Man Sought in Chabad House Blast

NY Times and COLlive

Local and federal law enforcement officers were searching for a man on Saturday thought to be responsible for an explosion outside a S. Monica synagogue.

The explosion, which caused minor damage to the Chabad House Lubavitch synagogue early on Thursday morning, was initially thought to be the result of an industrial accident. But bomb technicians determined that the blast had been caused by a homemade explosive device, the S. Monica police said.

Investigators have linked the explosives to Ron Hirsch, 60, a transient known to frequent synagogues and Jewish community centers in the area, where he would seek charity.

Although the authorities had not established a motive in the blast, Jewish leaders said they did not believe the episode was an anti-Semitic attack. Still, the Anti-Defamation League sent out a warning to Jewish institutions.

“We have no evidence of this being a hate crime at this point,” said Amanda Susskind, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in Los Angeles. “We have no file on this man as a member of any hate group. Some folks in the community knew him, and it seems like he was just a very troubled soul.”

The F.B.I., the Los Angeles police and the S. Monica police were still trying on Saturday to find and arrest Mr. Hirsch, who sometimes used the alias Israel Fisher, on state charges of possession of a destructive device and unrelated local charges.

“Hirsch is considered extremely dangerous,” Sgt. Jay Trisler of the S. Monica Police Department said in a statement.

The explosion at 6:45 a.m. Thursday sent a metal pipe encased in concrete 25 feet into the air, before it fell onto the roof of a home neighboring the synagogue. Material from the explosion also grazed a wall of Chabad House Lubavitch.

Rabbi Isaac Levitansky was in the synagogue when the blast occurred. He said he only learned of it when the police evacuated 20 people from the synagogue and about 80 others from the area almost an hour later.

On Saturday, none of the congregants expressed any worries about the explosion.

“I feel totally safe, safer today than I’ve ever felt,” Rabbi Levitansky said. “We have no worries about an attack or anything like that.”

The Chabad-Lubavitch Security Commission said in a statement:

“We have no information regarding a specific threat against any Chabad institution, but are in close contact with the relevant agencies, and have advised Chabad Centers around the world to be on alert and extra vigilant.”