$6 Million Suit Filed Against Three Men Who Have ‘terrorized’ a Jewish Family for Three Years

The Jewish Advocacy Center, an organization founded last year to take legal action in support of victims of anti-Semitism, filed a $6 million suit in a federal court in Brooklyn yesterday against three Kings Point, N. Y., men who have “terrorized” a Jewish family in that Long Island community for the last three years.

Irvin Shapell, president of the Washington-based Jewish Advocacy Center, said he filed the suit for compensation and punitive damages for Yaacov and Hanna Elkon and their two children, aged six and II. The suit charges that Brad Barry, Robert Lesser and Brian Kolen went on a three year “rampage of assault, terror and vandalism” against the Elkons “for the simple reason that the Elkons are Jewish.”

Shapell noted that although similar suits have been filed in the past for Black families, it has never been done before for Jewish victims of racism. “This law suit marks the beginning of a new and aggressive program to initiate civil law suits for monetary damages in addition to relying on criminal prosecution to deter the current high number of anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S.,” Shapell said.

He said this program by the Center will “send a clear and emphatic message that the Jewish community will not tolerate anti-Jewish violence, but will respond — forcefully and responsibly — with the full weight of the law.” He said it is hoped that “this law suit will help reduce the number of anti-Jewish acts by making them too costly and risky to consider.”

CHARGES IN THE COMPLAINT

The complaint filed in federal court charges that the Elkons’ home was defaced with swastikas and anti-Jewish slogans; fires were set on their property; windows were shot out and broken; fireworks were thrown into the house; and anti-Semitic statements against Mrs. Elkon were spray-painted along a public street.

The suit alleges that the defendants also placed a voodoo doll in the front yard of the Elkons’ home with a Star of David on the doll’s chest and a hypodermic syringe piercing the doll’s eye.

“As a result of these acts, the Elkons were compelled to live in fear for their safety for three years,” Shapell said. He said the children particularly was affected by the incidents.

Barry, 20, who lives across the street from the Elkons has been convicted in local courts of the voodoo doll incident and other acts of vandalism against Jews in the area, according to Shapell. He said the two younger men also live near the Elkons.