Vandals targeted the outside of a Jewish synagogue in Sun City on the first night of Hanukkah, and the rabbi said the FBI is investigating the incident as a potential hate crime.

“That’s a designation that takes some evidence to gather — takes a while to gather,” said Sheldon Moss, rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom. “It looks and smells and talks like a duck, and quacks like a duck. So it really feels to me like hate crime.”

The vandals tried to topple a large menorah outside of Temple Beth Shalom, and trashed a garden commemorating the Holocaust, Moss said. The incident has been particularly painful for one member who’s a 104-year-old Holocaust survivor.

“And it’s really depressed him,” Moss said. “I think he’s coming out of it. But it’s taken a two- or three-day hit on an old man’s life.”