Swastikas spark outcry, action in Newton
NEWTON - After swastikas were discovered outside two places of worship in the past week, Newton community and religious leaders plan to gather today to send a message that hate crimes will not be tolerated.
Last Saturday congregants arriving for a bar mitzvah and a bat mitzvah at Temple Shalom saw a large swastika spray-painted on a sign outdoors. Rabbi Eric Gurvis condemned the graffiti as he addressed the congregation during the service that day and called the incident a hate crime.
On Wednesday night, a police officer discovered a swastika scrawled onto the curb outside Eliot Church. Police were investigating the somewhat faded 4-inch swastika as a potential hate crime, Lieutenant Bruce Apotheker, a spokesman for the Newton Police Department, said.
"We'll give 110 percent, the same as we would something that was 100 feet tall," he said.
The incidents at Temple Shalom and Eliot Church do not appear to be connected, he said.
Hate crimes in Newton have more than doubled this year, Apotheker told the Globe Wednesday. The graffito found outside Eliot Church was the 16th case reported this year, Apotheker said, compared with six cases reported in 2007.
A congregant of 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 graffito discovered at Temple Shalom last Saturday.
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 gather outside Temple Shalom, at 175 Temple St., today at 12:15 p.m. 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. "The important thing is that [when] these things happen, they have to be taken seriously."
The Rev. Anthony Kill, pastor of Eliot Church for the past 14 years, said he would not be able to attend today's interfaith gathering. Instead, he said, he will address at his church's Thanksgiving service what he sees as societal changes following 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 yesterday.
Matt Collette can be reached at mpcollette@globe.com. 