NEW YORK — One of the wannabe Nazis busted for allegedly plotting to shoot up a city synagogue is Jewish and his grandfather survived the Holocaust, prosecutors and relatives said Sunday.
Matthew Mahrer, 22, who was arraigned on weapons charges Saturday night, conspired with Christopher Brown, also 22, to buy a gun and “shoot up a synagogue and die,” according to their criminal complaints, before police stopped them.
“I never figured he would get involved in something like this. He’s Jewish, you know? It’s unbelievable,” said Mahrer’s maternal grandfather, Stuart Rubenstein. “I don’t know how he got involved. The other kid was more involved. The other kid must have talked him into it.”
