THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK OFFICE OF COUNCIL MEMBER STEPHEN LEVIN

Dsf 410 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, NY 11217 718 875 5200 250 Broadway, 1735 New York, NY 10007 212 788 7348 http://council.nyc.gov

**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**

January 10, 2012 COUNCILMEMBER LEVIN CALLS FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES TO STOP SELLING ANTI-SEMITIC JEWELRY Brooklyn - Council Member Stephen Levin (D-Williamsburg) issued the following statement after learning from an article in The Gothamist by Christopher Robbins that Bejeweled, a Greenpoint retailer, is selling swastika earrings: One of the most discouraging and disgusting examples of hate in our City is the recent rash of anti-Semitic vandalism in Brooklyn and Manhattan, said Levin. The fact that a young person can walk into a store in Greenpoint and spend $5.99 on a pair of swastika earrings only serves to promote and extend the recent resurgence of anti-Semitism in New York. I wont stand for this in my neighborhood or in my district and I am calling on Bejeweled and all other City retailers who sell these earrings to remove them from your shelves and help us remove the hate from our City.