Fire Destroys NY Anti-Zionist Synagogue

Taken from Ynet News, Israel, 04.02.07
By Associated Press

Neturei Karta members suspect arson because of previous threats made after group’s representatives attended Holocaust denial conference in Tehran



A fire destroyed the synagogue and residence of a senior rabbi of an anti-Zionist, ultra-Orthodox Jewish group whose members attended an Iran-sponsored conference late last year that debated the occurrence of the Holocaust.

Police and fire investigators said the blaze Sunday night in Monsey, about 35 miles north of New York City, was considered suspicious because the group, Neturei Karta, has been the target of threats, the Journal News reported on its Website.

Police would not confirm for The Associated Press that the blaze was considered suspicious.

No one was injured in the fire. The senior rabbi who lived at the location was in London.

Rabbi Yisroel Dovid of Neturei Karta said the group suspects arson because of previous threats.
"There's no question that the issue is to stifle the opposition to Zionism," he said by telephone early Monday morning.

Rabbi Moshe Beck, a senior rabbi for the group, lived on the top floor of the building, Dovid said. Beck is one of the group's more outspoken leaders.

"He's the backbone of much of the activity, so that's why he's supposedly been singled out," Dovid said.

In December, about five members of the group traveled to Tehran for a two-day conference convened to debate whether the Holocaust occurred. Some were photographed meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called the Holocaust a "myth" and criticized the existence of Israel.

The conference outraged many other Jewish groups.

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Neturei Karta is a peaceful group that is against Zionism because they see Zionism a force against jewfish laws (what is written in the Torah) as well it being a hindrance towards Jewish groups and causing suffering towards Jews. They seek dialogue for peace when governments and other religious groups would not go. There attendance to the Iranian conference had brought the wrong headlines when it should’ve brought good headlines – a chance for peace. For that

The members that had attended the Holocaust denial conference in Iran have been banned entrance to the State of Israel. These men are citizens of the United States and Europe, some of them have visited Israel in the past, and some even have relatives in Israel. They must be the only Jews not allowed into the so called Jewish state, which like all other Arab countries is not a democratic country in the Middle East.

A new Website launched by New York-based group calls for boycott of Neturei Karta Jews and had even named them and provided their address and telephone numbers for people to harass them. This is disgusting. What happened to freedom of speach?

"OPERATION SCREWBALL" IN MONSEY! http://www.e-agle.com/nk/

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Further Reading: NETUREI KARTA WEBSITE- http://www.nkusa.org/