Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Chabad Rabbi on Scooter Chases Down Burglary Suspect in Palm Beach

A rabbi rode a motor scooter to chased down a suspected burglar after spotting him outside of a Palm Beach, Florida Chabad house.

Avrohom Ezagui, a Lubavitcher rabbi, became suspicious when he saw a man holding a bag of valuables, according to The Palm Beach Post.

Ezagui assumed the valuables had been taken from Chabad and gave chase on his scooter. A fight reportedly broke out when Ezagui reached the man, Eric Hanna, 28.

But Hanna had actually allegedly targeted a nearby home, not the Chabad house. He allegedly broke into the home through an open window and grabbed over $10,000 worth of jewelry, the paper reported.

Hanna was later arrested by police and faces two counts of burglary, one count of larceny of more than $10,000, one count of loitering, one count of battery and one count of criminal mischief. Bail was set at $87,000.

In 2011, the Chabad Palm Beach synagogue was targeted by burglars. Besides making off with valuables the crooks swiped a $1 that had been blessed by the late Lubavitcher rebbe Menachem Schneerson.

The synagogue offered a $1,000 reward for the safe return of the bill, but apparently got no takers.

A message from our Publisher & CEO 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.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

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.