UPDATE: Temple Kol Emeth is holding an interfaith gathering Monday to kick off a community anti-bias training initiative.
Local Jewish leaders are planning a response to an act of vandalism over the weekend in an East Cobb neighborhood that included swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti being scrawled on fences.
Rabbi Larry Sernovitz of Temple Kol Emeth, one of three synagogues in East Cobb, said in a message to his congregation that several fences were spray-painted with “multiple swastikas.”
“The swastika has come to be known as a symbol of Nazism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism. This act and this symbol is not representative of the Cobb County that we know and love and has no place in our community,” he said.
The neighborhood is along Holly Springs Road in the vicinity of Post Oak Tritt Road. That’s near the former site of the Marcus Jewish Community Center’s Shirley Blumenthal Park, which is now the high school campus of Mt. Bethel Christian Academy.
Sernovitz also thanked Cobb Police “for their timely response to the incident. Additionally, we applaud the actions of the residents of this neighborhood for coming together as a community to take back their space and to clean and refresh their public fencing. Thirty members of this neighborhood, children and adults from many different faith backgrounds, worked together to erase the damage that had been done to their neighborhood on Sunday afternoon.”
Kol Emeth was to have held a community event Monday with the Anti-Defamation League of Atlanta, but scheduling conflicts have put that on hold.
“We look forward to working in concert with our interfaith community to combat hate in all of its forms,” Sernovitz said. “Over the coming days, we will be organizing opportunities for dialogue within our TKE community and in concert with our neighbors. As plans progress, we will keep you updated.”
Allison Padilla-Goodman vice president of the ADL’s Southern office in Atlanta, told East Cobb News “stay tuned for a future event!”
Sernovitz just began his tenure in July at Kol Emeth, succeeding longtime Rabbi Steven Lebow, who retired after 34 years.
Related stories
- Temple Kol Emeth chooses successor to retiring Rabbi Lebow
- At East Cobb interfaith service, pledging to be ‘my brother’s keeper’
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