Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on January 4, 2020

Tovey was a boy in my first grade class. I remember him distinctly because he was the first person I ever identified as being Jewish, or as my father would say in Arabic, yahudi.

Growing up with a family from the Middle East meant I heard a lot about Jewish people within the context of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. As a child, I had no idea what any of the discussions happening around me meant, just that there was a distinctly different people from us involved in significant conflict somewhere far away that also involved fellow Muslims and Christians.

It was not a favourable first impression.

Yet, at the same time, I had also been taught to fully respect people of other faiths, or of no faith at all. I was taught to view the Jewish and Christian communities as People of the Book, or those whose communities had received particular sacred texts. I would become friends with Tovey and later, Sarah in the third grade.

And when a Jewish family moved next door to us when I was older, I would happily go for walks with the young mother, both of us pushing our toddlers in strollers, feeling nothing but kinship and mutual respect.

Sadly, such teachings and experiences are not as widespread as they should be. Instead, Jewish communities are once again on edge as a spate of attacks in New York City, and across the pond, in London, England, have rattled many to their core. This is just the latest chapter in the ongoing and relentless targeting of these communities based on stereotypes, fear, prejudice, and hatred that have existed throughout history.

As a Canadian Muslim, I know how hurtful and unfair it can feel to be seen as the Other. It happens to far too many communities considered different for a variety of reasons, ranging from their faith, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. Its up to all of us to confront any and all efforts to otherize communities because it indeed threatens the well-being of our entire society.

It has become far too easy for those who promote hate to find a platform. As comedian Sacha Baron Cohen said in a speech to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) last November, Facebook may be the greatest propaganda machine of all time. Groups boasting of tens of thousands of members share all forms of hateful, false content on a daily basis, whipping up anger towards minority communities around the globe.

These social media tools have been used against the Rohyingya minority in Burma, as amegaphone of hate against Bengali Muslims in India, against LGBTQ people and have facilitated the unleashing of a hurricane of hate against Jewish communities. All of this eventually compelled the United Nations to launch a strategy and plan of action on hate speech earlier this year.

Sadly, such teachings and experiences are not as widespread as they should be

In Canada, the Liberals pledged to bring regulations that would ensure tech giants are fined should they fail to remove hateful content within 24 hours, similar to Germanys model. However, even this will not necessarily be a panacea. Researchers writing in Nature magazine last August have documented that when attacked, the online hate ecology can quickly adaptand self-repair

The federal government has also committed millions of dollars towards anti-racism initiatives. These would aim to empower targeted communities themselves to educate fellow Canadians about the insidious nature of racism, and provide opportunities to share stories and to connect with the broader public.

The ultimate aim of society should be to make sure that people are not targeted, not harassed and not murdered because of who they are, where they come from, who they love or how they pray, Baron Cohen said in his now oft-quoted speech at the ADLs 2019 summit.

This sounds rudimentary and yet remains painfully elusive.

Amira Elghawaby is a writer and a board member with the Canadian Anti-Hate Network. Follow her on Twitter @AmiraElghawaby

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Opinion: As People of the Book, Muslims should stand in solidarity with Jews - National Post

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Posted By admin on January 4, 2020

In October 2018, during Sabbath morning services, a white supremacist attacked the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, murdering 11 people and wounding another six. In April 2019, in the middle of Passover, a white supremacist attacked the Chabad of Poway synagogue, murdering one person and seriously wounding another three. Both incidents started absolutely necessary conversations about the prevalence and nature of the white supremacist threat to Jews across the country.

Four people were murdered at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City by self-described Black Hebrew Israelites just weeks ago; five people were stabbed at a Hanukkah celebration in Monsey, New York; last week alone, New York police are investigating at least nine anti-Semitic attacks. The upsurge of violence against Jews in New York in particular has finally prompted commentary from Democratic politicians ranging from New York Mayor Bill De Blasio, who just weeks ago expressed shock at anti-Semitism reaching "the doorstep of New York City"; to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who expressed puzzlement at the attacks, noting broadly: "This is an intolerant time in our country. We see anger; we see hatred exploding."

This isn't new. Back in 2018, The New York Times admitted there was a massive spike in anti-Semitic attacks in the city -- and even acknowledged that the newspaper of record had failed to cover that surging anti-Semitism because "it refuses to conform to an easy narrative with a single ideological enemy." But that has always been true of anti-Semitism. It's possible, as The Times should recognize, to walk and chew gum at the same time in covering anti-Semitism.

