AN 18-year Hasidic Jew, said to have been an acolyte of a dictatorial rabbi in the Jewish enclave of New Square, New York, has been charged with the attempted murder of a fellow Jew.
Shaul Spitzer was also charged with attempted arson and assault following an attack in May on “dissident” Aron Rottenberg. who suffered burns over half his body when he confronted someone carrying a flammable liquid outside his home.
A scarred Rottenberg said here:
As I grabbed him … we both just burst into flames.
Relatives said they had been on the alert for an attack. They had suffered broken windows and threats ever since Rottenberg began worshipping at a nearby nursing home instead of the main synagogue.
Police arrested Spitzer, who was also injured, and said he was trying to burn down Rottenberg’s house.
Spitzer’s attorney, Kenneth Gribetz, denied the allegations.
Mr Spitzer has expressed tremendous remorse and sorrow for whatever injuries were caused, He had no intention whatsoever to cause any injury to anybody in the home or to murder anybody.
Rottenberg’s family has alleged in a lawsuit that the attack was directed by Grand Rebbe David Twersky because of Rottenberg’s defiance. Rottenberg claimed:
Definitely the community leaders are involved in this.
Twersky has decried the attack and has not been charged.
But Rottenburg’s lawyer, Michael Sussman, said here:
This horrific act, evocative of the Ku Klux Klan and Nazi Germany, culminated months of bigotry, harassment, and violence toward the Rottenberg family directed by the village’s religious leadership headed by Grand Rebbe David Twersky.
Hat Tip: Name Withheld who originally alerted us to the bizarre goings-on in New Square.