Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Artist’s Iconic ‘Mitzvah Bus’ Burns In Crown Heights

A colorful converted school bus used by a Brooklyn artist as both a studio and workplace burnt to the ground late Sunday night.

Lev Scheiber, the owner, said he was shocked to find his elaborately-decorated vehicle destroyed this morning.

“I went to the bus today and it was completely destroyed. My initial reaction was it was a targeted act,” Scheiber told the Forward, standing nearby the gutted vehicle. “It’s a very splashy bus. It’s clearly Jewish.”

The bus was decorated with distinctly Jewish iconography, like menorahs, and was parked near the intersection of Maple Street and Troy Ave., on the edge of Crown Heights. Scheiber has been parking there for the last two years, he said, and called the area safe.

The bus is a familiar sight at community festivals and was featured in the singer Benny Friedman’s music video “Ivri Anochi.” In a statement about the fire, Friedman called Scheiber’s bus a “mitzvah mobile” that added “joy and excitement” to people’s days.

Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.