New York sets a day of tolerance

NEWSDAY

NEW YORK — A group of New York City religious, community and political leaders declared a “day of tolerance” Nov. 29 to protest a rash of bias crimes across the city, including two at Columbia University involving a noose and a swastika.

“The best way to fight hate is to have decent people of good will to stand up and say ‘no,”’ said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn at a news conference on the steps of city hall to announced the “Day Against Hate.”

Events will be planned in each borough, beginning with an interfaith prayer breakfast in the Bronx and including activities at Columbia and at youth centers, such as discussion groups between Holocaust survivors and teenagers, officials said.

Besides Columbia, nooses have been discovered in recent weeks at a post office in lower Manhattan, and in several locations on Long Island. Several homes and synagogues also have been defaced with swastikas. Quinn said that compared with last year reports of hate crimes in New York City are up almost 21 percent.

“They aren’t just symbols, they are provocations, they are assaults,” said Rabbi Serge Lippe of Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, which was defaced with swastikas in September.