Boston Holocaust Memorial Vandalized for the Second Time this Summer

Pictured Above: Workers make repairs to the Boston-based New England Holocaust Memorial, which was initially vandalized in late June and rededicated July 11. The memorial was vandalized again Monday. Credit: Combined Jewish Philanthropies.

(JNS.org) The Boston-based New England Holocaust Memorial was vandalized Monday for the second time this summer.

A 17-year-old male reportedly threw a rock at one of the memorial’s glass panels, shattering it to pieces, before being tackled by two bystanders and held at the scene until police arrived. 

The suspect was charged with willful destruction of property, and police are investigating whether the vandalism will be classified as a hate crime.

“Today and every day Boston stands up against hate. I’m saddened to see such a despicable action in this great city,” Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh wrote on Twitter.

“It’s shocking and it’s particularly shocking for us in the Jewish community, coming as it does in a week in which so many of us spent our weekend watching Nazis marching in Virginia,” said Jeremy Burton, executive director of the area’s Jewish Community Relations Council, the Boston Globe reported.

Monday’s incident occurred just two days after white supremacists displaying Nazi symbols staged a violent rally in Charlottesville, Va., which saw a 32-year-old woman killed and 19 injured when Ohio resident James Alex Fields Jr. rammed his vehicle into a crowd of counter-protesters.

In mid-July, hundreds of people gathered in Boston to rededicate the memorial after it was vandalized in late June. The prime suspect, James E. Isaac, 21, was charged with willful and malicious destruction of property as well as destruction of a place of memorial.