In West Boca synagogue, pair start to make amends for anti-Semitic vandalism

One of the original incidents these two teens committed

West Boca, FL — Two young men accused of committing hate crimes faced their victims and representatives of the Jewish community during an unusual meeting Tuesday organized by the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office.

Connor Ranieri, 19, and Jordan Gentile, 18, apologized for defacing cars, a mall bathroom and a Judaica store in May, saying they did not know their actions would so deeply offend the Jewish community, according to people at the session.

Ranieri and Gentile attended the meeting, part of which was closed to the media, as part of their guilty pleas.

They declined to comment and ran to their car after the meeting to avoid the media.

The men participated in the session at Chabad of West Boca Raton, along with their parents, a Holocaust survivor, Chabad rabbi Zalman Bukiet, law enforcement representatives, the State Attorney’s Office and the Anti-Defamation League. Chabad of West Boca Raton, an Orthodox synagogue, is not far from where the incidents took place.

The meeting, organized by the state attorney’s civil rights unit, was designed to show the accused how their actions affect real people, State Attorney Barry Krischer said.

“The sessions are to give the victims the sense that someone is listening to them,” Krischer said. “We come up with a personalized plan for each offender. It’s a meaningful resolution to a meaningless act.”

Krischer said he created the civil rights unit about 10 years ago, after an 18-year-old man’s killing by police spurred race riots in the Tampa Bay area. Renelda Mack, head of the civil rights unit, said her department has held several sessions similar to Tuesday’s since the office was created.

Krischer, who said the unit is the only one of its kind in Florida, said he intended the office to work on all sorts of civil rights crimes, including banking and housing discrimination. But he said most of its work is related to hate crimes.

According to a 2005 Anti-Defamation League audit, the number of anti-Semitic incidents is rising in Florida. The agency reported 199 anti-Semitic incidents in the state in 2005. There were 173 incidents the year before, 102 in 2003 and 93 in 2002.

People at the meeting said Ranieri and Gentile made it clear they were not anti-Semitic and saw their acts as harmless pranks.

The revelation that the men do not hate Jews was a relief to Yosef Brooks, owner of Yiddishkeit, the Judaica store west of Boca Raton that Ranieri defaced. As the Jewish New Year, a season of repentance and forgiveness, begins on Sept. 22, Brooks said he forgives him.

“I’m glad to know it was kids being stupid,” Brooks said. “It was good to know it wasn’t an organized group of people.”

On May 21, police said, Ranieri, using a white pen that writes on windows, scribbled four swastikas and “Bun the Jews” on Brooks’ shop in Mission Bay Plaza. Authorities found similar messages on a nearby Chrysler minivan belonging to a florist who is not Jewish.

Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office detectives say two people told them Ranieri, who was living in a hotel while he finished high school, bragged about the vandalism.

Detectives said Ranieri confessed when they approached him.

The men are also accused of painting a swastika on Debbie Siegel’s car at Town Center mall on May 14. Siegel, a media specialist at West Boca Raton High School, organizes racial and religious tolerance programs for the Palm Beach County School District. She photographed the graffiti with her cell phone camera as a reminder. She could not be reached for comment despite a call to her home.

In addition to meeting with the victims, Mack said Ranieri must perform 100 hours of community service, remove graffiti, view DVDs about the history of intolerance in America, visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and not have contact with Siegel. Ranieri also must speak to students at a school about ways to promote tolerance and write about his experiences.

Mack declined to talk about Gentile’s punishment because he was 17 when the incidents occurred. Gentile, who police said is Jewish, was charged with defacing a car and the mall bathroom and pleaded guilty on Monday to two counts of criminal mischief.

Norman Frajman, a Holocaust survivor who showed the group his concentration camp uniform, said he left the meeting convinced that Ranieri and Gentile apologized with sincerity.

“They were teenagers,” Frajman said. “At the spur of the moment, something happened there, but they’re good boys. There was no hate they felt. I wish them the best of luck.”