I NEWS I
Two Teens Arrested
For Vandalizing Shul
GARY TORGOW
Special to The Jewish News
T
wo teen-age youths
have been arrested for
vandalizing the sole
synagogue in Anchorage,
Alaska.
The youths, both 16,
sprayed a fire extinguisher
into the rabbi's office and
other parts of Temple Beth
Shalom, painted swastikas
and "Heil Hitler" slogans on
walls, and left a note signed
by the United Skins of
America, saying "Nazis will
rule again."
Police say the youths do
not belong to any organized
hate organization, although
their note referred to a
skinhead group.
The cost to repair the
damage has been estimated
at $10,000.
This is the first time
anything like this has
happened to the synagogue
in this city of about 225,000
people. There are some 700
adults believed to comprise
the affiliated and unaf-
filiated Jewish population of
greater Anchorage.
The two runaway 16-year-
olds "aren't members of any
group," said the arresting of-
ficer, Investigator Bob Din-
widdie. "One boy said he did
some reading of Satanic
cults, but he didn't seem to
be intelligent enough to
know what he was doing."
"It was pure vandalism,"
continued Dinwiddie. "They
thought it was kind of a
joke."
But the president of the
synagogue, Gary Zipkin,
while acknowledging that
the vandalism was an
isolated incident and not
perpetrated by an organized
group, does not consider it a
prank or simple malicious
mischief.
"This is more than just a
prank. It is a message of
hate," he said.
Zipkin said that at first he
was very angry about the in-
cident, but after going
through a reflective process,
"I felt sad for the kids in-
volved."
Rabbi Harry Rosenfeld
agreed. "I think it's a sad
commentary that these 16-
year-olds were quoted in the
newspaper as saying that
they thought that was what
you wrote and spray- painted
on synagogues."
"We've spoken to one set of
parents who are absolutely
devastated that their child
would do anything like this.
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They stress other values in
their home, because they are
also from a minority group
and have faced discrimina-
tion in their lives," the rabbi
said.
The arresting officer said
that a factor in the van-
dalism might have been
some 500 copies of a neo-
Nazi newsletter that was
mailed in May to students in
at least two high schools, in-
cluding the school the ar-
rested boys attended.
"The newsletter was sent
by Ricky Cooper, who
publishes The National So-
cialist Vanguard in The
Dalles, Ore.," said Brad
Rind, spokesman for the An-
ti-Defamation League of
B'nai B'rith in Seattle. The
Dalles is a city on the
Columbia River, which
forms the border between
Oregon and Washington.
Cooper, who attended the
extreme right-wing Aryan
Nation Youth Congress in
April, operates as an in-
dividual, not as a group, said
Rind.
"We were told that there
was someone there from
Alaska, so our conjecture is
that he made some connec-
tion that resulted in the
mailing, but we don't know
how he got all the names and
addressees."
Rind said that a brochure
that has been circulated in
Anchorage at various times
was also sent to the An-
chorage Daily News in May.
It said in part, "Don't act
uninformed, be informed.
Don't talk down about
skinheads unless your
source is a skin.
"You know where to reach
us; we know where to reach
you. If you have any ques-
tions about us or other mili-
tant patriots, don't answer
them or yourself, ask the
subjects," the brochure said.
The newspaper wrote to
the Anchorage post office
box provided on the brochure
but received no reply.
Although Rind of ADL also
acknowledges that this van-
dalism was probably an
isolated incident, he is con-
cerned that "the kids knew
the name of the organiza-
tion, and they knew the
symbol that occurs on the
leaflet of the United Skins of
America.
"The only thing I know of
this group is that the name
turned up in the note they
left and in the brochure
received by the Anchorage
Daily News," he said.
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