# 2000 Bronx synagogue firebombing

On the morning of October 8, 2000, the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish year, two Molotov cocktails were thrown, but did not ignite, at the door of the Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale (CSAIR) in the Bronx in New York City. Two Palestinian men were arrested and found guilty for the attack, and were the first suspects to be prosecuted under recently-enacted New York's Hate Crimes Act of 2000. Mazin Assi was found guilty on seven counts of weapons possession, harassment and attempted arson, along with hate crimes violations and received 15 years in prison. The getaway driver Mohammed Alfaqih was found guilty on one count of criminal mischief and sentenced to four years in prison.

## Context

In September and October 2000, there were numerous crimes against Jewish houses of worship. A synagogue fire in St. Paul, Minnesota, destroyed a sukkah erected to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. A fire gutted a synagogue in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, ahead of the holiday of Yom Kippur. There was also a fire during the second week of October at Temple Beth El, in Syracuse, New York.

## Attack

At 3 am on the morning of October 8, 2000, the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish year, two men and a 15-year-old boy threw Molotov cocktails, bottles of a flammable liquid, at the front door of the Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale (CSAIR) in the Bronx in New York City, in what authorities described as an attempt to set fire to the synagogue. The Molotov cocktails failed to ignite. A fourth man was not charged.
Two Palestinians, 21-year-old Mazin Assi and 18-year-old Mohammed Alfaqih of Yonkers were arrested and charged by the Bronx District Attorney for the attack on October 19. The juvenile was charged in family court. Assi and Alfaqih were the first suspects to be prosecuted under New York's Hate Crimes Act of 2000, which increased penalties for crimes motivated by bias. The law went into effect earlier that month.

## Aftermath

Separate trials for Assi and Alfaqih took place in the Bronx County Courthouse, but the respective juries heard the same testimony and saw the same evidence. Both Assi and Alfaqih made taped confessions. Assi told police he "wanted to teach the rich Jews of Riverdale a lesson for supporting Israel." Alfaqih told police he "had hate in his heart for Jewish people." During the trial, the Jewish community avoiding having visibly Jewish observers in the courtroom. Assi was defended by attorney Stanley Cohen and Lynne Stewart.
Assi was found guilty on seven counts of weapons possession, harassment and attempted arson, along with hate crimes violations. On May 1, 2003, he was sentenced to the maximum 15 years in prison.
Alfaqih, the getaway driver, was found guilty on one count of criminal mischief. He was sentenced in February 2003 to 4 years in prison.
Assi appealed his sentence, arguing that the hate crime law had not yet gone into effect because it was a Sunday, and the law was to go into effect on the following Monday. In addition, he said that his actions could not be a hate crime because they were directed at a synagogue, rather than people. The New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division ruled that a hate crime conviction was valid. On March 31, 2010, the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, unanimously said that the stricter punishments under the hate crime law applied.
Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson and the synagogue's president Barry Dov Katz called the sentences appropriate. Katz called the appeal "an affront to our common humanity."