Two days after a swastika and other anti-Semitic graffiti were found at a Colorado Springs synagogue, several hundred people gathered Sunday to show their support for the Jewish congregation and denounce prejudice.
Several religious leaders who attended the 90-minute rally at Bonforte Park a block from Temple Beit Torah called the vandalism “cowardly,” vowing it would neither scare the Colorado Springs community nor keep it from standing up to hatred.
“If it’s done in one place, it could be done at any other place,” said Khurshid Qureshi, president of the Islamic Society of Colorado Springs board. “Vandalizing a synagogue in our city is a shame. People of many faiths have elected to live in this city. … We’ve come here to love and live in peace together. We don’t want to live with the people of hate. We’d like to invite them to come and understand us.”
No arrests have been announced in the vandalism Friday that targeted the Jewish house of worship at 522 E. Madison St. and neighbors’ cars and homes. A swastika and the words “sig (sic) heil” – for “sieg heil,” a Nazi salute – were scrawled on one side of the temple’s sign. The other side was marked with an unintelligible message. The word “sig” also was painted near the building’s south entrance.
“It’s not the first time, and it won’t be the last time,” Rabbi Steven Kaye told The Gazette on Friday. “We have faith and we go forward.”
Sunday’s rally was organized by The Rev. Ahriana Platten of Unity Spiritual Center in the Rockies, along with other Colorado Springs clergy.
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