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Board of Rabbis Asks Educators to Combat ‘religious Hoodlumism’ in New York

December 3, 1968
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
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The New York Board of Rabbis called today upon the administrators of public, private and parochial schools in New York City to counter the “religious hoodlumism” blamed for the vandalizing of 11 Jewish religious institutions in the city in the past three months by “appropriate indoctrination of school children” in good citizenship, in the genuine brotherhood of religions and races which should be the hallmark of America’s tradition. The Board also called on the clergy of all faiths to condemn these desecrations and appealed to its 900 members and to “all citizens of good will of every faith” to assist in the restoration of the damaged and destroyed institutions.

The Brooklyn Jewish Community Council asked Mayor John V. Lindsay to direct the New York Commissioner of Police to conduct an investigation into the acts of vandalism “in depth to determine if there is evidence of organized anti-Semitic intent behind these attacks.”

Temple Israel, of Great Neck, L.I., announced it had established a fund to assist New York synagogues damaged by vandals. Its first donation, according to Harold Bernstein, congregation president, will be $25,000 for Yeshiva Mesivta of Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, gutted by fire last week.

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