Dushore, PA – State police in Sullivan County are investigating to determine if the owner of a winery near Dushore is the victim of a hate crime.
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When owner John Crasne arrived at Bird Song Winery Tuesday morning he found much more than he expected, lots of damage which he claims happened because he is Jewish.
John Crane and his family have owned Bird Song Winery for about 10 years. It’s a place where wine brings people together, but now the place is torn apart.
“My nephew was helping me this morning. We saw things were a mess and realized we were victims of terrorism,” Crane said.
One of the first things you see at the winery is a flagpole, which normally holds both an American and Israeli flag. Now, only the red, white and blue is flying high. The tires on Crane’s truck were slashed, glass was broken, and the winery’s sign was damaged.
Some of the worst damage at the winery was at the tasting building. There are a vehicle’s tire tracks when it backed into the building, knocking it off its platform and damaging a plaque.
“How are you supposed to feel safe? You work hard for nothing,” said Crane’s nephew Zachary Feldman.
Crane believes the damage is the result of a hate crime, and it’s not the first time he gas experienced racism.
“We’ve had some instances where people in the community, leaders in the community have displayed dislike for us,” Crane said, adding he is heartbroken. “We try to live in peace, and this is the reward we get for being decent to the community,”
State police said the crime happened between Monday at 6 p.m. and Tuesday at 8 a.m.
Troopers are still investigating whether or not this was actually a hate crime.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call state police at Laporte at 570-946-4610.
I don’t know if this has anything to do with it, but there is a very large Neo-Nazi presence in rural Pennsylvania
I don’t think that the Israeli flag should have been displayed. The winery owner should have realized that he is not living in Brooklyn. In the rural areas, some people are not very tolerant of Yidden. Someone once told me that they stopped at a rest stop, somewhere in the middle of PA, on I-80, on the way back from Cleveland. Some redneck came up to that individual, and stated “Why don’t you take that thing off your head (meaning his Kippah), and be like the rest of us”. Unfortunately, there are places in the USA, where it is unsafe for Yidden to advertise their Jewishness. According to Halacha, we should not do anything which would place us in danger. If that means wearing on cap over one’s Kippah while traveling, so be it!
I remember reading a study that corroborates number one’s info. And if memory serves me correctly Pennsylvania has one of the largest presence of them in the country, however N.J. was number one.
But for the record i have traveled all the way across the Pennsylvania turnpike on average twice a year for the last 25 years and have never experienced any antisemitism whatsoever. Here in Brooklyn there were a few experiences, but never there.
Someone once asked me why i’m wearing a Kippah, and Tzitzis I told him I got the Kippah from the pope, and the Tzitzis from a Cowboy (fringes) he had no more questions, and walked away. You have to answer them so they are speechless.
bored [No. 3] says:
“But for the record i have traveled all the way across the Pennsylvania turnpike on average twice a year for the last 25 years and have never experienced any antisemitism whatsoever.”
Dushore, PA is about 40 miles from the nearest Interstate-type limited access highway such as the PA Turnpike. It is a poor town out in the sticks. We are NOT talking about a built-up place such as the Catskills.
Do not presume that what you encounter on the Pennsylvania Turnpike is representative of Dushore.
Chol Hamoed Sukkos we were traveling on I-80 and stopped at a rest stop in PA. There was a carload of Muslims – one of the women was wearing a burka, the rest of the women had hijabs but pants. I was standing on the sidewalk waiting for one of my kids to get out of the car (who didn’t want to because he saw Arabs) and one of the women brushed up against me (it HAD to have been on purpose). I turned around really slowly and stared but no one looked back. The men were saying their prayers a little farther down the sidewalk. The rest of the non-Jews there probably didn’t know what to think between us and the Muslims!