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10 Cheshvan 5760 - October 20, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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News
Vandals Who Defaced Synagogues in Bnei Brak are Caught

by A. Cohen

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.


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