COURIER L 52 IFE, JUNE 21–27, 2019 PS
BY CHANDLER KIDD
Cops arrested a Pennsylvania
man for allegedly setting a
rabbi’s Midwood home ablaze
last week, creating an inferno
which spread to two neighboring
homes and injured 13
people.
Matthew Karelefsky, 41,
was arrested Sunday and
charged with two counts of
attempted murder and one
count of arson, according to
police.
Karelefsky is a McKeesport,
Pa., resident, who
has held a long-standing
grudge against Rabbi Jonathan
Max that investigators
believe led him to commit
the crime, court documents
show.
In 2012, Karelefsky published
the first of numerous
Facebook Posts threatening
to kill Rabbi Max and accusing
the holy man of molesting
him as a child, warning
other users to “keep minor
children away from Rabbi
Jonathan Max of Brooklyn.”
Max denied the abuse allegations,
saying he never
knew the man as a child.
The rabbi claims the defendant’s
vendetta began after
his wife left him in 2010, and
that Karelefsky has blamed
him for the divorce ever
since.
“He wanted to kill me because,
in his mental state he
felt that he had to be totally
in control of his family,”
Max said. “He wrote his
thoughts down on Facebook
and he was angry at me because
he didn’t understand
the divorce even though I
was against it.”
Karelefsky’s loathing
for max was so intense,
he got a tattoo on his right
arm, which reads “Never
let go of the hatred — kill
Rabbi Max,” and ends with
“Yemach shmo,” a Hebrew
term for the obliteration of
the Rabbi’s name, according
to court documents.
Max went on to claim that
Karelefsky’s been out to get
him for years, and court records
show that the Pennsylvania
man was arrested in
his home state for making
terrorist threats against the
rabbi — including a Facebook
post that read “My way
of showing I don’t believe in
God will be by killing my
number one enemy Rabbi
Max” — in 2017, although
a judge later dismissed the
charges for jurisdictional
reasons, writing that the
case should prosecuted in
New York, where the victim
resided.
The fire broke out at 3:50
a.m. within the rabbi’s E.
17th Street abode on June
13, according to court documents.
The rabbi said that children
were inside the home
when the fire broke out, and
that he is thankful they were
able to walk away alive.
Karelefsky, who could
immediately be reached, is
due back in court on June
21.
VICTIM: Rabbi Jonathan Max and
a relative survey the scene of the
fi re. Photo by Paul Martinka
ALL HANDS ON DECK: Firefi ghters battle the four-alarm fi re in Midwood
in the early hours of June 13. Photo via Twitter/@FDNY
Cops charge arson suspect
Pennsylvania man allegedly set rabbi’s Midwood house on fi re