Vandals Get Anti-Semitism Assignments

Three teenage vandals who smashed a Jewish family’s menorah were sentenced to watch “Schindler’s List” and write an essay on anti-Semitism rather than go to jail.

The December crime prompted the victims’ mostly Christian neighbors to display a menorah in nearly every window on the block in solidarity.

Bucks County Judge Kenneth G. Biehn also sentenced the teens Friday to community service and two years of probation for breaking Martin Markovitz’s living room window on the third night of Hanukkah, and knocking over the family’s electric menorah.

In the essay, the offenders will have to describe how the victims might have felt after the incident in Newtown Township, about 20 miles northeast of Philadelphia. They also must send apologies to the family.

“I want you to be constantly reminded of what effects your actions may have had,” Biehn told Richard Daniel Hudson, 18, the only defendant tried as an adult.

The three were convicted of criminal mischief and night prowling.

“It frightened a lot of people,” said Rabbi Elliot Strom of Shir Ami Congregation in Newtown. “We sort of had our naivete taken away.”