Employee at Yeshivah Targeted In the Past Gets Death Threat

An employee at a yeshivah where a school bus was firebombed last year received death threats Monday from an armed man.

The security guard at Campus Chomesh Beth Rivkah Elementary School in Crown Heights was standing outside the building when he was approached by a man waving a gun.

“Why are you working for the Jewish people?” the man yelled at the 55-year-old guard. “I am going to come back and kill you.” He then drove off. Police are searching for the suspect.

Beth Rivkah was the scene of a bus bombing last May, when four African-American children were caught on surveillance camera setting fire to one of their buses and running away. At least one of them was subsequently arrested.

Rabbi Yaacov Behrman, who heads the Jewish Future Alliance, told Hamodia on Wednesday that the assumption is that the two crimes are unrelated.

“Obviously, there is no connection — we don’t think there’s a connection,” he said.

Campus Chomesh, established by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Harav Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, zt”l, in 1941, is one of the largest Jewish girls’ schools in the world. According to its website, they have 2,000 students and 100 classrooms.

The Orthodox community in Crown Heights has made tremendous strides in overcoming the tensions in the aftermath of the riots 25 years ago. But incidents such as Monday’s underscore the underlying anxiety.

“We commend the Police Department for taking this incident seriously,” Rabbi Behrman said, “and have every confidence that law enforcement will get to the bottom of this and apprehend the perpetrator.”

This article appeared in print on page 1 of the January 26th, 2017 edition of Hamodia.