An arson attack last year on cars in a predominately Jewish neighborhood of New York reportedly is being investigated as an insurance scam instead of a hate crime.

The attack on Nov. 11, the day after Kristallnacht commemorations, included the spray-painting with anti-Semitic graffiti of the nearby sidewalk and park benches. Elected officials and Jewish leaders roundly condemned the attack.

Police sources told local media, including the New York Daily News and the New York Post, that the cars were likely set alight in order to collect insurance money, and the graffiti was spray-painted in the area to make the attack look more like a realistic hate crime.

The owners of the cars did not live in the neighborhood where they were torched, and beer bottles found at the scene were wiped clean of fingerprints, which police said pointed away from an act of hate.

A police spokesman told the Daily News that police had not ruled out a bias crime. The New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force investigated the incident.

Click to login and write a letter to the editor or sign up for the Daily Briefing.

This article was made possible by the support of readers like you. Donate to JTA now.