But it's not mere lack of focus and time preventing the media from taking anti-Semitism in New York seriously. It's the identity of the attackers. Armin Rosen wrote for Tablet Magazine back in July 2019 about the Jew hatred in New York and correctly noted "that the victims are most often outwardly identifiable, i.e., religious rather than secularized Jews, and the perpetrators who have been recorded on CCTV cameras are overwhelmingly black and Hispanic." This throws the media -- and many left-leaning Jewish organizations -- into spasms of confusion, since it cuts directly against the supposed alliance of intersectionality so beloved by the political left. White supremacists attacking left-leaning Jews fits a desired narrative. Black teenagers beating up Hasidic Jews in Williamsburg doesn't.

The same media that will ask whether President Donald Trump's executive orders designed to protect Jews on campus are actually anti-Semitic will ignore the fact that former President Barack Obama sat in Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years -- the same Jeremiah Wright who railed against Jews and Israel routinely during those years; who said Jews kept Obama from talking with him after the election; and who avers that "Jesus was a Palestinian."

Democratic candidates who suggest that Trump has emboldened anti-Semites will make pilgrimage to Rev. Al Sharpton, who was instrumental in not one but two anti-Semitic riots. The same commentators who will police Republican references to George Soros for hints of anti-Semitism completely excuse open anti-Semitism when it comes from Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. It's deemed completely vital by our intelligentsia to survey white Americans for signs of white supremacy and, by extension, signs of anti-Semitism. Those same intelligentsia will patently ignore the fact that anti-Semitic attitudes among black Americans far outweigh similar attitudes among other racial groups, according to repeated polling by the Anti-Defamation League.

Anti-Semitism grows when the victims become secondary and the perpetrators become primary. If you're only concerned about anti-Semitism from white supremacists but utterly blithe about Jews being beaten in the streets of one of the nation's largest cities by suspects who clearly are not white supremacists, you're part of the problem. And that goes for those who govern New York, from De Blasio to Cuomo.

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Ben Shapiro: The many ugly forms of anti-Semitism - Omaha World-Herald

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Posted By admin on January 4, 2020

Acts of anti-Semitism are on the rise in New York and elsewhere, rattling Jews and communities

NEW YORK - Hours after a knife-wielding man barged into a Hannukah party in a New York suburb, stabbing five people, top officials condemned the crime as part of a disturbing trend. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called it "domestic terrorism," linking it to the recent spate of violence against Jewish people in New York.

Anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise around the country, leaving Jews and their communities feeling frightened and unsafe. In New York City, anti-Semitic crimes have jumped 21% in the past year. According to the Anti-Defamation League, there were 1,879 incidents of anti-Semitism in the United States in 2018, including more than 1,000 instances of harassment. The 2019 figures are expected to meet or exceed that number.

"This is a national phenomenon that we are seeing, and it's frightening and it's disturbing," Cuomo said at a news conference Sunday. "If anyone thinks that something poisonous is not going on in this country, then they're in denial."

RELATED: 'Its outrageous, its disturbing' ADL, lawmakers condemn stabbing at NY Rabbis home

Experts say anti-Semitic violence has been rising for years. In 2018, a gunman stormed the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing 11 congregants, and wounding six others. It was the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in the history of the United States.

In April, during the observance of Passover, a gunman killed a Jewish worshiper at a Poway, California, house of worship and injured three others.

And a string of attacks in recent weeks has left the Jewish community in the New York area particularly unsettled.

This month, David Anderson and Francine Graham went on a violent rampage at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey, killing three people inside the store. The pair have been linked to the Black Hebrew Israelites, a hate group that traffics in anti-Semitic tropes. Authorities said they also posted anti-Semitic and anti-police screeds online.

On Dec. 23, a 28-year-old man punched and kicked a 65-year-old in midtown Manhattan while yelling anti-Semitic slurs, police said. Steven Jorge was charged with assault in the second degree as a hate crime.

On Thursday, an Orthodox woman was walking with her 3-year-old son in Gravesend, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, when she was approached by Ayana Logan, officials said.

Logan, 42, whacked the 34-year-old mother in the head, officials say, and delivered an ominous message: "You f---ing Jew. Your end is coming to you."

A day later, 30-year-old Tiffany Harris slapped three Orthodox women in the face and head in Crown Heights, a neighborhood known for its large Orthodox population and history of racial tension.

