The Chabad Center for Jewish Life in Pleasanton, northern California, caught fire overnight but remained largely intact Friday morning, Pleasanton Weekly reported.
A quick response from local firefighters limited the most significant damage to the exterior and roof of the Pleasanton synagogue, they reported.
The flames were first spotted around 12:45 a.m. Friday coming from the Chabad Center at the corner of Hopyard Road and South Valley Trails Drive, according to LPFD battalion chief Jason Solak.
The Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department reported finding no immediate indications of arson but is still trying to determine what caused the fire just after midnight Friday.
“An incredible thank-you to the firefighters who saved the building. They saved the Torahs and because of them we have our building,” Rabbi Raleigh Resnick, Director of the Chabad of the Tri-Valley, CA told the Pleasanton Weekly. “As a community, we will come together and rebuild, and it will be grander and greater than it was before.”
Resnick told the weekly the building was empty when the fire started, but he was concerned for the Torah scrolls.
He said he arrived to see the Chabad Center in flames but as he tried to go inside to save the scrolls, police and fire personnel held him back — but firefighters were soon able to remove the scrolls undamaged.
Resnick said he’s not sure how the fire ignited on the outside of the building when the Hopyard Road property should have been unoccupied for hours, but he is not jumping to any conclusions about the cause.
“It’s important to not get the people up in arms that ‘they’re burning down synagogues,'” the Rabbi said. “There’s no signs of arson … But it’s certainly suspicious that a fire would start in the middle of the night. We don’t know.”
Services will be held at a temporary location until a long term solution is found, Resnick said.
So scary!!!
Bh the Torah’s were saved and everyone is ok!!!
The Resnicks are amazing shluchim! May you have lots of koach during this challenging time and may you see the bracha of nach a sreifa vert men reich in a revealed and abundant manner.
Thinking of you and sending love, Nechama Dina
You are not alone. We will rebuild and, by “we”, I mean the entire Jewish community including whatever your neighbor Chabad’s can do to help. Raleigh and Fruma are stiff-necked Jews, as are the rest of us. We’ll survive, just as we always have. Here’s to tomorrow and the future. L’Chaim.
Merritt Weisinger