New Israeli Jewish Center Broken Into and Vandalized
Beersheba residents were shocked to discover an act of vandalism at their local Chabad House Monday morning.
Arriving in time for prayer services at the new Chabad-Lubavitch center in southern Israel, they found the front door wide open, glass from interior doors shattered on the floor, and papers strewn about the building’s office. One of the largest such centers in Israel, the building opened in May.
According to Rabbi Zalman Gorelik, director of the Chabad Center of Beersheba, the vandals’ motives were not clear. Although it appeared that nothing was stolen, police are investigating the incident as an attempted robbery.
“It is not clear what this was,” said Gorelik, adding that perhaps some bored teenagers broke into the facility. “It is very strange.”
But the rabbi isn’t worried. A Chasidic saying says that wealth comes after a fire, he noted, and the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, would often teach that supernal beneficence follows tragedy.
