Bomb Damages Caracas Synagogue

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports:

(JTA) -- A Caracas synagogue was damaged by a bomb.

The homemade grenade, tossed late Thursday night into the Orthodox Beit Shmuel synagogue, damaged windows and a car; no injuries were reported.

It was the second such attack this year on a Jewish site in Caracas. Eleven people, including eight policemen, are under arrest for vandalizing a Caracas synagogue last month. In that attack, the walls were painted with anti-Semitic slogans, religious objects were damaged and thieves stole a database listing Venezuela's Jews.

Jewish leaders in Venezuela and overseas accused President Hugo Chavez of stoking tensions with rhetoric comparing Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip to Nazi oppression.