A Good Deed, Repaid with Hate

As I'm sure you've read, my shul I grew up in, the Riverdale Jewish Center was the target of an attempted (and thankfully foiled) attack by 4 muslim men yesterday.

My brother Yaakov had an interesting take of why these men would have chosen the RJC. Several months back, our shul, led by Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, agreed to provide a place to pray for a young muslim girl who attended the local Jr. High across the street and who had nowhere to worship as she chose during school hours. The story was initially picked up by the Riverdale Press and then eventually by the NY Times culminating in a high profile visit from Mayor Bloomberg.

The terrorists must have seen the reports of this and rather than realize the flaws in their worldview on Jews and non-muslims, viewed it as some sort of affront, or maybe even felt our shul was trying to subvert young muslims in some way. An act of kindness repaid with hate. Islam has a lot to answer for these days - this is unfortunately only the latest such example.