No arson at synagogue, but no doubt leaders unpopular for anti-Zion, Holocaust views
MONSEY, N.Y. -— The bitterness felt toward the Neturei Karta congregation had been evident since December, when members of the congregation, an anti-Zionist Jewish group, traveled to Tehran and shook hands with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a conference on the Holocaust.
In the months that followed, the ultra-Orthodox group with the unorthodox beliefs received threatening phone calls at its synagogue. A protest was held outside its doors. Rocks were thrown at its windows.
Then on Sunday night, on the eve of Passover, that tension seemed to erupt into flames. About 8:15 p.m., the synagogue became engulfed in a blaze that nearly burned it to the ground. The fire raised the possibility that the heated debate over Zionism had escalated to violence, setting off angry exchanges on the streets of this heavily Hasidic community in Rockland County, about an hour’s drive north of Manhattan.
But on Monday afternoon, hours after calling the blaze suspicious, investigators with the Ramapo Police Department reversed themselves and said that although the fire, which began in a washroom on the ground floor, remained under investigation, they had determined that arson was almost certainly not a factor.
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In the months that followed, the ultra-Orthodox group with the unorthodox beliefs received threatening phone calls at its synagogue. A protest was held outside its doors. Rocks were thrown at its windows.
Then on Sunday night, on the eve of Passover, that tension seemed to erupt into flames. About 8:15 p.m., the synagogue became engulfed in a blaze that nearly burned it to the ground. The fire raised the possibility that the heated debate over Zionism had escalated to violence, setting off angry exchanges on the streets of this heavily Hasidic community in Rockland County, about an hour’s drive north of Manhattan.
But on Monday afternoon, hours after calling the blaze suspicious, investigators with the Ramapo Police Department reversed themselves and said that although the fire, which began in a washroom on the ground floor, remained under investigation, they had determined that arson was almost certainly not a factor.