A 78-year-old Orthodox synagogue that suffered $50,000 in damages through vandalism last March has appealed “to all people of good will to offer suggestions to help us restores this Holy House of Worship so that the good works of many years may be continued.” The appeal was issued by Irwin Goldman, president of Congregation Beth Haknesses, which was ransacked and set afire the weekend of March 20-21. Two days later, vandals returned under cover of darkness to abuse the religious articles that had escaped the fire. A few weeks later anti-Semitic slogans were scrawled in black ink on the synagogue’s floors, and last week most of the remaining prayer books were stolen. The Congregation’s 60 elderly worshipers “find it most difficult to walk to the next nearest synagogue” five blocks away, Goldman said. Many of them live in low-income housing and are feeble and partially handicapped. At the time of the March incidents, Goldman said the police had told him “they just don’t have the manpower” to station a man in each synagogue in the area–the lower East Side–and that other than increasing the number of car patrols they were “helpless.” In issuing his appeal Goldman said: “The rabbi (Morris Shisgal) has served unsalaried for 18 years because the poor people who attend could not afford to pay him a salary as well as take care of the expenses. His income is from a teaching position in a religious school (on Staten Island). He would be most pleased to see this synagogue reopened.”
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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.
