Updated: Police looking for individual who overturned Chabad House menorah

Cat Zakrzewski, Reporter

The Evanston Police Department is trying to identify the person who pushed over a menorah at the Tannenbaum Chabad House last weekend.

Early Saturday, a white male tipped over the large metal menorah, shattering a light bulb on the nine-branched candelabra, EPD Cmdr. Jay Parrott said.

EPD released surveillance video that captured the incident. This is the second time in four years that the menorah at Chabad House has been defaced.

Police say there is no indication at this time that this is a hate-related incident.

Rabbi Dov Hillel Klein called for an apology Thursday. When he found the overturned menorah, Klein hoped it was the wind.

“Unfortunately it was not,” Klein wrote in an email to The Daily. “It just is a reminder that our job educating each other to embrace diversity is still not over. I look forward to participating in a conversation that addresses the diversity of our faiths and the meaning that different symbols represent with in them.”

Four years ago when the menorah was defaced, Klein told The Daily the incident was definitely a hate crime, describing it as “deliberate.” Police never categorized the vandalism as a hate crime.

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Twitter: @Cat_Zakrzewski