November 5, 2008

Vandals painted swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti on the Jewish Agency for Israel headquarters in the southern Russian city of Saratov.

The graffiti appeared late Sunday night on both the headquarters and on a neighboring building that houses local operations of the Chesed welfare agency, according to Jewish.ru.

Earlier that day, the building had been used for classes and training for Jewish children and teenagers.

The local Jewish Agency representative said it was not the first anti-Semitic incident in the city in recent years.

In 2005, skinheads attacked a student; in 2006, someone broke a window in the Jewish Agency headquarters; and in May 2007, extremists planted an explosive device in the local synagogue that failed to detonate.