Separate incidents of firebombings and other acts of anti-Semitic vandalism aimed at synagogues and other Bay Area Jewish institutions over the past two weeks have triggered a massive police investigation.
But while police officials suspect there is a connection between the incidents, they lack proof and so far have no solid clues to the identity of the perpetrators.
The latest targets were two East Bay synagogues, hit by firebombs early Monday morning.
They brought the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Northern California to 54 this year, up from 48 in 1989, and almost double the figure of 1988, according to a spokesman for the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.
The attacks on Temple Beth Abraham in Oakland and Temple Beth Sholom in San Leandro bore a distinct resemblance to the spate of fire-bombings, arson and vandalism that hit other Jewish institutions over a wide area in the five days between Nov. 15 and 20.
Similar materials were used and three of the incidents occurred at about the same time of the day, the police noted.
“We can assume they’re all connected and there’s a good possibility there are the same suspects,” said San Francisco Police Inspector Lou Ligouri, the department’s liaison with the Jewish community. He stressed, however, that there is still no proof of a link.
$13,000 IN REWARDS
No one was hurt in any of the attacks and the monetary damage was relatively small. But the communities have been severely shocked.
City and Jewish agencies in the Bay Area are offering rewards totalling $13,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the persons responsible.
San Leandro Mayor Donald Karp said Thursday that his city council will offer a $5,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators of the Oakland and San Leandro synagogue bombings.
Karp also offered a $500 reward out of his own pocket and said a San Leandro businessman, not identified, has put up the same amount.
On Tuesday, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors offered a $5,000 reward. These rewards are in addition to the $2,000 offered by ADL last week.
Meanwhile, community meetings have been held with the police to discuss security measures, and more are scheduled.
In the most recent attacks, a Molotov cocktail was thrown through a window in a room next to Beth Abraham’s sanctuary between 2 and 3 a.m. Monday, according to Oakland police.
Another firebomb was tossed into a rear auditorium window at Beth Sholom at approximately 3 a.m.
Sgt. Ron Hanson of the Oakland arson and bomb detail estimates damage at Beth Abraham to be at least $2,000. But synagogue administrator Bob Rothschild says the final price tag will be much higher, because a stained-glass window was broken in the antechamber where the bomb was thrown.
Rabbi Ira Book of Beth Sholom estimates damage at his Dolores Avenue synagogue to be around $1,000. The incendiary bomb was thrown in a back window, he says, and fire damaged the window and the tile floor in the auditorium.
“Some synagogue members are traumatized,” he said.
San Leandro police said residents of a condominium complex behind the synagogue reported seeing a white male, age 35 to 40, wearing a tan waist-length jacket, near the parking lot an hour before the bombing reportedly happened.
San Leandro Police Lt. Thomas Hull said witnesses also reported a late-model maroon Ford Mustang driving away from the synagogue at high speed.
INCIDENTS COULD BE REALATED
The same kind of incendiary device was used at both East Bay synagogues, leading Oakland and San Leandro police to deduce the incidents “could be related, based on the fact they’re both near the freeway, they occurred in a fairly short amount of time, and it was the same type of operation,” reported Lt. Mike Sims of the Oakland Police Department.
The earlier incidents included the firebombing of the offices of the San Francisco Jewish Community Center, and a fire set at Congregation Beth Israel-Judea in the Lakeshore area, both on Nov. 20.
Later the same day, Congregation Ner Tamid in the Sunset district and the Brotherhood Way Jewish Community Center received menacing telephone calls.
Meanwhile, in the days between the San Francisco and East Bay attacks, a “handful” of Bay Area Jewish institutions and at least one person with a Jewish last name have received threatening phone calls, according to Ligouri.
One of those calls was to the Jewish Community Federation office in San Rafael, where director Todd Stettner discovered a message left over Thanksgiving weekend on the answering machine that said, “You’re next, anti-Christ.”
That caller may have been “a crackpot who has called before,” Stettner said.
In response to all of the attacks and threats, Jewish agencies throughout the Bay Area have held, and are scheduling, informational meetings.
SECURITY AND SAFETY MEETINGS
A meeting has been scheduled by ADL and the San Francisco-based JCRC for next week.
In San Francisco, the Nov. 20 arson at Congregation Beth Israel-Judea and a threatening phone call to the adjacent Brotherhood Way Jewish Community Center prompted that JCC to sponsor a series of security and safety meetings for the different Jewish institutions in its immediate area.
Four separate meetings will be held, and will feature police officers. One of the sessions will be a special forum for children who attend Brandeis-Hillel Day School and the Beth Israel-Judea religious school.
The ADL has assumed the role of information clearinghouse. Richard Hirschhaut, executive director of the ADL’s Central Pacific region, said he doesn’t think the bombings were “perpetrated by anti-Israel elements.”
Scott Ury, ADL assistant director, said many of the incidents could have been the work of established hate organizations.
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