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Another Mezuzah Vandalized in Williamsburg

By Bryan Graham | April 9, 2013 4:45pm | Updated on April 9, 2013 6:47pm
 Members of the community gather outside a Williamsbugh apartment building after the vandalism of another mezuzah at 130 Clymer Street on Apr. 9, 2013.
Members of the community gather outside a Williamsbugh apartment building after the vandalism of another mezuzah at 130 Clymer Street on Apr. 9, 2013.
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DNAinfo/Ben Frachtenberg

WILLIAMSBURG — Police were investigating the vandalism of another mezuzah in Brooklyn, one day after a dozen of the religious icons were burned in another neighborhood apartment building.

Police confirmed that a mezuzah was burned at 130 Clymer St. on Tuesday afternoon.

"I thought never in my life they'd do it here. It's a close community," said Sigfredo Vego, 61, who has lived in the building for 14 years.

Sam Walter, 50, has lived near the building his whole life and can't remember anything similar ever happening.

"Not like this," Walter said. "Burning mezuzahs means they want to torch holy Jewish things. It's a very bad feeling."

The incident comes one day after a dozen mezuzahs were discovered burned in a building at 85 Taylor St. on Holocaust Remembrance Day, prompting an investigation by the NYPD's Hate Crimes Unit and condemnation from City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

The mezuzahs, parchment containing Torah verses, were torched inside the Taylor-Wythe Houses at 85 Taylor St. about 4:45 p.m., police said. No one has been arrested.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer denounced the attacks Tuesday on Twitter.

"Horrified by new reports of burned mezuzah in a residential building," Stringer tweeted. "Those responsible must be brought to justice."

When asked about the first burning incident at an unrelated press conference in The Bronx on Tuesday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the act "disgraceful."

"Ruining somebody else's religious symbols is just wrong," Bloomberg said.