Harris later told authorities she did it because the women were Jewish. "I cursed them out," Harris allegedly told officers taking her into custody. "I said 'F' you, Jews."

These attacks, along with several others that did not result in an immediate arrest, are being investigated by the New York City Police Department's Hate Crime Task Force.

In Orthodox communities around New York, families are "definitely scared and frightened," Rockland County official Aron Wieder said in a phone interview.

"If you were to walk down any street in Rockland County in the Orthodox Jewish community you will feel it in the air," he said. "Children are frightened. Parents are nervous to send their children to school," he said. "You could literally feel it and maybe touch it even."

Celebrations of the last night of Hanukkah would go on after sundown Sunday, he said, but will proceed with caution and a measured tone.

The spike in bias incidents against Jewish communities has law enforcement and elected officials wrestling with what to do.

At a news conference, New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said he could not believe he was addressing the public about anti-Semitic violence less than a month after the Jersey City attack.

"It is truly to me surreal to be having the same conversation about hate, a conversation about intolerance," he said in Brooklyn on Sunday, before elected officials gathered at a large menorah in Grand Army Plaza for a symbolic lighting. "This affects us all."

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said an increased police presence would be applied to "houses of worship" in heavily populated Jewish communities in Brooklyn. In a Fox News interview Sunday, he said there is a "crisis of anti-Semitism" in New York and elsewhere.

The NYPD has created a new unit "to focus on racially and ethnically motivated extremism, to find where these groups are and stop them before they can act," the mayor said.

"An atmosphere of hate has been developing in this country over the last few years. A lot of it is emanating from Washington, and it's having an effect on all of us," de Blasio said. He and other Democrats have blamed President Donald Trump's rhetoric for emboldening white supremacists and condoning hateful conduct.

"Donald Trump has tried to stir up hate and division in our country," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Sunday in Iowa, where she's campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. "You can never draw the line straight from one place to another. But he has embraced hatred and unkindness among our people in ways that put Americans at risk."

Trump, however, has pushed back against this charge. In the aftermath of an August rampage at a shopping center in El Paso, Texas, in which 22 people were killed by a gunman who targeted Hispanics, Trump said his language "brings people together." "Our country is doing incredibly well," he said, according to an Associated Press report.

On Sunday, Trump tweeted: "The anti-Semitic attack in Monsey, New York, on the 7th night of Hanukkah last night is horrific. We must all come together to fight, confront, and eradicate the evil scourge of anti-Semitism."

Others have said elected leaders in New York are not doing enough to protect Jews.

Former state assemblyman Dov Hikind, who founded Americans Against Antisemitism, said on Fox News's "Fox and Friends" that the mayor and governor are "literally taking advantage of us" by expressing concern but not preventing acts of violence.

"I won't know what his plan is," Hikind said. "For [de Blasio] to tell me, every time there's an anti-Semitic incident that he condemns it, that he feels the pain, and then he goes home and waits for the next incident and does the same thing, what is going to be done by the mayor, the governor?"

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Acts of anti-Semitism are on the rise in New York and elsewhere, rattling Jews and communities - Alton Telegraph

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Posted By admin on January 4, 2020

MONSEY, N.Y. (JTA) A short while after the worst anti-Semitic attack ever carried out against haredi Orthodox Jews in New York, those present in the Forshay neighborhood of Monsey witnessed an unbelievable scene.

At Congregation Netzach Yisroel, the synagogue attached to the rabbis house in which the horrific attack took place, the Rebbe of Koson, Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg, sat down to celebrate a Hanukkah and Melave Malkah Tish.

Together with his Hasidim, ignoring all of the chaos and panic outside, he sang songs and praises to the Almighty for all of the Jews who miraculously survived the attack.

The rebbe spoke with the community, quivering while reciting the words from Song of Songs 4:8, you shall look from the peak of Amanah emphasizing that, according to the Jewish tradition, we are to sing to the Lord and have faith in his salvation, even before he delivers it. The wounded and badly injured Jews, including at least one of his sons, were being brought to the operation room but he implored us to thank the Almighty for the generosity that he will certainly show with their ultimate complete recovery.

How many times throughout history has the strength of the Jewish faith been demonstrated before the eyes of the whole world?

The same strength played out at a Torah dedication ceremony the next morning. The community had just come away from a terrifying tragedy and the rebbes house was still a crime scene with blood everywhere. But we Jews do not raise our hands in resignation. No! We did not give up in the concentration camps, when Jews were set on fulfilling commandments, despite life ostensibly having no more meaning, and we will continue not giving up.

