A Halloween party in Boston turned ugly when a gang hurled antisemitic slurs and attacked Jewish teenagers
On a chilly Halloween night in late October 1950, dozens of Jewish teenagers and their friends gathered for merriment in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester at the Hecht House, a Jewish community center that provided job training and hosted social events. Motivated by antisemitism, neighborhood teens launched a brutal attack on the premises of Hecht House that left many of the young Jews at the party injured and some hospitalized. The assaults at Hecht House sparked community conversations about anti-Jewish violence and its minimization by local authorities, themes that resonate today given the rising numbers of antisemitic hate crimes.
