Arson Doubted in Synagogue Fire

Arson is being doubted as the cause for the fire that destroyed the synagogue and residence of a fringe Orthodox Jewish group known as the Neturei Karta.

Per the New York Times report:

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.

Detective Lt. Brad Weidel of the Ramapo police said that dogs had gone through the rubble but failed to detect any traces of an accelerant, leading investigators to believe that a gas or electrical problem might have touched off the blaze.

“We understand that there is some controversy surrounding this group,” Detective Weidel said at a news conference on Monday. “But our best investigators are telling us that they believe this was not an arson. At this time, the fire is not suspicious.”

That statement brought some small measure of relief to Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss of the Neturei Karta congregation. Earlier in the day, he had suggested that the fire had been started by people linked to the Jewish Defense Organization, a militant group that organized the protest outside the synagogue in January and encourages other Jews to harass its members.

But the preliminary conclusion did not bring calm. Several times throughout the day, as Rabbi Weiss and other members of the group stood beside the rubble denouncing Zionism and calling for peace, they were met with angry chants of “Go back to Iran” and “You hate Jews” from Orthodox Jews and other residents who lined the street.

Over the years, Neturei Karta, which has thousands of members worldwide, has been the subject of scorn and ridicule. Founded in the 1930s to counter the Zionist movement in what was then Palestine, the group — whose name translates to “guardians of the city” in Aramaic — calls for the “speedy, peaceful dismantlement” of the state of Israel because God has forbidden the formation of a Jewish state until the Messiah arrives.