FLAMING MORONS: Golders Green synagogue holds Lag BaOmer bonfire celebration INDOORS

This was the shocking scene last week at a Charedi synagogue on Golders Green Road as a Lag BaOmer bonfire celebration was held indoors due to rain.

Flames can be seen soaring up to the ceiling at Beis Medrash Beis Shmuel as dozen of children gather around the bonfire singing.

Eyewitnesses have told Jewish News that Rabbi Halpern lit the indoor fire at the event on Monday or Tuesday last week.

FLAMING MORONS – Golders Green synagogue holds Lag BaOmer bonfire celebration INDOORS due to rain.

Flames three-feet high, lit by Rabbi Moshe Halpern, brother of Rabbi Chaim Halpern, soar inside the main Charedi synagogue in Golders Green as dozens of children watch on. pic.twitter.com/XvMM34C1al

— Jewish News (@JewishNewsUK) May 16, 2023

A source said: “The organisers decided to have a bonfire indoors as it had begun to rain. Rabbi Dovid Halpern lit the fire. So many children crowded around the flames. I cannot believe how dangerous this was. It doesn’t bear thinking about what might have happened if the building had caught fire.”

Lighting a fire is a well-known custom to mark the festival of Lag BaOmer.

Jewish News has approached the London Fire Brigade and Barnet Council for comment.