A homemade bomb that exploded outside a Russian synagogue caused damage to the synagogue and a neighboring house.
No one was injured in the explosion early in the morning June 21 in the town of Tver, about 140 miles from Moscow.
The blast left a gaping hole in the synagogue door, damaged the iron fence of the building and knocked out several windows in the house. Property damage was estimated at $5,000.
Police officials have characterized the incident as “malicious hooliganism”; a criminal investigation has been opened though no suspects have been identified.
A Tver official suggested the explosion could be connected to vandalism at the town’s Jewish cemetery. Extremists from the Russian National Unity movement were arrested in 2006 after vandalizing about 200 Jewish gravestones with swastikas. Several more incidents have occurred since then at the cemetery, but no one has been charged.
The Tver synagogue’s two-story brick building was built at the turn of the 20th century and was renovated in 2004. Anti-Semitic epithets have been painted on its walls, according to the Federation of the Jewish Communities of Russia. — jta