12/29/2008
Police Investigating Attempted Arson At Synagogue
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago Police hate crime division is investigating an arson attempt on Temple Sholom of Chicago synagogue.

The Chicago Police hate crime division is investigating an arson attempt on a Lakeview synagogue. Police say someone threw a Molotov cocktail in the playground area of the Temple Sholom of Chicago early Monday morning.

CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reports that at about 2 a.m. Monday, a man believed to be in his 20s was seen getting out of a car and attempted to set the temple, located at Cornelia and Lake Shore Drive, on fire.

It narrowly missed a window of a kindergarten classroom. The flames caused some scorching on the exterior of the historic 78-year-old house of worship, but there was no major fire. A witness says the man yelled anti-Semitic remarks before getting back into the car and driving away.

There is surveillance video of the incident, apparently shot by a security camera at the scene. Leaders at Temple Sholom have turned it over to Chicago police, but so far the images have not been helpful.

Leaders in the Jewish community believe it's payback for Israel's deadly counterattack against Hamas in Gaza. Officials in Gaza say more than 315 people have been killed by Israeli strikes there, and an additional 1,400 wounded.

CBS 2's Mike Parker reports members of the congregation are unnerved.

"We don't know what's next. It's obviously a concern with everything that's going on in Israel. It seems to be potentially related to that," temple board president Roger Rudich said.

"We have children in this building many days of the week," Rudich added. "We're very concerned."

The local head of the Anti-Defamation League, Lonnie Nasatir, strongly suspects a connection with the Gaza attacks.

"Emotions run very high. There's a lot of people that feel very strongly on both sides of the issue and sometimes they do in fact take it out in a negative way, in a violent way," Nasatir said.

Chicago area Muslim civil rights leaders are also condemning the Molotov cocktail attack even as they condemn the Israeli assault.

"We don't want it to lead to any hate crimes or escalate any violence," said Amina Sharif of the Council on Islamic American Relations. "We want the violence to stop in Gaza and Israel and it would be a tragedy if somehow that violence crosses borders into other countries."

Nasatir said every time there is Israeli military activity in the Mideast, there is an uptick in anti-Jewish incidents in the U.S. He's hoping, though, that this time will be different.

Chicago Fire Department Arson Investigators were on the scene early Monday, but so far no arrests have been made.

The Office of Fire Investigations deemed the fire as suspicious, so they handed it over to the Chicago Police Bomb and Arson Unit. They are investigating it as a possible hate crime.

Meanwhile Monday Palestinians mourned some of the 315 killed in two days of fighting.

Khalilah Sabra was attending a conference of the Muslim-American Society in Chicago and says another attendee's father is among the dead. She condemns the violence.

"He's been told that his father is dead," Sabra said, "And we don't know where the rest of his family is."

"My heart goes out for the Gazans, for the mainstream Gazans," said Orli Gil of the Israel Consul General. "I do not believe that most of the Gazans think like the Hamas do."

Orli said she's heard critics claim the strength of the Israeli air force's campaign has cause undue devastation. But she insists Israeli officials have warned residents in Gaza before bombings to try to save civilian lives.

"Asking them to evacuate the areas, getting the word out that this and this area is going to be bombed," Orli said.

Experts on the region say Hamas places military infrastructure in neighborhoods, knowing that Israel will strike and that it's an effort to win a war of public opinion.

"There is a public relations battle," said Charles Lipson of the University of Chicago. "Hamas and its friends would like to make Israel into a pariah state. And anything they can do along those lines is what they're going to try to do."

CBS 2's Mike Parker, Pamela Jones and Mike Puccinelli contributed to this report.