Karen Bass, mayor of Los Angeles, said on Saturday that she learned of a vandalism attack at City Hall on the evening of New Year’s Day.
The attacker “damaged a number of items on the second and third floors of City Hall, including windows, a glass display case, computer equipment and the Katowicz menorah, which was displayed in the third floor rotunda.”
“While there is no indication that the vandalism to the menorah was a hate crime, I was deeply disturbed that this historic menorah was damaged,” she said. “I personally called the Cunin family, who each year generously loan the menorah to City Hall and the people of Los Angeles, to inform them of the incident.”
Bass said that Los Angeles police officers arrested a suspect, who “is being evaluated for mental health concerns.”
The Los Angeles Police Department stated on Friday that its detectives arrested a suspect as part of its investigation of a felony vandalism at City Hall. Officers responded to reports of “extensive damage” to both the building’s interior and exterior at about 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 1, it stated.
“The suspect gained entry through the First Street entrance by breaking a locked glass door and proceeded to the third floor, where multiple areas, including the hallway and rotunda, were vandalized,” it said.
Officers took Jose Gonzalez Chavez into custody without incident after he had left the facility and booked him for felony vandalism, police said. Asked for more information about the degree to which the menorah was damaged, the LAPD told JNS that it couldn’t share more information “pending the filing of the case with the DA’s office.”
Per the mayor’s office, the vandalized menorah is 200 years old and “stands as more than an artifact.”
“It stands as proof that even in humanity’s darkest moments, something meaningful can survive,” per the mayor’s office. “The Katowitz menorah has seen centuries pass. It has endured war, displacement and the Holocaust. It was nearly lost in the fires of that era, a time defined by systematic cruelty and unimaginable destruction. But it survived, and today, its presence tells a story that words alone struggle to carry.”
“Each year when this menorah is displayed, it reminds people that history is not just something written in books,” the mayor’s office added. “History lives in objects, in hands that once held them, and in the care taken to preserve them for the next generation.”
