Oakland's Temple Sinai covers anti-Semitic graffiti with messages of love

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Officials are asking the public to leave messages of love on this Rosh Hashanah after an anti-Semitic message was written on the wall of Oakland's Temple Sinai early Thursday morning.

The Rabbi decided the best way to deal with this is to cover the graffiti with paper, so people can stop by and write messages of hope and love.

"We got an email this morning, and it was a disappointing way to start the day and start the new year," congregant Brady Dewar said. "We come here and try to stay positive, especially for the kids and we certainly won't let it dampen our day."

Police say they are treating this as a hate crime, and are looking at surveillance video to try and figure out who did this. "We have increased security across the city at our various temple's and today we are going to have an officer who is assigned here all day during the services," Oakland Ofc. Johnna Watson said.

Thursday morning's service was so crowded some people had to move to the overflow room. Security officers were there to watch over the congregation.

"It is not going to stop us from doing our thing and worshipping on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, but I think people are pretty upset," Temple Sinai President Sam Schuchat said.

Police are looking at surveillance video to help them find whoever is responsible for this, and said no arrests have been made at this time.