By: Fern Sidman
Law enforcement authorities on Monday uncovered evidence that Grafton E. Thomas, 37, (who was charged with committing the stabbing attack of five Chassidic Jews in the Monsey home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg, on Saturday night) was driven to violence because of virulent anti-Semitism that he was imbibing on a regular basis on pro-Nazi web sites that he visited quite frequently, according to an Israel National News report. Federal prosecutors indicted him for a “hate crime”, reported Mako News.
The stabbings on the seventh night of Chanukah come amid a series of violent attacks targeting Jews in the region that have led to increased security, particularly around religious gatherings, according to an AP report.
INN reported that officials examining his cell phone found that Grafton was looking for information on Nazi culture, swastikas, anti-Semitic ideas, locations of Jewish synagogues around him, and also asked the question: “Why did Hitler hate the Jews?”
On Sunday it was reported by INN that Grafton denied the charges against him. The court decided on a $5 million bail, and another hearing will be held Friday. In the meantime, security in Jewish neighborhoods in New York was beefed up for now.
Thomas, who lives in Greenwood Lake, New York which is located about 20 minutes from Monsey, is expected to appear in federal court in White Plains on Friday to face five counts of obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs by attempting to kill with a dangerous weapon and causing injuries in the Saturday night attack, according to the AP report.
In the wake of the horrifying machete attack in Monsey, the New York Post is reporting that police are checking into whether Grafton Thomas may have been part of an earlier antisemitic attack.
According to the Journal News, a November 20 attack in Monsey saw a Jewish man beaten and stabbed on his way to early morning services at the Mosdos Meharam Brisk Tashnad religious center. The victim of the attack is said to be a father of four. His injuries were so grievous that police initially reported that he had been run over by an automobile.
Journal News quoted Ramapo Police Chief Brad Weidel as saying that the victim had been “approached from behind by one or more individuals,” The weapon used in the attack was not identified, not recovered at the scene.
Reaction to the most recent attack by local officials was immediate. “Orthodox Jews are being regularly assaulted, menaced, stabbed and murdered in increasing numbers,” says a letter that was signed by NYC councilmen Chaim Deutsch and Kalman Yeger, plus state Sen. Simcha Felder and Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein. It was delivered to Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday morning. “Simply stated,” it continued, “it is no longer safe to be identifiable Orthodox in the State of New York. We cannot shop, walk down a street, send our children to school, or even worship in peace.”
“With respect to the local DAs, what they are doing isn’t helping,” Deutsch told The New York Post, a reference to changes to the bail laws that are allowing those arrested for antisemitic and other crimes to walk free without bail. “When anti-Semitic attackers are released just hours after they are arrested, it sends a message that New York City doesn’t take hate crimes seriously. With no visible consequences, what’s preventing others from attacking us?”
Fox News reported that New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said Saturday night’s attack was the 13th anti-Semitic attack in New York since Dec. 8 and endemic of “an American cancer on the body politic.”
“This is violence spurred by hate, it is mass violence and I consider this an act of domestic terrorism,” Cuomo said. “Let’s call it what it is.”
Ramapo Police Chief Brad Weidel said it was unclear why the rabbi’s house was targeted or if a specific ideology motivated the suspect.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called on the FBI to investigate possible links between the Monsey stabbing spree and other recent attacks. The Simon Wiesenthal Center said it wants the FBI to create a special task force.
“Enough talk, it is time for action to deter those who propagate this hatred,” Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said.
A survivor of the machete attack said in the New York Post (read the full story at https://nypost.com/2019/12/29/monsey-stabbing-survivor-describes-confrontation-with-attacker/) of the horror he saw unfold.
In a video posted on the Voz Is Neias website, Yosef Eli Glick recounted: “I grabbed a small coffee table that was by the door. I threw it at him. I kept on screaming, ‘He’s coming! Run away! Run away, everybody! He’s coming! He’s coming!’ He said, ‘Hey you, I’ll get you!’”
Glick noted: “He came into the front room, the coat room, and I was in the dining room, on the left side. And the guy came in with a big machete or a sword, and he started swinging, back and forth, to try to hit people. And I started pushing out people. We all started to run out.”
He added: “I saw an old guy, bleeding from his head. I said, ‘Come out.’ He said, ‘I’m bleeding, I can’t.’”
On Saturday night it was reported that the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council said the five stabbing victims were transported to local hospitals with varying wounds. Yossi Gestetner, a co-founder of the OJPAC for the Hudson Valley region told the New York Times that one of the victims was the son of the rabbi. “The house had many dozens of people in there, Gestetner said. “It was a Chanukah celebration.”
According to the Matzav.com web site, eyewitnesses at the scene say that a masked African-American man (now identified at Grafton Thomas of Greenwood Lake) drove up to the rebbe‘s home in a silver car as the rebbe finished lighting the Chanukah menorah. The report added that man pulled out a machete knife from a holder and began stabbing people who were leaving the rebbe‘s house to go next door to a melava malka at the shul.
Thomas then tried entering the shul, but was stopped because the door was locked, according to the Matzav web site. Thomas was able to escape in a getaway car on Orchard Hill Road, reportedly assisted by an accomplice. The car was a Nissan Sentra with plate number HPT 5747.
Subsequent to the attack, the Times of Israel reported that Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that he was “shocked and outraged by the terrible attack in New York. We are praying for the rapid recovery of those injured. The rise of anti-Semitism is not just a Jewish problem, and certainly not just the State of Israel’s problem. We must work together to confront this evil, which is raising it head again and is a genuine threat around the world.”
