WIESENTHAL CENTER MARKS 10th ANNIVERSARY OF NORTH HILLS JCC ATTACK

August 10, 2009

WIESENTHAL CENTER MARKS 10th ANNIVERSARY OF NORTH HILLS JCC ATTACK

The Simon Wiesenthal Center today marked the 10th anniversary of a white supremacist attack that killed a postal worker and left three children and two adults wounded at the North Hills Jewish Community Center.

On August 10, 1999, neo-Nazi and Aryan Nations follower Buford Furrow came to Los Angeles with the goal of assaulting the Simon Wiesenthal Center to “send a message to the Jews.” The Center’s tight security sent him looking for an easier target which he found it at the day camp of the JCC in the North Hills section of Los Angeles. Furrow shot Jewish campers as young as 6 years old. He then sought out and murdered U.S. Postal Service employee, Filipino-American Joseph Ileto.

“If Buford Furrow’s goal was to divide, he failed,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “Our communities are more united, our police more prepared, our hate laws tougher,” he added.

“We pray for Joseph Ileto and his family and use this day to redouble the Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance’s resolve to fight hate anti-Semitism and racism wherever it rears its ugly head,” Cooper concluded.

Rabbi Cooper gave the opening prayer at today’s memorial event for the 10th anniversary of the shootings held at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles.

Ben Kadish, now 15, was the most gravely wounded of the kids at the JCC.	Bishop Oscar Solis of the Los Angeles Archdiocese and Rabbi Cooper led opening prayers.
Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-CA).

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