According to the ‘Jerusalem Post’ there has been another – rather dubious – ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’ this time in the city of Punta Gorda in Florida.
We read how:
‘A fire at a Chabad in Florida ahead of Rosh Hashanah that destroyed a classroom is being investigated as a hate crime, according to local police.
The fire broke out late Friday night following Shabbat services at the Chabad of Charlotte County in Punta Gorda, Florida, charring a children’s classroom, according to the center’s director, Rabbi Simon Jacobson.
“This is terrible, but we will turn it into something positive,” Jacobson told local outlet the Daily Sun. “This to me is the epitome of darkness. The only way to get rid of darkness is to enhance the light, to do something good.”
Jacobson told the newspaper that in the classroom where the fire originated, police had found a broken window as well as traces of fuel both inside and outside of it. The letter “J” was also spray-painted in black in several locations on the buildings’ outside walls and sidewalk.
The fire, which was contained to the classroom and resulted in no injuries, is being investigated as both arson and a hate crime, according to the Punta Gorda Police Department.
Chabad classroom set ablaze in potential hate crime
The Anti-Defamation League of Florida, Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties, and Secure Community Network issued a joint statement on Facebook Sunday, writing that they were “deeply concerned about Friday’s fire and vandalism.”
“Our hearts go out to Rabbi Jacobson, his family, and the entire community during this difficult time,” the statement read. “We have been in touch with Chabad staff to offer our support and stand in solidarity as they begin the rebuilding process.”
The fire occurred just days before Rosh Hashanah, but Jacobson said that holiday services would still commence beginning Monday evening as planned.
“As we approach Rosh Hashanah, a time of renewal, reflection, and hope, let this moment remind us of our collective strength,” wrote Jacobson in an email to his congregants. “This act of hate will not define us or deter us—it will only strengthen our resolve. We will continue to build, to gather, to celebrate, and to spread light.”’ (1)
Now there are four points of interest in this account:
A) Only the children’s classroom was targeted – which seems odd given that it would presumably be easier to target the main synagogue building not just a relatively minor part of the complex.
B) The fire rather oddly occurred just after the synagogue and classroom has been in use, which both indicative and rather convenient at the same time.
C) The fire was quickly detected and contained with no one being hurt with only damage to the children’s classroom and no other part of the building according to the ‘Jerusalem Post’ account.
D) Multiple instances of black spray-painted graffiti which consisted of the letter ‘J’ were discovered.
Now it should be fairly obvious that something is wrong in this narrative because everything is a little bit too convenient; the fire occurs in a relatively unimportant of the Chabad Centre, the fire occurs soon after the children’s classroom and synagogue has been in use, the fire is quickly contained with minimal damage and there are multiple instances of graffiti with the letter ‘J’ on the building.
If it were just the case that points A, B and C were true then I’d be inclined to put it down to being an accidental fire – maybe a member of the congregation snuck into the children’s classroom for a sneaky cigarette and didn’t dispose of the cigarette correctly and the fire was the result – and Jacobson is simply trying to shriek that it was an ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’ for his own personal profit because it ‘might be’.
However, but because of point D – the multiple instances of the graffiti consisting of the letter ‘J’ – it just seems wrong because no ‘anti-Semite’ uses the letter ‘J’ by itself as a way to label jews – the star of David, ‘Jew’ or something like that sure but ‘J’ seems wrong and seems to be an incautious and rather obscure ‘Holocaust’ reference to the ‘J’ stamp used to identify jews in their passports by the Third Reich – (2) which to my mind is simply too much to credit to ‘anti-Semitic vandals’.
It is one of those ‘he doth protest too much’ moments and it makes little sense as a mightily convenient ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’ that causes minimal damage to an relatively unimportant part of the Chabad Centre and then there is really odd - vaguely ‘anti-Semitic’ but in a really obscure way (kind of like someone has been reading one too many ‘Holocaust’ books) – graffiti around the building in multiple instances, but yet we don’t have footage of either the people responsible for the fire or the graffiti.
While all of this occurs days before Rosh Hashanah – what should be one of the busiest services of the year in a Chabad Centre and/or a synagogue – which naturally is going to pull in all sorts of additional visitors and makes one rather suspect that given all these oddities and convenient coincidences – as well as that there is apparently no evidence that the alleged vandals were ever actually present – that the culprit here is not ‘anti-Semitic vandals’ at all but rather Rabbi Jacobson and/or a member of his congregation looking to get more congregants for Rosh Hashanah and/or looking for donations/an insurance payment.
Is this another case of ‘jewish lightning’?
It certainly seems likely.
References
(1) https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-868401
(2) https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/timeline-event/holocaust/1933-1938/reich-ministry-of-the-interior-invalidates-all-german-passports-held-by-jew