MONSEY (US), Dec 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A suspect appeared in a New York court on Sunday charged with five counts of attempted murder after a stabbing spree at a rabbi’s suburban house that left Hanukkah celebrants throwing furniture to defend themselves.
It was the latest in a spate of attacks on Jewish targets.
Grafton Thomas, 37, allegedly entered the property in Monsey, Rockland County, during celebrations on Saturday evening for the Jewish Hanukkah festival, knifing several people with a machete before fleeing.
The attack happened at about 10 pm on Saturday, the seventh night of Hanukkah, with about 100 people gathered for a candle-lighting ceremony.
Thomas was reportedly arrested in his car about 50 kilometers away, two hours after the attack.
US media reported that the suspect was covered in blood when officers detained him.
Thomas was ordered held in custody after appearing in Ramapo Town Court, where he denied the charges.
At Thomas’s court appearance, bail was set at $5 million and he was then taken in handcuffs to a police vehicle and driven to Rockland County Jail.
The attack at the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg was quickly condemned as another incident underscoring growing anti-Semitic violence in the United States.
President Donald Trump tweeted that Americans “must all come together to fight, confront, and eradicate the evil scourge of anti-Semitism.”
As he did Sunday, Trump denounced anti-Semitism after previous attacks but critics blame him for stoking racial hatreds with comments about Muslims and Latin migrants that some white nationalists have taken as confirming their position.
Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner are Jewish.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters at the scene on Sunday that “these are people who intend to create mass harm, mass violence — generate fear based on race, color, creed.”
Following the attack, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the creation of neighborhood groups tasked with preventing hate crimes, along with stepped up police patrols.
“Fearing the next act of terror will not become the new normal for our Jewish neighbors. In New York City, diversity is our strength and we respect the traditions of all who call New York City home,” the mayor said in a statement.
No official details were released about the victims. Local media said one person was seriously injured.
Last year a white supremacist shot dead 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue — the deadliest attack against the Jewish community in the United States.
Earlier this month six people, including the two attackers, were killed in a shooting at a kosher deli in Jersey City, New Jersey, which authorities said was fueled in part by anti-Semitism.
A report in April from the Anti-Defamation League stated that the number of anti-Semitic attacks in 2018 was close to the record of 2017, with 1,879 incidents.
Rockland has the largest Jewish population per capita of any US county, with 31.4 percent, or 90,000 Jewish residents. — NNN-AGENCIES
