New York – Police believe a fire that destroyed an abandoned lower East Side synagogue that once housed the city’s oldest Orthodox Jewish congregation was deliberately set.
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Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said Tuesday police were reviewing surveillance video showing several teens fleeing the area at the time of the blaze around 7 p.m. Sunday.
It took firefighters about two hours to bring the fire on Norfolk Street under control. No injuries were reported.
The Gothic structure was originally built in 1850 as a Baptist church. It was home to Beth Hamedrash Hagodol for over 120 years ago. The synagogue was closed in 2007.
Its sad but hasn’t been used in a while & Landmarks would not allow it to be redeveloped. Now its going to probably be rebuilt for no reason and a waste of money.
This will.be blamed on Trump even though it’s Latinos who did it.
In the last 60 years the lower east side too many synagogues had been purposely burned by hoodlums .Fine antique structures built between 1870s and 1920s the photos can be found in libraries and the N.Y.C. archives The subway and williamsburg bridge facilitated the movement of the jewish population to newer sections of the city.Most of the old neighborhood was filled with old tenement flats with a tub in the kitchen and a shared toilet. By the 1930s the elderly parents who had arrived in the early 1900s were left there. My grandfather as among them.After the jewish migration came others .The elderly couldn’t afford the upkeep of the large buildings and the decay and low membership meant the end for the synagogue buildings that were abandoned. The young new immigrants burned them.
Perhaps someone hired the teens to set it on fire. There are millions of dollars at stake here.