Rabbi Mendy Mirocznik, executive vice-president of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, stated, “It is frightening that during Chanukah, a holiday which symbolizes the victory of good over evil we are sadly experiencing a rising tide of anti-Semitism and hate. This is the eighth reported attack over Chanukah this year. These anti-Semitic hate crimes are in direct opposite of what we as Americans stand for and believe in namely freedom, liberty and respect.
“We need to move beyond condemnations by elected officials and law enforcement, and see action to prevent these recurring anti-Semitic attacks. It is important that all political, law enforcement and religious officials condemn these attacks, but that is only the beginning. As a society, we must use every resource to combat these vicious and vulgar anti-Semitic hate crimes, both through prevention and punishment.”
On Sunday, hundreds of Jews gathered in Monsey to participate in a very special Hachnosas Sefer Torah that was sponsored by Suffern residents, Lazer Scheiner and his wife, Heather. The celebratory procession which included lively singing and dancing took place at 1 pm, beginning at the Scheiner residence and traveled to Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in the Forshay district of Monsey.
The Hachnosas Sefer Torah represents the power of resilience, strength, unity and sheer determination that is entrenched in the Jewish DNA to continue to serve Hashem with joy and alacrity, even in the face of painful adversity. The procession stopped in front of Rabbi Rottenberg’s house on Forshay Road and he and others joined in the lively festivities that celebrates the Torah HaKedosha of the Hashem.
Said one participant in the Hachnosas Sefer Torah: “The truth is when anti-Semites strike, they want to wipe out the people who serve Hashem and who spend every single moment of every single day immersed in His Holy Torah. That is really what the anti-Semites want obliterated from the world,” he said. “They want to eradicate Torah and the way they believe they can do that is by murdering Jews. Today, we have showed them that our deep love and honor for Hashem’s Torah is never ending, as the Torah is our roadmap to life, the blueprint of the world and it represents our existence as a people. Of the Torah it is said: ‘Its ways are ways of pleasantness and its paths are paths of peace.’ That can never be murdered.”
On Monday, INN reported that former Brooklyn Assemblyman, former Jewish Defense League leader and President of Americans Against Anti-Semitism, Dov Hikind assigned blame to the political left for the horrifying escalation of anti-Semitic attacks in New York and the surrounding areas.
“There is a cost for hate speech,” Hikind told Fox and Friends on Monday morning, according to the INN report. “When you have the Farrakhans of the world, when you have members of the United States Congress, Tlaib, Oman, AOC, when you have them indulging in hate speech themselves–and they get away with it.”
“There’s a new standard. One is for anti-Semitism and one is for other types of hate, Unfortunately, people within my party–I’m a Democrat–within the Democratic party, there’s a double standard. The hate, the anti-Semitism that emanates from within the left, you don’t hear anything.”
“Even the Mayor of New York has continued to call the hate as coming from the right. All the hate in New York is coming from the left, said the former Jewish Defense League leader.
“Mr. Mayor, you’re responsible. You’re the leader of this city. The acts of anti-Semitism that have happened in New York have nothing to do with the right, have nothing to do with the president. Take responsibility and deal with it instead of blaming Washington,” Hikind also told Fox News, as was reported by INN. President Trump agreed with Hikind on Twitter and thanked him for his stalwart support.
“Thank you to highly respected Jewish leader Dov Hikind for his wonderful statements about me this morning on @foxandfriends,” the president wrote.
On Sunday, JTA reported that the street patrol crime fighting organization known as the “Guardian Angels” said it would begin patrolling in Brooklyn after an increase in anti-Semitic attacks in the area. The Guardian Angels first appeared on the New York City scene in the late 1970s when the violent crime rate in the city was literally spiraling out of control. They are a private, unarmed crime-prevention group.
Under the leadership of Brooklyn-born Curtis Sliwa, the Guardian Angels ended up patrolling subways, streets and other high-risk public venues. Their conscientious attempts at significantly diminishing the crime rate in New York were quite successful but Sliwa always met with constant opposition from former Mayor Edward I Koch, who dismissed the group as ragtag vigilantes and wanted the NYPD to exclusively deal with criminal matters throughout the city.
Known for their red silk jackets that bear their Guardian Angels logo on the back and their bright red berets, the youthful cadre of devoted Guardian Angel volunteers were a ubiquitous site around the five boroughs of the city. They served as both a comfort and reassurance to those New Yorkers who felt severely threatened by the soaring crime rate at the time and were becoming increasingly frustrated by the inability or unwillingness of the NYPD to do anything about it.
Sliwa told NBC News that the patrols would start on Sunday, first at noon in Crown Heights and later in the day also in Williamsburg and Borough Park, according to the JTA web site.
Sliwa told the media that local leaders of the Crown Heights based Chabad-Lubavitch movement asked for his group’s help by maintaining a presence in the area, due to the dramatic increase in anti-Semitic attacks. He also said that his group’s assistance was requested by the Satmar Chassidim of Williamsburg and the Bobov sect of Chassidus in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn.
“We’re a visual deterrence in our red berets and our red satin jackets,” he said. “Nobody’s going to commit an attack when we’re around.”
“These attacks are taking place, and the cops have not been proactive at all,” Sliwa added. “It comes from City Hall and the mayor. He’s been just apathetic.”
In the wake of the attacks, Mayor DeBlasio has pledged to boost police presence in Jewish neighborhoods, according to a report on Breitbart.
Besides making officers more visible in Borough Park, Crown Heights, and Williamsburg, police will boost visits to houses of worship and some other places, the mayor tweeted, as was reported by Breitbart.
“I feel pained that in this society, a place that is supposed to be of respect for everybody, a season when we’re supposed to be respecting everybody, we see hate rearing its very ugly head. We will not accept it,” the mayor said during a visit later Friday to Crown Heights, where he met with some representatives of the local Jewish community.
