Eugene, OR – As a Eugene man stands accused of repeated instances of antisemitic vandalism at a local synagogue, law enforcement and religious leaders are reflecting on the impact the crime has on the greater community.
Adam Braun, 34, of Eugene was arrested Wednesday on four counts of second-degree bias crime, suspected of repeated instances of anti-Semitic vandalism at Temple Beth Israel on East 29th Avenue.
Eugene police Chief Chris Skinner said the arrest is more than just about vandalism.
“Many people just look at it as graffiti on the wall, but unless you’re in that community that it impacts, you don’t understand how profoundly this impacts those individuals and how unsafe they feel every single day,” he said. “If there’s one place you should be able to feel safe, aside from your own home, it should be your place of worship. When that gets challenged, I can’t even imagine how scary that can be for those people.”
Skinner said Special Investigations Unit detectives had been investigating four instances of antisemetic tagging at the synagogue on August 20, 2023, September 11, 2023, October 7, 2023 – and most recently, on January 14, 2024.
The synagogue had been a target of hate speech for a while, he said, with recent global events making it extra important for police to address the situation.
“We try to be responsive to every instance that we have hate speech occurring in our community,” Skinner said. “In this particular case, with the timing and some of the things that are happening globally, our Jewish community is feeling particularly vulnerable. The timing of this was within that time frame, so we wanted to be as responsive as we could.”
Skinner said previous taggings seemed to not make sense, until the January 14 tagging clearly spelled out “white power” on the side of the synagogue. Through the investigation – examining how the tags were shaded and scripted, and looking at security footage collected by synagogue cameras – authorities were able to connect the vandalism incidents to apply for and execute a search warrant at Braun’s home Wednesday.
Braun made his first court appearance on February 1.
Eugene police detectives worked not only with Temple Beth Israel and their security team, Skinner said, but also coordinated with the local FBI office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office – all driven by the need to identify someone perpetrating hate.
“It’s not just about Eugene PD doing their job,” he said. “We can’t do our job unless we have those kinds of partnerships, and we have the ability to have the relationships, not only with our other law enforcement partners, but our community as well.”
Skinner called Braun a “white nationalist who lives in our community,” and said the search of his home revealed things like Ku Klux Klan robes and even a framed picture of Adolf Hitler.
“This person had completely immersed themselves in kind of the white nationalist culture and teachings,” he said. “Really, really concerning the things that we saw. And that’s why we want to make sure that people understand that this is going on in our community so we can do the very best that we can to eradicate this.”
Reisa Maddex, First Vice President of the Board of Directors of Temple Beth Israel said the community member who first discovered one of the instances of graffiti covered it up with a poster with a heart on it.
“Her response was to flip the message, so it was something positive,” she said. “Other people who encountered the graffiti had very different responses. We’re not a monolithic people in that sense, we all have our different feelings and responses.”
Maddex said after Braun’s arrest, she personally feels concerned about a rise in bias crimes against all people, like anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and homophobia, but is grateful she lives in a community like Lane County that will support people who are targeted. However, she acknowledges that is not how all Jewish people feel.
“There’s a saying that ‘if there are two Jews, there are three opinions,’ and so obviously all of us are going to have different feelings about it,” she said. “But my feeling is that I find this concerning, and I’m relieved that we live in such a supporting community.”
When trying to meet the needs of a community with differing opinions such as hers, Maddex said, it is important for leaders to listen to their people.
“Our response might not feel appropriate to some of those people, but we always want to be very sure that their concerns are heard and that they feel that we respect their point of view,” she said.
Skinner said the Eugene Police Department will continue to work hard and make sure communities feel safe – and deal with anyone who wants to perpetrate hate.
“There’s a lot of things that make us feel safe and secure and allow us to thrive in a community,” he said. “Having a responsive police department is one of those, and we want to continue to be that piece of your safety and security in the community.”
It is important for people to understand hate is out in the community, Skinner said, but police will take it seriously and relentlessly investigate and expose those who may align themselves with hateful ideologies.
Braun looks to have acted alone, he said, but police will always be on the lookout of their arrest may connect to something larger.
“Somebody made a comment to me (Thursday) morning that resonated to me, ‘you don’t wear a costume unless there is a costume party somewhere to go to,’” Skinner said. “We have to be diligent and recognize that this isn’t just a one-off situation. We know that we have this hate in our community and we just have to be diligent to pursue these people.”
Maddex said she personally is being careful about bringing more attention to this anti-Semitic act, wanting to not give more power to it.
“When you give oxygen to a bias crime, it allows the person who perpetrates the crime to be far more successful than if you move on and do something that’s more positive,” she said.
