Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Arizona man faces up to 20 years, $250,000 fine for allegedly burning down synagogue

Everardo Gregorio is accused of destroying part of a complex that also included a kosher store and restaurant.

Gavel, Court, Judge
Gavel. Credit: Katrin Bolovtsova/Pexels.

A federal grand jury returned an indictment against Everardo Gregorio, 31, who allegedly burned a synagogue in Casa Grande, Ariz., on March 3.

Gregorio was indicted on Nov. 18 for obstruction of the free exercise of religious beliefs by fire, a hate crime. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

He is accused of destroying both the sanctuary of Khal Chasidim, an Orthodox congregation, and a kosher store and restaurant in the same building.

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, of Park Avenue Synagogue, told JNS that he will address “Yizkor, memory and revelation,” rather than politics, during Shavuot morning services.
“The bill will continue to return our intelligence agencies back to their core mission: the collection of clandestine foreign intelligence to protect our homeland,” said Sen. Tom Cotton.
“There’s much that goes into a security-layered approach, and as far as I’m concerned, you can never have too many layers,” the village’s police chief told JNS.
Removing sanctions on the anti-Israel United Nations adviser “will undermine important national security and foreign policy interests of the United States,” the Justice Department said.
“Reconstruction financing will not follow where weapons have not been laid down,” warned Nickolay Mladenov, amid a stalled peace process he largely blamed on the Gazan terror group.
Regardless of the findings of a recent Democratic National Committee “autopsy” report, a “majority of Americans, including Democrats, support the U.S.-Israel relationship,” Brian Romick, of Democratic Majority for Israel, told JNS.