UPDATE July 17, 2023: Lenny De La Rosa, 21, was arrested Monday at E. 120th St. and Fifth Ave. in Harlem by cops who recognized him from surveillance footage showing him pulling out a black magic marker outside Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun; more here.
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Cops are searching for a vandal who scrawled antisemitic graffiti on a scrolling message board outside an Upper East Side synagogue.
The suspect, who has not been identified, walked up to the Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun Synagogue at 125 East 85th Street at about 7 p.m. Saturday, took out a marker and graffitied a display screen attached to the house of worship, the NYPD said.
Police described him as a man with a slim build and short black hair who is around 25 years-old.
He wore a white tank top, camo shorts and white sneakers, and ran off on East 85th Street after the hateful act.
Jewish watchdog organization StopAntisemitism shared an image of the suspect on Twitter.
🚨 NYPD are searching for this pictured male
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) August 13, 2023
Why? Antisemitic vandalism
Where? Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on E. 85th
When? August 12th 7pm EDT
Recognize him? DM us. pic.twitter.com/57BEJDnC1b
By Sunday morning, the writing had been wiped off.
The sign suffered no damage.
“It was pretty easy to wipe off – they got it clean in a few minutes,” a neighbor named Scott told The Post.
“There’s three cameras right there!’ Scott, 51, continued. “Guy was probably wacked out on drugs. We get a lot of that here.”
The synagogue remained empty — even though there was a service scheduled for 9 a.m.
The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating, cops said.