Questions linger in synagogue fire
When the Chabad House in San Jose erupted in flames last month and was then vandalized a few days later, Ruth Litwin immediately questioned whether it was driven by antisemitism.
“I think that was everyone’s immediate reaction because of the environment that has evolved since the January 6 nightmare in D.C. and the rise of antisemitism and the hate crimes that have happened across the country and really throughout the world,” said Litwin, who attends the South San Jose synagogue.
A month after the catastrophic events unfolded at the Jewish place of worship, officials have still not determined the cause of the fire nor received any leads. Although police said the morning after the fire that their investigation had determined that the fire was not a hate incident, that has done little to quell concerns from some members of the congregation.
Although donations have been pouring in to help rebuild San Jose’s Chabad House, some congregants are still desperately seeking answers about what happened the morning of the fire, especially in light of a national rise in acts of hate and the Jan. 15 attack on a suburban Texas synagogue.
Over the past several years, the U.S. has seen a surge in incidents of antiJewish hate according to annual audits from the Anti-Defamation League. F.B.I. Director Christopher Wray said that the attack in Texas where a British citizen held four people hostage for 11 hours in a synagogue was being treated as “an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community.”
This month alone, at least 13 instances of antisemitism have been reported across the U.S., including a handful in California. Within the past two weeks, vandals knocked over and damaged a fountain at the Holocaust Memorial
in Santa Rosa Memorial Park, swastikas were drawn on a pedestrian tunnel in Marysville, and antisemitic fliers linking Jewish people to the COVID-19 pandemic and anti-vaccine movement were found at elementary schools in Santa Monica.
“What we’ve seen as a result of polarization and the coarsening of public debates in our country over the last few years is that it’s sort of led to the normalization of more extreme views and beliefs,” said Seth Brysk, a Bay Area-based regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, adding that it’s a natural reaction to consider antisemitism when incidents happen like that at San Jose’s Chabad House last month. “These are attempts to tear at the very fabric of our community and when we see acts of antisemitism or racism or other forms of bigotry, we need to remember it impacts everyone.”
In San Jose, Rabbi Mendel Weinfeld, who moved from Brooklyn two years ago to start the Chabad House in Almaden Valley, said he’s focused on helping his community recover.
Over the past month, the congregation has received more than $600,000 in donations to rebuild its synagogue. Astonished by the
overwhelming support, Weinfeld is setting his sights even higher with plans to launch a capital campaign called “rise from the ashes” with the goal of raising $4.5 million to purchase a facility more than double the size of the space they had before.
“Right away we went into recovery mode,” Weinfeld said. “But upon contemplating, what we realized is that the community really needs a permanent, warm home where they can congregate, embrace their heritage and celebrate it openly.
“The end goal will be that the community has a place to learn, gather and grow together.”
After moving to the South Bay, Weinfeld and his wife held gathering and holiday services at their home for more than a year. Then, during Rosh Hashanah in September 2021, the synagogue held its grand opening at a facility they began renting out at 1088 Branham Lane.
The fire that destroyed the synagogue broke out around 1 a.m. on Dec. 22, 2021. Security camera footage appeared to show an individual walk into the building’s carport with smoke and flames emanating from that area shortly thereafter. The flames spread from the carport to
a space between the first and second floors of the building, damaging nearly everything inside.
The fire was not reported until shortly before 7 a.m. when waste collectors arrived to pick up the garbage. But firefighters, with the help of a community member, were still able to spare the synagogue’s Torah scrolls. Grainy images of an individual who was near the carport at the time the fire broke out were distributed to the San Jose Police Department for assistance locating the individual, but no leads have surfaced, according to Erica Ray, spokesperson for the city’s fire department. Three days after the fire, the Chabad House was broken into and vandalized, according to Weinfeld, but the building’s security cameras had already been taken down so no images were captured for investigators.
The congregation’s leaders and members like Litwin are “choosing to see the light.”
“We can’t look back,” said Litwin, who was born in a Displaced Persons camp in Germany after her parents both survived Holocaust concentration camps. “We just need to keep moving forward to secure a place for everyone so that they can feel safe.”