Arson Suspected In Massive Lower East Side Synagogue Fire
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Dave Goldiner May 17, 2017
Arson is suspected in the raging blaze that destroyed a historic 150-year-old synagogue on New York’s Lower East Side.
Video footage shows three teenagers entering Beth Hamedrash Hagodol on Norfolk Street and leaving just before the fire erupted Sunday, NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told the New York Daily News.
“We do think it was arson,” Boyce told the paper.
The fire broke out just before 7 p.m. inside the synagogue at 64 Norfolk St., which has been empty for a decade.
The synagogue, which was designated a city landmark in 1967, was the oldest Ashkenazi shul in New York.
Its congregation was on the verge of a deal to redevelop the building, which might have led to it reopening when the blaze destroyed those hopes.
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