NEW YORK, May 13 (JTA) — A Lubavitch synagogue in Moscow has been severely damaged by a bomb. No one was injured in the attack, which occurred at 11:15 p.m. Wednesday night, according to a spokesman for Lubavitch World Headquarters in New York. But the explosion occurred just minutes after some 70 children and their teachers had left the three-story synagogue building after celebrating the Jewish holiday of Lag B’Omer, the spokesman said. This was not the first attack on the Maryina Roscha synagogue, which also is a center for Lubavitch outreach across the former Soviet Union. In December 1993, the 70-year-old wooden synagogue was destroyed by an act of arson. Two months after the reconstructed synagogue was dedicated in July 1996, a bomb blast seriously damaged the building. No one was injured in that attack. “While miraculously no one was seriously hurt, we cannot continue to rely on miracles,” said Berel Lazar, the synagogue’s rabbi. Lazar called on “municipal and national authorities to find and prosecute those resonsible for this clearly anti-Semitic act, in order to reassure the Jews of Moscow and Russia that they are still safe.” No suspects have been apprehended in conection with any of the attacks on the synagouge.
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