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Knife-wielding man swung at ‘everyone he could’ at rabbi’s New York home, witness says Knife-wielding man shattered night of celebration, witnesses say, renewing fears of violence against Jews
(about 3 hours later)
MONSEY, N.Y. — A man barged into a rabbi’s home with a long knife and stabbed five people Saturday night in New York state, officials and witnesses say, shattering Hanukkah celebrations and renewing fears of attacks on the country’s Jewish community. MONSEY, N.Y. — Inside the rabbi’s home on the seventh night of Hanukkah, the candlelight ceremony was winding down and the large crowd gathered there was filtering to the synagogue next door when a man with a covered face barged in the front door.
The suspect in custody, identified by police as 37-year-old Grafton E. Thomas of Greenwood Lake, N.Y., has pleaded not guilty to five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary, according to the Associated Press. He unsheathed what witnesses later described as a sword nearly the size of a broomstick and started slashing at random, moving through the entryway, then into the dining room and eventually toward the kitchen, where dozens of people — children, adults and senior citizens — were trying to flee through a back door.
Officials have yet to announce a motive in the stabbing in Monsey, about 30 miles northeast of Manhattan, but state leaders were quick to call it domestic terrorism and to denounce anti-Semitic attacks in the wake of other violence against Jewish residents. The attack, which officials said began after 10 p.m. Saturday in the New York City suburb of Monsey, would last less than two minutes, leave five people wounded and further unsettle the region’s already fearful Orthodox Hasidic community after a spate of recent attacks on Jewish people.
A candle-lighting ceremony for the seventh day of Hanukkah was finishing up at the home of Orthodox Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg when the attack began about 10 p.m., people who fled the festivities said. People were slowly filtering into the synagogue next door for a holiday meal. It would also prompt calls for action to prevent more violence as the state’s governor called for a law punishing mass attacks motivated by hatred of an identity group as domestic terrorism.
A security official briefed on the case said witnesses told law enforcement the attacker entered the rabbi’s house and closed the door behind him before saying, “Nobody going anywhere,” then started to stab and slice at people seemingly at random, leaving one victim with wounds to the head, neck, back and arm. Within hours, authorities tracked down and arrested Grafton E. Thomas, a 37-year-old resident of neighboring Orange County who witnesses had seen flee the scene in a silver Nissan. One man wrote down the license plate number and reported it to a police dispatcher.
Dozens were still inside when the attacker came in swinging what looked like a long sword at “everyone he could,” said Yisroel Kraus, a 26-year-old teacher who ran out the back of the home. Thomas pleaded not guilty to five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary during a court appearance Sunday, according to the Associated Press. His bail was set at $5 million.
“If he had come 10 minutes earlier, the place would have been packed,” he said. “No way to move; no way to run. It was a miracle. It was a Hanukkah miracle.” Thomas’s attorney, Kristine Ciganek of the Rockland County public defender’s office, declined to comment.
After a rampage that lasted less than two minutes, the assailant tried unsuccessfully to enter the synagogue next door — where congregants who heard the commotion had locked the door, said Yossi Gestetner, a co-founder of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council who spoke with people on the scene Saturday night. Officials have yet to announce a motive in the stabbing in Monsey, about 30 miles north of Manhattan, but state leaders were quick to denounce the attack as an act of anti-Semitism just weeks after four people were fatally shot in what officials called a targeted attack on a Jersey City kosher grocery store motivated by hatred of Jews and law enforcement.
Before the suspect fled in a car, police said, a witness wrote down the license plate number that would allow authorities to apprehend him within hours in Harlem. He was then transferred to Ramapo, a town near Monsey where he was arraigned Sunday morning, officials said. Sunday’s stabbing shook a county where a third of the population is Jewish and where officials said anti-Semitism has risen in recent years as increasing numbers of Orthodox Jews make their homes there. Police said last month that they would increase patrols in Monsey in response to Jewish residents’ fears, as concerns prompt similar vows of heightened security in the wider region.
Prosecutors said Thomas, whose bail was set at $5 million, was found with blood on his clothes and smelled of bleach, the Associated Press reported. The suspect did not answer questions as he walked out of the court midday Sunday. “People in the Orthodox community are connecting dots and are genuinely frightened of the escalation,” said Rockland County legislator Aron Wieder.
