A Sukkah was vandalized in New York City a day before the Jewish holiday, Sukkot, began on Saturday.
According to ABC 7 News, the sukkah was built on Friday morning in front of Chabad Israel Center on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Video footage of the vandalism showed a person urinating on the sukkah before kicking it in, early Saturday morning at around 1:30 in the morning. According to Fox 5 News, the attacker continued until a passerby intervened and stopped them.
#onassignment #fox5ny Rabbi Uriel Vigler surveys damage at Chabad Israel Center after vandal urinates on religious structure called a Sukkah and smashes glass as holiday of Sukkoth begins. See my report on #fox5news 10p ET @fox5ny pic.twitter.com/88mGGb8FqN
— LISA EVERS (@LisaEvers) October 10, 2022
Chabad Israel Center puts up a sukkah every year for the Jewish people in the community to use whenever they want throughout the holiday.
The Rabbi of the Chabad Center responds
"We have been in touch with the authorities who are investigating this incident, though we're not perturbed," Rabbi Uriel Vigler, Rabbi of the Chabad Israel Center, told multiple news outlets. "We are grateful to the brave New Yorker, who demonstrated what New York is all about, standing up to look after one another."
PIX 11 news interviewed Rabbi Uriel asking him if he believes the attack was antisemitic or if it was just an inebriated person. He responded, "It's hard to know. 'Drunk and needed to go,' doesn't warrant kicking the Sukkah down in rage. There's [sic] other restaurants all over the place that were untouched by this man, only the Sukkah. It's clear that this was targeted."
"The man who stopped it is a hero. He is great. He's amazing," the Rabbi continued. "And as a Rabbi, that is what we promote. We have to put an end to these senseless acts of darkness, I call them."
"'Drunk and needed to go,' doesn't warrant kicking the Sukkah down in rage."
Rabbi Uriel Vigler told PIX 11 news
Rabbi Uriel told CBS New York, that despite what this man did, he would still invite that man to "share a meal, a hug and spread love."
Investigators are saying that it appears that the person who vandalized the sukkah was intoxicated and he is wanted for criminal mischief.