Swastika Painted On Historic Bialystoker Shul

Friday, June 26, 2009



Police are investigating after a swastika was found yesterday painted on the inside of a Manhattan synagogue.

A swastika and a derogatory word were painted on an inside door of the Bialystoker Shul on Bialystoker Place / Willet Street. A smoke bomb was set off, as well.

State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has attended the synagogue since he was a child and said he was furious to discover what had happened.

“This is a crime, not against the synagogue; this is a crime against society,” said the assemblyman. “When people choose to desecrate a house of worship, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a church, a synagogue. It is just a despicable act that really should tug at the heartstrings of all of us.”

Silver said surveillance cameras nearby may have caught the perpetrators.

(Source: NY1) (Taken almost entirely from: Yeshiva World News)

(MRN- 19)

UPDATE: 10:15 PM EST Saturday, June 27, 2009

Sources have informed MRN that there were TWO perpetrators. Both of them have been caught. ARTICLE COMING SOON

11:50 PM EST Saturday, June 27, 2009

The following appeared HERE, on the New York Daily News website:

Cops Friday arrested two teens who have been terrorizing Jewish residents and sites on the lower East Side with eggs, smoke bombs and swastikas.

The youngsters kicked off the anti-Semitic spree at 1 p.m. Thursday when, armed with a magic marker and a smoke bomb, they scrawled a swastika on a wall at the United Hebrew Center on East Broadway, police said. They set off the smoke device, too, before bolting.

An hour later at the Bialystoker Synagogue, the teens drew another swastika and wrote the slur "k---" on a wall. They later hurled eggs at the house of worship, cops said.

The kids - a 15-year-old Asian male and a 16-year-old black male - were charged with aggravated harassment, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment, all as hate crimes.

"This is a desecration of God, no matter what your religion," said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who has attended the Willet St. synagogue since he was 4 years old.

(MRN- Editor)