His lawyer did not immediately respond to inquiries Sunday afternoon. As news of the latest assault spread, advocacy groups and local leaders called for concrete steps to address anti-Jewish attacks. Former New York Assembly member Dov Hikind said the state’s Jewish residents are “sick and tired” of tweets condemning anti-Semitism and want action.
Thomas has been arrested at least seven times since 2001, on offenses that include assault, resisting arrest, killing or injuring a police animal, driving while under the influence, possessing controlled substances and menacing a police or peace officer, said the security official. “When will enough be enough?” the Anti-Defamation League echoed in a statement, saying a week of anti-Semitic incidents in the area make it clear that “the Jewish community needs greater protection.”
The victims, all Hasidic Jews, were taken to hospitals, according to the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council in Hudson Valley. One victim remains in critical condition with wounds to the head, officials said Sunday. Police have not identified those injured, but officials said Rottenberg’s son is recovering from his wounds. New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said the state police’s hate crime task force will investigate and called the Monsey stabbing “domestic terrorism” — New York’s 13th anti-Semitic incident in three weeks, he said.
The stabbing in Monsey followed other attacks that have stoked fears among Jewish residents in the area. New York City leaders said Friday that police would increase patrols in several neighborhoods in light of increasing anti-Semitic violence. Earlier this month, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said suspects in a shooting at a kosher deli in Jersey City “held views that reflected hatred of the Jewish people, as well as the hatred of law enforcement.” “This is an intolerant time in this country,” Cuomo said Sunday. “We see anger, we see hatred exploding. It is an American cancer in the body politic.”
As news of the latest attack spread, advocacy groups and local leaders called for concrete steps to prevent more violence. Former New York Assembly member Dov Hikind said the state’s Jewish residents are “sick and tired” of tweets condemning anti-Semitism and want action. Appearing alongside Hikind, Gestetner called for heightened security and publicizing the consequences of such attacks. The president and leaders in Congress were also united in condemning anti-Semitism after the attack, though some Democrats said Trump should take a more forceful public stance and blamed him for stoking bigotry.
“When will enough be enough?” the Anti-Defamation League echoed in a statement, saying that anti-Semitic incidents in the New York and New Jersey area over the past week make it “abundantly clear” that “the Jewish community needs greater protection.” On Sunday, community members said that three of the five victims had been treated and released by doctors. Two others remained hospitalized, and at least one was in critical condition with a head wound, Cuomo said at a news conference.
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said the state police’s hate crime task force will investigate, denouncing what he called the state’s 13th anti-Semitic incident in a few weeks as “intolerance meets ignorance meets illegality.” The violence shattered a night of celebration for a tightknit community, witnesses said. A security official briefed on the case said witnesses told law enforcement the attacker entered the rabbi’s house and closed the door behind him before saying, “Nobody going anywhere.”
“This is an intolerant time in this country,” he said Sunday. “We see anger, we see hatred exploding. It is an American cancer in the body politic.” He started to stab and slice at people seemingly at random, the official said, leaving victims with grave injuries requiring surgery: ruptured hand tendons, a partially amputated limb, wounds to the head, neck, back and arm.
Cuomo on Sunday renewed his calls for New York to become the first state in the country with a law on domestic terrorism. A proposal he advocated earlier this year would treat mass shootings motivated by attributes such as race and national origins as punishable by as much as life in prison without parole, similar to terrorism crimes. Yisroel Kraus, a 26-year-old teacher who was celebrating Hanukkah at the rabbi’s home with his family, said the assailant swung what looked like a long sword at “everyone he could.” It was lucky, he said, that people had already started to filter out for the night.
Democratic presidential candidates also tweeted concerns about a rise in hateful attacks on Jews, and President Trump on Sunday afternoon called anti-Semitism an “evil scourge” that we “must all come together to fight, confront, and eradicate.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, too, condemned Saturday’s attack in Monsey. “If he had come 10 minutes earlier, the place would have been packed,” he said. “No way to move. No way to run. It was a miracle. It was a Hanukkah miracle.”
Some Democrats urge Trump to more strongly condemn anti-Semitism in wake of Monsey attack Guests tried to fight the attacker off, he recounted: Unable to run, one elderly man threw a chair at the assailant and beat him with a cane.
In the town Sunday, there was mourning, singing and dancing at a procession of more than 100 Hasidic Jews ending at the crime scene. Marchers, led by five law enforcement vehicles, ranged from young to old. But the hero of the evening, Kraus said, was his brother-in-law, Joseph Gluck.
