Arizona Teen Apologizes For Twisting Menorah Into Swastika
(JTA) — An Arizona teenager arrested for twisting a menorah in the front yard of a family’s home into a swastika posted an apology on Facebook.
Clive Jamar Wilson, 19, one of four teens arrested on March 17 for the Dec. 30 incident, told the Ellis family of Chandler that he was sorry, the East Valley Tribune newspaper reported. The Facebook page appears to have since been removed.
“What we did was reckless, stupid, idiotic, and insensitive,” he wrote, according to the local paper. “From the bottom of my heart I apologize to your family.”
Wilson then explained that his father attended Brandeis University, and has since taught him about Judaism and its values.
Naomi Ellis on Sunday accepted the apology in a statement to the newspaper.
“It is our hope that he will continue to learn the importance of tolerance and respect for diversity,” she said.
The large, decorative Hanukkah candelabra was damaged on Dec. 30, 2016.
Ellis and her husband, Seth, said they built the 7-foot menorah in front of their house after their three sons, ages 5, 6 and 9, asked for lights in their yard like their neighbors’ Christmas decorations.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
