Adam Edward Braun of Eugene, Ore., pleaded guilty on Tuesday to defacing Temple Beth Israel, a Reconstructionist synagogue, with antisemitic graffiti and defacing the building with a hammer, the U.S. Justice Department stated.
The 34-year-old admitted to twice writing “1377,” which he said was similar to the neo-Nazi tag “1488”—a “popular white-supremacist slogan that references Adolf Hitler and the ‘Fourteen words,’” per the Justice Department—on the building on Sept. 10 or 11, 2023, and in January 2024, he “attempted to damage the synagogue’s glass doors using a ball-peen hammer.”
“Braun stopped when he saw he was being recorded by a surveillance camera and went to another area of the property where he spray-painted the slogan ‘white power’ in large letters,” according to the Justice Department.
When law enforcement searched Braun’s home, officers found “multiple pieces of evidence connecting Braun to the attacks on Temple Beth Israel,” per the Justice Department. “Investigators also found several items and writings belonging to Braun that were consistent with antisemitic beliefs and biases.”
The latter reportedly included a white Ku Klux Klan robe, a black Nazi flag and a copy of Mein Kampf.
He faces up to three years in prison, and “fines and restitution,” the department said.
