VIDEO: Beth Jacob Congregation of Irvine Vandalized – City of Irvine Press Conference.
I covered one of the City of Irvine's press conferences last year. This conference was regarding the antisemitic vandalism that was perpetrated against the Beth Jacob Congregation Synagogue in Irvine on October 31, 2018.
I was contacted through Stringr to go and capture the conference on video, so I did. Now, as I was cleaning up my storage space I found the footage and decided to publish it and do a quick update on the story.
I could not find the press conference in its entirety anywhere so I think this is helpful.
It is puzzling to me that such a high profile case in a city with virtually no violent crime has not been resolved. This morning, I received confirmation from the Irvine Police department that the case remains unsolved and the $10,000 reward is still up for grabs.
During the press conference, led by Kim Mohr form the IPD, several city administration, religious and business leaders came together to speak about this and other related incidents.
I believe this incident was enhanced from simple vandalism to a hate-crime due to the nature of the incident.
In no particular order, these are some of the people that were in attendance: Kim Mohr - Irvine PD, John Wagner - Mayor of Irvine, Christina Sea - Councilmember, Melissa Fox - Councilwoman, Lynn Schott - Councilwoman, Rabbi Yisroel Ciner - Beth Jacob Synagogue Irvine, Tim Jamal - President board South County Community School District, Chief Hamel - Irvine Police Department, Alison Edwards - OC Human Relations, Sheikh Atef Mahgoub - Islamic Center of Irvine, Reverend Mark Whitlock - Christ Our Redeemer Church, Peter Lee Levy - Anti Defamation League, Orange County.
I don't know everyone else that is standing there, so if you'd like to point them out and tell me who they are, I'll be happy to add them here. Just leave a comment below.
Remember, there is a reward of $10,000 if you have information that leads to the arrest (and I assume conviction) of the perpetrator.
And if you want to take the opportunity to capture footage for re-distribution, check out Stringr. I've talked about it before on another video.
