Author Topic: Temple Beth El  (Read 23436 times)

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Temple Beth El
« on: December 24, 2011, 11:56:16 AM »
I've spoken with a bunch of residents about this over the last few days. What many find particularly distressing is that things like this don't happen here often.  Hackensack has always prided itself on being open and tolerant.  When something like this does happen here, we can't just shrug our shoulders. 

If you have any information about who may have done this, please step forward.
_______________________________________

Police suspect link in Hackensack, Maywood synagogue desecrations
Wednesday December 21, 2011, 6:46 PM
BY STEPHANIE AKIN
STAFF WRITER
The Record

An interfaith celebration of diversity in response to a Maywood synagogue defacement was met with a fresh act of hatred this week, when the same anti-Semitic graffiti was scrawled across the façade of a Hackensack temple just a mile away.

Swastikas, white supremacist symbols and an accusation that Jews caused 9-11 were painted on the façade and the front sidewalk of Hackensack’s Temple Beth El within hours of the Tuesday night ceremony at the Reconstructionist Temple Beth Israel on Maywood’s Magnolia Avenue, which was meant to usher in the Hanukkah holiday and demonstrate solidarity in response to the first attack.

Community leaders said they found the near simultaneity of the two events distressing.

“It was truly one of the most heartening meaningful experiences, only to see today that this can happen in a neighboring town is repulsive,” said Joy Kurland, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council at the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey. “It’s unacceptable. Its abhorrent.”

Police said they were operating on the assumption that the two attacks were connected. Authorities said the incident happened late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

“We think they’re the same actors,” Hackensack police Capt. Thomas Salcedo said Wednesday.

The Maywood and Hackensack police departments were cooperating in the investigation, which also involves the state Department of Criminal Justice because it is considered a bias crime. Teaneck police were also informed to stay alert because the township is home to more than 20 synagogues and Jewish congregations, Hackensack police Capt. Tomas Padilla said.

A secretary discovered the damage at the Hackensack synagogue shortly after she arrived at work Wednesday morning, said Mark Zettler, president of the Beth El Congregation.

She did not see the writing at first because she entered through a back door, but when she entered her office, she saw a black swastika spray-painted across the front window, Zettler said.

The graffiti included three swastikas spray-panted on the front of the building, one of them on the front door. The numbers 14/88 — a white supremacist symbol referencing a quotation about race cleansing and a salute to Adolph Hitler — was scrawled in red four times on a brick part of the facade, Salcedo said. In addition, the words, “Jews did 9-11” were left in black paint on a front sidewalk and an anarchy symbol was on another part of the building.

The news of the vandalism was met with a swift community outcry.

The Anti-Defamation League condemned the incident in a statement.

“At a time when Jews are celebrating the joyous festival of Hanukkah, they instead find themselves cleaning symbols of hatred off their place of worship,” said Etzion Neuer, Anti-Defamation League Director of Community Service & Policy in the New York Regional Office.

Rabbi Jarah Greenfield, of the Reconstructionist Temple Beth Israel, said she planned to reach out to the Hackensack synagogue to let them know they had the backing of a large cross-section of the community.

“It is being met with concern and strength and all the right responses on the part of people who play public roles,” she said.

And Kurland said her group is hoping to organize another demonstration against acts of hatred inspired by both attacks.

Zettler said that he wasn’t concerned about the safety of the congregation, but that the incident was disheartening.

“It’s a wakeup call for anyone who thinks things are just easy and OK,” he said. “There are always people out there trying to make a statement and hurt people in that way. This was just one of those times.”

The building was empty Wednesday other than teachers and about 27 children in a daycare program that rents the building.

Hackensack police scheduled extra patrols, but kindergarten teacher Jessie Harilaou said she was still concerned.

“It is devastating,” she said. “Completely devastating. It’s heart-wrenching that someone could do this to the community.”

The Conservative congregation synagogue has about 115 members, but the next service won’t be held until Saturday, when the congregation has a Hanukkah luncheon and a Sabbath service planned, Zettler said. He said he hoped to have the graffiti removed by then.

