Beware of Apparent Hoax E-mail from “Hasidic Jew” Celebrating London Bombings

An e-mail message celebrating the London terror bombings and said to be from one “Isaac Horowitz” of Rodney Street in Brooklyn, a self-described “hasidic Jew,” has been sent to members of the British Parliament and was also cited on the blog of the left-wing British newspaper, The Guardian. While the legitimacy and provenance of the e-mail is certainly in question, it is important to note that even if it turns out to be genuine, the writer speaks only for himself, and in no way represents any segment of the Jewish community of the United States or Britain.

The e-mail message begins with these lines:

14th July, 2005

To All Parliamentarians:

As a Hasidic Jew, I was very happy that so many British were killed in the London bomb attacks on July 7. I hope that many of the survivors were blinded, lost limbs, and will suffer for the rest of their lives

It goes on to portray the bombings as retribution for British anti-Semitism and specifically for the notorious massacre of the Jews of York:

What happened on July 7 in London was payback by G-d for the atrocities perpetrated against Jews in 1189. After all, a thousand-year wait for us is only a day for G-d (verse in Psalms, Tehillim).

This claim is perhaps a hint that the e-mail is a hoax, for the York massacre (see also the entry for York in the Encyclopedia Judaica) took place not in 1189 but in 1190 , which the writer certainly should have known were he legitimate.

There is further evidence that the writer, “Isaac Horowitz,” is not who he claims to be – a public records search using the professional databases Lexis-Nexis and Intelius shows no Isaac Horowitz residing on Rodney Street in Brooklyn. Neither do whitepages searches.

While it is difficult if not impossible to prove a negative (perhaps there was no record of Mr. Horowitz because he has no phone, no utility hookups, and lives in a rooming house), the evidence indicates that he is a fake and the e-mail a fraud. Certainly the burden of proof is now on those who would cite the e-mail message as legitimate to prove that it is.

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