Three youths from socially prominent Utica families were arraigned today on charges of painting a nine-foot swastika on Temple Emanu- El, smearing the synagogue windows with red paint and daubing obscene phrases on the synagogue walls.
The youths, Peter Pritchard, 17, Walter Pratt, 18, and Thomas Scala, 17, were arrested yesterday and police said they admitted defacing the synagogue. Captain Robert Bogan of the Utica police department said the youths all denied any anti-religious motives and said they had been drinking earlier in the evening.
Fathers of the three boys all said that their sons were not anti-Semitic, that some of their friends and friends of their sons were Jews and that they had always might tolerance in their homes. Damage to the synagogue was estimated at $3, 000.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
