Accuse Teen in Yonkers Center Fire
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)
NEW YORK—Thomas Ruppert,
17-year-old high school student
and Youth Corps worker, was be-
ing held here Thursday on charges
• of having started the fire last
month in the Yonkers Jewish Com- -
munity Center, which cost the
lives of nine children and three
A 19-state alarm for his
rrest was issued Tuesday.
Yonkers detectives said that
after a lengthy investigation they
were convinced the youth had
started the fatal blaze for a thrill.
City Judge John Couzens issued
a warrant accusing the missing
youth of first-degree arson. Police
said the youth had been under sur-
veillance and repeated questioning
since the night of the fire.
His father said that the youth
had been under orders to report
to Westchester County Family,
.
adults.
a
Court for further questioning, but
that he did not appear and that
they did not know his where-
abouts.
Officials said that as a Youth
Corps worker he had been given
a part-time job at the center, con-
sisting of light janitor work, and
that he had been working in the
center on the night of the fatal
fire.
The youth was reported to
have a record of juvenile de-
linquency. A sophomore at
Yonkers High School, he had
been working at the center for
the last several months on as-
signment from the Yonkers
Neighborhood Youth Corps, a
part of the city's antipoverty
campaign.
Specializing in:
Hundreds of persons have been
interviewed during the month-
long investigation of the blaze,
including everyone who had come
into even remote contact with the
center, either as worker or as
visitor:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
After the fire, great contro-
versy developed when several wit-
nesses complained that Yonkers
firemen at first treated the blaze
as "a joke" and that the entire
fire-fighting operation was han-
dled ineptly. However, investiga-
tions by police and fire depart-
ments, the city, Westchester Coun-
ty and the insurance companies
failed to turn up any report, only
a blanket acquittal of all firemen
issued by the fire department.
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Rains Too Late
to Save Winter-
Crops in Negev
For American
Savings
Customers
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
(Copyright, 1966, JTA, Inc.)
TEL AVIV—A week-long dry
spell in Israel was broken by
heavy rains Tuesday night, but
farm experts said the rain had
come too late to save the winter
crops in the Negev. Crop losses
were estimated at 40,000,000
pounds ($13,000,000).
The amount of rainfall in the
Negev was reported as having
reached only half of the normal
average as of the start of January.
Agriculture Minister Haim Givati
said Israel had suffered one of the
worst droughts in years. In many
areas, he said as much irrigation
-was needed now as during the
peak of the summer season.
A SILVER
DOLLAR
BONUS!!
-
Plus 4%%
Yiddish Writers Union
Marks 50th Anniversary
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Leading
writers in Israel, members of the
presidium of the Jewish Agency
and other notables participated
here Monday night in a dinner
marking the recent 50th anniver-
sary of the founding of the Y. L.
Peretz Writers Verein, the organ-
ization of Yiddish writers in the
United States. The organization
was founded in New York in 1915.
compounded
and paid
quarterly
1
a
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OHRENSTEIN
sNNTING6 ,
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and Jeweler
18963 Livernois Ave.
UN 1-8184
OPEN THURS. TO 9 P.M.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, January 28, 1966-3
AMERICAN
SAVINGS
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