Over the weekend, swastikas and other hate speech were spray-painted onto the walls of the Agudath Achim Synagogue.

The incident occurred at 1:42 p.m. on Friday, June 16 when a person walked up to the front entrance of the Agudath Achim Synagogue. After spray painting a swastika at the front, the person went around to the side and back of the building to add more racist graffiti, including antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-Black slurs.

According to Almeida, the congregation typically holds weekly Shabbat/Sabbath services Saturday mornings, reserving Friday night services once a month, at the end of the month. That is why the graffiti wasn’t discovered by anyone until Saturday morning, at around 8:45 a.m. when staff and congregation were showing up for services, as well as a bat mitzvah scheduled that morning.

The swastika was immediately covered up with posterboard and duct tape, and it still is at time of writing this article.

The building has surveillance cameras on the outside. Footage of the front entrance was shown to the Gazette. It shows one person, dressed head-to-toe in black and carrying a black backpack, with their face covered by a black hoodie, black sunglasses, and black mask covering the lower face.

The board stated Taunton Police were called and an investigation is underway.