Swastikas drawn in Cedarhurst

Home grown hate

By Andrew Coen

Dozens of swastikas were drawn in Cedarhurst last week.

The Nazi symbols were discovered in the village on Shabbos, said village trustee Ari Brown.

The Nassau County Fourth Precinct Problem Oriented Police unit is investigating the incident.

They were seen on the poles of a concession stand in Cedarhurst Park as well as at the entryway of Maple Plaza off Central Avenue. Four swastikas were also discovered drawn on the side and rear of David’s Famous Pizza at 580 Central Ave. in Cedarhurst on March 28 while the pizzeria was closed for Passover.

The swastikas in Cedarhurst Park were noticed by Steven Hittelman, who alerted police. “It was very unsettling,” said Hittelman.

The symbols of hate are especially upsetting to Trustee Brown, whose mother and grandmother survived the Holocaust in Italy but had many other relatives perish during Hitler’s quest to kill all of Europe’s Jewish population. Brown said during the April 12 Cedarhurst Village Board meeting that judging by the drawings of the swastikas he suspects they were done by youths. He is hoping a previously used anti-bias campaign in the local schools can be revitalized to try and prevent these crimes from occurring in the future.

“It really is a hate crime,” said Brown. “It is not the adults doing it, it is the kids and the kids need to be educated.”

Cedarhurst Mayor Andrew Parise, a World War II veteran who fought the Nazis in the Battle of the Bulge and helped liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp, was also upset by the numerous swastikas drawn in his village last week. “It bothers me terribly,” said Parise.