Posted on 05/24/2011 6:38:01 PM PDT by Gamecock
MYFOXNY.COM - Aron Rottenberg is recovering at Westchester Medical Center with burns on 50 percent of his body. The pain is excruciating, his family says. He was burned when he and his son wrestled with a would-be arsonist who on 4 a.m. Sunday had placed flammable rags on Rottenberg's wooden back porch in New Square and tried to light them, according to police.
Four hours later, cops arrested Shaul Spitzer, 18, who lives nearby. He had burns on his hands. He was charged with arson, attempted murder, and assault.
Rottenberg's wife and daughters were at home sleeping when his son saw on security cameras there was a man in the backyard. They could have died in the fire according to police and the victim's son in law.
Moshe Elbaum, the victim's son-in-law, said Rottenberg's problems began after he started a prayer group in the Friedwald Center instead of the main synagogue of the Skver Hasidim, a block away.
Elbaum said that last year the rabbi of the synagogue, David Twersky, announced no one should pray outside the main synagogue.
That day, Rottenberg's car windows were broken, then his house windows, then 100 people chanted outside his home "Aron Rottenberg, leave the neighborhood," then the attempted firebombing.
Police acknowledged that these incidents occurred but have made no arrests in any of them. They also said they have no known motive for Sunday's attempted firebombing.
Cops said Spitzer, who will be arraigned form his hospital bed, will not speak to them.
That’s some prayer group!
Calling Rodney King!
Unbelievable story.
Lord have mercy on the person who tried to set the fire. In the name of Jesus I pray for healing of Rottenberg.
I thought praying in your private room was OK???
Different scripture, I know.
Burns are awful. I hate even the little ones I get.
I hope the arsonist is locked away for good so he can’t do this to someone else.
A Jewish friend told me this joke years ago:
A man is marooned on a desert island for decades. Finally, one day, a boat pulls in to rescue him.
He shows the rescuers around and they see that he has built three synagogues.
He points to one of them and says, “See? That’s where I go.”
He ignores the other two, so finally one of the rescuers asks him about them.
“Oh, that one?” he says. “That’s the the temple that I used to go to.”
The rescuer asks about the other one.
“Oh, that one! That’s the one to which I would never go in all my life!”
You know it’s got to be the ultra Orthodox. They’re pretty much the only Jews who care enough about religious disputes to commit violence.
Oh, I wanted you to be wrong, but the synagogue was the Skver Hasidim. Hassidic Jews. Ultra-orthodox. Be sure, however, the motivation was money and control; the burned man seems to have been perceived of as a rival.
Oddly enough, the Skver Hasidim, according to Wikipedia, is from Skver, itself an offshoot of a dynasty founded in a little Ukranian town you probably never heard of.
Chernobyl.
Yeah. Who knew that Chernobyl was the birthplace of one of the major branches of Hasid?
Heheheh. My wife’s only a tiny portion Jewish. (Like normal people, she’s asleep right now.) Yet, I bet she’ll still identify with that one.
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