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Riverside investigators look into anti-Semitic vandalism on pastor's Hemet home
Pastor Michael Rose and wife Siba of Light of Love Chapel
(
Courtesy of lightoflovechapel.webs.com
)
Riverside County authorities are looking for the culprits who scrawled anti-Semitic graffiti on the home of a Messianic Jewish family in Hemet. The spray-painted message included a large swastika and the word “Jew” on a garage door of the house.
Investigators from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department say Pastor Michael Rose discovered the vandalism when he stepped outside the home he shares with his wife and nine children. The family moved into the house four months ago.
Authorities are investigating the pursuing the case as a hate crime, and are looking into allegedly threatening mail and phone calls made to the family.
Rose is founding pastor at the Light of Love Chapel in San Jacinto. Its members practice Messianic Judaism, which blends Christian theology with some elements of Judaism. Rose told a local newspaper that the family has no intention of moving.
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Unlike the right-facing Nazi swastika, the two-foot square symbol spray painted on the pastor’s home face left. In Buddhist and other cultures, that signifies good luck or fortune – but that’s clearly not the sentiment here.
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