RUTHERFORD, N.J. - New Jersey law enforcement officials urged residents and religious institutions to be vigilant after a Rutherford synagogue and its rabbi’s sleeping quarters were firebombed early yesterday, the fourth such incident within a month that has been classified as a bias crime against a Jewish center or religious institution in northern New Jersey.
Bergen County prosecutor John Molinelli said there was no evidence yet linking the four incidents, but investigators had not ruled out that they might be connected. In addition to being classified as a bias crime, Molinelli said, yesterday’s fire at Congregation Beth El in Rutherford was possibly the work of more than one person. He said several incendiary devices were thrown at the building, which houses a synagogue on its first floor and the rabbi’s living quarters on the second. Molinelli said it was being classified as an attempted murder, after an incendiary device was thrown into the rabbi’s bedroom.
