ANOTHER anti-Semitic attack, this time in New York: Machete-wielding man wounds 5 Jews at Hanukkah event in rabbi's home, suspect arrested

Dom Calicchio
Fox News
Sun, 29 Dec 2019 13:30 UTC

Comment: The global wave of anti-Semitic attacks continues...

© AP

Police work the scene of the stabbings that took place inside the home of a rabbi in Monsey, New York, on Saturday

A frightening attack at a Hanukkah celebration in the home of a rabbi in a suburb north of New York City on Saturday night placed the entire New York region on edge and had public officials vowing to stop the violence.

The assault in Monsey, N.Y. -- by a machete-wielding suspect who drove away but whom authorities believe was the man they apprehended later -- continued a string of incidents in recent weeks that have included beatings of Jewish people on the streets of New York City and a massacre at a kosher grocery store in nearby Jersey City, N.J.

Comment: They believe it's the same guy? Well, it either is or it isn't...

Five people were wounded at what public records say was the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg, who leads a nearby synagogue. Soon after the attack, video posted on social media showed emergency responders frantically transporting victims on gurneys to waiting ambulances.

"I was praying for my life," Aron Kohn, 65, who was inside the house at the time, told The New York Times. "He started attacking people right away as soon as he came in the door. We didn't have time to react at all."

Those wounded were taken to local hospitals for treatment, Ramapo police Chief Brad Weidel told The Associated Press. There was no immediate information on the severity of their injuries.

Among the groups condemning the attack was the Republican Jewish Coaltion.

"The political leadersip in New York isn't doing nearly enough to protect its Jewish citizens," the Republican Jewish Coalition wrote on Twitter. "This has become a daily occurrence in NY. These attacks might not be a convenient talking point for those on the left, but they still need to speak out."

Monsey - a town of about 18,000 residents some 35 miles north of New York City - had seen a previous attack just last month, when a 30-year-old man on his way to morning prayers was beaten and stabbed, The Journal News of Rockland County reported.

Comment: Curiously, in that earlier incident, "no words were exchanged" between attacker and victim. Also, "police said they don't have descriptions of a suspect or suspects or any vehicle driven. Members of the community say two men attacked the victim and drove off in a car." They've since resorted to offering $10,000 for any information people can provide.

Investigators in that case are HIGHLY reluctant to classify it a hate crime, even though it's obvious as day it was a premeditated attack against someone because he is a Jew.

It's weird how, from the US to France and elsewhere, no one EVER sees the attackers of Jews, and the police never seem to catch the perps...

In New York City, the NYPD's Counterterrorism Bureau said it was "closely monitoring" Saturday's attack in Monsey, and the Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey said it was aware of the attack and was sending representatives to the town.

Messages posted later by the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council of the Hudson Valley said that five people had been stabbed, including one victim who was struck six times, and that two of the victims were in critical condition. That message added that the suspect had been seen leaving in a gray Nissan Sentra vehicle.

Police in Clarkstown, N.Y., also were reporting that five people had been stabbed, WCBS reported.

Letitia James, the state attorney general of New York, condemned the attack in a message posted on Twitter.

"I am deeply disturbed by the situation unfolding in Monsey, New York tonight," James wrote. "There is zero tolerance for acts of hate of any kind and we will continue to monitor this horrific situation.

"I stand with the Jewish community tonight and every night," she added.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo also posted a message condemning the Monsey attack.

"I am horrified by the stabbing of multiple people at a synagogue in Rockland County tonight," Cuomo wrote. "We have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism in NY and we will hold the attacker accountable to the fullest extent of the law.

"NY stands with the Jewish community," Cuomo added.

Just hours earlier, Cuomo had taken to social media to condemn a previous anti-Semitic attack that occurred Friday in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Comment: What is going ON??

"I am disgusted to learn of the attack on three members of our Jewish community in Brooklyn on Friday--the 6th anti-Semitic incident in NYC just this week," Cuomo wrote. "The cowards responsible are trying to spread fear, but they will always fail. NY stands united against anti-Semitism & hate."

Comment: Any leads in THOSE cases??

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also posted on Twitter around midnight Sunday.

