An Friday-morning fire, which damaged a kindergarten classroom at a Conservative Jewish center that houses a synagogue, school and community center in the West Mount Airy section of the city, has been ruled an arson – officials told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Germantown Jewish Center was unoccupied when the fire started around 7:30AM in a first-floor kindergarten classroom. Firefighters had the blaze under control about a half-hour later and kept it from spreading beyond the classroom.
Executive Chief Daniel Williams said members of a task force from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Philadelphia Police Department, and the Fire Department determined that the cause of the fire was “incendiary.” Williams said an investigation was continuing.
Officials said that swastikas had been painted on the rear of the building about two weeks ago, but that the incidents did not appear to be related.
Rabbi Leonard Gordon said that he did not think the fire was a hate crime and that the painting of “the swastikas looked like something children would do. We have wonderful relations with the community.”
(Source: FireRescue1 CA)
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Those mischevious scamps and their swastikas! How droll!
It’s amazing how ostrich behavior can be so strong in some people that they cant see danger even when it’s literally right in their faces.