Authorities on Tuesday morning arrested a 19-year-old Lodi man in the Rutherford temple firebombing and arson at a Paramus temple.
Anthony M. Graziano has been charged with nine counts of first-degree attempted murder, one count of first-degree bias intimidation and one count of first-degree aggravated arson in the Rutherford incident, the Bergen County prosecutor said. He has been charged with first degree aggravated arson, first-degree bias intimidation and third-degree arson in the Paramus incident. Bail was set at $5,000,000.
The arrest comes after the prosecutor’s office released a video on Friday of a suspect leaving what appeared to be a Walmart. On Monday, investigators received several tips about the man in the surveillance video, including some tipsters who identified the man as Graziano, authorities said.
Investigators found Graziano at his Lodi home, and interviewed him and several relatives and friends before the arrest. He was seen on the security video purchasing a number of components in the incendiary device used in the Rutherford attack, authorities said.
A detective told Rabbi Nosson Schuman of the Rutherford temple that the suspect “professes to hate Jews.”
The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office will hold a press conference this afternoon. The rabbi said he would not be at the press conference because authorities said his presence would hurt the case.
“We are all elated and jumping for joy” Schuman said outside his home. “My heart is a lot lighter.”
The surveillance images and a video distributed by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office on Friday show a young man leaving a store where investigators think he bought materials used two days later to firebomb a Rutherford synagogue, injuring the rabbi who lived there.
When the images were released, the prosecutor’s office said the man was thought to live in Bergen County and may not have been working alone.
Several Molotov cocktails were thrown at Congregation Beth El synagogue on Montross Avenue in Rutherford in the early morning of Jan. 11. One of them went through a second-floor window of the synagogue’s living quarters, where the rabbi and his wife were sleeping.
Rabbi Abe Friedman, a police chaplain told YWN that he is most grateful for the arrest, and noted the devotion and aggressive detective work by the Bergen County Prosecutors Office, as well as the Bergen County Sheriff Department.
“They deserve public recognition and thanks from the Greater Jewish Community, as well as all the citizens of the state of New Jersey, for working diligently to apprehend this dangerous criminal and bring him to justice”, Rabbi Friedman said.
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5 Responses
Let’s hope this rav doesn’t try to be one of those super ‘politically-correct’ “nice” forgiving guys who’s willing to let this thug off with a lecture about the history of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust and a week of community service.
This was attempted MURDER! This story COULD HAVE HAD a very different, very TRAGIC ending.
This guy deserves some really serious jail time.
#1, firstly why would you suspect that the Rov will forgive him? Secondly, the State will be charging him not the Rov
AinOhdMilvado…Rabbi Schuman has not said anything yet to warrant such a preemptive bombast. Everything worked right in this case, B’H. Neither the Rabbi nor any member of his family was hurt, the entire local community rallied around their Jewish “brethren” – and both the local political establishment and local law enforcement were exemplary. So why are you so hyped up?
He’s probably looking at 20+ years to life.
I suppose it will depend on if he is offered a plea deal or not.
The Rabbi did say early something about the criminal needing therapy, but also that he should be sent to jail.
#1, don’t you think the rabbi is aware of that? There’s not going to go easy on him when they’ve set bail at $5M.