A homemade explosive device was thrown at a shul in Tver Russia during the predawn hours on Monday. There were no injuries but there was damage to the shul and surrounding homes. There are no suspects in custody. Damage is estimated at $5,000. No suspects are in custody in what police are calling an intentional act by hooligans.

Federal authorities dispatched terrorist experts to the scene to examine the attack scene. Mayor Vladimir Bavshiv stated he is not ruling out a number of vandalism attacks against the community’s Jewish cemetery. A number of persons connected with a local fascist organization were arrested in 2006 for damaging 200 tombstones in the Jewish cemetery. They painted swastikas on many of them. Since the arrests, there have been a number of similar attacks.

The local Jewish community connects the timing of the attack and their marking the anniversary of the start of WWII in Russia and the Nazi invasion of Russia, observed on Tuesday, June 22nd. The Jewish community released a statement that the attack was not just directed against the Jews, but the memories of all the victims of WWII.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)