We will just go on with our lives. We will not let the horror of Jew-hatred gain dominion over our lives. We will remain subjects of the King of Kings.

Vile attacks and murders bring out the horror in a small amount of people, but they much more bring out the beauty and nobility of the great majority of Gods creatures.

The hero of the Monsey story, Yosef Elyah Glick, talks down his role (throwing a table at the attacker) with humility, saying that God gave him the strength and will to do what he did.

But in his interview with CNN, his message to the political leaders was that they must do their duty to condemn anti-Semitism and violence in all circumstances, and not use their positions to incite negative emotions among races and communities.

That is, in my opinion, the strongest message that can be taken from the attack. The natural friends of Orthodox Jews are other minority communities next to whom we live. A large part of the black, Latino and Muslim communities, our neighbors, look at us religious Jews as their natural allies against a world of enmity and hate.

Regrettably, some hotheads and pundits try to fuel hatred among the various communities for their own political interests. ButI cannot count how many times I personally have received favors from members of minority communities. Take away the self-serving political officials who pit one community against another due to vile political interests, take away the demagogues, and you have terrific communities who live side by side in harmony and happiness.

When I stopped at a gas station on Skyline Drive in Ringwood, New Jersey, several weeks ago, the gas station attendant dropped everything and volunteered to show me which products were kosher. He himself uses kosher symbols, he explained to me, because he eats halal.

My twin boys were raised with the help of a black woman who developed a taste for cholent and gefilte fish and was extraordinarily loyal to my children. After the attack in Monsey, she called to express worry and sympathy about what happened.

On a recent trip, I stopped to visit the Ghostly Manor Haunted House in Sandusky, Ohio, noted as one of the top-rated haunts in the United States. Waiting to go in, an African-American family came up to me and asked me to go in front of them the place is so scary and they were afraid to go in alone. I wondered to myself if a white American family would have similarly trusted a haredi Jew with beard and sidelocks.

After the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, Rockland County Legislator Aron Wieder arranged a massive campaign to procure hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from the haredi community of Rockland to send to those suffering in Haiti as a friendly gesture to the Haitian community of Ramapo.

When the community heard in 2014 that a lowlife had stolen money collected for the burial costs of a Latino child who died in a tragic accident, haredi Jews quickly came up with the money to cover the damages. After the attack in Jersey City, while mourning our own victims, haredi Jews secured tens of thousands of dollars for the family of Douglas Miguel Rodriguez, the immigrant from Ecuador who was a good friend to the the citys small haredi community.

Haredi leaders like Yosef Rapaport, Alex Rapaport and Chesky Deutsch have used the terrifying tragedy to heal wounds and improve relations between the Hasidic and African-American communities of Jersey City by organizing, among other things, a large venture to help the local black and Hasidic communities.

The haredi community is also blessed with having outstanding relations with minority politicians who are fighting for our rights and of late have been the right messengers to fight anti-Semitism. The attorneys general of New York and New Jersey have positioned themselves against Jew haters with a strong hand because, as minorities themselves, they are sensitive to our pains. (The predecessor to Letitia James in New York seemed to care little for the wave of anti-Semitism despite being Jewish.)

Unfortunately, there are also hotheads who position themselves as friends of the community only after we come under attack: people who stoke emotions against haredi Jews and call them all sorts of names, and then, when something happens, come into haredi neighborhoods with a group of people and declare that only they can protect us from our enemies.

About these people we say the known proverb from Rashi: Dont give me the honey and spare me the sting. Thanks but no thanks.

We also do not need any help from demagogues who are busy after every attack with ridiculous finger-pointing, whether there is more white anti-Semitism or more black anti-Semitism, if the Jew haters are more likely to be found in the right camp or more on the left, and which parties are taking the danger to Jews more seriously.

Jewish blood is flowing like water and these people are busy with political accounting.

The haredi community also must be wary of the hotheads and demagogues who incite them to throw under the bus those officials like Mayor Bill De Blasio of New York, who has paid a heavy political price for the sin of treating all the communities in New York fairly.

And we must be wary of those who say that guns are the answer. From the time that haredi children are very small, we learn to despise weapons. The words of my teacher ring in my ears: Our strength is only with our mouth (praying to the Almighty). When we learned the Talmud tractate of Shabbat, the teacher pointed out that the sages say (63a) that a person is not allowed to go around with a weapon on the Sabbath because their purpose is shameful, they are a disgusting item. We always heard from our religious leaders that the weapon of a Jew is the voice of Jacob (Genesis 27:22).

