A massive menorah caught fire outside of a Kensington synagogue just hours before the start of Rosh Hashanah and the blaze may have been a hate crime, authorities said.
Flames erupted from the six-foot tall wooden menorah on the front porch of the vacant Chabad Lubavitch of Kensington, on Ocean Parkway between 18th and Ditmas avenues, early Wednesday morning, a police spokesman said.
Authorities were called to the scene of the suspicious blaze about 10 minutes past midnight, less than 24 hours before Rosh Hashanah began at sundown on Wednesday evening. The holiday marks the beginning of the Jewish New Year and cops are looking into whether the fire was an anti-Semitic arson, though they say they have not ruled out it being an accident.
“There were cigarette butts around [the menorah],” a police spokesman said.
By Thursday morning, the charred menorah laid atop a bed of debris outside of the house of worship, which is currently under renovation and was vacant at the time the fire sparked, officials said.
