Police today were searching for two youths who allegedly threw a fire bomb into a Hasidic synagogue in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn during Lag B’omer celebrations yesterday. Rabbi Jacob Wertzberger of Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar, said no one was injured and the damage was slight. He said “I don’t think there is any anti-Semitic factor involved. We haven’t had any trouble like that here recently.”
But police reported that sporadic trouble has occurred between the Hasidic sect and Negro and Puerto Rican residents of the surrounding neighborhood. Rabbi Wertzberger said some youths from his congregation had been involved in a fist fight with Puerto Rican boys who, he claimed, attacked them with bottles and garbage cans last week. He said the Puerto Ricans did not voice any racial or religious feeling but seemed to be “just looking for trouble.” Police said the fight resulted in the arrest of three youths, two of them Puerto Rican. One Hasidic boy and one Puerto Rican were hospitalized for injuries.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
