institutions, which have also included a Sikh temple, an Islamic center, several Messianic congregations and several African American churches.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
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