State authorities are investigating the possibility of arson in a fire that destroyed a dormitory building at the Talmudical Academy of New Jersey in this Monmouth County village early yesterday morning. No one was hurt in the fire that was discovered at 6:40 a.m. The building, a converted farm house, normally housed 50 of the school’s 100 students but all were home for Chanukah, Rabbi Yeruchim Shain, dean and founder of the academy, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
He estimated the damage at about $100,000 but said the insurance would not cover the cost of replacing it. He said the building was 65 percent destroyed and “unlivable” and that efforts were being made to find temporary quarters for the displaced students. A fund-raising campaign will be started for a new building. Shain said the Talmudical Academy, founded in 1971, consists of a secondary school where secular and religious subjects are taught and a rabbinical college. He said most of the students came from New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area and some from other states and abroad.
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