Borough Park, NY – A couple of quick-thinking mensches saved a Brooklyn synagogue from burning down Sunday morning after an arsonist set fire to the wooden lectern.
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Yitzchok Friedman, 30, was changing the tire on his minivan at 10 a.m. when he spotted smoke billowing out of the Krasna Bais Medrash, located at 1462 38th St. in Borough Park.
“I right away opened the door. I covered my face with my jacket,” he told the Daily News hours afterward.
After a quick look, he stepped back to dial 911 and grabbed a fire extinguisher from a paper goods store across the street.
Moshe Friedlander, the store’s owner, and Friedman both raced back inside. They searched for anyone trapped and frantically worked to extinguish the flames shooting out of the synagogue’s bimah, a wooden lectern used to hold the Torah during services.
“But for [Friedman] the entire building would have burnt down,” said City Councilman David Greenfield (D-Brooklyn), who visited the scene.
Authorities do not believe it was a bias attack, according to a source. “They are looking into several people from the [synagogue],” the source said.
From the synagogue??
Authorities do not believe it was a bias attack, according to a source. “They are looking into several people from the [synagogue],” the source said.
there must be some internal strifes for people to say this
Oh my goodness! They are looking into several people *from* the synagogue who could have done this?!
Are we sure about that?! (lol) I’m having a hard time believing it!
Funny part is, it’s not a shul… It’s the Krasne yeshiva ketane & yeshiva gedola. So if they are trying to trace it to “several people from the synagogue” that means that they are actually looking for some bochurim trouble makers. Probably some yeshiva gedola chevra who are leaving to another yeshiva for the new cheshvan zman.
from the article
Friedman said he spotted someone inside when he first entered the yeshiva study hall, which is doubling as a synagogue during the Jewish High Holy Days.
“I couldn’t see who it was,” he added.
These incidents of yidden setting fire to shuls and yeshivot seems to have become so common that they no longer generate much attention or outrage and are sometimes dismissed as pranks or “freedom of expression” by some alienated bochurim or some chareidim protesting the “outrage de jeur” by an opposing sect. Is this what things have come to?