Man Arrested After Five People Stabbed at Hanukkah Celebration in New York

A man wielding a knife burst into a Hanukkah celebration at an Orthodox rabbi’s home in the town of Monsey, New York on Saturday evening, wounding five people.

Police captured the suspect, who they have identified as 37-year-old Grafton E. Thomas, in New York City hours after the attack. He has been charged with five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary, according to the Town of Ramapo Police Department, which is investigating the case.

The incident unfolded next to the rabbi’s synagogue in Monsey, a small town in Rockland County about 20 miles outside of New York City. Rockland County has the largest Jewish population per ca pita of any county in the United States, according to New York State. About 31.4% of the county’s residents are Jewish.

The attack comes amid growing concern about anti-Semitic hate crimes in New York and the surrounding region. In the most violent incident, four people were shot and killed in nearby Jersey City in an anti-Semitic attack that targeted a kosher deli on Dec. 10.

Just one month ago, an Orthodox man was stabbed in Monsey near a local synagogue.

Shortly before 10 p.m. on Saturday, people had gathered at the home of Hasidic Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg next to his synagogue, Congregation Netzach Yisroel, to celebrate the seventh day of Hanukkah. Thomas allegedly burst into the gathering, according to police and the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, and stabbed five people, including one of the rabbi’s children.

A witness, Josef Gluck, told the Associated Press that a man “came in wielding a big knife, sword, machete — I don’t know what it was.” Gluck told the AP that he hit the assailant with a coffee table.

Thomas fled in a car, but a witness spotted him driving away and gave the police his license plate number, said Ramapo Police Chief Brad Weidel, theAssociated Press reported. He was taken into police custody in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood. Weidel said the license plate number was “critical” to the arrest, the AP added.

The attack is just the latest in a series of anti-Semitic hate crimes to sew fear in the region. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that there have been 13 ant-Semitic attacks in New York State since Dec. 8. In response to this and other attacks, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Friday that he will increase NYPD patrols in three Brooklyn neighborhoods.

Tiffany Harris was released on Saturday after punching and cursing at three Orthodox women on Friday.

Tiffany Harris was released on Saturday after punching and cursing at three Orthodox women on Friday. Suspects arrested in last week’s spree of eight anti-Semitic attacks are being quickly released right back into the neighborhoods they terrorized thanks to “bail reform” legislation — which doesn’t even take effect until Jan. 1.
The most recent case of revolving-door justice came Saturday morning, with the release, with no bail, of a woman charged with punching and cursing at three Orthodox women, ages 22, 26 and 31, in Crown Heights, Brooklyn at dawn the day before.

 

Yossi Gestetner of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council told reporters that the attacker wore a scarf over his face during the attack. Police later named Thomas, 37, of Greenwood Lake, New York, as their suspect. He is currently being held at the Rockland County Jail.

His criminal history includes a prior arrest for assaulting a police horse, an official told the Associated Press. (A lawyer representing Thomas said he had no convictions, however, the AP noted.)

Prosecutors said that Thomas had blood on his clothing and smelled like bleach, according to the Associated Press. He was arraigned on Sunday morning and his bail has been set at $5 million, according to the Town of Ramapo Police Department. He has pleaded not guilty, per the AP.

What do we know about the victims?

The victims have not yet been identified, but Gestentner said that one was the rabbi’s child.

Gestetner said that two were taken from the scene in critical condition, and that a senior was in very critical condition. The Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council said that one of the victims had been stabbed six times, while the least severely injured person had been stabbed in the hand.

The New York State Police’s hate crimes task force will be directed to investigate the attack, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Twitter early Sunday. He described the stabbing as a “despicable and cowardly act,” and announced that he will direct the New York State Police to increase their presence in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods across the state.

Cuomo described the attack to reporters as “domestic terrorism.” He said that the attack is indicative of larger national problem with hate that he describes as an “American cancer that is spreading in the body politic.”

“I wish I could say it’s an isolated situation. Unfortunately, it’s not. We’ve had 13 acts of anti-Semitism since Dec. 8 in New York State,” Cuomo said. He noted that other incidents have affected the LGBTQ, black and Hispanic communities.

“If anyone thinks that 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 said.

After the attack, four Orthodox Jewish elected officials — State Senator Simcha Felder, State Assemblymember Simcha Eichenstein, New York City Councilmember Chaim Deutsch, and New York City Councilmember Kalman Yeger — submitted a letter to Cuomo asking him to declare a state of emergency and deploy State Police and the New York National Guards to protect Orthodox neighborhoods. The also asked him to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate anti-Semitic violence.

“Simply stated, it is no longer safe to be identifiably Orthodox in the State of New York. We cannot shop, walk down a street, send our children to school, or even worship in peace,” the letter said.

Evan Bernstein, the regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, also expressed concern that the attack is part of a larger problem with society. “This is not just policing. These are communal problems, these are societal problems that we need to get in front of and figure out why these things are happening,” Bernstein told reporters.