Vandalism against Jewish institutions in New York City was far less frequent during 1961 than in the previous year, a Jewish civic defense agency reported today, adding this was true throughout the United States.
The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith listed 11 cases of swastika daubings, cemetery desecrations and synagogue vandalism during 1961 and said this was about one-tenth of the incidents recorded in New York City during 1960 after the neo-Nazi desecration of a synagogue in Cologne on Christmas Eve, 1959. That desecration touched off a worldwide spate of such smearings.
The ADL said that nationally there were 158 such incidents recorded during 1961 compared to 814 during 1960. The organization reported that most of such activities have involved young people and that there was no reliable information on how much of it was due to simple vandalism and how much from anti-Semitic motives.
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