Three synagogues in the Sacramento, California area, one of which housed a 5,000-item library of Judaica books and videos, were set ablaze before dawn June 18. The collection of Congregation B’nai Israel in Land Park was destroyed, including some books that were hundreds of years old, and the three buildings suffered a total of some $1 million in damage.
Authorities are searching for several arsonists, since all three fires broke out within a half-hour period, even though the buildings are not located near each other. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms is investigating.
“The fake Albanian refugee crisis was manufactured by the International Jewsmedia,” read a flyer found at the Knesset Israel Torah Center in northeastern Sacramento County, according to the June 19 Washington Post.
Three days after the incidents some 4,500 people attended a nonsectarian unity rally and the damaged synagogues had received more than $25,000 in donations for rebuilding, the June 22 Sacramento Bee reported.
Posted June 28, 1999.