A fire at a Jewish community centre in north London has caused up to £250,000 worth of damage. Firefighters were called to reports of a blaze at the Aish centre in Hendon at about 2300 BST on Friday. Two Torah scrolls, hand-written parchments of the Bible and holy Jewish scriptures were also found "torn and desecrated", a centre spokesman said. A police spokesman said the fire is being treated as suspicious and forensic tests have been carried out. "There were several thousands of pounds worth of damage. We are keeping an open mind as to whether the incident was or was not racially aggravated," he said.
"We are treating this as a single one-off incident and at this stage we are pursuing a specific line of inquiry." Rabbi Schiff, executive director of Aish UK - a Jewish educational charity, said: "Seeing Scrolls of the Law torn and strewn on the floor of my own synagogue in London was devastating." The synagogue which is inside the building was not affected by the fire, the spokesman for the centre said.
Go on Schiff, call for someone’s head over this! I anticipate you on BBC radio 4 tomorrow decrying this shamefal act of Anti Semitism and demanding protection for all UK Jewish religious sites and making veiled therats about the security of the entire population if these acts continue. Further I expect you to link this to international affairs in which Jews are being persecuted as a sign of how downtrodden and victimised your faith and its followers are... Ooops, must have meant someone else.
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