NEW YORK (JTA) — Authorities are investigating two anti-Semitic attacks that occurred in the same New Jersey county.
On Tuesday, a 17-year-old was arrested and charged with juvenile delinquency for his alleged verbal harassment of three Jewish residents of Highland Park, in Middlesex County.
The Jewish residents were on their way home from synagogue Sunday night, on Yom Kippur, when they allegedly were met with calls of “Heil Hitler” and a Nazi salute allegedly from the accused teen, who was stopped at a red light in an SUV.
In a second incident, three large swastikas were painted in blue on the Congregation Beth-El synagogue building in Edison. A teacher at the synagogue discovered the Nazi symbols Tuesday morning.
"The minute you use swastikas, now we’re talking bias, now we’re talking hatred of Jews and hatred of Israel," Beth-El Rabbi Bernhard Rosenberg told MyCentralJersey.com.
Due to the rushed and sloppy appearance of the swastikas, Rosenberg attributes the vandalism to youngsters.
The incidents in Middlesex County come less than two weeks after a 19-year-old Jewish man was attacked physically near the Rabbi Jacob Joseph Yeshiva in Edison. A township 16-year-old has been charged with aggravated assault in the case, although authorities have not determined whether the three instances are connected.
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