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DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- About 300 people of different faiths turned out to clean up a synagogue vandalized with swastikas and Nazi symbols on the eve of the Jewish holiday Purim.

So many people showed up Sunday at BMH-BJ Congregation, where vandalism had been discovered the day before, that people had to stand in line for a turn with a brush and a can of paint thinner.

"This is a place for everyone," said Doug Mix, who is not a member of the congregation. "That is why everyone is here. There are Christians, Jews, Muslims and people who are not religious. We all came out here because America is still America, and we don't tolerate this."

A custodian for the synagogue discovered about 10 markings when he arrived Saturday morning. Purim was celebrated Saturday night and Sunday. Police had not made any arrests by Monday.

Holocaust survivor Fanny Starr saw the graffiti Saturday morning.

"I was just shaking and broke down," she said. "All the wounds, the old wounds starting open again."

Rabbi Daniel Cohen said the vandalism may have been sparked by Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," which just finished its second weekend as the No. 1 movie in the country. The movie, which some believe wrongly blames Jews for the death of Christ, has been criticized as anti-Semitic.

Elise Zakroff said she was sure the film inspired the graffiti.

"What Mel Gibson did is terrible," Zakroff said. "It is happening all over. We are tired of anti-Semitism. All we want is peace."

Shortly after the movie opened, a Denver pastor outraged Jews and Christians with a sign outside his Lovingway United Pentecostal Church that read "Jews Killed The Lord Jesus."

He said the sign was inspired by Gibson's film and later put a sign of apology.

In 2002, anti-Semitic incidents rose 8 percent nationwide over the previous year, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Colorado had 35 anti-Semitic incidents.

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Rabbi Daniel Cohen said the vandalism may have been sparked by Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ,"

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In 2002, anti-Semitic incidents rose 8 percent nationwide over the previous year, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Colorado had 35 anti-Semitic incidents.

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Shortly after the movie opened, a Denver pastor outraged Jews and Christians with a sign outside his Lovingway United Pentecostal Church that read "Jews Killed The Lord Jesus."

He said the sign was inspired by Gibson's film and later put a sign of apology.

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Lovingway????

Do Pentacostal ministers answer to a review board or are they based solely in the local congregation?


 

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Posted by Amka (Member # 690) on :
 
How many people did it take to deface the synagogue?

1

How many non-Jewish people showed up to clean it up?

More than were needed.

The slant of this article is on the reaction to the one person who committed the atrocity, and its occurance after a particularly strong Christian cultural occurance. This article doesn't even praise those who came to help. It merely states it, and then it goes on to say how all this new antisemitism is the fault of the movie. What cracks me up is the statistic at the very end. Why did this journalist add that there? To make an emotional connection between the rise of anti-semitism and Mel Gibson's movie. And yet it comes from before anyone even heard about the movie.

What did the lady who was a holocaust survivor think of those who helped? Was she asked?

This piece of journalism is clearly meant to sway public opinion.
 

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Posted by BannaOj (Member # 3206) on :
 
I agree, I don't think we will actually know if the movie affected anything one way or another until we look at the stats a year from now.

I do think the compassionate turnout to clean it off speaks for itself.

The preacher with the sign was an idiot though.

AJ
 

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Posted by Amka (Member # 690) on :
 
Yeah, he was. Unfortunately, there will always be those.

[ March 08, 2004, 02:43 PM: Message edited by: Amka ]
 

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Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
 
meh, never mind. I'll apologize in advance to all the folks who are replying while I edit this.

[ March 08, 2004, 02:47 PM: Message edited by: pooka ]
 

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Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
 

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Elise Zakroff said she was sure the film inspired the graffiti.

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Colorado had 35 anti-Semitic incidents in 2002. That's one every 11 days. The films been out for what, 21 days now?

Dagonee
 

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Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
 
Isn't Colorado kind of a nut magnet because that is where the "elect" gathered in Atlas Shrugged ? I use "elect" to mean the folks who contributed so much to society that their withdrawal spelled its collapse.
 

