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Boston Police Take Measures to Curb Vandalism Against Synagogue

June 21, 1966
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Police took measures here today to curb further acts of vandalism against the historic Blue Hill Avenue Shul which has been the target for numerous attacks climaxed last week by an assault on a synagogue official who surprised five youths in the act of desecrating the sanctuary.

In the latest incident, Julius Epstein, 83, who runs the synagogue’s thrift shop, found the lock on the front door broken when he arrived at the building. When he entered the synagogue, he found the Torahs removed from the ark and prayer books and prayer-shawls scattered about the sanctuary.

The intruders, believed to be 17 or 18 years of age, knocked him to the floor and pummeled him, inflicting severe cuts on his eye, forehead and elsewhere about the face. By the time congregants found Mr. Epstein bleeding on the floor, the assailants had fled. When a worshiper tried to phone the police, he found that the telephone wires had been cut.

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