Thieves Target Storm Damaged Synagogue

Ft. Lauderdale, FL — A Ft. Lauderdale temple that suffered damage last month during Tropical Storm Barry (Click here for that story) has once again been hit by a disaster.

The Ft. Lauderdale police say a thief, or thieves, broke into the Chabad Lubavitch of Ft. Lauderdale on North Ocean Drive late Thursday evening or early Friday morning and made off with a laptop computer, a cellular phone and a box full of checks.

Click here for a video report.

The checks were donations, totaling thousands of dollars, made by the members of the temple, to help complete repairs on the building from the damage caused by Barry. Rabbis at the temple told CBS4 they are still trying to collect from their insurance company which originally rejected their claim.

One rabbi said the past four weeks have been difficult, and on the Sabbath, he offered forgiveness to the thieves.

The Chabad Lubavitch was seriously damaged when Barry’s winds caused a 300-foot crane arm to crash through a section of the temple’s roof. The synagogue’s mikvah, a building used at the Orthodox synagogue for ritual cleansing and immersion, was completely destroyed.

The crane was being used to work on the roof of the Playa Del Sol condominiums at 36-hundred Galt Ocean Drive.

The falling crane arm punched through the roof in several spots, opening huge gaps that allowed the rain to pour in. The synagogue’s sanctuary was untouched by the accident.