The RCMP and the B.C. Hate Crimes Unit are investigating a disturbing act of graffiti vandalism at the Beth Tikvah Synagogue in Richmond over the weekend.

The graffiti, which included swastikas, obscenities and racial slurs, was spray-painted on the front of the two-storey synagogue in the Vancouver suburb.

Vandals hit the Beth Tikvah Synagogue in Richmond on Holocaust Memorial Day.
(CBC)

Police are now reviewing surveillance camera video and still photos of the attack on Sunday morning, which was Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Calling the incident "disturbing and unacceptable," Supt. Ward Clapham, the RCMP officer in command of the Richmond detachment, said it was an "extremely serious criminal act."

Canadian Jewish Congress leader Mark Weintraub called it a malicious act of cowardice.

He and other Jewish community leaders are determined to stop any more incidents like it, he said.

"We are going to ensure that these kinds of acts remain a very small minority. We're absolutely vigilant in our determination to ensure that the perpetrators of this act will be apprehended and that the justice system will deal with them accordingly."

Weintraub, who is chair of the Canadian Jewish Congress Pacific Region, was at the B.C. legislature Monday for a ceremony marking Holocaust Memorial Day.