5 stabbed at Hanukkah celebration in rabbi’s New York home
Suspect in custody after 5 stabbed at rabbi’s home in New York, officials say
(about 2 hours later)
MONSEY, N.Y. — As people gathered at a rabbi’s home north of New York City to celebrate the seventh night of Hanukkah, police said a man stabbed and wounded five before fleeing in a vehicle.
Authorities say a suspect is in custody after five people were stabbed Saturday night in New York in an attack that Jewish leaders say shattered Hanukkah celebrations at the home of a rabbi.
The Saturday night stabbings come on the heels of a string of attacks targeting Jews in the region, including a massacre at a kosher grocery store in New Jersey earlier this month. The rabbi’s home is in Monsey, a town not far from the New Jersey state line and one of several in the Hudson Valley that has seen an influx of Hasidic Jews in recent years. The Rockland County town is about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of New York City.
Officials have yet to announce a motive in Saturday’s violence in the town of Monsey, but the incident comes in the wake of other attacks decried as anti-Semitic. Police in the nearby town of Ramapo said just after midnight that a man who fled the scene was in custody as investigations continue.
Police said the stabbings happened at around 10 p.m. Hours later, Brad Weidel, the police chief for the town of Ramapo, which covers Monsey, said that New York City police had located a vehicle and a possible suspect sought in connection with the attack. The NYPD hadn’t confirmed whether anyone was in custody as of early Sunday morning. Authorities did not immediately provide a motive for the attack.
The victims, all Hasidic Jews, were taken to local hospitals, according to the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council in Hudson Valley, which said the stabbings occurred at the home of Orthodox Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg just before 10 p.m. Yossi Gestetner, the Council’s co-founder, said Rottenberg’s son was among the victims.
Five people were hospitalized, Weidel said. The extent of their injuries weren’t immediately clear.
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said he was “horrified” by the “latest in a string of attacks against members of the Jewish community in New York this week.” New York City leaders said Friday that police would increase their patrols in several neighborhoods in light of anti-Semitic violence, and 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.”
The Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council for the Hudson Valley region tweeted reports that the stabbings took place at the house of a Hasidic rabbi during a Hanukkah celebration.
Cuomo said he is directing the State Police’s hate crimes task force to investigate the stabbing.
The large home on Forshay Road remained cordoned off with yellow crime-scene tape early Sunday. According to public records, the home belongs to Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg, who leads the adjacent synagogue. Several state and local officials had described the location of the stabbings as a synagogue.
“Let me be clear: anti-Semitism and bigotry of any kind are repugnant to our values of inclusion and diversity and we have absolutely zero tolerance for such acts of hate,” he said in a statement.
Aron Kohn told The New York Times he was inside the residence during the stabbings.
Rockland County Executive Ed Day said law enforcement response was “immediate and effective.” He called the attack a “heinous crime."
“I was praying for my life,” said Kohn, 65. “He started attacking people right away as soon as he came in the door. We didn’t have time to react at all.”
“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,” Day said in a statement. “Violence of any kind will not be tolerated here in Rockland.”
The attack drew condemnation from top state officials, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Letitia James, as well as from Israel’s president and prime minister.
“Israel unequivocally condemns the recent expressions of anti-Semitism and the vicious attack in the middle of Hanukkah on the rabbi’s house in Monsey, New York,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “We send our wishes of recovery to the wounded. We will cooperate in every way with the local authorities in order to defeat this phenomenon. We offer our help to each and every state.”
Cuomo, who called the stabbings a “cowardly act,” directed the New York State Police hate crimes task force to investigate.
“Let me be clear: anti-Semitism and bigotry of any kind are repugnant to our values of inclusion and diversity and we have absolutely zero tolerance for such acts of hate,” he said in a statement. “In New York we will always stand up and say with one voice to anyone who wishes to divide and spread fear: you do not represent New York and your actions will not go unpunished.”
Jewish communities in the New York City metropolitan area have been left shaken following a deadly Dec. 10 shooting rampage at a Jersey City kosher market. Six people — three people who had been inside the store, a police officer and the two killers — died in the gunbattle and standoff that New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal has said was “fueled” by hatred of Jews and law enforcement.
Last month, a man was stabbed while walking to a synagogue in the same town that was the site of Saturday night’s attack; he required surgery. It’s unclear whether the assailant has been arrested.
And this past week in New York City itself, police have received at least six reports — eight since Dec. 13 — of attacks possibly motivated by anti-Jewish bias. Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that police presence would increase in Brooklyn neighborhoods home to large Jewish populations.
“I am so sad for this openly #orthodox #Jewish community & the ones across the region,” tweeted Evan Bernstein, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey who went to the scene in Monsey. “When will a break from this hate come? When will the community be able to be relaxed again? #Hanukkah will never be the same for so many of the #Jews impacted.”
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Madden reported from New York.
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