Brussels – A woman and two children were treated for smoke inhalation at a local hospital on Tuesday following an early morning fire that broke out on the fourth floor of a synagogue in Anderlecht, located in southern Brussels.
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DHNET.be (http://bit.ly/1qJ4g6H) reports that, according to investigators, early indications are that one, possibly more, arsonists gained entry to the Anderlecht Street synagogue around 5:30 a.m. Tuesday and made their way to the upper level of the building where they set the fire.
Pierre Meys, a spokesman for the Brussels fire brigade, said the fire was started outside the apartment of the synagogue’s caretaker, who was not home at the time, and that the injured were his wife and two children.
Meys said the fire was quickly extinguished and that the whole block surrounding the synagogue has been cordoned off so that forensic scientists can investigate the fire.
Jehuda Guttman, who is president of Anderlecht’s Jewish community, was on the scene early Tuesday, saying he could think of no reason why someone would want to burn the synagogue.
“I do not know,” Guttman said. “If the act was anti-Semitic they would have burned Torah, the sacred books, and that’s not the case. I get lost in conjecture. Here we live at peace with everyone.”
Guttman said Anderlecht’s Jewish community is about 240 strong, while adding that the synagogue had been previously targeted back in 2010 when a Molotov cocktail thrown at the building caused minor damage.
Considering 4 people were murdered at the Jewish museum there, I wouldn’t consider that ‘always living in peace with our neighbors’. It’s pretty obvious that this was an anti-Semitic attack.