The Austin Fire Department’s Arson Division has issued a photograph of the man they say set fire to the exterior of a synagogue on Sunday night. It is the latest in a string of anti-Semitic incidents in the Texas capital.
According to the alert, the suspect was seen on video camera driving a dark-colored “later-model SUV-style vehicle” into the parking lot of Congregation Beth Israel on Oct. 31.
It continues: “He approaches the synagogue carrying a 5-gallon, olive-green jerry-can-style container. He is then seen leaving the scene carrying the container.”
The suspect is described as thin with brown hair and was wearing a face covering.
The arson, which caused some damage, was extinguished by the Austin Fire Department relatively quickly. No injuries were reported.
It came just days after anti-Semitic graffiti was spray-painted outside a local high school and after two instances of the virulent anti-Semitic group, Goyim Defense League, hanging banners on a highway overpass saying “Vax the Jews.”
