Ilana Glazer Cancels Event at New York Temple After It Was Defaced With Anti-Semitic Graffiti

Comedian Ilana Glazer canceled an event at a Brooklyn, New York synagogue on Thursday night after the temple was defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti.

The Broad City star was set to interview Democracy Now!‘s Amy Goodman, as well as two New York Senate candidates, Jim Gaughran and Andrew Gounardes on Thursday night during an event with the organization, Generator, to help encourage people to vote ahead of midterm elections next week.

According to the New York Times, police and officials at Union Temple of Brooklyn in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, said that anti-Semitic messages were written in black marker on multiple locations at the place of worship, including “die jew rats” and “end it now.” After 8 pm, Glazer announced to those who had been waiting for the event to begin for over an hour, that the event was cancelled due to the hateful messages written on the walls of the temple.

In an interview on Democracy Now! on Friday morning, Glazer further explained why the event was cancelled.

“I can’t put these 200 people, who came to listen in a safe space—I can’t put them in that danger,” Glazer said of the incident on Thursday night. The police departments’ hate crime task force is now investigating the graffiti.