More than 1,000 persons attended a rally against anti-Semitism Sunday afternoon in Marblehead, Mass., where a synagogue and Jewish community center were defaced last week with anti-Semitic graffiti.
Joining in the two-hour rally were Jews and non-Jews, blacks and whites, community leaders, the school superintendent, area clergy and the highest echelons of the local police department.
The rally included a march of about a quarter mile from the North Shore Jewish Community Center to Temple Emanuel, which were defaced on the night of July 24. Participants removed offensive phrases and swastikas from both sites.
Marblehead Police Chief John Palmer, who spoke briefly at the rally, asserted that the police are committed to apprehending the perpetrators. “I can only pray that this will not happen again,” he said.
Leonard Zakim, director of the New England office of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, called the desecration of the two buildings “part of a disturbing trend of increased anti-Semitic activity” in the area.
Cheryl Cutler, ADL assistant regional director, said anti-Semitic incidents in Massachusetts this year had already surpassed last year’s number, which in turn was a 34 percent increase over that of 1987.
HATE MAIL AND PHONE CALLS
Zakim reported that residents of the Boston suburb of Brookline recently have received hate mail and phone calls that included profanities and threats.
“Only five years from now, every Jew in America will tremble, shake and quake,” read one letter. “Everyone has had ###. Every Jew will be destroyed, ixterminated (sic) and killed!!”
It was signed “Skin Heads” with a swastika.
Skinheads are youths who shave their heads and dress with Nazi regalia. Many, though not all, endorse racism through violent attacks.
The Skinhead movement is said to be minimal in eastern Massachusetts, concentrated mainly in Allston and Cambridge, with an estimated 20 to 50 members.
In Marblehead, the graffiti pertained to Nazi-era atrocities. There were references to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and to Josef Mengele, known as “the Angel of Death,” who conducted experiments on inmates at Auschwitz.
North Shore Community Center program director Bea Paul said many members of the center are Holocaust survivors or their children. “This has conjured up painful memories and fear,” she was quoted as saying.
One concentration camp survivor, Sonia Weitz, said at Sunday’s rally she thought “it would be a good idea” if the perpetrators visited Auschwitz, to see it with their own eyes.
Zakim announced the ADL was offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators. He called support from Jews and non-Jews “heartening.”
The synagogue and local clergy also offered a $1,000 reward Sunday.
“This is not just a Jewish problem. It’s a problem for everyone,” said Cutler.
(Steven Rosenberg of the Jewish Advocate in Boston contributed to this report.)
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.
