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http://www.newsday.com/news/local/l...38dec29,0,6995165.story?coll=ny-top-headlines
Speaking out on vandalism
Rabbis, community leaders call recent spate of attacks on menorahs in Suffolk disturbing
BY ANDREW STRICKLER
Newsday Staff Writer
December 29, 2006
After a menorah outside Islip Town Hall was damaged in the third such incident in Suffolk County this holiday season, rabbis and community leaders expressed concern that Jewish symbols are being targeted by vandals.
Early Wednesday morning, someone knocked over a lit 7-foot menorah on the lawn outside Islip Town Hall. The attack followed other incidents in which menorahs outside a Jewish center and a chamber of commerce building were damaged this month. Suffolk police are investigating all three incidents as hate crimes.
"It's a very emotional thing for people in the Jewish community that a religious symbol is attacked in this way," said Rabbi Leslie Schotz of the Bay Shore Jewish Center, where a menorah was knocked over on Christmas Day.
Schotz said she has received dozens of calls of support from both Jews and gentiles since the incident, and that three people have offered a $3,000 reward for information about the crime.
But Schotz and other rabbis around Suffolk County said they did not believe the incidents are part of a larger pattern.
"For most people in my community, they are deeply offended ... but no one is painting a picture that this is evidence of an increase in anti-Semitism," said Rabbi Howard Buechler of the Dix Hills Jewish Center.
Nevertheless, Buechler is sensitive to the symbolism of the vandals' actions, one of which was caught by a security camera near a menorah at the St. James Chamber of Commerce building.
"A menorah is a symbol of religious tolerance, and to deface that symbol ... is a real contradiction," Buechler said. No arrests have been made in the three incidents, and the commander of the Suffolk police hate crimes unit was not available for comment yesterday.
Town of Islip Supervisor Philip Nolan yesterday called the destruction of the menorah outside Town Hall sometime between 12:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Wednesday a "terribly hurtful action." A nativity scene near the menorah was not damaged. Nolan said a repaired menorah would be in place next Hanukkah.
Rabbi Steven Moss of the B'nai Israel Reform Temple in Oakdale, who sits on both the Suffolk County Human Rights Commission and the Islip Town Anti-Bias Task Force, said history shows that most such crimes are committed by teenagers with little sensitivity to the message their actions send.
Nevertheless, Moss said he believes the community needs to pull together to speak out against attacks on symbols of any religion.
"With hate crimes, it's not the intention of the person committing the crimes that's important, but the effect on the victims," he said.
Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.
Speaking out on vandalism
Rabbis, community leaders call recent spate of attacks on menorahs in Suffolk disturbing
BY ANDREW STRICKLER
Newsday Staff Writer
December 29, 2006
After a menorah outside Islip Town Hall was damaged in the third such incident in Suffolk County this holiday season, rabbis and community leaders expressed concern that Jewish symbols are being targeted by vandals.
Early Wednesday morning, someone knocked over a lit 7-foot menorah on the lawn outside Islip Town Hall. The attack followed other incidents in which menorahs outside a Jewish center and a chamber of commerce building were damaged this month. Suffolk police are investigating all three incidents as hate crimes.
"It's a very emotional thing for people in the Jewish community that a religious symbol is attacked in this way," said Rabbi Leslie Schotz of the Bay Shore Jewish Center, where a menorah was knocked over on Christmas Day.
Schotz said she has received dozens of calls of support from both Jews and gentiles since the incident, and that three people have offered a $3,000 reward for information about the crime.
But Schotz and other rabbis around Suffolk County said they did not believe the incidents are part of a larger pattern.
"For most people in my community, they are deeply offended ... but no one is painting a picture that this is evidence of an increase in anti-Semitism," said Rabbi Howard Buechler of the Dix Hills Jewish Center.
Nevertheless, Buechler is sensitive to the symbolism of the vandals' actions, one of which was caught by a security camera near a menorah at the St. James Chamber of Commerce building.
"A menorah is a symbol of religious tolerance, and to deface that symbol ... is a real contradiction," Buechler said. No arrests have been made in the three incidents, and the commander of the Suffolk police hate crimes unit was not available for comment yesterday.
Town of Islip Supervisor Philip Nolan yesterday called the destruction of the menorah outside Town Hall sometime between 12:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Wednesday a "terribly hurtful action." A nativity scene near the menorah was not damaged. Nolan said a repaired menorah would be in place next Hanukkah.
Rabbi Steven Moss of the B'nai Israel Reform Temple in Oakdale, who sits on both the Suffolk County Human Rights Commission and the Islip Town Anti-Bias Task Force, said history shows that most such crimes are committed by teenagers with little sensitivity to the message their actions send.
Nevertheless, Moss said he believes the community needs to pull together to speak out against attacks on symbols of any religion.
"With hate crimes, it's not the intention of the person committing the crimes that's important, but the effect on the victims," he said.
Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.
