By Nick Buglione
Then, sometime later that night or early the next morning, another front window was broken, the third at the temple in two weeks. The broken window was discovered at around 9:30 a.m. last Sunday, the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the first organized Nazi attack against the Jews.
The possible connection between the anniversary and the vandalism was clear to Cohen-Rosenberg, who has been with the temple for 12 years and had held out hope that the first two incidents were just criminal mischief.
"I was actually quite surprised," she said, "because I really did think [the first two were] more related to Halloween and the criminal mischief that goes on during a long Halloween weekend."
Rocks were thrown through two front windows at the temple, at 712 The Plain Road, two weeks ago, the first sometime between late Saturday, Nov. 1, and early Sunday, Nov. 2, and the other sometime between late Sunday and early Monday.
That same weekend, two apparently connected incidents took place in the surrounding Salisbury community. A swastika was spray-painted on the roadway in front of a house on Roxbury Drive, and the front window of a Valentines Road home was broken.
Detective Sgt. Gary Shapiro, of the Bias Crimes Squad, is assisting the Third Squad in the investigation, but is not yet willing to label the incidents anti-Semitism. "The problem that we have is, now there is property damage, and we don't know the motivation of the people behind it," Shapiro said. "Are we dealing with possible anti-Semitism or another reason?"
Many members of the temple's congregation, however, are convinced the incidents were motivated by hatred. "I think among the congregation there's a sense of not understanding why this is happening to their temple," said Town Councilman Gary Hudes (R-Levittown), a member of the Community Reform Temple. "The community is such a melting pot of people. It is such a wonderful community where people work together."
In the wake of the recent violence between Israelis and Palestinians and the United States-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, there appears to have been a spike in anti-Semitic sentiment in the U.S., Cohen-Rosenberg said. "It seems that anti-Semitism is on the rise," she said. "I think a lot of it is related to the news about Israel."
Each broken window will likely cost the Community Reform Temple $1,300, according to a temple worker.
In the meantime, police said they have stepped up patrols in the area. Shapiro said there have been no eyewitnesses and very little physical evidence to go on. Cohen-Rosenberg said she has notified East Meadow School District Superintendent Dr. Robert Dillon and asked that school staff keep their "ears to the ground" in case a student might be responsible for the vandalism.
In last week's Herald, it was reported that the president of the temple's board was thinking about starting up a temple watch. He was out of town and could not be reached for comment.
The board was scheduled to meet Wednesday, Nov. 12, after press time, and the recent vandalism figured to be the main topic. Shapiro was slated to speak at that meeting.
Though this is not the first time the temple has been a target of bias-related vandalism, it is certainly the worst, Cohen-Rosenberg said.
Seven or eight years ago, some anti-Semitic graffiti was scrawled in front of the temple in chalk, and a window was broken about five years ago around the Jewish holiday Sukkot.
Police are asking anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 244-TIPS. All callers will remain anonymous.
ITAL Bonnie Riva Ras contributed to this story. UNITAL
