Man Charged in Arson at Brooklyn Synagogue and Yeshiva, Officials Say

The man was also connected to assaults on a Jewish man and a Black subway rider and vandalism at a Catholic church, court records show.

A Brooklyn man was charged with setting fire to a building housing a synagogue and a yeshiva, and federal prosecutors said on Saturday that it was the second time in less than a week that the man had sought to damage a religious institution. The man, Ali Alaheri, 29, was accused of carefully arranging and then igniting piles of garbage bags on Wednesday near the side of the building that housed the synagogue and the yeshiva. Hours later, on the same block in the Borough Park neighborhood, Mr. Alaheri approached a Jewish man, who was described in court documents as wearing “traditional Hasidic clothing,” and punched him multiple times in the head. A description of the man’s injuries was not provided.