"Horrific," de Blasio wrote. "So many Jewish families in our city have close ties to Monsey. We cannot overstate the fear people are feeling right now.

"I've spoken to longtime friends who, for the first time in their lives, are fearful to show outward signs of their Jewish faith," he added.

Also earlier Saturday, U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., wrote on Twitter that "feckless leadership" in New York City was partly to blame for the wave of anti-Semitism there.

"The violent anti-Semitic attacks in NYC are being caused by raw hate, feckless leadership, a culture of acceptance, education & promotion of anti-Semitism, & lowering quality of life," Zeldin, from the city's Long Island suburbs, wrote. "De Blasio & ALL elected and community leaders need to step up to confront & crush this threat."

Comment: No one should ever be attacked because of their faith, especially while peacefully celebrating a religious holiday. The recent epidemic of "anti-semitic attacks" makes us wonder, however, what's really going on. Cui bono?

In an Op-ed today in The Jerusalem Post, titled Inconvenient antisemitism: The daily attacks on Jews in New York, Seth Frantzman ends with:

The result is a multi-layered cake of excuses and fear at confronting a wider range of perpetrators of antisemitism in New York. If violent antisemitism that sees Jews controlling the police and being responsible for slavery and white supremacy, is growing in the African American community in America then confronting it requires asking a minority community that is also a victim to be self-critical. In the US there tends to be pass for minority groups who are homophobic or racist. Society can only confront one kind of racism. This is largely because those driving the agenda of confronting racism either have blinders on regarding all forms of racism and antisemitism or are unaware of it because they don't conduct surveys and polls regarding the prevalence of antisemitism in places like Brooklyn. When the perpetrators and victims do not fit a convenient model, it is easier to just excuse the attacks or see them as random. Unfortunately, in the US these attacks are not random, and there is rising violent antisemitism coming from a broad spectrum of communities, including white supremacists and from African Americans. Confronting it requires the same broad spectrum to step up the struggle.

Does it sound like some Jewish people are vying for THE minority position among all minorities?

UPDATE 21:00 CET

Governor Cuomo has called the attack "an act of domestic terrorism" fueled by intolerance:

"This is intolerance meets ignorance meets illegality," Cuomo told reporters on Sunday, calling the attack the 13th incidence of anti-Semitism in recent weeks. "This is violence spurred by hate, it is mass violence, and I consider it an act of domestic terrorism."

Police have arrested the alleged perpetrator, though his possible terrorist motives are unknown. The man was arrested without struggle in Harlem shortly after midnight.

The attack took place during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, as Rabbi Rottenberg was hosting around 100 people in his home for the lighting of the candle marking the seventh night of the holiday. The rabbi's home is located in Rockland County, which has the highest per-capita population of Jews of any US county.

The New York Police Department's counterterrorism unit said it is "closely monitoring" the incident. Prior to the attack, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the NYPD would step up patrols in Jewish neighborhoods of New York City, citing a string of recent anti-Semitic attacks.

An eyewitness describes what he saw go down at the rabbi's house:

Witness Aron Kohn described the moment the suspect walked into the Rabbi's residence and began attacking with a knife he described as almost as big as "a broomstick."

"I saw him walking in by the door. I asked who was coming in in the middle of the night with an umbrella. While I was saying that, he pulled it out from the thing and he started to run into the big room, which was on the left side. And I had thrown tables and chairs, that he should get out of here. And the injured guy, he was bleeding here, bleeding in his hand, all over," Kohn said. "I ran into the other room to save my life. I saw him running this way, so I ran the other way to save my life. He said something but I could not understand what he said. I saw him pull out the knife from the holder, the case."

Again, it's all very vague.

In France, one small community of Jews in the country's northeast have been targeted dozens of times in the last year. Despite having the full force of the state on their side, authorities there still have ZERO leads...

42 acts of vandalism in 1.5 years: Jewish cemeteries are being systematically desecrated in Alsace, France, but not a SINGLE arrest has been made

The suspect's name and image, by the way:

Update 22:30 CET

The above suspect, Grafton Thomas, is also now, retrospectively, a suspect in a 'stab-a-Jew-and-run' incident in the same town of Monsey, NY, on 20 November this year (that's the earlier incident we comment on above, the one where a cash reward was offered for info).