Security Stepped Up at L.a. Synagogues After Firebombing in North Hollywood

Around-the-clock security guards have started patrolling a number of Los Angeles synagogues and police have stepped up surveillance of Jewish institutions, in the wake of a firebombing last week that gutted a building at Aish HaTorah Institute in North Hollywood.

The attack on one of two buildings housing the small Orthodox congregation occurred at 12:45 a.m. last Thursday. Arson investigators would say only that the fire was caused by an “incendiary device,” but at least one bottle that appeared to be a Molotov cocktail was found at the scene.

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley led city officials in condemning the attack. At an outdoor news conference at the site of the fire, he warned that “acts of violence and terrorism will simply not be tolerated in Los Angeles.”

Aish HaTorah, whose name ironically translates as “flame of the Torah,” is a 14-year-old shul that conducts an outreach program of adult education classes. Its facilities consist of two one-story, barracks-like, wood-frame structures. The main building, housing the institute proper, suffered only a few broken windows.

But the adjoining building, which was rented to the Sephardic Yad Avraham congregation, was completely gutted. A wood-and-metal cabinet containing two Torah scrolls was singed, but the scrolls were saved “by a miracle of miracles,” said Rabbi Zvi Block, dean of Aish HaTorah.

Block said he was devastated by the “crime of hate and bigotry,” but vowed that he would not be frightened or intimidated. Damage was put at $120,000 by fire officials, although Block gave a figure of up to $250,000.

‘DISTURBING PATTERN’ OF HATE CRIMES

Although arson investigators refused to divulge details of their findings, Block was questioned by reporters about links between Aish HaTorah and the Jewish Defense League.

A room in the gutted building was used as an office by Irv Rubin, national chairman of the JDL. Block said he had served as the chaplain of the JDL, but he saw no evidence that Rubin might have been the target of the firebombing.

Sympathy and support for Aish HaTorah came from public officials and all segments of the Jewish community, as well as from Shalom International, a Christian pro-Israel organization. A Shalom International delegation that included a Christian motorcycle team of former Hell’s Angeles “stood guard” outside the synagogue during Saturday morning services.

“This incident, as well as other recent incidents of violence and vandalism, is reflective of a disturbing pattern of anti-Semitic hate crimes that have increased both nationally and locally over the past several years,” said David Lehrer, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.

Lehrer and representatives of the Islamic Center here met Friday with Los Angeles District Attorney Ira Reiner to discuss prevention of hate crimes against both Jews and Arab-Americans.

Several synagogues in the Los Angeles area have received bomb threats in the past month. In November, Jews in the San Francisco Bay Area were shaken by three firebombings and a drive-by shooting aimed at synagogues.