Community to gather in Newton in response to hate crimes

November 22, 2008 03:38 PM Email| Comments (6)| Text size – +

By Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

NEWTON - After swastikas were discovered outside two separate religious buildings over the course of the same week, Newton community and religious leaders will host a gathering tomorrow to condemn an apparent outbreak of hate crimes.

Last Saturday, congregants assembling for weekly services at Temple Shalom saw a large swastika spray painted onto an outdoor sign. Rabbi Eric Gurvis condemned the graffiti from the pulpit and called the incident a hate crime.

On Wednesday night, a police officer discovered a swastika scrawled onto the curb outside of Eliot Church. Though the drawing was just four inches in diameter and appeared to be faded, Lieutenant Bruce Apotheker, a spokesman for the Newton Police Department, said police were thoroughly investigating the apparent hate crime.

“We'll give 110 percent, the same as we would something that was 100 feet tall,” he said.

Hate crimes in Newton have more than doubled this year, Apotheker said Wednesday. The graffiti outside Eliot Church was the 16th case reported this year; compared six cases were reported in 2007. The incidents at Temple Shalom and Eliot Church do not appear to be connected, Apotheker said.

A congregant of the Second Church in Newton and the New England Anti-Defamation League are offering a $4,000 reward for anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the graffiti discovered at Temple Shalom last Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.

City and religious leaders, including Mayor David B. Cohen, Derrek Shulman, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of New England, Newton police and local religious leaders, are expected to gatherer outside Temple Shalom tomorrow to speak out against hate crimes.

“It’s been a really nice interfaith outpouring of condemnation of this act,” said Jennifer Smith, the associate regional director for the Anti-Defamation League of New England.

Reverend Anthony Kill, who has been pastor of Eliot Church for the past 14 years, said he will not be able to attend the interfaith gathering at Temple Shalom on 175 Temple St. at 12:15 p.m. tomorrow. Instead, at his church’s annual Thanksgiving Sunday service, he will address what he sees as societal changes in the wake of the election of the nation’s first black president.

“I think the very fact there has been an increase [in hate crimes] says it is a last ditch effort,” he said at his home today. “Obviously the nation isn’t buying this anymore.”

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6 comments so far...

I hope the Boston Globe carries this story all the way to it's end.

Most of these "hate crimes" involving swastikas are discovered by police to be perpetrated by the "victim(s)".

Please do your due diligence on this one Boston Globe.

Thank you,
Very Sad "American"

Posted by Very Sad American November 22, 08 04:04 PM

the graffitti was obviously done by a youth, ridiculous it is, hat crime? let's not make a mountain out of a mole hill. The fact that the mayor and police chief get involved in such a ridiculous issue as a small sign on a sidewalk which could easily have been washed away by the DPW is ludicrous. Stop creating more trouble then we have already.....

Posted by ann Leon November 23, 08 09:33 AM

i wish the local so shore towns namely lakeville and middleboro would react the same way as newton and the adl would step up instead of telling jews that live outside a large jewish community if you want to live out there you are on your own and that is what you get thanks adl for being selective on who you back up !!

Posted by scott hyman November 23, 08 12:23 PM

"May GOD forgive them for they know not what they do"
It may be a curse on the whole town to allow something so ungodly to
happen. They have the right to choose who they want for the President but
to do evil things like that is discussting. It shows hatred is still alive in this country. USA

Posted by Pauline M. Norwood November 23, 08 03:09 PM

Teenager or no, intolerance and hate like this should not be permitted. People are free to have their hateful beliefs, they are not free to defile another's place of worship or residence because of them. I have many fond memories of Temple Shalom and I find it greatly distressing that a place of learning, community and peace would be defiled so.

Posted by sketchedy November 24, 08 03:17 PM

I have enjoyed noting all of the outrage expressed here (both in the actual news stories as well as in the blog responses) over these “hate crimes.” How nice and politically correct of all of you.

I would encourage all of you who feel so strongly about these transgressions to Google the names Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. Learn about real hate crimes.

It matters not that the crimes committed against Christian and Newsom weren’t local to Boston; the positively horrific nature of the events was such that every American should know them well.

The fact that so few of you have likely ever heard these names before demonstrates just how lacking in perspective most of us are when it comes to the very concept of so-called “hate crime.”

If the painting of swastikas outside of churches and synagogues…including one that’s faded and all of 4 inches in size…counts as hate crimes that are worthy of all of this outrage, meetings, offers of rewards, shock, amazement, police activity, etc., then what do we call what happened to the above-referenced young people? Vandalism?

Priorities, people.

Posted by j1992s November 25, 08 09:58 AM