A man who police say was caught on surveillance video urinating on a Northeast Philadelphia synagogue over the weekend has been charged.
Police say the suspect, identified as 23-year-old Sheidali Dzhalilov, turned himself into Northeast Detectives Tuesday evening.
On Wednesday, police charged the Hoffnagle Street resident with ethnic intimidation, indecent exposure, institutional vandalism, open lewdness, harassment and related counts.
Dzhalilov first approached the front doors of the Congregation Beth Solomon at 198 Tomlinson Road Sunday at 12:30 a.m., investigators said. Surveillance video shows a man pointing the middle finger toward the synagogue’s surveillance video camera. He then urinates on the walls and sidewalk directly in front of the building’s doors before fleeing in a white four-door sedan.
The Anti-Defamation League released a statement Monday condemning the vandalism.
“We are revolted by this most recent display of anti-Semitism in Northeast Philadelphia,” said Nancy K. Baron-Baer, ADL Regional Director. “We’ve seen vandalism targeting Jewish institutions in the region before, but this latest incident turns the stomach. The amount of hate a person must feel to desecrate a house of worship in this way is incomprehensible and contemptible.”
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The incident is the third time in less than a year Congregation Beth Solomon was vandalized. In September of last year, a vandal stole a large menorah outside the synagogue though it was later returned. In January the shopping center housing the synagogue’s ritual bath was spray painted with graffiti.
The ADL stated in their release that there has been a three-year increase in anti-Semitic activity in Pennsylvania and that the 67 incidents they recorded in 2016 were the most in the state in nearly a decade.
