WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — The recent spate of anti-Semitic incidents continued last week when several containers of used medical products marked with swastikas — and one containing a picture of white supremacist Buford O. Furrow Jr. — were found outside two Connecticut synagogues.
Ten days ago, maintenance workers found two containers with the items at Temple Beth El in Stamford. On one container were drawings of four swastikas and a newspaper photo of Furrow, who was accused in the shootings at the North Valley Jewish Community Center. There was a written message, “A wake-up call to America to kill the Jews.”
Furrow, who also allegedly shot and killed a Filipino postal worker, reportedly said the shootings were meant to be “a wake-up call to America to kill Jews.”
The day after the first incident, an employee of Temple Beth El in Norwalk, about 15 miles away, found a bag of used medical products in the parking lot near the temple’s nursery school play area. The bag also was marked with a swastika, but did not have any pictures or Furrow’s quote attached.
Some items in the bag, including glass tubes, syringes, cotton swabs, bandages — some with blood — napkins and straws, had tracking numbers that may enable officials to trace the crimes to the culprits.
Similar bags without hate messages were also dumped at an elementary school, a shopping center and two libraries.
Rabbi William Marder of Beth El in Norwalk noted that the shootings at the Los Angeles-area JCC prompted him and several people from the temple to meet with the Norwalk police and mayor. They discussed increasing security at the synagogue partly to protect the children in the religious school.
Then came the discovery of the bag of medical waste with the swastikas.
“People are very upset, clearly, because it’s their synagogue and their community,” Marder said. Some congregants live close to the temple.
Members of Beth El in Stamford also felt shock and outrage, but Rabbi Joshua Hammerman and Mark Lapine, the new president, have made a concerted effort to allay people’s fears.
In a low-key letter sent to the congregation by e-mail and regular mail, Lapine wrote, “We would very much like not to make this an incident of grander proportions than it is, as we do not want to encourage any copycat behavior.”
Hammerman was quoted by the Associated Press as saying, “I think it was an attempt to frighten the congregation and to frighten Jews generally, not just here.”
Police were scheduled to address the congregation on Thursday to discuss how to handle the situation, he said.
Since the shootings at the Los Angeles-area JCC, the Stamford Police Department has increased security at various religious institutions. Dean Esserman, chief of police, said he personally checked the Stamford JCC, even though he expected a police cruiser to do its own check.
Because of similarities, the police in both towns believe the incidents are linked and have set up a task force with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to investigate.
Police are cautiously optimistic that they will find the perpetrators.
Since the medical waste has been found, the police departments have beefed up surveillance at the various synagogues.
The police department of Norwalk is also treating the incidents with the utmost seriousness.