They educated us to be pacifists and talked to us about how nice it will be when the Messiah comes, when nation shall not lift the sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isaiah 2:4)

The great majority of haredi Jews do not want to take up weapons. Jews who come to the Hanukkah lighting of their rebbe, like those who had to struggle against a murderer with a big machete on Saturday night, are generally the type of people not to kill a fly.

I still remember when I brought home a toy gun for Purim and my mother took it, saying that Jews dont have a use for guns.

How is it that certain haredi Jews can be heard expressing support for the gun policies of the NRA for the safety of a community that despises you shall live by the sword? (Genesis 27:40) It is critical that there should be stricter laws to ensure that no harmful guns and deadly weapons come into the hands of criminals, anti-Semites and terrorists who will use them to hurt innocent people.

This is just a direct result of propaganda from pundits and media figures who use their positions to incite hate, panic, chaos and hatred, and convince Americans to support issues directly antithetical to their interests.

In their warped minds, we Orthodox Jews are not good Jews unless we condemn political officials who they consider insufficiently pro-Jewish. They will not rest until they create a gigantic division between us and the nearby communities, and between us and our responsible political leaders.

The good news is that our communities are gifted with responsible leaders who shake off the politics of enmity and hate and who do not allow for outsiders with blind intentions to overcome us and ruin our friendly relationships. So much progress has been made in recent years in Ramapo to smooth out the relationships among the communities. There is still much work to be done, but we will stubbornly continue to extend an olive branch to our neighbors and live with them in peace and harmony.

We now step out of the holiday of Hanukkah that is the holiday of light.

A little bit of light dispels a lot of darkness, said the holy Baal Tanya, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi. It is up to us to be that light.

This article, originally written in Yiddish, was translated by Professor Nick Block.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

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The Hasidic Jews of Monsey must ignore the outsiders who want us to take up arms and politicize our tragedy - JTA News

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Posted By admin on January 4, 2020

U.S. prosecutors filed federal hate crimes charges Monday against a man who is charged with stabbing five Hasidic Jews during a Hanukkah celebration near New York City.

According to Monday's federal complaint, investigators found journals from the residence of suspect Grafton Thomas containing drawings of a Swastika and the Star of David. Detectives also found internet searches on Thomas' phone that included "Why did Hitler hate the Jews" and "German Jewish temples near me."

The day of Saturday's attack, the seventh night of Hanukkah, Thomas' phone was used to access an article titled "New York City Increases Police Presence in Jewish Neighborhoods After Possible Anti-Semitic Attacks. Here's What To Know," according to the criminal complaint.

Thomas' family has denounced the crime and said Thomas was raised to embrace tolerance. "Grafton Thomas has a long history of mental illness and hospitalizations. He has no history of like violent acts," the family said in a statement late Sunday.

Thomas pleaded not guilty in his first court appearance Sunday on five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary. He made no comment during his arraignment. A judge set bail at $5 million and Grafton remains in jail.

Grafton allegedly burst into the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg in Monsey, a New York suburb home to a large Orthodox Jewish community on Saturday night.

Witnesses say Grafton swung a machete or a sword, shouting "I'll get you." Guests grabbed small children and headed out the back door while others threw a table and other furniture at Grafton, stopping him.

Grafton apparently tried but failed to storm into the synagogue attached to the rabbi's home, but was blocked by people who barricaded the door. Grafton fled in his car. Police tracked him to New York City's Harlem neighborhood. Officers found his clothes covered with the victims' blood and smelling of bleach, with which he allegedly tried to scrub away the blood.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called the attack domestic terrorism while U.S. President Donald Trump condemned the stabbing rampage as "horrific."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also strongly condemned Saturdays attack.

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Suspect Charged With Hate Crimes in Hasidic Stabbing Attack Near NYC - Voice of America

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Posted By admin on January 4, 2020

Two women yelled F*** you Jew and I will kill you Jews at a Hasidic man in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and shoved him to the ground when he tried to film their anti-Semitic tirade, law enforcement sources and witnesses told CBS12.

The 22 year-old victim was approached by a 24- and 34-year-old female at the intersection of Broadway and Lorimer Street, the New York City Police Department told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The 24 year-old grabbed the victims cell phone and punched him in his throat and the 34 year-old made anti-Semitic remarks, according to the NYPD.