Email: akin@northjersey.com
« Last Edit: December 24, 2011, 11:58:05 AM by Editor »



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Re: Temple Beth El
« Reply #1 on: December 26, 2011, 06:32:39 PM »
Reward Offered in Bergen County Anti-Semitic Vandalism Cases
Teaneck police alerted to nearby incidents, monitoring area houses of worship
By Noah Cohen
December 26, 2011

The Anti-Defamation League is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in two recent incidents where area synagogues were defaced with swastikas and anti-Semitic messages.

The first incident was reported Dec. 10 at Temple Beth Israel in Maywood, according to the Anti-Defamation League. A similar crime was reported on the first day of Hanukkah at Temple Beth El in Hackensack. Police have said they believe the two incidents are linked.

“We are deeply troubled by a repeat attack on a Jewish place of worship in Bergen County," Etzion Neuer, ADL director of community service and policy in the New York Regional Office said in a statement. "At a time when Jews are celebrating the joyous festival of Hanukkah, they instead find themselves cleaning symbols of hatred off their place of worship. While graffiti swastikas are often the work of malicious juveniles, the appearance of white supremacist symbols strongly suggests an extremist connection."

In the Hackensack case, swastikas, the phrase 'Jews Did 9/11,' and the white-supremacist code '14/88,' were found, the statement said.

Teaneck Police Chief Robert Wilson said he has been in touch with Hackensack’s top police official, Capt. Tomas Padilla, about the nearby incidents. No similar cases have been reported in Teaneck recently, police said.

“We are monitoring all our houses of worship vigilantly,” Wilson said. “We ensured that all of our officers are aware these incidents have occurred.”

Teaneck officers regularly conduct checks at the town’s more than 40 religious sites.

Authorities urged anyone with information to contact the Hackensack Police Department at 201-646-7777 or Crime Stoppers at 201-488-4222.
« Last Edit: December 28, 2011, 10:53:03 AM by Editor »

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Re: Temple Beth El
« Reply #2 on: December 28, 2011, 10:50:20 AM »
Public rallies in support of vandalized Hackensack, Maywood synagogues
Tuesday December 27, 2011, 10:16 PM
BY LINH TAT
STAFF WRITER
The Record

HACKENSACK — Responding to two anti-Semitic incidents in Bergen County this month, the public at large joined members of the Jewish community Tuesday to send a message that hate-based acts would not be tolerated.


MICHAEL KARAS / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER 
Joanne Rose, a secretary at Temple Beth El and the person who discovered the graffiti at the Hackensack synagogue, wipes away tears during Tuesday night's service. About 160 people gathered at Temple Beth El in Hackensack for a “Service of Rededication,” in a united message of peace and to commemorate the last night of Hanukkah. The evening included singing, readings and speeches by religious leaders of different faiths as well as civic leaders.

“My message today is not for you who are here today. My message is for those who write graffiti. … We’re calling you out,” said Daniel Kirsch, former chair of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Bergen County.

“In … America, there’s a place for everyone. But there’s no place for you,” he said, garnering the loudest applause of the evening.

On Dec. 10, anti-Semitic graffiti was spray-painted on the property of Temple Beth Israel, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Maywood. A week-and-a-half later, on the first day of Hanukkah, swastikas were scrawled on the façade of Temple Beth El, a conservative synagogue in Hackensack.

The Rev. Donald Pitches, president of the Bergen County Council of Churches, an organization of Christian churches and clergies, said before the ceremony that it was important for individuals, regardless of religious background, to stand up against any act of hate.

“Anti-Semitism and violence and desecration on any house of worship really is an attack against all of us,” he said.

Mayor Jorge Meneses of Hackensack reiterated a message he has previously delivered, vowing that the city, through its Police Department, would take measures against anyone found responsible for the graffiti.

“When these things happen, it’s not [only] that particular community that suffers and feels awful. We as a whole city feel it, too,” he said.

Tuesday’s ceremony aimed not only to send a strong message to those who defaced the synagogues that their acts would not be tolerated, but also to provide healing, organizers said.

For Illana Galed, 23, of Hackensack, being asked to light the menorah at the end of the service alongside her mother helped in the healing process. Her grandparents both survived the Holocaust.

“I did it for my mother and my grandmother,” she said of her role in the service. “When you see a swastika, you don’t want history to repeat itself.”

