Boston Holocaust Memorial Vandalized for the Second Time This Summer

The New England Holocaust Memorial was built in 1995 — it’s stood without incident in Boston, MA, for more than two decades. But for the second time this summer, the memorial’s glass has been shattered by a vandal and a teenager is allegedly responsible.

On Monday evening witnesses watched as a man in a hooded sweatshirt threw a rock at the memorial, shattering one of the glass panels, which are inscribed with numbers that symbolize Holocaust victims. According to one witness, he quickly put up his hood and attempted to run away. Two bystanders tackled the unidentified assailant and he was later arrested.

The Boston Globe reported that the alleged vandal is 17-years-old. Police have not charged the teen with a hate crime, although they are investigating the possibility. He has been charged with willful destruction of property. In June, a 21-year-old shattered another glass panel on the memorial.

While there is little indication of the teen’s intent or ideologies, he sure picked a dubious time to desecrate a Holocaust memorial. Shattering the glass of a Holocaust memorial just two days after a woman was murdered by a white nationalist does strike me as deliberate.

Perhaps the crimes are unrelated, but with a president who is reluctant to denounce white nationalists and regrets it when he is forced to, what can we expect? And how could anyone forget when Trump’s White House released a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day that failed to mention Jews or anti-Semitism?