Pittsburgh Resident Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy and Defacing Chabad House

A resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of conspiracy and defacing and damaging Chabad of Squirrel Hill last year.

Talya A. Lubit, age 24, pleaded guilty to two counts before United States District Judge Christy Criswell Wiegand.

In connection with the guilty plea, the Court was advised that Lubit and her codefendant, Mohamad Hamad, conspired from July 2024 to July 29, 2024, to damage and deface the Chabad of Squirrel Hill. The Chabad is a center for Jewish educational programming and occupies a building for Jewish religious services in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

In the early morning hours of July 29, 2024, acting on their plan to cause damage to a Jewish institution, Lubit and Hamad spray-painted the words “Jews 4 Palestine” with an inverted triangle onto the exterior of the building with red paint. The inverted triangle first appeared in videos posted online by Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization, of the current fighting in Gaza where it was used to mark an Israeli target about to be attacked by Hamas fighters. The act of vandalism was born from Hamad’s and Lubit’s shared growing animosity towards Israel since the terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, and the war that ensued between Israel and Hamas.

In connection with the guilty plea, Lubit agreed to pay full restitution for the damage done to the Chabad property, as well as graffiti that she and Hamad spray-painted on an entry sign to the Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh the same day.

Judge Wiegand scheduled sentencing for September 10, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. The law provides for a total sentence of up to one year in prison, a fine of up to $100,000, or both. Under the federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed is based upon the seriousness of the offenses and the prior criminal history, if any, of the defendant.

Pending sentencing, the Court continued Lubit’s bond with special conditions including home detention.

Assistant United States Attorneys Carolyn J. Bloch and Nicole Vasquez Schmitt are prosecuting this case on behalf of the government.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police conducted the investigation that led to the successful prosecution of Lubit.