Eight anti-Semitic assaults in one week in New York

USA TODAY
5 STABBED IN 'ACT OF DOMESTIC TERRORISM' AT HANUKKAH PARTY; SUSPECT FACING ATTEMPTTED MURDER CHARGES

MONSEY, N.Y. ”“ One person remained in critical condition Sunday after a knife-wielding attacker stabbed five people during a Hanukkah party in a rabbi's home Saturday night, the latest in a string of assaults apparently targeting Jews in the region.

Authorities say that several people were stabbed north of New York City late Saturday night and a possible suspect has been located.© Seth Harrison, APPolice work at a residence in Monsey, N.Y., early Sunday, December 29, 2019, following a stabbing Saturday during a Hanukkah celebration. Authorities say that several people were stabbed north of New York City late Saturday night and a possible suspect has been located.

A suspect was taken into custody in the Harlem section of New York City a short time after the attack, the NYPD said. The suspect faces five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary, Police Chief Brad Weidel said Sunday. Monsey is about 30 miles north of Harlem.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday called the attack an act of domestic terrorism and directed the State Police hate crimes task force to investigate.

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The attack took place in the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg, who heads Congregation Netzach Yisroel next door. Weidel said officers received reports of a stabbing just before 10 p.m., and that witnesses described the weapon as a large knife or machete.

Two of the victims were taken to Good Samaritan Hospital and three were taken to Westchester Medical Center. Cuomo, who said he visited with with the rabbi Sunday morning, said Rottenberg's son was among those wounded and that another person was in critical condition with wounds to the head.

Cuomo said the attack was at least the 13th incident of anti-Semitism in the state in the past few weeks.

"This is intolerance meets ignorance meets illegality," Cuomo said. "This is an intolerant time in this country. We see anger and we see hatred exploding. It is an American cancer in the body politic."

A video posted by Monsey News on Twitter shows a massive response on Forshay Road as paramedics rushed stretchers to ambulances. Forshay Road is a predominantly ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood.

State Attorney General Letitia James said Saturday night via Twitter: "I am deeply disturbed by the situation unfolding in Monsey, New York tonight. 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."

At least eight attacks have been reported in New York City over the past week. And in New Jersey three people were killed during a shooting at a Jersey City kosher market earlier this month.

Monsey was also the scene of an attack on Nov. 20 when a 30-year-old rabbi was stabbed on his way to a Howard Drive synagogue just before dawn. Moses Kahan, an Orthodox Jewish community activist in New York and New Jersey, said there's been a buildup of hateful words across the region.

"The hate, negativity and lies targeting Orthodox Jews is part of the problem, as is anti-Semitism in general," he said. Kahan expressed frustration with New York City authorities, saying they had not taken the threat as seriously as they should. But in Rockland, Kahan added, County Executive Ed Day and incoming District Attorney Thomas Walsh "will not give into the haters and violent criminals."

Dustin Hausner, a Jewish community activist, noted that the Monsey attack took place in the waning days of Hanukkah, following multiple "heartbreaking" attacks on Jews in New York City. He called on residents of Rockland County to stand with those attacked.

"It is unfortunately very easy with social media to dehumanize those who are different and to feel detached,” Hausner said. "It is times like this we must show our unity against violence and against hatred through our words and acts of love, empathy and compassion to those in need."

Rockland County Executive Ed Day condemned the attack and said violence of any kind will not be tolerated in the county.

"People need to know that law enforcement in Rockland will leave no stone unturned as they bring those guilty of this crime to swift and severe justice," Day said in a statement.

Eberhart reports for the Rockland/Westchester Journal News

docs: No rhyme or real reason for these attacks but simply because THESE PEOPLE ARE JEWS. It has eerie echoes to earlier eras and is increasing.

Prophetic Call to Practical Preparation

By Reggie Kelly
Open Letter

Dear Brother,

I am most grateful for the two emails, very sobering, yet edifying in the assurance that God will do nothing except He reveal His intention to His servants the prophets (Amos 3:7). I believe you are seeing something that significantly coincides with my own impressions concerning a particular pattern of events that is already beginning to manifest, and may be expected to escalate very shortly. It would also seem significant that such premonitions of impending disaster should come now, on the eve of the New Year. I also feel the same sense of sad foreboding and find the content of your dream to be in very convincing agreement with what I believe the Lord has shown me of His larger strategy of both judgment and mercy towards both Israel and the Church.

Well before the actual ‘time of Jacob’s trouble’ (i.e., the final 3 ½ years of ‘great tribulation,’ cf. Jer 30:7; Dan 12:1-2; Mt 24:21), there will be, in my opinion, a series of preliminary disasters that will come to the Jewish people, not only in the Land, but in concentrations of Jewish populations throughout the great cities of the world. This preview of the greater and unequaled time of Jacob’s trouble (Jer 30:7) is a necessary part of God’s greater strategy to awaken the true believers. Let me explain. When in New York, I had the distinct sense that Jewish population centers here and throughout the world will be increasingly targeted by Islamic terrorism, and this well before the actual onset of Israel’s final woes. This is what I think you are seeing and what I expect may begin very soon. I suspect this will take the form of random attacks on principal centers of Jewish population. I believe this pattern of terror will continue for a protracted space of time, creating conditions of fear and uncertainty that will prompt the movement and relocation of many Jews.

