The Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center hosted a solidarity gathering on July 30 evening at its former location in response to the spray-painted swastikas and anti-Zionist message discovered on its mural on July 24.
“We will not be intimidated by this or any other deplorable act of vandalism.” said Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center Rabbi Josh Ratner. “We are a proud synagogue that has been a beacon of engagement, spiritual vitality, resilience and Jewish flourishing for more than 100 years.”
Approximately 140 congregants, civic leaders, faith leaders and community members gathered and listened to remarks at the site of the temple, which burned down during the 2025 Eaton Fire and is planned to be rebuilt.
The mural was created on May 2 in response to anti-Zionist graffiti on one of the fire-damaged synagogue’s walls in January. Youth members of the temple supported muralist Miriam Hellman from Art Over Hate Collective in painting symbols of healing and resilience.
“Storms are terrible, but rainbows only come after them; all of us here today are a color of that rainbow,” shared high schoolers Caleb Yellin and Audrey Farahnik, who founded Sparks of Kindness Youth Fund and helped fund the mural project. “By showing up, we’re proving that whether we get knocked down once, twice, or 100 times, this community’s gonna rise back 101 times.”
The mural at the 1400 block of North Altadena Drive in an unincorporated area near Pasadena has since been restored.
PJTC Cantor Ruth Berman Harris performed at the event, along with several other members of the congregation. Harris helped save the temple’s Torahs during the Eaton Fire, and is currently collaborating with the rabbi in designing the future prayer space.
“It’s wonderful to be in our site,” Harris said. “This is our home, whether there is a building yet or not.”
Los Angeles County Supervisor Katherine Barger increased the reward for information leading to the arrest of the responsible party to $20,000 from $10,000, set after the January graffiti. The motion will come before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
“When one community is targeted, the impact reverberates through us all,” Barger said. “Our unified response sends a powerful message that hate has no home here in Altadena and Pasadena, and Los Angeles County. Time and again, this community has shown that compassion outweighs cruelty, resilience overcomes hardship, and solidarity does defeat fear.”
Mayor of Pasadena Victor Gordo brought up to the makeshift stage several members of the Pasadena City Council, Pasadena School Board, and Altadena Town Council to express solidarity. U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Pasadena, and Altadena Sheriff police captain Ethan Marquez, among other community leaders, also spoke.
Pastor Connie Larson DeVaughn of Altadena Baptist Church, which also burned down during the Eaton fire, teared up while sharing about her church’s decades-long connection with PJTC through a group called Altadena Congregations Together Serving.
“I’m upset by the fact that they have to have security; I just would hate for that to be normal,” DeVaughn said. “We’ve had vandalism over the years, and that hurts, but it’s not the same, because we always wonder, ‘is there hate behind this vandalism?’ But you can’t mistake swastikas.”
Broad interfaith support at the event illustrated PJTC’s community relationships. Adnan Jaber, a Palestinian from Jerusalem, showed up as a member of Newground, a nonprofit described as a Muslim-Jewish partnership for change that has worked with PJTC. He also expressed feelings of personal responsibility to stand up to the vandalism.
“Two days ago, I had Jewish friends who stood in solidarity with Palestinians against settlers who wrote bad graffiti on Palestinian houses,” Jaber said. “They traveled from LA to go and remove that graffiti and do protective presence for the Palestinians.”
While temple members exchanged greetings and expressed gratitude for the showing of compassion, the day was still framed with grief.
“I just needed to be with my family,” Temple board member and congregant Veronica Anderson said. “It was a mix of emotions: comforting to see familiar faces and be together; sad that we have to come together under these circumstances. When I first heard about the second round of graffiti: just exhaustion.”
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the vandalism as a hate-motivated incident. Anyone with information on the crime is urged to contact the Altadena station.