A “violent” and “destructive” individual has been arrested after vandalizing a Milwaukee synagogue on Sunday morning, causing $100,00 worth of damages, the shul’s rabbi told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
Rabbi Gil-Ezer Lerer of Temple Menorah told the Post that the man had been on their radar for several weeks already, having caused damage a few weeks ago.
“He would always tell me that he’s the messiah, but mainly, he’d do harmless things,” Lerer said.
A few weeks ago, the man left a manifesto with an address on it, which led the Milwaukee Police Department to arrest him.
He was very upset at the synagogue, telling the rabbi, “You got me arrested; I’m angry; I’m just the messiah.”
Man claims to be the messiah, smashes synagogue windows
The man was told by his probation officer to stay away from the temple, but he returned. However, on Shabbat afternoon, the synagogue saw that he was there, and he was “very violent and destructive.”
“He broke a number of things; I think he broke a windshield and tried to light a fire by the main entrance,” Lerer said. The man left but returned just before the minyan on Sunday morning.
“We saw on the camera that he was breaking things, throwing things, smashing doors – taking a golf club and smashing everything.”
“He scratched the Magen Davids [Stars of David] off the signs, ripped off Israel posters, ripped down Israeli flags that had been up since October 7.”
The police have arrested him again.
“Hopefully, it will be seen as a hate crime,” the rabbi said, adding that it is “heartbreaking that it happened, especially as the doors are new, and the damages were well over $100,000.
“It’s heartbreaking to hear about this antisemitism that’s running rampant around the US. People need to take notice. We want to have peace; we want to live in peace.”
However, Rabbi Lerer expressed deep gratitude for the “outpouring from the Jewish community around the world and the non-Jewish community in Milwaukee.”
The president of the synagogue, Marshall Gantzarow, said, “We will keep on moving, keep doing what we usually do, services and everything; we’ll get through it like everything else.”
“It’s disheartening. It’s unsettling,” said Roberta Clark, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. “Every time there’s a rise in activity in the Middle East, antisemitism rises in this country – like clockwork.”
Though the incident has not yet been confirmed as antisemitic, Clark said the timing raises suspicion.
“Antisemitic incidents in Wisconsin have risen 459% since 2015. What we don’t want is for the Jewish experience for anyone in Milwaukee to be about fear,” she added.
On Facebook, the Milwaukee Jewish Federation released a statement saying, “We appreciate the swift response by law enforcement who have apprehended the perpetrator.”
On Sunday evening, pro-Iranian regime protesters gathered in Milwaukee carrying signs reading, “Hands Off Iran.”