A police investigation is underway after swastikas were spray-painted outside a Wellington Jewish temple - Temple Sinai.
The vandalism yesterday comes days before the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp.
Matthew Smith, the chairman of the temple, told TVNZ1's Breakfast it was a "disgusting" and "particularly targeted" act.
"To see graffiti and anti-Semitic graffiti around the city is one thing, but to find it on the wall outside your place of worship, your own house, was very disconcerting and, the fact is, it's left our congregants feeling quite vulnerable and targeted," Mr Smith said.
"This is an act that I feel all New Zealanders should stand together and condemn, and stand against this sort of bigotry and intolerance and hate that we see in New Zealand."
He said similar attacks, as well as the desecration of graves, have occurred at the temple in the paantst, but no prosecutions have been made.
"This is not an isolated event, and I think we've seen an upsurge in anti-Semitism around the globe and in New Zealand.
The swastikas have since been removed.
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