A man accused of repeatedly defacing a Eugene synagogue with white supremacist and antisemitic graffiti has been charged with a federal hate crime.
The FBI on Thursday arrested Adam Edward Braun, 34, of Eugene, and he made his first appearance in U.S. District Court in Eugene.
During a search of Braun’s home, investigators recovered framed photographs of Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, Nazi literature and memorabilia, Ku Klux Klan robes and flags and pamphlets on “What is means to be a Klansman,” a federal affidavit said.
Braun targeted Temple Beth Israel in Eugene from August 2023 until mid-January, when he was caught on security footage just after 1 a.m. on Jan. 14 wielding a hammer and about to strike the synagogue preschool’s glass door entry, FBI agent Spencer J. Anderson wrote in the affidavit.
As Braun walked up to the door, he covered his face, put his jacket’s hood over his head, then lifted his right arm above his head as he held the hammer but apparently noticed a security camera and didn’t smash the glass, the complaint said.
Instead, Braun appeared to make statements into the camera for about a minute, the complaint said. The security camera video doesn’t include audio, so it’s not known what he said.
About 10 minutes later, the footage shows Braun spray-painting a wall of the synagogue, where the words “White Power” were later discovered in large blue-and black paint behind a bicycle rack, according to the affidavit.
The next morning, Braun showed up at the synagogue’s main entrance with his face covered and was caught on camera dropping off two items — a Jewish flag and a book titled “Jewish Eugenics” — before leaving, the federal affidavit said.
A note on the back of the flag read, “Please forgive me for being overly aggressive, I am truly sorry. I hope you can use the book to build a better community.” Nazis had adopted eugenics — a discredited doctrine of “racial improvement” — to justify their targeting of Jews
After his arrest, Braun admitted to the vandalism, shared his “disapproval of the Jewish community,” made antisemitic and anti-Zionist comments and expressed skepticism that the killing of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust had occurred, the FBI agent’s affidavit said.
Braun said he has previously appeared as a guest on a podcast associated with the NationalSocialist Movement, which has a webpage of men in helmets holding shields with swastikas, according to the affidavit.
During a search of his home, FBI agents found the hammer seen on the security camera outside the synagogue and numerous cans of spray paint amid Nazi pamphlets and Ku Klux Klan robes, investigators said.
On Thursday, Braun was accused of intentionally defacing a synagogue because it is a place of religious worship for Jewish people. He was appointed an assistant federal public defender. U.S. Magistrate Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai ordered him to remain in custody pending further court proceedings.
Braun was previously arrested by Eugene police on Jan. 31 on state charges. He was arraigned the next day in Lane County Circuit Court on four counts of second-degree bias crime allegations, pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released from custody with an order not to return to the synagogue’s property, according to court records. The state charges are likely to be dismissed now that Braun faces a federal case for the same alleged offenses.
Temple Beth Israel is the largest synagogue in Lane County with about 400 members.
Rabbi Ruhi Sophia Motzkin Rubenstein said in an interview that she was “deeply sad that this is the way someone would want to make their impact on the world. We’re really grateful for how seriously law enforcement and the Department of Justice has taken this complaint. We feel very grateful to know, as disturbing as these acts are, we have a wider community that does not tolerate this kind of behavior.”
Yet Rubenstein, who has been the synagogue’s rabbi for eight and a half years, said she’s not surprised by what occurred, considering the recent rise in antisemitism, Islamophobia and white supremacy.
”We’re sad. We’'re angry, of course. Some of our members are frightened, but it’s part of a larger disturbing trend that we all need to take a stand against,” she said.