Larry Lesh of Maywood braved the wet weather to attend the ceremony. Though he was raised in Maywood, he celebrated his bar-mitzvah at the Hackensack synagogue decades ago and said it was his “duty” to return and support the community. After the ceremony, he said the evening did provide relief.

“It helped me in the sense that I could see that we have support from the government. We’re not in this alone. And we can’t be in this alone,” he said.
____________________
The back story

On Dec. 10, anti-Semitic graffiti was spray-painted on the property of Temple Beth Israel, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Maywood. On Dec. 21, the first day of Hanukkah, swastikas were scrawled on the façade of Temple Beth El, a conservative synagogue in Hackensack.

Authorities believe the two incidents are connected.

Hackensack police have been working with investigators from Maywood and the state Department of Criminal Justice. They said Tuesday there were still no suspects but that the case remained active.

Last week, the Anti-Defamation League offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Anyone with information may call Hackensack police at 201-646-7777 or Crime Stoppers at 201-488-4222.
__________________

Email: tat@northjersey.com

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Re: Temple Beth El
« Reply #3 on: January 25, 2012, 03:01:39 PM »
Man arrested in firebombings of 2 NJ synagogues
Published January 24, 2012
Associated Press


Jan. 24: This undated photo of Anthony Graziano was released by the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office in New York.

HACKENSACK, N.J. –  An unemployed teenager charged Tuesday with firebombing two synagogues is an anti-Semite whose hatred of Jews guided his actions, authorities said.

Anthony Graziano, of Lodi, was charged with the Jan. 11 attack on a Rutherford synagogue and the Jan. 3 firebombing of a synagogue in Paramus. He was being held on $5 million bail.

The charges include nine counts of attempted murder, bias intimidation, arson and aggravated arson. The 19-year-old Graziano was scheduled to make an initial court appearance Wednesday morning.

"We have no doubt that the arson and attempted murder in Rutherford were a direct result of Mr. Graziano's hatred of people of the Jewish faith," county prosecutor John Molinelli said Tuesday.

Molinelli and other authorities didn't speculate on what may have spurred Graziano to action. They described him as a 2010 high school graduate and loner who lacked access to a car but searched for nearby synagogues on the Internet and rode his bike to the two locations and, at the Rutherford synagogue, threw several Molotov cocktails and other incendiary devices before fleeing. He is believed to have acted alone.

Graziano's father, whose name is also Anthony Graziano, told The Record newspaper that he sees his son infrequently but that his son had never said anything to suggest he had any animosity toward Jews.

He called his son a great kid but said "he's confused."

A man who answered the door at the teen's home in Lodi told The Associated Press that the young man's mother was too distraught to speak and had known nothing of his activities.

The Rutherford attack narrowly avoided causing serious injury and possibly death. According to police, the Molotov cocktails were thrown at Congregation Beth El early on Jan. 11, igniting a fire in the second-floor bedroom of Rabbi Nosson Schuman's residence. The rabbi, his wife, five children and his parents were sleeping at the time. Molinelli said Graziano knew people were in the residence when he threw the bombs.

"I'm elated," Schuman said Tuesday about the arrest. "It's been a very stressful two weeks even with police coverage at our home. We're still a little scared because obviously this guy's not normal. Maybe this will restore life back to some normality, though we will still be doing outreach to try and restore unity."

The fire at Congregation K'Hal Adath Jeshuran in Paramus was discovered on the morning of Jan. 3 when members smelled gas in the building and contacted authorities. Fire and police officials determined an accelerant had been used in the rear of the building to start a fire. The fire had quickly burned itself out, and no injuries were reported.

Molinelli speculated Tuesday that Graziano might have changed his methods after the Paramus attack, resulting in far more firepower directed at the Rutherford synagogue.

Graziano's arrest was the end result of meticulous police work combined with an alert public. Once the ingredients of the bombs used in the Rutherford attack were identified -- low-grade motor oil, duct tape, hairspray and empty bottles of raspberry Crush soda -- investigators searched for stores that sold all those items. They came up with a Wal-Mart in nearby Saddle Brook and were able to pull surveillance video showing a man buying those items on Jan. 9.