Rabbi Yossi Fried, 34, shepherded a group of schoolchildren, who each held up oil torches. Gluck had watched as the attacker unsheathed a “big sword” and began swinging it at those inside, he told MSNBC. Gluck would eventually hit the attacker in the head with a small coffee table from the entryway, he recounted. Both men moved outside.
That’s when Gluck realized that the man was headed toward the synagogue, where congregants locked the doors after hearing the commotion at the rabbi’s house. Gluck screamed warnings, then watched as the man tried a second door.
As the attacker fled to a car and sped away, authorities and witnesses said, Gluck was able to catch the license plate number: HDP 5757. That was the critical information that allowed authorities to catch the suspect in Harlem by around midnight, police said — covered in blood and smelling of bleach, prosecutors said, according to the Associated Press.
Kraus ran out the back door of the rabbi’s house and jumped over a gate, he said, ending up at a home a few blocks away where he saw a menorah and knew he’d be welcomed.
An hour later, he gathered with others at the synagogue, where the rabbi spoke of resilience.
“We went on with our daily lives,” Kraus said. “We danced and thanked God that no one got killed.”
Three state troopers were stationed Sunday on a sidewalk across from the rabbi’s house where the attack occurred. Hasidic men and boys gathered around the home and the synagogue next door after the morning ceremony.
Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, arrived at the house in a black Ford Explorer and met with the rabbi.
“We are in a completely different mode now,” he told reporters gathered on the lawn when he came outside. “In this Hanukkah, we suffered more anti-Semitic incidents than the candles we lit. Impossible to bear.”
Wieder, the county legislator, said anti-Semitism began to rise in the area about a decade ago and has increased noticeably in the past five years. Parents express concern that their children’s schools might be targeted, he said. Synagogue members question the wisdom of open-door policies that have allowed anyone to walk in to pray.
As more Orthodox Jews have moved into the community, Wieder said other residents taunted them anonymously online, then etched Swastikas onto the dirty window of a van and a “for sale” sign in front of a home. An ad for the county’s Republican Party said Wieder was “plotting a takeover” that threatens “our way of life.”
Then, last month, a 30-year-old rabbi said two people came up behind him on a secluded street in Monsey and beat him for several minutes. Police Chief Brad Weidel has said there is no evidence that the man was targeted for his religion, but concerns flared up in the Orthodox community.
Concerns also flared up among the Orthodox community last month when a 30-year-old rabbi said two people came up behind him on a secluded street in Monsey and beat him for several minutes. Police Chief Brad Weidel has said there is no evidence that the man was targeted for his religion.
On Sunday there was mourning, singing and dancing at a procession of more than 100 Hasidic Jews that ended at the crime scene. Marchers, led by five law enforcement vehicles, ranged from young to old.
Rabbi Yossi Fried, 34, shepherded a group of schoolchildren holding up oil torches as a light rain fell.
His message for the day: “It has been tough, but in the Jewish religion, we are always taught that there is light, even amongst the darkness, especially with the children.”His message for the day: “It has been tough, but in the Jewish religion, we are always taught that there is light, even amongst the darkness, especially with the children.”
“That is the message we give no matter what,” he said. “That is the message we give, no matter what,” he said.
The attack shook Rockland County, where almost one-third of the population is Jewish and where the Orthodox community has grown to thousands of families in recent years, according to Jewish groups. Knowles and Mettler reported from Washington. Souad Mekhennet in Quiberon, France, Shayna Jacobs in New York and Marisa Iati and Alice Crites in Washington contributed to this report.
Rockland County Executive Ed Day condemned the “heinous crime” and said in a statement, “Getting such a horrific call in the midst of a local holiday celebration is a stark reminder that even in a community as good and serene as ours, evil can visit us. Violence of any kind will not be tolerated here in Rockland.”
Leaders across the state have expressed growing concern about anti-Semitism in the county, after a Rockland County Republican Party advertisement in August said legislator Aron Wieder — an Orthodox Jew — is “plotting a takeover” that threatens “our way of life.” The video overlaid the words “Our Families” on a photo of a white, non-Orthodox couple and their children posing on a front lawn.
The video was “the very definition of discrimination,” Cuomo said at the time.
Knowles and Mettler reported from Washington, Mekhennet from Quiberon, France. Shayna Jacobs in New York and Marisa Iati and Alice Crites in Washington contributed to this report.