Discover Top Posts Tagged with #sam penn

Bed Kiss, 2025

May Andersen by Sam Penn

A Drexel University professor is one of three women accused of stealing pro-Israel signs from outside a synagogue and a home in Lower Merion

By David Chang and Deanna Durante

On Nov. 27, 2023, at 9:33 a.m., the officer responded to the 500 block of Manor Road in Wynnewood for a report of a theft. The homeowner, Stephen Chopnick, told the officer he noticed someone had stolen his two “We Stand With Israel” signs from his front yard and he had last seen them four days earlier. Investigators later determined those two signs were the same signs that were found inside Chilton’s vehicle, according to the criminal complaint.

The officer then met with a woman who lived nearby. The woman showed the officer home surveillance video that captured Chilton’s Honda CRV driving past her home around the same time as the theft, investigators said.

That same day, the officer met with the executive director of the Main Line Reform Temple. She told the officer a security company that monitors the temple informed her that several pro-Israel signs had been stolen from the property. She later identified the stolen signs as the same ones that were found inside Chilton’s vehicle, according to the criminal complaint.

Chilton, Prickett and Penn were all arrested in connection to the incident.

Chilton is charged with conspiracy – theft by unlawful taking – movable property, conspiracy – criminal trespass, driving an unregistered vehicle, notice of change of name or address, failure to carry a license and receiving stolen property. Her case was moved to county court and is currently in the pretrial stage.

Prickett and Penn are both charged with theft by unlawful taking – movable property, receiving stolen property and criminal trespassing.

During an interview with NBC10 on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, Chopnick told NBC10 he had replaced the stolen signs with new ones that also support Israel.

“I wouldn’t take a sign down. I’ve certainly seen signs that I don’t agree with,” Chopnick said. “I assumed it was somebody who took a different view of the issues in the Middle East than I do.”

Chilton is a professor at the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University in Philadelphia. She is also the director of Dornsife’s Center for Hunger-Free Communities, a research and advocacy center that focuses on developing solutions for hunger and economic insecurity. She also founded Witnesses to Hunger, a research and advocacy project that partners with experts on mothers and caregivers of young children who have experienced hunger and poverty.

#drexel university #drexel university professor #stephen chopnick #mariana chilton #sarah prickett #sam penn #main line reform temple #philadelphia