Lod's Religions of Moses and Israel synagogue was burnt down seven months ago, but it's manager has refused a generous donation to restore it, because the benefactor in a Muslim.
Muhammad Abu-Matir, of the Muslim Waqf has offered to put up half the sum needed to rebuild the synagogue, saying that the importance of a place of worship was "a red light to all religions. We will not forego a synagogue any more than we would a mosque."
Nevertheless, Rabbi Avner Hacham is less than enthused: "I'm thrilled that an Arab wants to donate money to restore a synagogue. He said 'I'll rebuild it for you,' but I don’t want an Arab rebuilding it."
When prompted for a reason, Rabbi Hacham said that "we have a Jewish government and Jewish ministers who promised to help. They should keep their word and no leave us in a lurch."
Police investigation into the fire that left the synagogue in ruins, revealed that it caught fire after Arab teens hurled a Molotov cocktail into it. The act, carry out on the heels of the Akko riots, was believed to be nationalistically motivated.
"We know that there are those who would like to pit Arab and Jews against each other, but we don’t want that," said Matir. "We asked the police to give us the names of the suspects, we demanded they be arrested, but we got no response."
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