New York, NY, December 20, 1995...The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today urged Attorney General Janet Reno to undertake an investigation into the apparently racially and religiously-motivated Harlem massacre which left seven people dead.

Rowland J. Smith Jr., a protestor in a campaign to drive the white-Jewish owned Freddy's Fashion Mart on 125th Street from the community, walked into the store allegedly shouting racial and anti-Semitic epithets, opened fire and set the building ablaze, before turning the gun on himself.

"Although the perpetrator of the hate crime which destroyed Freddy's clothing store and killed seven people himself died in the blaze," wrote Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, to the Attorney General, "there are many unanswered questions about the responsibility of others who may have instigated or incited this crime."

In urging the Justice Department to take official action in this investigation, Mr. Foxman said, "Since these questions revolve around an assault which was racially and religiously motivated, they implicate not only New York criminal statutes but federal civil rights laws as well."

While ADL commends New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani for encouraging a grand jury investigation into the crime, "this is a crime which has had and continues to have repercussions which extend beyond 125th Street and even beyond New York and vigorous public involvement by the Department of Justice would demonstrate the seriousness the federal government attaches to violent crimes motivated by racial, ethnic and religious hatred," added Mr. Foxman.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.