The Holy Ark at the Maor Yisrael synagogue in Bnei Brak went up in flames on Sunday night.
Firefighters called to the scene extracted the Torah scrolls and extinguished the flames. No one was injured.
Several minutes later, a synagogue in the neighboring city of Ramat Gan went up in flames. The fire caused severe damage to the building, and is believed to have been sparked by an electrical short in the synagogue's refrigerator.
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) claimed the incidents are hate crimes, saying that he is "horrified and in pain following the terrifying hate crime tonight, when a Holy Ark was set fire to in Bnei Brak. Unfortunately, the horrible incitement recently has begun to seep deep inside. I call on Israel Police to locate the criminals and bring them to justice."
Shas MK Uriel Busso said: "This is the message following the difficult event this morning, in which rioters set a synagogue in central Israel on fire. It's a message to law enforcement, a message to the rioters, and a message to those spreading incitement and hatred, of which this event is definitely part of the consequences."
World Synagogue Organization Chairman David Ben-Naeh responded that "the World Synagogue Organization is horrified and laments the fact that a synagogue was set on fire tonight in Bnei Brak. This is another red line that has been crossed with regards to harming what is holy to Israel and synagogues in different places over the past few months."
"If an incident such as this would have happened in another country, it would have made headlines in every news outlet. An anti-Semitic event in the State of Israel, in the state of the Jews, is unthinkable. We call on Israel Police and law enforcement not to rest and not to give up [in their search] to locate the criminal and to bring him to justice, so that incidents such as this will not occur again in the State of Israel.