Swastikas Scar Brooklyn Heights
Spray-painted swastikas and scrawled anti-semitic were found on two synagogues, three apartment buildings and two cars Brooklyn Heights neighborhood late last night.
The small tree-lined neighborhood is usually quiet and does not have a history of hate crime, until now.
Vandals spray-painted black swastikas on the landings of the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue and Congregation B’Nai Avraham, both houses of worship on Remsen Street. Similar sized and colored swastikas were also found on the landings of three apartment buildings and bodies of two cars in the surrounding area.
Father James Root of Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral, which is near the vandalized buildings, said, “I left for dinner at 8:00 p.m. and saw the whole street cordoned off and flashers around 11:30 p.m. when I looked out.” Father Root added, “two blocks down there were notes left on cars which attacked Israel and the Jews, calling Jews pigs and saying death to the Jews.”
The number of vandalized properties grew to 18 by Tuesday afternoon as police officers scouted nearby streets and shut off parts of Remsen and Hicks streets. A number of city officials made their way to the neighborhood and expressed anger at the crimes and concern for the Brooklyn Heights Jewish population. The swastikas on both synagogue landings were covered by makeshift mats until anti-graffiti services washed them out by late afternoon.
The district attorney’s office and the Hate Crimes Task Force continued investigations all of Tuesday, with over 20 detectives working in the area. Some of the undercover detectives spoke to Father Root who recognized them as not being from the area. “I never knew we had so many cops in the precinct, but at least they are all undercover,” said Father Root. Investigator Gregg Cherry of the Special Investigations Unit, who was monitoring the area on Tuesday, agreed, and said that while the vandals left anti-semitic symbols and messages, they missed striking all Jewish targets. “Other than the synagogues the buildings and cars spray painted belonged to people of other faiths and ethnicities,” said Cherry.
Some neighborhood Jewish leaders blamed the string of anti-Semitic attacks on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presence in New York City. Rabbi Raskin, of the Congregation B’Nai Avraham believed, “I feel that when a hate monger denies the holocaust and the existence of Israel this causes anti-Semites – who are normally silent — to come out of their holes and publicly display their anti-Jewish and biased symbols.” Rabbi Serge Lippe of the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue did not want to comment on the vandal’s motives vandals’ motives, but expressed confusion. “I am more upset with what goes through people’s head that makes them desecrate a house of worship,” he said.
City officials and District Attorney Charles Hynes have promised to catch the perpetrators, but Cherry and other officers on duty expressed doubt. “We are not going to catch the person and if we do it is going to be a copy-cat who wants attention,” Cherry said.
