Haverhill clergy rail against hate
By Andrew Keegan, Globe Correspondent
The Haverhill Civil Rights Commission sent a message to the community today, after a synagogue was again targeted by vandals: hate is not up for debate.
In an interview today, Rabbi Ira Korinow said when he arrived at Temple Emanu-El on Main Street on the morning of July 13, he found the door handle covered in feces.
He immediately called police, and they are investigating, he said.
Members of the civil rights commission met last week and crafted a statement, calling the "cowardly attack a hate crime."
The Rev. Gregory Thomas, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, was among the local ministers who read the statement to their congregations today.
"We felt that we needed a public statement ... that this message would be heard," Thomas said.
The Rev. Marcus Crapsey, who is rector of Trinity Episcopal Church and vice president of the rights commission, said the vandalism reflects the ‘‘pretty steady drum beat of vandalism, particularly at religious institutions,’’ he has seen in his 18 years in the city of about 60,000 on the Merrimack River and the New Hampshire border.
‘‘It seems that we see this every couple of years. ... just general ugliness like this.’’
In 2005, both Temple Emanu-El and Calvary Baptist were victims of a series of vandalism that appeared to be hate crimes, the Globe reported.
The Haverhill Civil Rights Commission, a citizen group founded in 1990 after a string of activities by the Ku Klux Klan spread across Northeastern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire, has been speaking out against such crimes.
Korinow, who also serves as commission chairman, says the panel has discussed ways to get students involved in the effort to fight hate and bigotry.
"My concern, and the concern of other members of the commission is that there is a cost of just dismissing this as foolishness or stupidity," he said. "It’s important to note that people of the community should, and will say, 'this will not stand.'"
