business owner Ed Nuki stand beneath one of the
cameras Nuki's security company is installing at
Gan Camarillo Preschool in Old Town Camarillo.
The preschool has been the target of anti-Semitic
graffiti, and the community is helping the preschool
pay for the cameras and security system. Nuki is
providing the cameras at a discounted price for the
Camarillo preschool.
(MICHELLE KNIGHT/Acorn Newspapers)
Last week workers installed cameras outside and a security system inside the Gan Camarillo Preschool in Old Town.
Aid Alert Security of Westlake Village is charging the preschool $5,000—about $3,000 off the retail price—for the system.
“The reason we're doing it is because it's wrong,” owner Ed Nuki said of the Nazirelated vandalism that appeared at the preschool three times last year.
The preschool was hit in July, August and December with Nazirelated graffiti, said Camarillo Police Detective Pete Seery.
“I just can't believe it happened here. But it's everywhere, I guess,” Seery said at the preschool last week while offering the workers advice on the security installation.
Jonathan Samuel Latino of Camarillo pleaded guilty to committing a hate crime and felony vandalism for the August incident at the preschool and elsewhere in town.
In April, he was sentenced to a year in jail and a $1,100 fine.
Investigation into the other incidents is ongoing, Seery said.
Community Galvanizes to Help Preschool
business owner Ed Nuki stand beneath one of the
cameras Nuki’s security company is installing at
Gan Camarillo Preschool in Old Town Camarillo.
The preschool has been the target of anti-Semitic
graffiti, and the community is helping the preschool
pay for the cameras and security system. Nuki is
providing the cameras at a discounted price for the
Camarillo preschool.
(MICHELLE KNIGHT/Acorn Newspapers)
People of various faiths are helping a Camarillo Jewish preschool, the target of anti-Semitic graffiti, pay for a surveillance and security system.
Last week workers installed cameras outside and a security system inside the Gan Camarillo Preschool in Old Town.
Aid Alert Security of Westlake Village is charging the preschool $5,000—about $3,000 off the retail price—for the system.
“The reason we’re doing it is because it’s wrong,” owner Ed Nuki said of the Nazirelated vandalism that appeared at the preschool three times last year.
The preschool was hit in July, August and December with Nazirelated graffiti, said Camarillo Police Detective Pete Seery.
“I just can’t believe it happened here. But it’s everywhere, I guess,” Seery said at the preschool last week while offering the workers advice on the security installation.
Jonathan Samuel Latino of Camarillo pleaded guilty to committing a hate crime and felony vandalism for the August incident at the preschool and elsewhere in town.
In April, he was sentenced to a year in jail and a $1,100 fine.
Investigation into the other incidents is ongoing, Seery said.
Police think Latino’s crimes are related to another string of racially motivated vandalism in Camarillo that began in 2007, Seery said. Latino and three men arrested for marking swastikas and racial comments on homes and cars in Camarillo’s west end are friends, Seery said.
But the sentiments expressed by the four men don’t represent those of the community.
The majority of Camarillo residents have been supportive, said Rabbi Aryeh Lang, head of the Chabad Camarillo that runs the two-year-old preschool.
“This is a story not about some haters but about . . . some good people that came (forward),” Lang said. “The outpouring of light that came from darkness is amazing. In Judaism, we believe to get rid of darkness you bring in light.”
Light symbolizes good acts while darkness represents bad deeds, he said.
Outraged by the vandalism, a Camarillo man who wants to remain anonymous rallied friends of various faiths to help the preschool pay for the security system. Kevin Kildee, a Roman Catholic and Camarillo City Council member, plans to help.
“I think we need to take some necessary steps to try and alleviate what’s happening down there,” Kildee said of his involvement, adding that the hateful acts contradict the city’s reputation.
John Poulos, a member of Camarillo’s Greek Orthodox Church, also plans to make a contribution. The church, he said, stands in “solidarity with our Jewish brethren” in fighting antiSemitic crimes.
“Who wants this kind of problem in our community?” Poulos said.
Beth Moline, a Ventura resident who attends a Catholic church in Camarillo, also anticipates donating to the cause.
“I don’t think it’s a Jewish problem. It’s a hate problem,” Moline said. “It just seemed really wrong that children had to face that.”
Lang said Kildee, Poulos, Moline and other contributors have inspired him.
“I think the real story here is about a community coming together and people doing acts of light,” he said. “It makes me proud to be in Camarillo.”
Cheri Dekofsky, director of the Jewish Federation of Ventura County, said she’s pleased to see the community step up to say they won’t tolerate such crimes.
AntiSemitic sentiment is “always” around, she said; it’s only a question of where it “rears its ugly head.”
The larger community must show it will fight hate crimes against the Jewish community or the problem will only worsen, Dekofsky said.
“You think they just hate Jews; they hate everybody,” she said; “If left unchecked, then the next time they’ll come after you.”
The Ventura-based Jewish Federation of Ventura County, a fundraising nonprofit for the Jewish community that helped start the Camarillo preschool, tries to combat anti-Semitism through education. For the past 15 years, the federation has paid the ticket cost for Ventura County eighthgraders of all faiths to visit the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.
“It’s our investment in our community,” Dekofsky said.
