Arsonists set fire to a Brussels synagogue on Tuesday, that was previously firebombed in 2010, but Jewish officials are not ready to declare the incident as anti-Semitic.
The wife and two children of the synagogue’s caretaker, who was not present at the time of the arson, suffered slight smoke inhalation after the fire broke out on the fourth floor of the building, where they live.
“It would seem that the fire was set deliberately,” Laurens Dumont, a spokesman for the city prosecutor, told AFP.
Jewish community officials were even more careful and declared that anti-Semites may not have torched the synagogue because Torah scrolls and sacred books were not burned.
Of course, the arsonists could have anticipated that the fire would spread and would destroy the Torah scrolls, but Jews in the Diaspora often prefer to suppose that they are not targets of hate crimes and that they are not in danger.
Maybe it was not an arson.
Maybe it was not anti-Semitic.
We hope it wasn’t, but don’t be surprised if it was.
Maybe the fact that the synagogue is located in a heavily-populated Muslim area is only coincidental.
Maybe.