Last week, they released still photos and video and received tips that led them to Graziano late Monday at the residence where he lives with his mother and siblings. Molinelli implied that evidence taken from Graziano's residence related to the synagogue attacks wasn't the only indication of his religious views, but he declined to elaborate.

Attempted murder carries a minimum 30-year sentence upon conviction, while arson carries a 15-year maximum sentence.

In the weeks leading up to the fire bombings, anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered at synagogues in Hackensack and Maywood, according to police. Two days after the Rutherford attack, a swastika was found scrawled in a park in Fair Lawn, though police haven't said if it is connected to the other incidents.

"It is very disturbing that a hate monger was living right in our midst in Bergen County," said Etzion Neuer, acting New Jersey director of the Anti-Defamation League. "But this sends a message that it will not be tolerated."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/24/arrest-made-in-firebombings-new-jersey-synagogues/#ixzz1kVBTBN6T

Latest Record article.
« Last Edit: January 25, 2012, 05:48:50 PM by Editor »

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Re: Temple Beth El
« Reply #4 on: January 27, 2012, 01:05:09 AM »

« Last Edit: November 03, 2013, 07:04:48 PM by Editor »

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Re: Temple Beth El
« Reply #5 on: February 10, 2012, 11:06:34 AM »
Hackensack's Jewish community grateful for support after recent bias incident
Last updated: Friday February 10, 2012, 1:24 AM
BY MARK J. BONAMO
MANAGING EDITOR
Hackensack Chronicle

The signs seen in December at Temple Beth El synagogue, in Hackensack, were not good – swastikas, white-supremacist symbols and an accusation that Jews caused the 9/11 terrorist attacks were spray-painted on the building. It was an injury made more insulting by the fact that the defacement was found on the first day of Hanukkah.

The incident in Hackensack was part of a wave of anti-Semitic bias incidents that occurred in Bergen County in recent weeks. These events included a similar synagogue defacement in Maywood in December, an act of arson at a Paramus synagogue early last month, followed shortly thereafter by the firebombing of a Rutherford synagogue.

But despite finding these incidents deeply disturbing, Hackensack’s Jewish community also found something else. There has been empathy and support for the community on official and unofficial levels that demonstrated the recent bias attacks did not dislodge their place in the city’s social fabric but deepened it.

"In all my time in Bergen County, I’ve personally never experienced overt anti-Semitism that I can think of," said Larry Eisen, the treasurer of Temple Beth El, who has lived in Hackensack for more than 40 years. "If anything, what happened has brought the Jewish community together."

Eisen noted not only the visible support of local politicians, including the City Council, Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan, State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, U.S. Reps. Steve Rothman, Bill Pascrell and Scott Garrett and U.S. Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez. He was particularly impressed with the response of local law enforcement, including the Hackensack Police Department, the Bergen County Police Department and the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office.

But for Eisen, what was most notable was the support for the local Jewish community provided by the general public.

"We have had an outpouring of people, not all Jewish and not all from this area, sending us spontaneous donations to pay for the cleanup of the building and to pay for increased security measures," Eisen said. "We got a very large check from a man in Texas saying how outraged he was and that we should use his funds to improve the situation."

While the synagogue considers how to spend the funds, Eisen considered the arrest of Anthony Graziano last month. Graziano, 19, of Lodi, plead not guilty to charges of attempted murder, aggravated arson and bias intimidation related to the firebombing in Rutherford and arson attack in Paramus. No one has been charged in relation to the incidents in Hackensack or Maywood.

Eisen was relieved by the arrest of Graziano and hopes for arrests soon regarding the other bias incidents. He expressed a high level of confidence about where he thought the culprit in Hackensack definitely was not from.

"I am positive that whoever did this did not come from Hackensack," Eisen said. "This is so alien to the character of Hackensack — we’re a community of so many different races, ethnic groups and religions. We have all lived side by side for so many years that I would be flabbergasted if it turned out to be someone from Hackensack."

Rabbi Robert Schumeister echoed Eisen’s comments about both the wider community’s response to the incidents as well as who might be responsible.

"Whoever did this, whether an individual or a group, is in no way reflective of the community at large," Schumeister said. "The support we have gotten is a statement that this is a community where this type of incident is not acceptable, nor will it be tolerated. There has been recognition that if any one group is singled out, we are all threatened. There is a shared fate for us all."

