Tens of thousands of people came out to protest a planned white supremacist march in Boston over the weekend, a week after a far-right demonstrator plowed his car into a crowd of anti-fascists during violent clashes in Virginia. The counter-protesters, outnumbering the far-right crowd that had been expected to gather carried signs references the Holocaust and the determination that such horrors should never be repeated – including signs reading, “the last time citizens were silent about white nationalists, more than 6 million people died.”
“After the terrible events last weekend in Charlottesville, and the second desecration of the [New England] Holocaust Memorial in Boston… I can’t tell you how grateful I am for the folks who gave us the chance to come here,” Mayor Marty Walsh was quoted by the Times as saying. “Our neighbors have all the love we need to build a unity that is stronger than racism, stronger than anti-Semitism, stronger than hate."
Last week, a Boston Holocaust memorial was vandalized for the second time this summer.
A 17-year-old threw a rock through a glass panel bearing the numbers of tattooed on the arms of concentration camp inmates and was tackled and restrained by bystanders.
World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder condemned the destructive vandalism of the Holocaust Memorial in Boston, which had been rededicated last month after a similar vandalism in June, calling it a “despicable act of baseless hatred” that “should be designated as a hate crime."
“The World Jewish Congress strongly condemns the desecration of the Holocaust Memorial in Boston. This was a despicable act of baseless hatred and should be designated as a hate crime.
“The World Jewish Congress places great value on preserving the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, and of ensuring that future generations receive a comprehensive and candid education of the Nazi attempt to wipe out European Jewry.
“The Holocaust must also serve as a warning cry against the dangers of hatred and bigotry. This lesson is more important for Americans today than ever, as we come to terms with the vicious, and reprehensible neo-Nazi hatred on display in Charlottesville over the weekend.
“We are encouraged by the Massachusetts authorities’ quick condemnation of this hate crime, and we hope they will continue to make every effort to ensure that the Jewish community, and indeed all residents, feel safe.”
The monument's desecration comes on the heels of an incident of vandalism at a Jewish cemetery in nearby Melrose, Massachusetts late last month in which six gravestones were overturned. It was unclear if that incident had an anti-Semitic motivation.
