Two Synagogue Arsons In London 

June 22, 2004
Arutz-7
 
Two Orthodox Jewish synagogues were vandalized in a 24-hour 
period at the end of last week, causing great damage to Torah 
scrolls, valuable prayer books and buildings. 

The first arson attack was perpetrated against the South Tottenham 
synagogue, destroying prayer books more than 100 years old, including 
signed editions smuggled out of Germany and Poland by Jewish refugees 
in 1938. The second attack, which police said was not linked to the 
first, caused 250,000 of damage to the synagogue and headquarters of 
Aish HaTorah in Hendon. Rabbi Naftali Schiff, Executive-Director of 
the organization, told Arutz-7 , "When I arrived for Sabbath morning 
services, the police had cordoned off the area and would not allow 
anyone to enter until the rabbi came. It was quite devastating to 
see the Sifrei Torah lying bare and torn on the floor. One was torn 
in half down the seam separating two pages of parchment, while the 
other was torn directly on the letters, almost all the way down the 
page... The arsonists apparently tried to set four fires, two of 
which did not catch." He said, however, that there is no alarm in 
the community about anti-Semitic incidents. "We're not France yet," 
he said. 

Other members of the Jewish community reportedly said they were 
increasingly apprehensive about what they see as rising anti-Semitic 
violence. More than 100 synagogues in Britain have been desecrated 
since September 2000, and according to a study by the European 
Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, in the last quarter of 
2003 there was a 39% increase in anti-Semitic incidents over the 
same period in 2002. In 2003, 375 such incidents were reported in 
Britain.