Dozens of people gathered Thursday at a Pasadena temple site to stand in solidarity with their Jewish neighbors, many still reeling from the fact that their sacred space has been the target of several acts of vandalism this year.

The gathering was prompted by an incident last week when Jenna Leventhal was on her way to drop off her daughter Ava at summer camp. Cruising down a familiar stretch of Altadena Drive, she passed the site where the century-old Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center once stood before it burned down in last year’s Eaton fire.

Miriam Hellmann paints an olive branch on the mural outside the Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center.

(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)

Almost by instinct, Leventhal turned to look at the empty, rail-guarded lot. Parts of the original exterior wall survived the flames, only to be vandalized with antisemitic messages in January.

The original graffiti was quickly removed, and a mural was commissioned in its place. But to Leventhal’s surprise, the new mural was defaced with swastikas and a message reading, “ZIONSIM IS NOT WELCOME.” The word “Zionism” was misspelled.

“Ever since the mural was put up, I look at it out of pure joy,” Leventhal, a senior director at the USC Shoah Foundation, which archives testimonies of Holocaust survivors, told The Times. “[The discovery] was shocking and upsetting.”

She immediately called the temple’s leader, Rabbi Josh Ratner, who notified authorities. The Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s Altadena station launched a hate crime investigation, which remains ongoing, Capt. Ethan Marquez confirmed this week. It remains unclear how many people were involved in the crime.

For a community that has already endured immense loss, the antisemitic graffiti felt deeply personal.

Rabbis gather together at the Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center after their mural was vandalized with antisemitic messages last week, the second incident this year. The temple burned down last year in the Eaton fire.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

“It is very difficult when we need to be worried about security,” said Dianne Burr, a member of PJTC for more than 20 years. “We want people to be able to feel that this is a space where we all belong.”

Burr said about 70 members were affected by the Eaton fire and that congregants have been supporting families through food deliveries and care packages. She said that unity has been the only answer.

It was that sense of unity that motivated high school seniors Caleb Yellin and Audrey Farahnik to fund the creation of a mural to cover the first graffiti incident. The project was completed in May. Yellin and Farahnik raised $30,000 through the nonprofit Sparks of Kindness Youth Fund, the pair told the Pasadena Star-News.

“We wanted to cover the hate and pain with something beautiful,” Farahnik told The Times. “To cover hate with more love.”

Yellin explained that the concept for the mural’s artwork came from some of the youngest members of PJTC.

“The kids who belong to the temple had a brainstorming session, and they put all their ideas on the table,” Yellin said. “Then, from their ideas, we drew out a lot of poppies, peacocks. We took their designs, and we talked to an artist to make it more feasible.”

Miriam Hellmann repaints the mural outside the Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center on Thursday.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Scenic painter Miriam Hellmann was the skillful hand behind the mural’s final product: an image of a giant, bright orange poppy, a butterfly and a peacock, along with floral and faunal symbols. The mural’s stained-glass look was inspired by the temple’s famous ark doors, she said.

It was a “community effort, and everybody coming together, despite everything that happened in the fire,” Yellin added.

Ratner said in a previous interview with The Times that the second vandalism act was a direct response to the first incident.

“Today we mark one week since our sacred space, our place of worship, was violated with words of hate,” Ratner said in a speech Thursday. “Targeting a mural created to be a source of healing and communal inspiration, in response to a prior act of antisemitic vandalism, is an assault not only on PJTC, but on our community here.”

L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents the area, said that during Tuesday’s board meeting, she will raise the award money to $20,000 for anyone with information about the vandalism.

Supervisor Katherine Barger spoke at the event.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

“I’m confident that my colleagues are going to support me and approve this motion,” Barger said. “The deep roots of this community, and its unwavering commitment to healing and to rebuilding, continue to shine.”

While the temple’s reconstruction continues, PJTC congregants have been sharing a space at First United Methodist Church of Pasadena on Colorado Boulevard, which also shares its place of worship with the Islamic Center of Southern California. Pastor Amy Aitken said it has been a joy to welcome PJTC members.

“I was speaking to somebody the other day, and I was talking about our campus rabbi, which not a lot of United Methodist churches have, but we do. And it is how it should be. It is a beautiful thing,” Aitken said. “We’re sorry that we’re all here today, but we stand in solidarity with our Jewish siblings of faith.”

As of Thursday, the mural was repainted, with Hellmann adding a new olive tree branch to the wall. Ratner said the branch is a reference to the story in the Torah of Noah sending out a dove during the Great Flood and the bird returning with an olive branch.

Hellmann said the olive branch symbolizes peace. She explained that the mural had an anti-graffiti coating, “it just didn’t work as well as I hoped.” A new and improved coating will be applied Friday, she added.

She spent the whole day restoring the mural.

“The guy couldn’t spell,” one observer told Hellmann, referring to the misspelled tag, as they walked by.

“Yeah, that was actually kind of funny in a sad way,” Hellmann said.