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Home
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French Hill Synagogue Desecrated
by Betzalel Kahn
Jerusalem's French Hill Neve David Sephardi synagogue was
desecrated for the second time in two months on a recent
Shabbos kodesh. Vandals broke into the synagogue
through the windows at 4 a. m., destroyed synagogue contents,
and then fled just a few moments before the first synagogue
regulars arrived for Shabbos morning vosikin service.
Since the aron kodesh is protected by a sophisticated
alarm system, the Torah scrolls weren't harmed.
The vandals broke into the locked drawers of the desk of
synagogue leader, HaRav Boruch Shraga, scattering papers and
stealing their contents. Lockers of neighborhood
avreichim were also damaged.
Synagogue members arriving in the morning saw that the
mikdash me'at had been vandalized. They hurried to the
adjacent central Ashkenazi synagogue to see if it had also
been broken into. There they discovered two mattresses in the
women's section which the vandals had used in their attempts
to jump from the second floor into the Neve David
synagogue.
The members have no intention of calling for a police inquiry
of the episode. On motzei Shabbos, 27 Tammuz, a
neighborhood activists told Yated Ne'eman: "Two months
ago, vandals broke into the synagogue and desecrated it, but
the police did nothing except take some fingerprints.
However, a few weeks ago, when an attempt was made to set
fire to a Conservative synagogue in Ramot, three suspects
were arrested. Police are trying to incite and cause tension
between the residents, behaving unfairly . . . We don't bank
anything on a police investigation."
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