Arson Inquiry Widens After 3rd Fire Damages Synagogue

The third suspicious fire in a month damaged Temple Adat Elohim in Thousand Oaks early Friday, prompting the Ventura County Sheriff’s and Fire departments to step up arson investigations into the series of fires at the synagogue.

The most recent blaze was reported by an unidentified passerby at 4:01 a.m., fire investigator David Chovanec said. Damage to the building used as the temple sanctuary was estimated at $25,000.

The fire sent flames through a section of the roof and destroyed the sanctuary door and telephone lines before it was extinguished at 4:19 a.m.

For the second time, the electronic alarm system that the temple installed recently was triggered, said Sandy Greenstein, a member of the temple’s board of directors. Firefighters’ quick arrival prevented more damage, he said.

Temple directors are withholding their comments until next week, when they plan to discuss the fire, Greenstein said. However, temple leaders were determined to hold a regular Friday night service as scheduled.

“Life goes on,” Greenstein said.

The fire follows two others in the past month. On March 11, a suspected arsonist set fire to the sanctuary door, causing about $200 in damage. On March 31, a pre-dawn fire caused about $8,000 damage to the same door. Investigators believe that it was deliberately set, Chovanec said.

Coincidentally, Friday was fire-drill day for about 20 students at the temple’s preschool. A few hours after the fire was extinguished, parents watched, stunned, as work crews stacked charred pieces of the wood-shingled roof and boarded the gaping hole in the roof and the entrance with plywood.

While sheriff’s detectives have not characterized the latest blaze as a hate crime, Cmdr. Bill Wade said he has asked that patrols step up their watch over the temple and that investigators determine whether there is a link to the previous fires, which fire officials have described as apparently unrelated.

The fires have touched off concern in civic and religious circles in Thousand Oaks.

Mayor Frank Schillo said he plans to ask the City Council on Tuesday to consider augmenting a $1,000 reward that the Ventura County Crime Stoppers has offered for information.

“This kind of thing cannot be allowed to continue,” Schillo said.

On Sunday, Schillo participated in a special ceremony at Temple Adat Elohim to denounce a recent spate of attacks against synagogues.

Representatives of a Jewish watchdog organization, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, notified other Ventura County temples to step up their own security in the wake of the fire at Temple Adat Elohim, said Jerry Shapiro, the league’s associate director.

“They have to be on the alert,” he said. “There are copycats out there.”

Last December, vandals defaced all three Ventura County synagogues--Temples Adat Elohim and Etz Chaim in Thousand Oaks and Temple Beth Torah in Ventura--with anti-Semitic graffiti during the week of Hanukkah.

Temple Adat Elohim has been in Thousand Oaks for 25 years and has a congregation of 400 families. Rabbi Alan Greenbaum of the synagogue has been active in interfaith prayers to bring Christian, Muslim and Jewish people together.

“I’ve been here 15 years, and we’ve had nothing like this before,” said Pastor Larry Johnson of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Thousand Oaks. “It does seem like it is an attack on them as a Jewish people, not just someone who wants to start a fire.”

Rabbi Shimon Paskow of Temple Etz Chaim in Thousand Oaks and Rabbi Gary Johnson of Temple Beth Haverim in Agoura Hills said their synagogues are taking extra precautions to prevent similar attacks.

“We haven’t been hit yet, but it’s a question of time,” Johnson said. “It’s just some crazy fellow that’s persistent, and eventually he will be caught.”