Brooklyn Heights, NY – Robber Targets Shul House – Again!

Brooklyn Heights, NY – A Brooklyn Heights synagogue that has been repeatedly robbed and attacked was hit again — and rabbis believe it is the same man responsible for earlier break-ins.

“He’s broken in before,” said Rabbi Simcha Weinstein of Congregation B’nai Avraham on Remsen Street, which has been the site of repeated burglaries and attempted burglaries ever since the suspect, a serial burglar, was invited in for a meal five years ago.

In the Aug. 20 incident, cops said that the burglar broke in through the front door of the house of worship, which is between Henry and Clinton streets, at around 3:30 am.

This time, however, he was confronted by a member of the cleaning staff, who asked what he was doing there.

Rather than answer, he quickly ran out of the synagogue empty handed.

B’nai Avraham has been hit by this burglar before, Weinstein said. Last fall, he tried to enter, but the attempt failed when neighbors called the police.

And earlier this year, the serial burglar broke into the shul twice in one week.

The synagogue was also attacked in 2007 in an unrelated attack when vandals painted swastikas and left anti-Semitic fliers.

Despite the latest incident, Weinstein said that members of the congregation need not be deterred about practicing their religion.

“It was only an attempted break-in,” he said. “I don’t want people to be scared off and quit coming to the synagogue.”