The mayor of Woodcliff Lake Carlos A. Rendo woke up on Halloween Day to discover images he reported were “disturbing and criminal. It is vandalism and a hate crime. The perpetrators will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law. Any resident with information on this please contact our police department. The images are from the Woodmont section of town.”
Woodcliff Lake PD tweeted on Saturday: “The WCLPD is investigating a bias incident regarding hate speech and symbols displayed in the area of Woodmont Drive. Residents with info are encouraged to contact police HQ at 201-391-8222. We are taking this matter very seriously as this conduct is unacceptable in our community.”
The next day, Mayor Rendo posted on his Facebook page: “I want to thank a few of our elected officials for reaching out and expressing their support to our community in light of the recent hate incident.
“Thank you Congressman Josh Gotthiemer, Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi, Assemblyman Robert Auth, and Freeholder Tracy Zur.
“Also I spoke to Rabbi Loren Monosov of Temple Emanuel, Rabbi Dov Drizin of Valley Chabad, Father Sean Manson of Our Lady Mother of the Church, and Pastor Marc Stutzel of the Christ Lutheran Church. All agreed that we must take this opportunity to teach love, understanding, and unity. We are a diverse inclusive community. An incident like this is not us. We will heal together and eliminate hate.”
On Sunday, the mayor told the NY Post about the anti-Semitic graffiti: “A resident text me early in the morning and I was quite disturbed and upset by it.” He said he thinks the perpetrators are “ignorant kids who thought it was funny.”
