SWASTIKA ON THE UPPER WEST SIDE
I still can't believe that this happened at my synagogue, in my neighborhood. But here's the email from Mark Ankcorn, rabbi of Congregation Shaare Zedek:
Early this afternoon, I was contacted by the police regarding an incident of vandalism at Shaare Zedek. I quickly walked over to the shul and discovered a swastika about two feet tall painted on our building, which had been cordoned off by police officers already at the scene.
As best we can determine, the vandalism happened sometime between 5:30 pm Saturday evening and 12:30 pm Sunday, on the wall to the left of the eastern door to the social hall. We painted over this ugly symbol as quickly as possible, after being advised by NYPD that there were no fingerprints or other forensic evidence to be gleaned from the site.
I know that many in our community live in the area and have friends who pass by the building every day. If anyone has any information about the incident, including walking by the shul and NOT seeing the vandalism during the relevant time period, it would be a big help to the investigators as they try to canvas for witnesses. Please contact me and I will pass the information on to the detectives from the Hate Crimes Unit who are working the case.
The security of every member of our community is of paramount importance to me and to the lay leadership of Shaare Zedek, but do bear in mind that (thank God) no one was injured nor was there lasting damage to our synagogue. Rest assured that I will keep the community updated with information as it becomes available; nevertheless, feel free to be in touch with me if you have any questions or concerns.
If you have any information, please call Shaare Zedek at 212-874-7005...
posted by Esther Kustanowitz @ 8:13 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Mel: Here's hoping that ingnorace is all it is. That they're just some stupid kids unaware of what it really means and how it affects people.
Andrea: Plenty of people don't think it's acceptable, everyone I associate with for starters.
I have some experience with this sort of thing, despite not being Jewish. Back in the early nineties a radical skin-head leader ended up in this province. He was hiding out from both the police and other factions in the states. All of a sudden there were all these neo-nazi skin-heads running around. My ,er, style in those days was a beard, gold rim glasses and a bowler hat. (making my hair pointy got old fast)
They used to pay a lot of attention to me, following me in cars as I walked, shouting obsenites and so on. It was a scary time but I decided not to change anything. Sure I was a little more cautious. I stuck to well traveled areas after dark and made sure I wasn't followed home, but I refused to let them stop me living how I wanted.
It doesn't take much intelligence to realize that having people around who judge others purely by appearance is dangerous to everyone. That's what happened here. The whole alternative community, the only place these idiots found any kind of acceptance, eventually turned on them. They got banned from venues, shunned at parties and in a some cases violently opposed.
These days there's no one around here who will overtly state nazi sympathies, which in a weird way is unfortunate. I'm sure they're still out there and it was nice to be able to see them coming from blocks away.
http://jewishblogniks.blogspot.com
Absolutely disgusting. Just another ugly sign there is too much hate in this world.
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