Jewish woman pleads guilty to antisemitic vandalism in Pittsburgh

A Jewish woman accused of conspiring with an alleged Hamas sympathizer to vandalize two Jewish organizations in Pittsburgh last summer pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court.

Talya A. Lubit, 24, of Pittsburgh pleaded to misdemeanor counts of conspiracy and damaging or defacing religious property.

Those crimes call for a maximum of one year incarceration, but because Lubit has no criminal history, her sentencing guidelines call for up to 6 months incarceration.

As part of the plea agreement, Lubit must pay restitution totaling $10,534 to Chabad of Squirrel Hill, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and the City of Pittsburgh.

Lubit is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 10 by U.S. District Judge Christy Criswell Wiegand.

According to federal prosecutors, Lubit and Mohamad Hamad of Moon conspired to spray-paint messages on the Jewish organizations’ signs.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Carolyn Bloch noted in court that officials at Chabad, a synagogue on Beechwood Boulevard, discovered graffiti on the outside of their building the morning of July 29.

“Jews 4 Palestine” was written in red spray paint on the exterior stone, along with an inverted triangle, which is used as a pro-Hamas symbol.

That same day, the sign on the Jewish Federation building was also defaced. A red arrow was painted that pointed from the words “Jewish Federation” on the entrance sign to graffiti that read: “Funds Genocide.” That was followed by a red heart and the words “Jews, Hate Zionists.”

Video surveillance from the two locations was used to track the car used by the suspects that night, Bloch said, showing it arriving at Chabad at 1:46 a.m.

Lubit, carrying a white can and wearing all black, got out, ran to the sign and then returned a short time later, Bloch said.

At 2:23 a.m., investigators said a similar vehicle entered the Jewish Federation parking lot and pulled up near the entrance sign.

Investigators said they tracked the vehicle to Hamad. They also said they found evidence that Hamad used his debit card to buy “Strawberry Fields,” a red, high-gloss Rust-Oleum spray paint at Walmart in Robinson the day before.

Bloch recounted messages she said were sent between Hamad and Lubit planning the vandalism.

After Bloch’s summary of the allegations, Lubit told the court she agreed with it, but she also said that the prosecution left out messages between Lubit and Hamad in which she expressed internal conflict she was feeling at the time, describing “more complicated stuff going on in my brain.”

Those messages, according to the criminal complaint, included Lubit saying: “I’m so tired of feeling like being Jewish means I have to second guess being anti oppression. I will not survive being Jewish if I don’t learn to get past that. I’ll just end up abandoning it.”

“I’m tired of the voice in my head, telling me that a Jew would not go with the oppressed.”

She also wrote: “Every day I think ‘I don’t want to be Jewish anymore’”

“This feels kinda like a last ditch attempt at staying Jewish.”

But when asked Thursday by the judge if she committed the crimes as alleged, Lubit answered, “I did.”

She and her attorney, Jennifer H. Bouriat, declined comment following the hearing at the federal courthouse in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Hamad, a former member of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard and both an American and Lebanese citizen, faces additional charges for possessing pipe bombs and lying to the American government.

The FBI said Hamad built the bombs and detonated three explosive devices as a test in a forest in State College.

He is being detained pending trial.

Shawn Brokos, the director of community security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, said after the hearing the federation was pleased at the resolution but noted the still pending case against Hamad and a third co-defendant, Micaiah Collins.

Brokos said the current war between Israel and Hamas has created “moral confusion,” particularly among younger people.

“There is this latching on to people who have more extremist beliefs, radical beliefs — those looking to do harm like her co-defendant, who we know is a self proclaimed Hamas operative. We know his hatred of the Jews. If you read the indictment, it very clearly spelled out. And I think she attached to him and started identifying with that rhetoric,” Brokos said.

Nevertheless, Brokos was clear-eyed about the case involving Lubit.

“So moral confusion or not,” Brokos said, “it was a targeted act of antisemitism.”