Hamilton police are investigating a possible hate crime after anti-Semitic graffiti was found scrawled on walkways outside Beth Jacob Synagogue Saturday morning.

As congregants arrived for Saturday's 9:15 a.m. service, they discovered freshly-etched graffiti scribbled in chalk at the entrance of the parking lot.

Similar messages were also found at three other locations around the synagogue, which is located at 375 Aberdeen Ave., between Locke and Dundurn streets.

Photographs show the word "Jews" with a line through it, along with a crude swastika.

A police spokesperson said the messages were scrubbed away with brushes and water.

Police are now examining video footage from a number of locations around the synagogue that might help identify the culprit or culprits.

According to police, a number of the congregants were visibly upset as they arrived and noticed the anti-Semitic graffiti. One of the people who witnessed the graffiti was a Holocaust survivor.

"We are thankful that the police are taking this incident seriously and hope that it doesn't recur," Rabbi Hillel Lavery-Yisraeli wrote in a message to congregants. "Beth Jacob continues to being committed to the Jewish vision of universal peace and looks forward to a Hamilton that is free of hate and safe for all."

In an interview with The Spectator, Lavery-Yisraeli noted a discouraging irony. On Friday, he was a facilitator at a conference on taking action against hate and racism in Hamilton, and later Saturday he took part in the Gandhi Peace Festival walk.

"And Saturday morning I come to synagogue as I normally do and I find that waiting for me," the rabbi said. "The context and the timing were really jarring.

"I know this city is full of good people and such love, but we still have a long way to go," he said.

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Dozens of people have posted messages of support for the synagogue on social media.

"This is unacceptable and we have much work ahead together to unseed hate and bias," Ward 3 Coun. Nrinder Nann stated on Twitter.

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Lavery-Yisraeli said that a neighbour of the synagogue, on Cottage Avenue, brought over a bouquet of sunflowers after the incident, "expressing his sorrow that this happened and hoping the flowers would cheer us all up."

"A very welcome gesture," Lavery-Yisraeli added.

"We appreciate all the messages of support we're getting, but even one hater is too many haters," he said.

"There's a spirit of hatred and a spirit of allowing it and looking the other way that's happening in Hamilton and around the world. Just ignoring it and hoping it goes away doesn't work."

A Statistics Canada study released this summer showed Hamilton ranked highest among all 35 of the country's census metropolitan areas (CMA) for police-reported hate crimes last year.

The study noted the Hamilton CMA, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, tallied 97 police-reported hate crimes in 2018 — a rate of 17.1 per 100,000 population.

In 2017, Hamilton police investigated two incidents where swastikas had been drawn on synagogues.

The Jewish faith is in the midst of High Holidays and that often leads to a spike in anti-Semitic incidents, according to Gustavo Rymberg, CEO of the Hamilton Jewish Federation.

"It's not exclusive of Hamilton," Rymberg said.

"The support of the community is amazing," he added. "The question is if we have this support, why are these things happening?"

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