It is also reasonable to expect that terrorists will strategically aim to make physical proximity to Jewish enclaves a dangerous liability.1 Initial outrage and sympathy for Jewish suffering will eventually turn to resentment and contempt. Through the attrition of disaster following upon disaster, popular sentiment will begin to yield to anti-Semitic propaganda, fingering the historical disposition of the Jew as a perennial source of world conflict. As pressures mount to the point of becoming personally threatening, otherwise cultured, pluralistic, humanistic hearts will begin to harden towards Israel and the Jews. There will be a natural desire to secure the safety of distance from Jews, who, together with all who are perceived as supporting Israel, are the especial objects of Islamic rage. Just as I once heard on a news program, an Islamic militant warn a reporter in an ominous demonic tone, "Stay away from the Jews; they have a dark future.”

However, there is mercy in this tragic scenario. Through a pattern that will become plain to those who interpret prophecy literally, the question concerning the time of the Rapture will be critical, and whether the Church will be present to answer the prophetic call for wilderness preparation in anticipation of Israel’s flight in the time of Antichrist. This expects that the true Church will begin to extricate itself from the Babylon of doctrinal confusion, and, in the urgency of prophetic fulfillment, take up its tribulation task to "instruct many” (Dan 11:33; 12:3). But even before the onset of the final tribulation events, the growing cloud of anti-Semitism will present the greater occasion for the Church to direct Jewish attention to the witness of prophecy, as ultimately all nations will be confronted with the same powerful evidence pointing to the prophetic testimony of Jesus (Rev 1:2,9; 12:17; 19:10b).

(Written New Year's Eve 2003)

Our society is lawless, this form of anti-Semitic hatred is only a form of it.

Sex trafficking, LGBTQ, transexualism, state intrusion into family authority, hatred of that which is good, love for anything evil is all the same working.

Mass shootings or stabbings are just part of what it means to living in a godless culture that promotes godlessness.

I personally don't believe for a minute Cuomo is at all upset at a jew being killed, he is worried it may bleed over into what he is concerned about.

'WE'RE NOT GOING TO COWER': SMALL JEWISH COMMUNITIES PREPARE FOR INCREASING ANTI-SEMITIC ATTACKS'

Lindsay Schnell, USA TODAY

PORTLAND, Ore. ”” As Rabbi Ken Brodkin watched the news trickle in from Sutherland Springs, Texas, in November 2017 ”” 26 killed and 20 wounded after a shooter opened fire during Sunday morning services, one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history ”” he felt a jolt of realization. Seeing a house of worship become a hunting ground for shooters in real-time told him everything was about to change.

Brodkin, 44, has been the rabbi at Congregation Kesser Israel, Oregon’s largest and longest-established Orthodox synagogue for 14 years. His congregations totals about 130 families in the Portland area, a sliver of the small Jewish population in Portland, where roughly 40,000 Jews live in a city of almost 650,000.

Brodkin’s always known the Jewish community is vulnerable to hate crimes ”” "anti-Semitism,” he says, "is an eternal force” ”” but that reality crystallized in fall 2018, when his congregation decided the best way to protect itself was to hire an armed guard to patrol the synagogue during weekend services.

His situation isn’t unique. As anti-Semitic attacks become more frequent across the country, Jewish leaders are grappling with how to straddle the line of creating open environments while keeping their congregation safe from hateful outsiders.

The challenges can be particularly steep for smaller communities, which often find themselves with fewer financial resources and isolated geographically. Paying for security measures like cameras, panic buttons, bulletproof glass, metal detectors or armed guards can add up quickly, and isn’t in every synagogue’s budget.

"It’s the million-dollar question,” Brodkin says. "We can’t allow the fact that there are crazy people in the world to stop us from our mission of building a welcoming community. Those things aren’t mutually exclusive ”” but the attention to detail has to be thorough.”

In recent weeks, Jewish people across the U.S. have come together to show support for their community. Shortly after a stabbing attack at a Hannukkah party last week in Monsy, New York, hundreds of Jews rallied in the streets, and hundreds of thousands are expected this Sunday at a march in New York City.

Anti-Semitism is on the rise in the U.S. There were 780 anti-Semitic incidents ”” assaults, vandalism and harassment ”” in the first half of 2019, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

In contrast, in 2018 there were 775 in the first half of the year. The deadliest came in Pittsburgh in October 2018, when 11 people were murdered by a white supremacist gunman. During the Monsy attack on Dec. 29, a man stabbed five people with a machete at the home of a rabbi. That attack came shortly after two shooters killed four people at a Jersey City, New Jersey, kosher market earlier in December.

"Most congregations pride themselves on being a welcoming place, and none of us want to practice our religion inside a fortress,” says Aaron Ahlquist, 43, an Anti-Defamation League regional director based in New Orleans who oversees Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.

Ahlquist works directly with smaller communities in his region to make sure they’re connecting with local law enforcement to discuss security procedures. His office also identifies and tracks hate groups and individuals who have "clearly expressed hate motives” toward the Jewish community.

"We’re reeling from all these attacks,” Ahlquist says. "And one of the realities is that for the Jewish community in particular, but really all faith communities, a passive approach to security is no longer an option.”