Several Hundred Cards Bearing Nazi Inscriptions Sent to Jewish Groups Individuals in N.Y. Metropolit

Several hundred cards bearing reproductions of the black and red Nazi flag and the slogans “Hitler Was Right” and “We Are Back” with no indication of the identity of the sender were received by Jewish individuals and institutions in several New York State counties, an official of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith reported.

The swastika-adorned missives were mailed during the week of Dec. 3 from Farmingdale, N.Y. according to Mel Cooperman, director of the ADL Long Island regional office in East Meadow, N.Y. He told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the apparent area of the mailings was metropolitan New York, and the counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and Rockland.

Cooperman said the items were in the form of three by five-inch index cards and apparently were mailed at random to Jews and institutions in the area. He said the lack of a zip code on the addresses suggested that the sender had gone through telephone books looking for Jewish names for his mailing list.

Cooperman said the cards carried the Fairfax Va. address of the National Socialist White Peoples Party, a minuscule neo-Nazi group, which offers the cards in its publication. He also disclosed that a similar mailing took place a year ago, on that occasion exclusively to kosher butchers.

Cooperman said he had discussed the mailings with the Farmingdale postmaster, who said the absence of markings or return addresses on the first-class mailings made it impossible to take any action and that, in any case, the missives contained no threats and hence did not violate postal regulations.

The ADL official said there were some tiny neo-Nazi groups on Long Island, including Farmingdale, as well as a small group of the National Renaissance Party which he said “surfaced” occasionally with gatherings of three or four members. At the beginning of World War II the Nazi Bund was active in several areas on Long Island, including the Farmingdale and Riverhead areas.

Rabbi Mark Goldman of Temple Sinai in Lawrence, N.Y., one of the recipients, said the envelope had been addressed to the synagogue and not to any individual connected with it. He said he had contacted the ADL office to look into the mailing, adding that if the ADL conclusion was that the mailing was not a threat, he was satisfied with that conclusion.