New York man arrested for drawing swastika in snow outside Jewish temple
50 year-old of Harlem charged with antisemitic aggravated harassment following arrest on return to synagogue
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
A New York man has been arrested after he was seen drawing a swastika in the snow outside a Jewish temple in video footage, and returned to the site.
Authorities said the suspect, Manuel Barrera, was apprehended on Thursday as he attempted a second antisemitic act against the Emanu-El temple on the city’s Upper East Side.
He has since been charged with antisemitic aggravated harassment, NBC News reported.
Officers from the New York City Police Department (NYPD) arrested the 50 year-old, of Harlem, following a call from the temple on Thursday.
That came as the suspect, Mr Barrera, returned to the site to draw another swastika and other antisemitic symbols.
In the first incident, the suspect was seen in CCTV footage walking up to the temple in February, before turning around and drawing a swastika in the snow.
Read more:
- Serial stowaway reveals how she snuck onto more than 30 flights without a ticket
- Teen Vogue editor steps down after anti-Asian posts resurfaced
- Texas museum forced to take down Trump statue because everyone keeps punching it
- Piers Morgan tries to lecture Gayle King on ‘how to do your job as a journalist’ after call with Meghan and Harry
NYPD’s task force for hate crime called for information on the suspect, and wrote on Twitter at the time that a man was “wanted for Anti Semitic Aggravated Harassment”.
According to NBC News, Mr Barrera on Thursday attempted to draw a swastika, as well as a pentagram and the figures "666," which are known as satanic symbols.
The swastika has served as a symbol of antisemitism since 1945 and it’s use by Nazi regime, who were estimated to have killed as many as six million Jewish people in the Holocaust.
The latest hate crime figures from the FBI, released in 2019, revealed a 14 per cent rise in the number of antisemitic crimes on the previous year, while Jewish people were the targets of more than 60 pr cent of all religious hate crimes.
Temple Emanu-El, now a Reform Judaism congregation, was established in 1845 and has been based at the Fifth Avenue location since 1927, when work on the temple begun.
It was believed to be the largest synagogue in the world upon completion, and according to NBC News, can fit more people than the St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Midtown.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments