By Karenlyn Barone with Jesse Sherer
As snow silently fell on the village of East Rockaway on Friday, Dec. 5, someone was busy posting unflattering pictures of Gaft, 17, in two high-profile locations. Computer-generated images of the student were found posted on poles outside East Rockaway High School and on the windows of a busy strip mall on Main Street.
Gaft's picture had been altered to make her look like she was wearing a wig or an unattractive hairstyle, and there were negative phrases hand-written on the fliers, including anti-Semitic slurs and swastikas.
"The signs were put in places where [Gaft] or her family would see them and get upset," said Det. Stephen Fitzpatrick of the Fourth Precinct's Detective Squad. "All the messages were negative toward her."
Cathy Maziejka opened her store, East Rockaway Pet Supplies, Inc. at 8 a.m. on Friday and, once inside, was surprised to see a flier taped to the storefront window. When she went outside to investigate, she discovered that almost every storefront in the mall had similar fliers taped to their windows. Maziejka, recognizing the girl in the picture, quickly went from shop to shop and pulled all the fliers down.
"I was horrified and highly offended by the bias comments that were written on the fliers," said Maziejka. "I called the family and told them what I found, and I let them know exactly what was written on them. Then I asked their permission to call the police."
Gina's mother, Nilla, said that when she got the call from Maziejka she couldn't comprehend what she was being told. I was really in shock, said Nilla. I didn't even understand at first.
When they hung up the phone, Maziejka called the police and Nilla called her daughter, who was at school. Better to hear it from me, Nilla explained.
When Gina got the phone call from her mother, she initially misunderstood what her mother was trying to tell her. When my mother said something about pictures, I thought she meant the baby picture of me I needed to hand in for the yearbook, said Gina. When she explained, I was in shock.
Gina hurried down the hallway, anxious to explain to her younger brother what had happened. She wanted to know if he had seen or heard anything. As she walked through the school, a teacher's aide approached her, told her she had seen something on a stop sign in front of the school and suggested Gina go to the principal's office. Just a few moments earlier, ERHS Principal William Fortgang had seen the fliers on school property. They had been taped to the fence, to utility poles in front of the building and along Ocean Avenue. They were spotted by the school's crossing guard and by a school employee. By that time, students were also murmuring about the them.
"Gina came to my office in tears, said Fortgang. The signs all contained negative comments, but only one that I saw made reference to the fact that she is Jewish. But that's all it takes and, rightfully, it becomes a bias crime."
The school turned the matter over to the Nassau County Police's Fourth Precinct. "The fliers were computer-generated, but the words were hand-written," explained Fitzpatrick, an 18-year veteran of the force.
Gina first saw the fliers for herself when she went to the police department the next day. It was just a shock, she said. It's disgusting. They crossed the line when they wrote things like 'Die ... Kill ... Jews.'
Fortgang said that are few incidents of this type in the school, and that he was glad to know the police department was handling the matter. "In my opinion, this appears to be a serious prank, where someone was out to make this student's life miserable," said Fortgang. "I do believe it's an isolated incident."
Isolated or not, Nilla is reeling from the shock that such an incident took place at all. I'm from an immigrant family. My parents brought me here to escape things like this, and that makes it very hard to take," said Nilla, who emigrated to the United States from Ukraine in 1976.
Gina has signed the necessary police department complaint form stating that she wishes to prosecute those responsible. I have no idea who, or why, someone would do this, she said. "I'm sure they thought they would only hurt me, but they didn't think about all the people this would affect.
Gina was bravely adamant that her name be used in this story, and her mother agreed. My daughter is the victim, said Nilla. Why not use her name? She did nothing wrong, she is the victim. And we are proud to be Jewish!
Detectives are classifying the incident as a bias crime. Such crimes have been on the rise in the area in recent months. Reports of pro-Hitler pamphlets distributed in Lynbrook and Valley Stream in October led to the discovery of a swastika dug into the fairway at the Middle Bay Country Club in Oceanside. Religious slurs have been found on local synagogue property, and just two weeks ago a swastika was etched into a decal of an American flag that adorned a storefront in Cedarhurst.
There is a rise in extremist activity in New York state, said Jeremy Menchik of the Anti-Defamation League's New York office. We do know that from 2002 data, there has been an increase.
Detective Sgt. Gary Shapiro of the Bias Crime Unit of the Nassau County P.D. said they are looking for a connection among the various crimes, but there does not appear to be a conclusive pattern yet. [Anti-Semitic activity] has been more prevalent since Oct. 1, and more than is usually seen during this time of year, said Shapiro. However, for the first nine months of the year, activity was down by 25 percent.
