A $2,500 Reward Being Offered for Information Leading to Arrest and Conviction of Anti-semitic Vanda

A reward totaling about $2,500 is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of vandals responsible for the anti-Semitic graffiti and swastikas daubing last week on 51 doors of apartments in one of the buildings of Co-Op City, the massive cooperative in The Bronx.

Police are continuing their investigation into the incident in which all the apartments daubed had mezuzahs on their doors. The heavily Jewish populated cooperative, which is described as the world’s largest housing development, has 35 high rise buildings with a total of some 15,000 apartments.

Stephen Lambert, general manager of the cooperative, said that the River Bay Corporation, the managing agent of the complex, has announced a reward of $1,000 for information leading to the apprehension of the vandals. He told the Jewish Telegraphich Agency that an additional $500 has been contributed to the reward fund from various sources.

Last week, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York announced a $1,000 reward Peggy Tishman, JCRC president, said the Co-Op City incident “cannot go unanswered. We want to send a strong message that a crime such as this against any Jew is a crime against the Jewish community.”

The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith denounced the anti-Semitic graffiti, saying such incidents “have no place in American society.” Nathan Nagler, chairman of the ADL’s New York Regional Board, said: “The perpetrators must be apprehended and dealt with harshly. We call on community and religious leaders to denounce these incidents and make clear to the perpetrators that citizens of New York will not tolerate such bigotry.”