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of violent attacks against Hasidic Jews in the New York area in recent months, including a machete attack in Monsey that left 5 injured.

On Monday evening, according to local reports, two men one flashing a knife threatened a Jewish teen in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn.

The two men yelled Hey Jew boy at the teen as one pulled out the knife, the New York Post reported.

There are two synagogues located within a block of where the incident occurred, according to the report. A report detailing the incident was filed with police.

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22-year-old Hasidic man punched and taunted by two women in Brooklyn - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on January 4, 2020

Five members of an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish congregation were stabbed on Saturday night by a man wielding a machete-type knife who barged into a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi's home in a New York City suburb and attacked victims at random, police and witnesses said.

The frenzied violence unfolded just before 10 p.m. in Rockland County as up to 100 people were gathered in Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg's home in Monsey for a candle-lighting ceremony to commemorate the seventh night of Hanukkah.

While a motive is still being investigated, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo described the incident as "an act of domestic terrorism."

A man stands outside the home of rabbi, Chaim Rottenberg in Monsey, N.Y., Dec. 29, 2019, after an attack that took place earlier outside the rabbi's home during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

Cuomo directed the New York State Police Hate Crimes Task Force to investigate the latest in a "disturbing" string of at least 13 anti-Semitic attacks in the New York-New Jersey region, including nine in New York City.

"It's important for me to express to the rabbi and for all of the people of New York that intolerance meets ignorances, meets illegality. We see anger. We see hatred exploding. It's an American cancer in the body politic," Cuomo said during a visit Sunday morning to Monsey, a predominantly Orthodox Jewish community about 30 miles north of New York City.

The victims injured in the attack were being treated at area hospitals, included one man who is in critical condition with a skull fracture, officials said.

The suspect, who authorities identified as 38-year-old Grafton Thomas, sped away in a gray 2015 Nissan Sentra, which was later located in Harlem, police said.

Thomas, who is from Greenwood Lake, New York, was arrested in New York City on Sunday morning after officers stopped him and noticed blood on his clothes and the smell of bleach, officials said.

Thomas is now charged with five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary, police said. He pleaded not guilty at an arraignment on Sunday morning and is being held on $5 million bond at the Rockland County Jail. His next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 3.

Suspect in Hanukkah celebration stabbings Grafton Thomas, leaves the Ramapo Town Hall in Ramapo Town Hall in Airmont, N.Y., Dec. 29, 2019.

Aron Kohn, one of those attending Rabbi Rottenberg's Hanukkah ceremony, said he answered the front door of the rabbi's house and was confronted by the tall, burly suspect wielding a knife so big that it was "almost like a broomstick." He said the attacker burst into the home swinging the knife and cutting victims as panic spread through the residence and people began running out a back door.

"I asked, who is coming in, in the middle of the night, with an umbrella?" said Kohn. "While I was saying that ... right away, boom, he pulled out the knife from the holder, from the case. And I'm throwing tables and chairs, that he should get out of here."

Kohn said the unidentified man ran past him, into a large room, where he attacked those inside.

Members of the Jewish community gather outside the home of rabbi Chaim Rottenberg in Monsey, N.Y., Dec. 29, 2019, after an attack that took place earlier outside the rabbi's home during Hanukkah.

"I saw him stabbing people," Kohn said. "He injured a guy, he was bleeding [from his neck], he was bleeding in his hand, all over."

Asked if the intruder had said anything to him when he met him at the door, Kohn said, "He said something but I couldn't hear what he said."

Kohn said he exited the house with "two ladies there, they came along with me, they were hysterical." He said that the attacker then left the house and tried to run into the Congregation Netzach Yisroel synagogue building adjacent to the house, but the synagogue was locked.

Josef Gluck, manager of the synagogue, said he was sitting in the dining room with 40 to 50 people when the intruder barged in wearing a hoodie and a scarf covering his face, except for his eyes.

He said the suspect started hacking people in the dining room, before continuing the attack in the kitchen.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks to the media outside the home of rabbi Chaim Rottenbergin in Monsey, N.Y., Dec. 29, 2019.

"He was just swinging his sword, knife -- I don't know what it was -- back and forth hitting people. He didn't say anything," Gluck said.

The Rockland County District Attorney's Office said the attacker was armed with a "machete-type" knife.

"It started a panic inside. Everybody started to run out the door to the back porch," Gluck said.

Gluck said he ran out the back of the house pulling a few people out of harm's way. He then tried to reenter the home through the front door.