Email: bonamo@northjersey.com


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« Last Edit: March 05, 2012, 11:40:31 AM by Editor »

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Re: Temple Beth El
« Reply #7 on: March 05, 2012, 11:43:41 AM »
Synagogue firebomb suspect pleads not guilty
Monday March 5, 2012, 10:40 AM
BY MARLENE NAANES, KIBRET MARKOS AND MONSY ALVARADO
STAFF WRITERS
The Record

HACKENSACK — The alleged accomplice in the North Jersey synagogue attacks pleaded not guilty on several charges that included aggravated arson, bias intimidation and criminal mischief Monday morning.
 

AMY NEWMAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Aakash Dalal, 19, enters Bergen County Superior Court Monday, March 5, 2012. Dalal, of New Brunswick, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, aggravated arson, bias intimidation and criminal mischief for his alleged role in attacks on synagogues in Bergen County.

Aakash Dalal, 19, of New Brunswick, is accused of playing a role in the firebombing of a Rutherford synagogue and the arson at a Paramus temple. He also is accused of being present while graffiti was sprayed on the grounds of Hackensack and Maywood synagogues.

His attorney, Chris DiLorenzo, said Dalal is being prosecuted more for the use of malicious words than for any criminal behavior.

“Malicious words are not criminal acts,” DiLorenzo said. “Based on what I’ve seen so far there is no criminal act.”

DiLorenzo was apparently referring to evidence released Friday by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office when authorities announced Dalal’s arrest.

Dalal and prime suspect in the firebombing, Anthony Graziano, used instant messages and emails to share ideas on creating an effective Molotov cocktail and what “all-wood” temple would be their next target, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said. Graziano was arrested for his alleged role in the attacks in January.

Both men are being held on $2.5 million bail in Bergen County Jail.

Dalal is charged with nine counts of criminal mischief, conspiracy to commit aggravated arson, aggravated arson and bias intimidation. His case is headed to the grand jury.

Graziano is charged with charged with nine counts of attempted murder among other charges. On Friday, Molinelli showed messages he said Graziano and Dalal exchanged after the Jan. 3 fire at the Paramus synagogue, as well as messages on Jan. 8 when Graziano allegedly decided the Rutherford temple would be his next target.

The Rutherford firebombing was the most violent: One of several incendiary devices entered the second floor of the temple, which also serves as the residence for Rabbi Nosson Schuman and his family. The bomb landed in the rabbi’s bedroom, while he and his wife were sleeping. Schuman suffered burns to a hand while extinguishing the blaze, but his family was able to flee the premises safely.

Email: naanes@northjersey.com, markos@northjersey.com and alvarado@northjersey.com

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Re: Temple Beth El
« Reply #8 on: May 07, 2012, 11:45:12 AM »
Teen charged in synagogue arsons also accused in Rutgers fire
Friday May 4, 2012, 5:03 PM
BY KIBRET MARKOS
STAFF WRITER
The Record

One of the two teens accused in arsons at local synagogues earlier this year is facing new charges in Middlesex County, where authorities say he tried to burn a building associated with military affairs at Rutgers University.
 
Aakash Dalal, 19, set newspapers on fire and slid them under the porch and through the mail-slot of the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps building at the New Brunswick campus on Dec. 10, 2011, according to a criminal complaint signed Thursday by campus police.

No one was injured in the attack, and the building sustained minor damage, with some burning under the porch and debris inside the mail slot, Rutgers spokesman Greg Trevor said Friday.

Trevor said a former Rutgers student, Michael Leviss, also was charged in the attack.

Leviss, 21, was arrested Thursday night and charged with arson, and was released Friday afternoon on $35,000 bail, Middlesex county jail officials said Friday. A person who picked up the phone at Leviss’s East Brunswick home Friday afternoon said Leviss “cannot come to the phone” and hung up.

Dalal, 19, grew up in Lodi and was a student at Rutgers University until he went on leave last year. He was charged with third-degree arson in the Rutgers incident.

Dalal’s attorney, Chris DiLorenzo, said his client took no part in the attack, which he described as a 1960s-style, anti-war protest.

