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Bill Making Desecration of Religious Property a Felony Introduced in New York

January 7, 1944
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A bill making it a felony to desecrate the property of any religious institution in the state of New York was introduced today in the State Assembly at Albany. Assemblyman Crews who introduced the measure said that the bill aims at preventing the desecration of synagogue and church buildings by marking them with Nazi swastikas.

A conference held under the auspices of the National Conference of Christians and Jews decided to submit a petition to the Board of Education here asking it to introduce in the city’s schools an effective cultural program that would help combat racial prejudice among children. Those attending the conference were of the opinion that the recent anti-Semitic incidents in the Washington Heights section of the city had no organized inspiration but were rather irresponsible actions of juveniles.

The Inter-Faith Clergy Committee of Washington Heights announced that a statement deploring incidents of juvenile delinquency and racial prejudice in the Washington Heights area will be read in Catholic and Protestant churches and in synagogues in the district on Saturday and Sunday. At the same time it emphasized that “it is not true that Washington Heights is in a worse situation than other parts of the city, nor is it true that vandalism is limited to Jewish and Protestant houses of worship.”

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