NYC police probing 2nd swastika case
Anti-Semitic symbol found inside elevator in Williamsburg building in second incident in nine days
The New York Post reports this is the second time in nine days that the anti-Semitic symbol has been found at the location in Williamsburg inside an elevator. The first symbol was found nine days ago also in the elevator.
In addition, the letters "KKK" were spray-painted on a van and anti-Semitic messages were scrawled on a sidewalk.
No arrests have been made so far.
State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Democrat who represents the area, said authorities told him they believe rags were soaked in gasoline, placed under the cars and lit.
"I've never seen this level of violence here, in my 29 years representing this area," Hikind told The Associated Press. "This goes beyond the pale — blowing up cars in the middle of the Jewish community."
'Survivor sitting on a bench with a swastika'
Hikind, who lives in the neighborhood, then rushed off to see his 90-year-old mother, an Auschwitz survivor. He said he walks past the benches with her on their way to Shabbat services.
"All I could think about was my mother sitting on a bench with a swastika," he said.
Midwood – a quiet, middle-class neighborhood about 45 minutes by subway from Manhattan – was predominantly Jewish until new immigrants began arriving in the 1980s from the Caribbean, South America, Eastern Europe and Asia. Allen, the famed filmmaker, grew up in Midwood, as did US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
US Senator Charles Schumer condemned the vandalism during an unrelated event on Sunday.
"It's disgraceful and they should throw the book at the people who did it," Schumer said. "Sometimes (vandals) think they're pranks, sometimes they're more malicious than that. Either way they cause great harm."