Synagogues attacked

Bergen County prosecutors arrested Dalal in March and charged him with taking part in a series of attacks against synagogues that left the local Jewish community on edge for weeks.

Authorities said Dalal was a mastermind of sorts who offered advice and strategy through email to 19-year-old Anthony Graziano of Lodi, who did the legwork and rode his bike to several targets. They also allege that Dalal and Graziano spraypainted anti-Semitic graffiti at different locations in Hackensack and Maywood.

Prosecutors said the most serious attack came on Jan. 11, when Graziano hurled several Molotov cocktails into the living quarters of a Rutherford synagogue where a rabbi was sleeping with his wife and five children. The rabbi suffered burns to a hand, but all others escaped without injuries.

Graziano also tried to set fire to a synagogue in Paramus on Jan. 3, and gathered beer bottles and gasoline in a wooded area near the Jewish Center of Paramus, which he was planning to burn down, prosecutors said.

Authorities later released email and chat exchanges between Dalal and Graziano, showing that Dalal encouraged Graziano to carry out the attacks, offered advice on how to cause more damage, and congratulated him after the Rutherford attack.

Graziano, who was arrested in January, is charged with several counts of attempted murder, aggravated arson and bias intimidation. He is being held at the Bergen County Jail in lieu of $2.5 million bail as his case awaits presentation to a county grand jury.

Dalal is charged with bias intimidation and aggravated arson and also is being held at the Bergen County Jail in lieu of $2.5 million bail, an amount that a judge refused to lower on Friday despite a request by his attorney, DiLorenzo.

Bail reduction sought

DiLorenzo argued at a hearing in Superior Court in Hackensack that Dalal might have confessed to exchanging emails with Graziano, but that the exchange does not amount to conspiracy.

DiLorenzo said Dalal’s bail was excessive and cited several cases, including homicides, in which the bail amounts are lower than Dalal’s.

The bail amount was not designed to ensure Dalal’s subsequent appearances in court, DiLorenzo said.

“It is designed to prevent the defendant from ever making bail,” he said.

Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Roma was reluctant to draw comparisons, however.

“This is a case the likes of which have not been seen in this county,” he said. “This is one of the most insidious, hateful and mean-spirited offenses.”

Martin Delaney, an assistant Bergen County prosecutor, said at the hearing that Dalal is facing 55 to 110 years in prison if he is convicted of the charges.

Prosecutors have said Graziano also is facing a sentence that amounts to a life term if he is convicted.

DiLorenzo said he will now ask an appeals court to lower Dalal’s bail amount.

Email: markos@northjersey.com

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Re: Temple Beth El
« Reply #9 on: March 01, 2013, 04:13:10 PM »
2 indicted in firebombings at Bergen County synagogues, attempted murder of rabbi
Friday, March 1, 2013    Last updated: Friday March 1, 2013, 1:51 PM
BY  JIM NORMAN
STAFF WRITER
The Record

Two men were indicted Friday on charges related to fire bombings and arsons at several Bergen County synagogues as well as the attempted murder of a rabbi and his family, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli announced.


BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE
Aakash Dalal (left) and Anthony Graziano


The men, Anthony M. Graziano of Lodi and Aakash A. Dalal of New Brunswick, are accused of attacks against Temple Beth El in Rutherford, Temple K’Hal Adath Jeshrun in Paramus and the Jewish Community Center in Paramus, as well as bias intimidation at Temple Beth Israel in Maywood and Temple Beth El in Hackensack, authorities said.

In addition, Graziano is accused of the attempted murder of Rabbi Nosson “Neil” Schuman and his family, Molinelli said. The attempted murder charges stem from the fire bombing of Temple Beth El in Rutherford on Jan. 11, 2012.

The most serious of the counts charged in the indictment could bring sentences of 30 years to life in prison. Both men are in custody at the Bergen County Jail, Graziano in lieu of $2.5 million bail, and Dalal in lieu of $5.5 million bail, authorities said.

Dalal initially was held in $2.5 million bail, but bail had been reduced to $1 million, and just as he was about to be released after he posted the lower amount last June, he was accused of plotting to kill the assistant prosecutor working on his case. Bail was raised back to $2.5 million and an additional $3 million was added at that time.

