Community devastated by fire at Rutherford synagogue
By early Friday evening, nothing remained of the former place of worship on Montross Avenue. The early-morning blaze was a four-alarm fire that residents say turned the dark sky orange.
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Neighbors in Rutherford were left heartbroken by Friday’s early-morning fire that destroyed Congregation Beth El synagogue and community center.
“We're shocked,” said Dennis Corwin, of Rutherford.
“It's devastating,” said a neighbor named Luisa. “It's very sad. It's a place of prayer, it's their safe place.”
By early Friday evening, nothing remained of the former place of worship on Montross Avenue. The early morning blaze was a four-alarm fire that residents say turned the dark sky orange.
On Friday afternoon, borough police said that the cause will remain unknown, but that according to an investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office’s Arson Squad, it is not believed to be criminal.
This was fortunate news for neighbors who remembered a 2012 incident where two people were arrested for firebombing the synagogue.
“All the craziness going on in the world right now, of course that would be top of mind with everyone,” Corwin said. “I'm glad to see that's not the situation.”
Traditional Saturday morning worship will be held outside. The property, which dates back over 100 years, has been a valued part of the Rutherford community in many forms.
“It was my father, Benedict Willis's, childhood home,” said Jeane Willis, who grew up in Rutherford. “It was a Victorian home, an old-fashioned northern New Jersey Victorian home.”
“Adjacent to the property, there's an indoor baseball training facility for Wladyka Baseball, and they train thousands of kids,” Corwin said. “From the looks of it, I don't know that the gym is going to be saved.”
There is a fundraiser on Beth El’s website, jewishrutherford.org, that gathered over $85,000 in barely 12 hours.
“Rutherford's the kind of town that will definitely embrace the rabbi and his family and help them along,” Corwin said.
“We are all holding this community in our hearts and in our hands to hope to rebuild,” said Willis.
