Fire Bomb at Chabad House Investigated

The Jewish congregation of Lubavitch Chabad of Niles, which has a synagogue in unincorporated Des Plaines, is planning to install a security system after a “MacGyver” type fire bomb exploded at its front door, authorities reported.

Rabbi Naftoly Hershkovich, co-director of the synagogue, discovered the homemade device the morning of Nov. 9 between the screen door and the front door of the converted house at 9401 Margate Ave., said Penny Mateck, spokeswoman for the Cook County Sheriff’s Police.

The bomb — created from a plastic pop bottle, aluminum foil and chemicals — had gone off sometime earlier, damaging the paint on the interior door. No one was there at the time and no one was injured, she added.

Nov. 9 was the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, translated as “the night of broken glass,” said Avraham Hershkovich, the synagogue’s community-development director.

It was the night in 1938 when Nazis in Germany burned 1,350 Jewish synagogues. More than 91 Jews died, 30,000 were thrown into concentration camps, 7,000 Jewish businesses were destroyed and thousands of Jewish homes were ransacked.

“It was a big shock for our congregation members, many of whom come from Eastern Europe and other parts of Europe. They didn’t expect such anti-Semitism here. Some, who had lived through the Kristallnacht and the Holocaust, were very upset,” Hershkovich said.

The congregation, which had been located in Niles before moving to unincorporated Des Plaines, will set up surveillance cameras and an alarm system, he added.

The sheriff’s office was investigating.