Arsonists try to burn down ancient synagogue in Crete....

Had they succeeded, 1,600 rare books would have been destroyed....

Arsonists nearly burned down a synagogue dating to the medieval era in the Greek city of Hania on the island of Crete this week. The historic synagogue, which functions as a house of worship and cultural center, nearly burned to the ground after the unknown assailtants set fire to a wooden staircase outside the building.

The fire was set at around 1 a.m. early Wednesday, but a neighbor who was awake at the time noticed the smoke and called authorities. The fire reached neither the Torah scrolls nor the library, which holds roughly 1,600 rare books and manuscripts. The staircase that was set aflame led to the second-story women’s section of the main sanctuary.

The Jewish community is Crete is an ancient one, as detailed in the synagogue’s website, dating back nearly two millennia. The Etz-Hayyim Synagogue was restored in the late 1990s after years of neglect in the wake of the Second World War. The nearly 300 members of the Hania Jewish community were shipped out by the Nazi invaders in 1944, and died when their ship was sunk in transit by an Allied torpedo.