Increased Penalty Sought for Arson in Houses of Worship

State Assembly-man Charles E. Shumer is pressing for legislation that would drastically increase the penalty for arson in houses of worship. “Right now if you burned a synagogue or a shack in a vacant lot you’d get the same penalty (up to two years in jail) and rarely do they prosecute,” the Brooklyn Democrat said during a visit to the burnt-out remains of Congregation Anshe Vilna on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

The Orthodox synagogue, built 78 years ago, was destroyed by fire last Nov. 28. Shumer said it was one of 40 synagogues burned or otherwise vandalized in the area during the last two or three years.

Shumer, who wants the maximum penalty for such acts increased to 15 years imprisonment, said his proposed legislation was supported by Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau and that he knew of no opponents so far, but “you can never tell in Albany.”

Shumer said that arson against houses of worship was a citywide problem that involved churches as well as synagogues. But synagogues catering to the largely elderly and dwindling Jewish community on the Lower East Side appear to have been prime targets of late. The perpetrators are believed to be youth gangs from the area or outside it. The suspect in the Anshe Vilna fire lives in the Bronx.

Over the last decade, the Lower East Side, once a flourishing center of Jewish life, has been increasingly populated by Black and Hispanic minorities. The United Jewish Council of the (Lower) East Side, an umbrella organization of surviving community groups, noted that the remaining Jewish community of about 20,000 has been squeezed into a 10-block by 2-block corridor. Twenty years ago there were 40 synagogues between Houston and 14th Streets on the Lower East Side. Fifteen years ago there were 15 and now there are only two, a community spokesman said.