Swastikas drawn on sidewalk in suburban NY’s Five Towns

Swastikas were drawn on the sidewalk of a heavily Jewish community in suburban New York, according to local news reports.

They were discovered two blocks apart in Cedarhurst, part of a grouping of Long Island villages and hamlets known as the Five Towns bordering the Queens borough.

Children who saw the swastikas on the sidewalk on their way to school told their parents, who called police, WCBS-TV reports.

“My wife’s parents were the only survivors of a very large family from the Holocaust,” a local resident who lives in the house next to the sidewalk where a swastika was drawn tells WCBS. “Even though it was a long time ago, it’s very real to us.”

Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky arrived on the scene of one of the swastikas and helped to clean it off the sidewalk, according to WCBS. The Long Beach Democrat said he believes teens from a nearby school could be responsible.

“We need to show them right away that this is serious, that we won’t stand for it, and that we need to come together as a community,” Kaminsky says.

Nassau County police are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime. The police reportedly are scanning surveillance video from nearby homes in an effort to identify the vandals.

— JTA