PLANTATION, Fla. – A group of hackers believed to be from the Middle East hacked the website of a Plantation synagogue Thursday night.
The homepage of the Temple Kol Ami Emannu-el's website showed a crossed out Star of David and the words "(Expletive) you Israel." The words "I love you ISIS" were also displayed on the site.
Police said the cyber attack was by a group called Team System Dz. The temple's head of security says the Arabic writings on the page ask people to support the Islamic State and praise the martyrs. There is even a link to the hacker's Facebook page, where they boast about actively hacking other web sites around the world.
He believes the group may be from Jordan but cannot be certain. Local law enforcement and the FBI are investigating the cyber attack and the temple's website has been temporarily taken down.
Rabbi Howard Needleman says it is unfortunate Jews around the world and in South Florida continue to have to deal with antisemitism.
"It is disturbing," said Neddleman. "Obviously we use our website to communicate with our congregation about what we are doing here programatically and people use it to find out what is going on. So it is a little disturbing that somebody has the ability in a far-off land to control what is on our temple's website."
"Nobody should feel in any way alarmed," added Neddleman. "We are dealing with it and we feel secure in our security here."
The temple still plans on celebrating Sukkot on Friday night, which is the celebration of the harvest or the feast of Tabernacles. The congregation plans to come together, pray and celebrate the Jewish holiday as usual.
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