Synagogue replaces banner that was set on fire

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A destructive crime has not stopped a Columbus synagogue from showing its support for Israeli hostages being held by Hamas.

Every day, the community at Congregation Tifereth Israel is thinking about the hostages. There's an empty Shabbat table in their lobby as a reminder. Rabbi Hillel Skolnik wears a necklace with the words, "Bring Them Home Now." The synagogue also had a banner outside along East Broad Street with a similar message.

“It was a very difficult thing to endure and even to see video of or to try to even imagine a person or two people doing such a thing and it caused immediate pain and grief and angst within the congregation," Skolnik said.

Around 1 a.m. on May 28, the banner was set on fire. The crime was caught on surveillance video. Two people can be seen near the flames, then walking away.

“That idea of standing together with the message of bring them home now has been front and center in our minds from the earliest moments of the realities of October 7th. Destroying a banner wasn't going to change that resolve for us," Skolnik said.

The banner was handmade by an employee at the synagogue and displayed the number of days hostages had been held. Skolnik said the decision to order a new one was made immediately.

“There is a well-documented and concerning and scary dramatic rise of antisemitism and acts of antisemitism in the country and in the state and even here in Columbus and by putting up this new banner, we are saying we are not scared to be Jewish," he said.

The new banner recently arrived at the synagogue and was put up using the same posts as the original. It has a yellow ribbon and the message "Bring Them Home Now." Skolnik said he knows the conflict in the Middle East is complex and people have differing views, but added setting the synagogues banner on fire was not a solution.

"If the investigators were able to find the people who burned down our sign and instead of sending them to prison we had the opportunity to meet and to talk and to better understand each other and for them to understand what the banner means and why we’re hanging it, and came to a better situation of community, I think that would be a very beautiful and inspirational result from such a violent act," Skolnik said.

Skolnik had hoped they'd be able to take the new banner down shortly after they got it because that would mean all hostages were freed.

"As a person who lives in the real world, I don't know that's an achievable goal, but it is something we continue to hope for and to pray for and as long as that banner needs to be up there it will be up there in front of our synagogue," he said.

The incident involving the original banner is still under investigation by the Columbus Division of Police. Whoever set it on fire has not been caught, according to police.