The rabbi of a century-old Upper East Side synagogue gutted by a fierce, fast-moving fire vowed to rebuild the historic, five-story structure today — as authorities said the cause of the blaze “does not appear to be suspicious.”
“You can either react with tears and grief and many questions as to why such a thing could happen, or react with a question of ‘What can I do now?’ ” said Rabbi Haskel Lookstein of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on East 85th St., which erupted in flames Monday.
“And that’s the way we are reacting,” said Lookstein, whose father led the congregation for 56 years, and whose great-grandfather also was a rabbi there. “There’s no question in my mind that we’ll rebuild the synagogue and continue with the reconstruction.”
The 110-year-old temple, which was in the middle of a renovation project begun in May, was consumed by the four-alarm blaze that began around 8:30 p.m. Monday. It ended up collapsing the roof and consuming most of the material inside. Four firefighters suffered minor injuries. .
“It was a very extensive fire, but thank God, while it was very damaging, it wasn’t completely destructive of the synagogue. It appears external walls can be salvaged,” said Lookstein. “We were planning to have high-holiday services there. So we’ll have to relocate almost a thousand people for services.”
Rita Woldenberg, 70, who has worshiped at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun for 43 years, said she had seen the flames tearing through the temple.
“They were horrible, they were so high,” Woldenberg said. “It’s just a tragedy, but at least no one was lost, and the Torah scrolls were saved. We loved our shul.”