Arsonist on vid: DA
‘Kill Rabbi Max’ blaze in B’klyn injured 11 2 men shot, one fatally, in E. Harlem
A Pennsylvania man accused of torching a rabbi’s Brooklyn home in a twisted revenge plot was caught on surveillance video setting the blaze, authorities said Monday.
Menachem “Matthew” Karelefsky, 41, of McKeesport, who has “Never let go of the HATRED – KILL Rabbi Max” tattooed on his arm, was also allegedly caught on tape buying charcoal and matches the day before the June 13 blaze that erupted at the home of Rabbi Jonathan Max, authorities said.
The fire spread to two adjacent homes on E. 17th St. near Avenue N in Midwood, injuring 11 people, including a 6-week-old infant. None of the injuries were serious, and most were treated for smoke inhalation. Max and his family were not among the injured, authorities said.
Karelefsky (photo) was busted June 15 in Manhattan, wearing the same shirt he had on in surveillance video that showed him walking near the victims’ homes before and after the fire, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.
He was arraigned Monday before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Martin Murphy on a 17-count indictment charging him with attempted murder, arson and related charges and was ordered held without bail.
He could get up to 25 years to life if convicted on the top charge. His next hearing is Sept. 10.
According to Gonzalez, video surveillance from across the street shows Karelefsky setting the fire and video from a Midwood grocery the day before the blaze shows him buying charcoal and matches.
Gonzalez said in the aftermath of the blaze, K-9 dogs sniffed out the accelerant under the rabbi’s front porch, where fire marshals found remnants of a Kingsford charcoal bag, charcoal, a plastic milk carton, empty lighter fluid containers, lighter boxes and rags believed to have been drenched in accelerant.
Karelefsky had posted on his Facebook page that he’s divorced, and Max, a teacher at Chaim Berlin Yeshiva, told the Daily News last month that he helped protect Karelefsky’s estranged wife and children. Karelefsky, on his public LinkedIn page, had accused Max of being a pedophile, and he also vented in a 2016 Facebook screed that’s no longer available, The News has reported.
“He needed an idea to get me, and that was the simplest way,” Max said at the time of Karelefsky’s unsubstantiated accusations. “He’s a very, very sick man and he developed a very good plot.” Gunfire killed a 28-year-old man outside an East Harlem housing project early Monday and left a second man wounded, cops said.
Bullets flew in front of the the Wagner Houses on First Ave. near E. 120th St. about 12:58 a.m.
Terrence Santos was shot in the head. Medics took him to Harlem Hospital, where he died at 1:20 a.m., authorities said.
A 27-year-old man shot in the chest was taken to the same hospital in critical condition. His name was not released.
Cops recovered eight shell casings at the scene. There were no immediate arrests.
Santos had an illegal weapons possession conviction and served two years in state prison. He was released in December 2014 and was still on parole. He had prior arrests dating to 2010. A police source linked him and the wounded man to the Flow Boyz crew. The wounded man had survived two previous shootings, in 2018 and 2010, sources said.