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An elderly Mountainair Jewish couple claim a charred cross they found in their garden on August 19 is just the latest example of numerous anti-Semitic harassment against them.
Tom Bigham, 76, and his wife Merrie Bigham, 70, moved to Mountainair about 20 months ago and have been slowly renovating an old house. For more than a year, someone has been parking in a car from an adjacent street and repeatedly flashing the high beam of the vehicle into their home.
It happens often and even stopped after Bigham put up a fence around his property to block the light, he said.
“We don’t really know anyone here,” he said. “I’ve spoken to some of them casually, but don’t really know them.”
People walking past their home might suspect they are Jews, he said, because the couple put several Stars of David on their fence and on the outside of their home, some of which can be seen from the street.
He and his wife were also repeatedly harassed while driving in Mountainair, Los Lunas and Belen.
“Someone in a car or a pickup hit our bumper, then pulled back and did that a few times before accelerating alongside and then pulling past,” Bigham said. “It goes way beyond that if someone is just a rude driver.”
All of these incidents, he said, “make us feel more insecure and anxious than you can know.”
Bigham said he reported the traffic harassment to Belen police and the recent incident with the cross to Mountainair Police. Mountainair police said Friday that they had turned the case over to the FBI’s Albuquerque office.
FBI spokesman Frank Fisher confirmed that the FBI is investigating the matter, but no decision has yet been made whether to open a formal investigation.
Meanwhile, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, the country’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, together with the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and the Anti Defamation League, condemned the alleged anti-Semitic harassment.
CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper issued a statement stating: “American Muslims show solidarity with members of the Jewish community in New Mexico and across the country as they and all other minority communities face the challenge of increasing bigotry. Political and religious leaders must speak out resolutely against anti-Semitism and all other forms of hatred. “
Archbishop of Santa Fe, John C. Wester, expressed “shock, dismay and grief” at the alleged anti-Semitic harassment in a statement.
“We stand side by side with our Jewish brothers and sisters as devout people and citizens of the United States,” Wester wrote. “This terrible expression of hatred and intolerance is an attack on us all. It is in stark contrast to the respect and love we show our ancestors in faith, and it opens wounds too terrible for words. “
Cross-burns “have long been used to intimidate and terrorize victims,” said Scott Levin, the ADL’s regional director in the mountains. He applauded law enforcement for moving quickly to investigate the incident.
The ADL, he said, was “concerned to learn of this alleged hate crime based on the family’s Jewish identity” and “condemns this incident in the strongest possible terms”.
He added that when a person becomes a victim because of their religious, racial, sexual or other identity, “other members of this group may feel insecure and unwelcome”.
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