"I opened the door and saw one older gentleman bleeding. I asked him to come out. He said, 'I can't I'm bleeding,'" Gluck said.

He said that before he could reach the wounded man the suspect charged out of the kitchen and headed straight for him.

"There was a small coffee table right when you come into the front door. I threw the coffee table at him and I started to run out again. He came after me," Gluck said.

He said the suspect followed him to the front lawn, yelling, "'Hey you, I'll get you.'"

Gluck said the assailant then went to the adjacent synagogue and tried to open two doors that were locked from the inside. He said the attacker then walked to his car parked nearby and drove off.

Gluck said he managed to write down the car's plate number and gave it to the police.

Commissioner Dermot Shea of the New York City Police Department said in a tweet that two NYPD officers he identified as Officers Radziwon and Mattera, both of the 32nd Precinct in Harlem, arrested the suspect.

The attack came a day after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the NYPD was stepping up patrols at several synagogues in the city following a spate of anti-Semitic attacks over the past two weeks.

Three women were allegedly slapped Friday morning by another woman who said she thought they were Jewish, four days after surveillance video showed a 40-year-old man in traditional Jewish clothing being punched in the face.

"Anti-Semitism is an attack on the values of our city -- and we will confront it head-on," de Blasio said in a social media post Friday evening.

Cuomo said the 13 anti-Semitic incidents in New York state have all occurred since Dec. 8.

Aron Kohn, who was attending an Orthodox Hanukkah celebration in Monsey, New York, outside New York City, describes how an unknown assailant entered the house and stabbed five people, Dec. 28, 2019.

"This is a national phenomenon that we are seeing and it's frightening, and it's disturbing," Cuomo said. "If anyone thinks something poisonous is not going on in this country then they're in denial, frankly. How many incidents do you have to see from coast to coast."

Cuomo has directed police across the state to increase patrols in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in light of the recent attacks.

The Monsey attack came just 17 days after two people, a man, and a woman, stormed a Jersey City, New Jersey, kosher supermarket, in an apparent act of domestic terrorism and fatally shooting three people before they were both killed by police. The alleged shooters, David Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50, are also suspected of killing of Jersey City Det. Joseph Seals that same day in a cemetery about a mile from the kosher market, and were prime suspects in the killing of an Uber driver, whose body was discovered on Dec. 7 in the trunk of a car in Bayonne, New Jersey, authorities said.

Both Anderson and Graham are believed to have expressed interest in the Black Israelites, a group that espouses hatred toward Jews and is known for anti-government and anti-police sentiments, sources told ABC News.

Police respond to a house in the New York City suburb of Monsey, New York, where officials say five Hasidic Jews were stabbed during a Hanukkah celebration, Dec. 28, 2019.

Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive officer of the Anti-Defamation League, expressed outraged over Saturday night's attack.

"Again, here we are: mourning another act of senseless anti-Semitic violence committed against our community and praying for those who were the victims of this hate," Greenblatt said in a statement.

"When will enough be enough?" Greenblatt continued. "These heinous attacks make something abundantly clear: the Jewish community needs greater protection. Whether worshipping in a synagogue, or shopping at a kosher supermarket, or celebrating Hanukkah in the home of your rabbi, Jews should be safe from violence. We are calling for increased protection for the Jewish community now and for those in positions of power and leadership to guarantee that the full force of the law is brought down on those who perpetrate these horrific crimes."

The violent attack sent shockwaves all the way to Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack during an Israeli cabinet meeting on Sunday.

"Israel unequivocally condemns the recent manifestations of anti-Semitism and the vicious attack in the middle of the Hanukkah holiday at the Rabbi's home in Monsey, New York," Netanyahu said. "We send our wishes of recovery to the wounded. We will cooperate in every way with the local authorities in order to help defeat this phenomenon. We offer our help to each and every state."

President Donald Trump called the incident "horrific" and wished the victims a "quick and full recovery."

Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, who is Jewish, also took to Twitter to denounce the attack as "an act of pure evil."

"Attacks on Jewish New Yorkers were reported almost every single day this past week," Ivanka Trump said in her tweet. "The increasing frequency of anti-Semitic violence in New York (and around the country) receives far too little local governmental action and national press attention."

ABC News' Josh Hoyos and Alexandra Faul contributed to this report.

