Brussels is targeted: a synagogue was set on fire and three injured

A woman and two children were rushed today (Tuesday) to Brussels hospital suffering from smoke inhalation, following the fire that broke out this morning on the fourth floor at the Anderlecht synagogue.

According to police, the arsonists arrived around 5:30 am to the synagogue, went up to the fourth floor and ignited the flames.

Pierre Aizu fire brigade spokesman in Brussels said that arsonists set fire on the fourth floor of the synagogue - there resides the Synagogue gabbai, whose wife and two children were injured by the fire.

Fire Department closed the street to traffic to facilitate the investigation of the incident.

Yehuda Gutman, president of the Jewish community in Anderlecht, said this morning that he was having trouble thinking of a factor that has a reason to burn the synagogue. According to him, the Anderlecht Jews live in peace with their neighbors, but he added that in 2010 Molotov cocktail was thrown at the synagogue which caused minor damage to the area.

Arson of the synagogue in Brussels came a few days after the opening of the Jewish Museum in Brussels, which was closed since the murder suicide that occurred a few months ago, which killed four people - including a couple from Israel.

Police are investigating the case, when the working assumption is that it is an anti-Semitic incident.

Brussels Rabbi and representative of EU institutions, Rabbi Abraham Gigi said: The community tends to believe that this is a crime of vandalism, but do not rule out the possibility that it is an anti-Semitic crime. We just today re-opened the Museum where four people were killed.

I spoke this morning with Interior Minister of Belgium, Ms. Goel Melki, Belgium police promised that they will overcome the security around Jewish institutions and synagogues prior to the holidays.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!