Chabad House

A man believed to be the suspect in the bombing of a Santa Monica synagogue has been arrested in Ohio, police said Monday night. Ron Hirsch, 60, who was wanted in connection with Thursday's bombing at the Chabad House, was apprehended in Cleveland Heights, the Santa Monica Police Department said. He was taken into custody after local authorities received a call from someone who had come into contact with Hirsch. Hirsch is suspected of being responsible for the explosion that sent a 300-pound metal pipe encased in concrete crashing through the roof of the home of Janti Rashti, who lives next door to Chabad House on 17th Street, near Broadway.

A transient suspected of setting off a large explosive device outside a Santa Monica synagogue pleaded not guilty Monday in Los Angeles federal court to multiple felony charges in connection with the incident. A grand jury indictment accuses Ron Hirsch, 60, of four federal felony counts: use of an explosive to damage property, use of an explosive to commit a federal felony, use of a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence, and possession of an unregistered destructive device.

Most of a Beverly Hills woman's $20-million estate--contested by her husband, who was cut out of her will just two days before her suicide--will go to a Jewish anti-drug program in Los Angeles and two other charities under a settlement reached Wednesday. Attorneys for the husband, wealthy real estate developer William Weinberg, 59, agreed to the settlement despite the fact that he and their two teen-age children, Marc, 18, and Elizabeth, 17, get no money.

A man believed to be the suspect in the bombing of a Santa Monica synagogue has been arrested in Ohio, police said Monday night. Ron Hirsch, 60, who was wanted in connection with Thursday's bombing at the Chabad House, was apprehended in Cleveland Heights, the Santa Monica Police Department said. He was taken into custody after local authorities received a call from someone who had come into contact with Hirsch. Hirsch is suspected of being responsible for the explosion that sent a 300-pound metal pipe encased in concrete crashing through the roof of the home of Janti Rashti, who lives next door to Chabad House on 17th Street, near Broadway.

A murder suspect wanted by the FBI in Berkeley escaped from police after studying his own photograph and telling a policeman he had never seen himself, a newspaper reported. Because the officer did not recognize the suspect when he confronted him, a nationwide manhunt for David Lee Williams, an Israeli soldier of fortune suspected of two murders in Virginia, was still underway, the San Francisco Chronicle said.

More than 2,000 people helped the energetic, Hasidic Jewish movement known as Chabad open a $3.6-million spiritual and educational center Sunday, gaining a traditionalist foothold among the growing number of Jewish families in the western San Fernando Valley and Ventura County.

A transient suspected of setting off a large explosive device outside a Santa Monica synagogue pleaded not guilty Monday in Los Angeles federal court to multiple felony charges in connection with the incident. A grand jury indictment accuses Ron Hirsch, 60, of four federal felony counts: use of an explosive to damage property, use of an explosive to commit a federal felony, use of a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence, and possession of an unregistered destructive device.

Police on Friday were searching for the suspect in a Santa Monica synagogue explosion that authorities had earlier believed to be an accidental blast. Santa Monica police released a photograph of the short and heavyset suspect, Ron Hirsch, 60, also known as Israel Fisher, saying they thought he was behind Thursday morning's blast outside Chabad House on 17th Street between Broadway and Santa Monica Boulevard. Police described Hirsch as a transient. "Hirsch should be considered extremely dangerous," said a police bulletin sent to other law enforcement agencies.

A man was arrested on suspicion of stealing a Torah from a synagogue and setting fires in the building, causing about $200,000 in damage, police said Thursday. Avi Langer, 33, was arrested in Santa Clara on Wednesday. Police said they found a Torah in his possession that had been taken from the Chabad House of San Francisco. The synagogue is on the first floor of a four-story house in the Richmond district.

A six-hour telethon featuring singers Lionel Richie and Bob Dylan and comedian Bob Hope attracted more than $3 million in pledges to battle drug abuse, sponsors said. Money from the Los Angeles based fund-raiser, called "L'Chaim! To Life!" will go to Chabad House, said spokesman Stanley Goldstein. Chabad is a nationwide social services and education organization run by the Lubavitch branch of Hasidic Judaism. Chabad has a drug rehabilitation center in Los Angeles.

Police on Friday were searching for the suspect in a Santa Monica synagogue explosion that authorities had earlier believed to be an accidental blast. Santa Monica police released a photograph of the short and heavyset suspect, Ron Hirsch, 60, also known as Israel Fisher, saying they thought he was behind Thursday morning's blast outside Chabad House on 17th Street between Broadway and Santa Monica Boulevard. Police described Hirsch as a transient. "Hirsch should be considered extremely dangerous," said a police bulletin sent to other law enforcement agencies.

More than 2,000 people helped the energetic, Hasidic Jewish movement known as Chabad open a $3.6-million spiritual and educational center Sunday, gaining a traditionalist foothold among the growing number of Jewish families in the western San Fernando Valley and Ventura County.

Most of a Beverly Hills woman's $20-million estate--contested by her husband, who was cut out of her will just two days before her suicide--will go to a Jewish anti-drug program in Los Angeles and two other charities under a settlement reached Wednesday. Attorneys for the husband, wealthy real estate developer William Weinberg, 59, agreed to the settlement despite the fact that he and their two teen-age children, Marc, 18, and Elizabeth, 17, get no money.

A murder suspect wanted by the FBI in Berkeley escaped from police after studying his own photograph and telling a policeman he had never seen himself, a newspaper reported. Because the officer did not recognize the suspect when he confronted him, a nationwide manhunt for David Lee Williams, an Israeli soldier of fortune suspected of two murders in Virginia, was still underway, the San Francisco Chronicle said.

"I am making the matzo to fulfill God's commandment to eat matzo on Passover," each child says as the unleavened bread is rolled out. By the time the special bakery in the Abraham and Sonia Rochlin Chabad House in Westwood closes on Thursday, an estimated 3,000 Jewish schoolchildren will have baked their own handmade matzo in the 2,500-year-old tradition begun by the Israelites when they fled Egypt without waiting for their bread to rise.

Sonia Rochlin, who through her Rochlin Foundation donated nearly $5 million to Jewish charities over the last 10 years, has died in her Los Angeles home. She was 85. Her husband, Abraham, who died in 1975, amassed a fortune in the plywood industry. After his death, his widow vastly increased the grants the Rochlins began disbursing in the 1960s.