Graziano is accused of nine counts of first-degree attempted murder, three counts of first-degree bias intimidation, three counts of first-degree conspiracy to commit arson against a synagogue and three counts of first-degree arson against a synagogue.

Dalal is accused of three counts of first-degree bias intimidation, three counts of first-degree conspiracy to commit arson against a synagogue and two counts first-degree aggravated arson against a synagogue.

Both men are also accused of terrorism, possessing destructive devices and hindering apprehension, authorities said.

All the acts charged in the indictment took place between Dec. 11, 2011 and Jan. 11, 2012.

Email: norman@northjersey.com

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Re: Temple Beth El
« Reply #10 on: November 03, 2013, 07:03:49 PM »
Bergen firebombing case to stay in county, NJ Superior Court judge rules
Friday November 1, 2013, 7:35 PM
BY  KIM LUEDDEKE
STAFF WRITER
The Record

HACKENSACK – A Superior Court judge on Friday rejected a bid to move the prosecution of two men accused of firebombing several synagogues, a Jewish community center and a rabbi’s home last year out of Bergen County and remove the county Prosecutor’s Office from the case.

 
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER/VIOREL FLORESCU
Aakash Dalal, one of the two men accused in the firebombing of Jewish facilities in 2011 and 2012, in Hackensack courtroom.  “There is no indication that the jury pool has been tainted, or so tainted that the defendant can’t get a fair and impartial jury,” Judge Edward Jerejian said during a motion hearing in the case of Aakash Dalal, one of two men accused in a series of arson and firebomb attacks in Bergen County in 2012 that left the local Jewish community in fear for weeks.

Ian Silvera, the attorney for Dalal’s co-defendant, Anthony Graziano, did not present his own arguments Friday but said that he was joining in the motion brought by Dalal’s attorney, Brian Neary.

Neary argued that his client’s case should be prosecuted outside Bergen County due to the amount of pretrial publicity it has garnered. He noted the Prosecutor’s Office has held “numerous” press conferences on the case and used what Neary called “inflammatory terms,” such as describing Dalal as the instigator or a “teacher” to Graziano.

Neary argued that the Prosecutor’s Office has a conflict of interest because Dalal is accused of conspiring to kill the assistant Bergen County prosecutor who had been handling his case, Martin Delaney. Dalal has been charged in that case.

Neary also raised concerns over allegations that Dalal had threatened Superior Court judges Patrick Roma and Liliana DeAvila-Silebi, who is the presiding judge of the criminal division in the Bergen vicinage. Roma refused to lower Dalal’s bail at least twice last year. Dalal has appeared before DeAvila-Silebi in connection with the Delaney case.

“So not only are we worried about Delaney’s relationship to the judicial system, but now it appears a member of the judiciary is the subject of a threat,” said Neary.

Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Annmarie Cozzi countered that the publicity surrounding this case had not been so pervasive or damaging as to be prejudicial. As for concerns over her office’s ability to argue a case involving one of its members, she said the Prosecutor’s Office has a history of prosecuting cases in which a prosecutor was the victim.

Delaney has been taken off the case and has no involvement in it, she said.

“People in the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office certainly recognize the responsibility to do justice,” Cozzi said. To suggest they would do otherwise, she said, “Seems a bit of a reach to me.”

Email: lueddeke@northjersey.com

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Re: Temple Beth El
« Reply #11 on: May 15, 2014, 12:56:29 AM »
Rally at N.J. State House calls for speedier trial for Bergen County firebombing suspect
May 14, 2014, 12:46 PM    Last updated: Wednesday, May 14, 2014, 11:50 PM
By MICHAEL LINHORST and MONSY ALVARADO
staff writers
The Record

More than two years after Aakash Dalal was locked up in Bergen County Jail on charges that he helped plan vandalism and arson attacks against Bergen County synagogues, his parents and hundreds of other supporters rallied in Trenton on Wednesday to protest the length of time he has spent behind bars.

- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/hundreds-at-state-house-rally-call-for-faster-trial-for-bergen-county-firebombing-suspect-video-1.1015723?page=all#sthash.oKppd4hz.dpuf



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