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5 stabbed by intruder with machete at rabbi's Hanukkah celebration - ABC News

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Posted By admin on January 4, 2020

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) The NYPD is investigating surveillance videos of Orthodox Jews being attacked in Brooklyn over the course of an hour this weekthe latest in a series of street attacks on members of the Jewish community in recent weeks.

The attacks took place in Crown Heights on Christmas Eve. There have been roughly a dozen such attacks in the city over the past week and a half.

In the first video, a group of men confront a 56-year-old Hasidic man on Union Street. One of them punches the man in the back of the head as another records.

In the second video, recorded minutes later, a group of men attack a 23-year-old Hasidic man on Albany Avenue, near Lincoln Place. The man is hit with a chair, punched in his face and menaced with a stick.

CBS2 reports that the NYPD believes the two attacks may have been committed by the same group.

Is it going to stop? I mean, so far the pattern is things seem to be getting worse, resident David Weissman told CBS2.

The NYPD is increasing its presence in Williamsburg, Borough Park and Crown Heights to combat the problem of anti-Semitism. The city is also adding more light towers, security cameras and new curriculum for kids in school.

Eric Goldstein, CEO of the UJA Federation of New York, told CBS2 that that might not be enough.

I think that having decoy policemen dressed as Hasidic Jews is a reasonable thing to do given the current circumstance, he said.

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NYPD Investigates Back-To-Back Attacks On Hasidic Men In Brooklyn - WCBS 880

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Posted By admin on January 4, 2020

A private truck filled with armed security officers will start roaming around Rockland County to help protect local synagogues after Saturday nights attack on a Hanukkah celebration, officials said Monday.

The move was announced during a press conference at which several relatives of suspect Grafton Thomas made a surprise appearance in the audience, WPIX-TV reported. The relatives did not speak. The familys lawyer said they would be holding a press conference Monday afternoon.

Were volunteering a free service of armed officers in a very menacing omnipresent truck to help deter a reoccurrence like Saturdays attack, Patrick Brosnan, CEO of Brosnan Risk Consultants, based in Pearl River in Rockland County, told reporters.

Im personally disgusted and appalled that this continues to happen in my back yard, Brosnan said, referring to the bloody weekend machete assault during a rabbis service in the Jewish enclave of Monsey in Rockland.

Five Hasidic Jews were wounded, including a 70-year-old man who his family said is clinging to life. The horror was allegedly carried out by Thomas, a violent schizophrenic.

Brosnan, accompanied at a press conference by Rockland County Executive Ed Day, said the guards would be working around the clock and paid for by his firm, which describes itself as a security, investigative & intelligence company on its website.

Brosnan said the synagogues that will receive the extra protection are all in Rockland County and include those who feel threatened. He declined to say which ones, adding that the list is evolving.

Day said the move has the blessing of local law enforcement.

We are fighting back, he said. We cannot sit around and do nothing.

Brosnan added, This is a terroristic act.

Youre never going to solve it completely, ladies and gentlemen. But you can minimize occurrence.

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Armed guards in truck will patrol Rockland County in wake of Monsey stabbing - New York Post

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Posted By admin on January 4, 2020

5 folks had been stabbedin an anti-Semitic assaultinside a rabbis home in Monsey, New York on Saturday night time.The anti-Semitic assault occurred on the seventh day of Hanukkah.

Based onreviews, a black male entered Rabbi Rottenburgs Shul, situated within the Forshay neighborhood in Monsey, and pulled out a machete. He pulled off the duvet and stabbed 5 folks. One of many victims was stabbed within the chest.

SuspectGrafton Thomas, 37, was arrested on Saturday in Harlem after fleeing the scene of the assault. He was charged with 5 counts of tried homicide Sunday afternoon with bail set at $5 million.

Police discovered anti-Semitic writings at his residence throughout their search. His household says he isnt a terrorist.

Final week there have been at the very least eight anti-Semitic assaults on Jews in New York Metropolis in a single week.

This morning Rabbi Marvin Hier instructed Varney and Co. that there was one other anti-Semitic assault on Sunday in Grand Central Station that was not reported.

And now new video was launched on Monday of a brutal anti-Semitic assault by a bunch of black youths on a Hasidic Jew final Tuesday in New York Metropolis.

The youths threw a chair on the Jewish man then stalked him and punched the person as he continued down the road.

Through Yaacov Behrman and Mike Cernovich:

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New Video Released of Hasidic Jewish Man Attacked by Black Teens in NYC - Teens Threw Chair at Him then Stalked Their Victim on Street (VIDEO) - The...

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