On Monday night, detectives from the Dan Region arrested two
youngsters, aged 15 and 16, suspected of having defaced the
synagogues in Kiryat Herzog in Bnei Brak. Two mezuzas
were brutally wrenched from their cases in the Ner LaMaor
synagogue on Abarbanel Street, and swastikas and symbols of a
Satanic cult and Nazi slogans were scrawled on its walls and
on those of other synagogues in the area. The mezuzas
were found at the site, defaced by cigarette burns.
The youths, who are immigrants from the C.I.S., were arrested
after top ranking detectives and police of the Dan region
made a special effort to apprehend the felons swiftly. Monday
night, after strenuous investigations conducted by the
police, two youths who live near the synagogues were caught
and, after being questioned, admitted that they had defaced
the synagogue. They said that their friends had prodded them
to this act of vandalism.
Upon their arrest, the Police Commander of the Dan Region
David Karoza called Bnei Brak mayor Rabbi Mordechai Karelitz,
and told him that the youths who had perpetrated the deed had
been apprehended, and that they had confessed to the crime.
Rabbi Karelitz thanked David Karoza and the detectives and
police who had acted so swiftly and so effectively.
Immediately after the crime, communal leaders said that they
suspected that immigrants from the C.I.S. were involved in the
affair, and that the efforts of the police to focus the
investigation on members of a Satanic cult were misdirected.
They added that such acts stem from the provocation of the
media and its constant vilification of the chareidi
community. They said that such incitement results in criminal
acts like the defacing of the synagogue in Kiryat Herzog and
the antisemitic graffiti on the Beis Yaakov school in Petach
Tikvah.
Rabbi Karelitz said that such acts are condemned by all
Israeli politicians when they occur in communities outside of
Israel, but it is surprising that this home-grown violence
elicited barely a peep of protest from the secular community.
He said that the widespread incitement in the Israeli media
must be toned down.
Rav Y. C. Sheinfeld related that the vandals also set fire to
the home of Rabbi G'arbi, a resident of Kiryat Herzog who
goes to shul every morning in tefillin. This did
not cause much damage.
