Anonymous vandals hung a pig’s head at the entrance to the Sukkat Shaul Synagogue in Ramat Hasharon overnight Friday. Police issued a statement saying: “A short while ago, a report was received by Israel Police about the hanging of a pig’s head at the entrance to a synagogue in the city. Israeli Police officers are at the site. The circumstances of the incident are being examined. An investigation has been launched”
Mayor Avi Gruber arrived at the scene with his staff and addressed the vandalism, saying, “On Friday, a moment before the runoff elections. The police will investigate the shocking incident at the synagogue. And I am sure that they will know how to reach those who did it and get them indicted.”
Ramat Hasharon will have a second election round between incumbent mayor Avi Gruber and candidate Roni Balkin, because of five votes Gruber needed to reach 40% of the vote and win the elections.
Grover, who has often been charged with discrimination against the city’s religious population, said, “I will not let extremist elements create here a rift and incitements. These have no place in Ramat Hasharon and in Israeli society altogether. Ramat Hasharon was one community and will remain one community – religious and secular, men and women, Ashkenazim and Mizrahiyim, straight and LGBT. One community, with a unity of opposites.”
“I ask everyone to breathe, to remember that an election is coming, and much more important – the day, days and years after the elections,” the mayor said.
Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan (Habayit Hayehudi) tweeted: “It’s the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht and anti-Semitism is raising its head in the Land of Israel. The ongoing incitement against the religious community in Ramat Hasharon has now reached a higher level in the form of the head of a pig placed at the entrance to a synagogue. This must be stopped at once.”