'Love Rally' Held in Montauk Monday Night in Response to Antisemitic Graffiti

Several hundred people gathered in Montauk on Monday afternoon to show their support for the Jewish community and their outrage after vandals spray-painted swastikas and antisemitic slogans on the back entrances of two popular eateries in downtown Montauk.

The hate crimes occurred sometime between Sunday night and early Monday morning. The vandals also drove out to the Ditch Plains comfort station, where they defiled that structure with symbols of hate.

The rally in support of the Jewish community was organized by several Montauk residents, including Amy Duryea, who introduced the various speakers. Word of the rally had spread quickly via social media.

One of the speakers, Rabbi Aiziik Baumgarten, has, for the past six years, rented a house in Montauk for an extended summer season. He holds weekly Orthodox services for the Jewish community in Montauk, at Chabad of the Hamptons.

“This is not Montauk,” he said of the vandals.

“I have never seen this level of antisemitic hatred, ever,” David Lys, a member of the East Hampton Town Board, said before the rally began. He had heard about it early that morning, but, he said, when he actually saw the scale of hatred expressed by the vandals, he was appalled.

He was asked what he thought the remedy might be for such overt antisemitism, he answered, “Partly, this. I see Rabbi Josh [Franklin, of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons] here, I see the pastor of St. Luke’s, I see people of different ages, different colors, people from all over East Hampton. People don’t want any of this. We have a little piece of Eden, and, unfortunately, our Eden was violated today.”

Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc opened the rally by saying that the entire community was coming out “to shine light in the face of darkness.”

Montauk School Principal Joshua Odom said that when he heard the news, “it broke my heart.” He concluded by saying, “The adversity we face is often opportunity. As we look around, keep that in mind. That these horrific events have brought us together, even if just for a moment.”

Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman told the crowd that his parents first came to Montauk in the 1960s. His parents spoke to him about antisemitism.

“I would never think that 60 years later, I would be living it here,” he said. “Seeing symbols associated with the slaughter of 6 million Jews.”

He described a couple of his parents’ friends who had managed to survive the concentration camps. Indelible in Schneiderman’s memory is the memory of the tattooed number on one of his parents’ friend’s arms.

Pastor Bill Hoffmann of the Montauk Community Church described a vigil he had participated in after the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh, almost exactly five years ago. Each person who participated in the vigil held a piece of paper with the name of one of the 11, many of them elderly survivors of the Holocaust, murdered that day.

He said that, at the church, through the window in his study, he has a beautiful view of the ocean. “I took that piece of paper,” he said, “five years ago, and I taped it to the window. On that piece of paper is just a name. The name is Rose Mallinger. A 97-year-old Jewish woman who was killed in a house of worship because she was Jewish.”

He said he looks at that name every day. Then he quoted from scripture: “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”

Cantor Debra Stein, Rabbi at the Jewish Center of the Hamptons, sang.

Melissa Berman, a longtime Montauk resident, told the crowd that persecution is part of the history of the Jewish people. She described a moment in her childhood, when a neighbor, enraged that the Berman family dog had defecated on his lawn, began screaming the word “kike” at her and her mother.

She had never heard the derogatory word before. “Why is he calling me a kite?” she asked her mother.

It was Berman’s introduction to the history of persecution Jews have faced for thousands of years, a monster in the human soul that reared its head in Montauk during the early hours of Monday morning.

At the end, Duryea asked the dozens of children in attendance with their parents to come up to the gazebo and each speak one word.

“Love,” “Kindness,” “Peace,” “Justice,” were just a few of the words the children chose.

“Jewish,” the little boy said into the microphone being held by Amy Duryea. The crowd on the green cheered. It was the conclusion of an hour of solidarity.

Another rally of solidarity is scheduled for Sunday at Herrick Park in East Hampton Village.