Federal agents and Army experts called in by local police were trying to determine the type of explosive that virtually destroyed Congregation Shaare Tikvah, a Conservative synagogue in the Washington suburb of Oxen Hill, St. George’s County, Maryland last night. The blast caused an estimated $200,000 damage to the two-year-old structure which may have to be entirely rebuilt.
No one was injured by the explosion which neighbors said sounded like a giant airliner crashing. Doors were blown across a field and smoke and flames burst from the windows. Police called in the FBI and Army bomb squad experts from Fort McNair, Va. Dr. Isaac Frank, executive director of the Greater Washington Jewish Community Council, was consulting with police officials about the incident. Some authorities feared the explosion might have been a local manifestation of the recent rash of synagogue burnings and vandalism in New York City. Residents of the modest, middle-income suburb said there was no previous record of anti-Semitism there.
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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.
