Hasidic Teenager Gets 7-Years In Religiously Motivated Firebombing

AP reported yesterday that 18-year old Shaul Spitzer, a Hasidic Jew who lives in the insular village of New Square, New York, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for his firebombing of the house of another New Square resident growing out of a religious dispute between the leader of the Skverer Hasidic movement and a group of dissidents. (See prior posting.) Spitzer's attorney says the sentence was "fair and compassionate," but he is concerned how Spitzer will fare in prison. Spitzer's religious lifestyle in New Square means he has had "no exposure to the outside world."