Rabbi Mendy Greenberg, who leads the Chabad congregation in Palmer, speaks at a bill-signing ceremony held Tuesday at the Lubavitch Jewish Center of Alaska. The bill makes vandalism of religous sites a class C felony. Listening is Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, who sponsored the bill, and Rabbi Yosef Greenberg, Mendy Greenberg’s father, who leads the Anchorage congregation. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Vandalism of houses of worship and other religious sites is now a felony, under a bill that was signed into law on Tuesday by Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
The measure, House Bill 238 , was signed in a ceremony at the Lubavitch Jewish Center of Alaska , a campus in Anchorage that is home to an Orthodox Jewish congregation, a preschool and a museum devoted to Alaska’s Jewish history.
It was also the site of recent antisemitic vandalism, part of a national trend of increasing attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions.
Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, the bill’s sponsor, spoke about that trend, as well as a pattern of attacks against Muslims, mosques and Muslim institutions. The Council of American Islamic Relations reported that complaints of discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Palestinians increased by 56% from 2022 to 2023, he said.