NEW YORK JEWISH WEEK via JTA — A suspected arsonist started a series of small fires on the Upper West Side Thursday morning — including one that destroyed the outdoor patio of the Barney Greengrass Institution at 541 Amsterdam Avenue.
The kosher deli, famous for its smoked fish, was one of five suspected arson targets on Thursday. The other four fires were outdoor trash fires, New York Fire Department told West Side Rag, and appear to have been started between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. The NYPD confirmed to the West Side Rag that the fires were “intentionally started.”
“Clearly there’s an arsonist in the neighborhood starting fires all over the Upper West Side,” third-generation owner Gary Greengrass told the New York Jewish Week. “Unfortunately, we are the victims. »
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“Thank God everyone is fine,” he said, adding that the restaurant and store are still open. You can always shop there and eat inside.
Although anti-Semitic hate crimes have increased in New York — like the incident on the Upper West Side last Saturday, April 7, when six Jewish children were threatened by gun-toting teenagers — Greengrass told the New York Jewish Week says it’s not that the fire was anti-Semitic in origin.
Nonetheless, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, a former city councilman whose ward included parts of the neighborhood, called the attack “horrible” on Twitter, noting the crime’s closeness to the party. of Passover, which will begin on the evening of Friday, April 15.
“Let’s make it a point to shop there in the next few days,” Levine said.
An arsonist is setting fires on the UWS. This is the 4th that I know of this morning. pic.twitter.com/3cY5lmqwUJ
– Julia Vitullo-Martin (@JuliaManhattan) April 7, 2022
Barney Greengrass will be closed Passover week, but customers can order food for the seder that they can pick up over the next week, including meatball soup matsaof harossetminced liver, guefilt fishhorseradish and macaroons, Greengrass said.
The deli opened in 1908; in 1929 it moved to its current location at 541 Amsterdam Avenue. According to the Barney Greengrass website, the restaurant has served as the setting for numerous movies and sitcoms, including “You’ve Got Mail,” “Sex and the City,” “Seinfeld” and “30 Rock.”
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