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Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
 
I personally think that most of the people who would act Anti-Semitically in response to this movie are people who would act Anti-Semitically without seeing this movie. They might have waited for this movie as an excuse to try to "rile up" such feelings in others, like that preacher with the sign. He has probably always felt that way and took this as an opportunity to try and incite the feeling in others. I'm glad he came to his senses and apologized.

Hopefully people have more sense than to be swayed by such immature behavior.
 

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Posted by lcarus (Member # 4395) on :
 
::agrees with virtually everyone else here::
 

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Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
 
1) This was a poorly written sensationalist article. What, if anything, the movie had to do with the grafitti is not known.

2) What the movie did do is probably help motivate that people who came out to clean up. I consider that a good thing.

3) The people who came out to clean up, five stars to you all.

4) The nutty minister at Lovington is an idiot. Yet we don't know the story on why he put up the sign, and he backed down quickly. It might have been a typo, where the word Didn't was left off. I could imagine a sign saying, "Jews Didn't Kill The Lord Jesus, We Did." and some flunky goofed up. This article is written so biassed we won't know.

5) Colorado is full of nuts because for 100 years all the nuts moved to California. Then some of them decided to head to the mountains because there were too many nuts as their neighbors.
 

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Posted by sndrake (Member # 4941) on :
 
Just some stuff on the reporting - whatever else one thinks of the article, I think it's noteworthy that the actual headline of the article at the CNN site is:

Hundreds help remove anti-Semitic graffiti

So the headline highlights the massive response to the vanadalism.

I do kind of wonder if the reporter asked leading questions. The rabbi's quote in particular, saying the vandalism "may have been sparked" by the movie is something that could have been said in response to a leading question:

Q: Could this vandalism been sparked by Mel Gibson's movie?
A: It may have been sparked by the movie. Who knows?

(OK - I don't know if there was an exchange like this, but having dealt with reporters, it's plausible.)

We don't know what other people said about the vandalism and how it relates to anti-semitism in Denver over recent years. We only know statements the reporter chose to use in the story.

As to the pastor with the sign proclaiming the Jews killed Jesus - when this was covered initially, it turns out the church and the sign are on one of the main commuting routes in Denver. Thousands of people saw it before it came down. Things like that make people a little touchy.

Don't know what Denver is like now, but it was a weird political mix when I lived there.
 

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Posted by ssywak (Member # 807) on :
 
Pooka,

I think that if Colorada is a "nut magnet," that it's for reasons other than "Atlas Shrugged."

I mean, how nutty would one have to be to think, "This is where John Galt went--must be the place for me?"

--Steve
 

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Posted by BannaOj (Member # 3206) on :
 
Sorry I didn't post the headline. I did a quick cut and paste and didnt' intentionally leave it out.

AJ
 

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Posted by sndrake (Member # 4941) on :
 
AJ,

I for one, didn't think you meant anything by it. I've created my own headlines for news stories for various reasons.

I'm trying to sort out the reporter's biases and agenda like everyone else. The story opens in a very good way and then ends on a very different note - I'm left wondering if it was selective quoting, leading questions, or if maybe the sign put up after the opening of Gibson's movie did something in the public consciousness that helped people at the synagogue suspect the movie as a catalyst.
 

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Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
 
Trying for a little sensationalism, are we, AJ?

I'd imagine that either the appearance and the popularity of the movie got some of the nuts out of their closets, or else got some nutty reporters to suddenly find a selling point for these kind of occurrences.

[ March 08, 2004, 04:31 PM: Message edited by: advice for robots ]
 

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Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :
 

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else got some nutty reporters to suddenly find a selling point for these kind of occurrences.

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My thought exactly. As referenced by the stats, these type things did (unfortunately) happen before, but now all of a sudden they're going to be blamed on the movie. I think that's pretty sad.

We'll need to wait a year or so and look at overall stats of anti-semitism to see if there is any effect, but somehow I really doubt there will be one. Personally, I didn't get even one single vibe of anti-Semitism from it, though I must admit, had I run into a Roman Centurion, I might have been tempted to take a slug at him.
 

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Posted by Book (Member # 5500) on :
 
I guess people just love to hate. Whether it's the Jews or the Passion, people love to find fault with others and their beliefs and defame them for it.
 

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