JNS
The U.S. Justice Department said these acts of vandalism were due to “growing animosity towards Israel” since Oct. 7, 2023.
A Pittsburgh woman who vandalized the property of Chabad of Squirrel Hill and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh was sentenced to five years of probation, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.
Talya Lubit, 25, was arrested and charged with defacing religious property in 2024, along with a co-conspirator, Mohamad Hamad.
The two spray-painted “Jews 4 Palestine” accompanied by an inverted red triangle on the Chabad House and later vandalized the entry sign of the Federation building. (The inverted triangle symbol is used to mark Israeli targets in videos posted by Hamas, per the Justice Department).
The department added that these acts of vandalism were due to “growing animosity towards Israel” since Oct. 7, 2023.
The sentencing hearing included the victim impact statements from both Jewish centers. The antisemitic vandalism was “not only physical but deeply symbolic” and “a painful reminder that we remain a target,” said Chabad.
Hamad, who was additionally charged with lying to the federal government about supporting terror while privately stating he was loyal to Lebanon, Hezbollah and Hamas, awaits sentencing.
The Squirrel Hill neighborhood was the site of a mass shooting by a lone gunman on Oct. 27, 2018, at the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Congregation, when 11 Jewish worshippers were murdered.
