A Superior Court Judge suspended prison sentences he originally imposed on a Jewish youth who confessed to synagogue arson here and placed 17-year-old Barry Dov Schuss on five years’ probation Tuesday. Judge John Brennan also ordered the youth to continue psychiatric treatment. He was under treatment at the time of his arrest.
Schuss, who comes from an Orthodox family, admitted setting fire to two West Hartford synagogues last August and September and to the home of the rabbi of one of them, Rabbi Solomon Krupka, and the home of State Representative Joan Kemler, who is Jewish.
Brennan heard pleas for leniency from two local rabbis, the youth’s family and others. He had originally sentenced Schuss to seven years each for the synagogue fires and 14 years for each of the fires at the two homes, the sentences to have been served concurrently.
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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.
