Hanukkah Stabbing Suspect Charged With Hate Crime As U.S Witnesses A Wave Of Violent Anti-Semitic Attacks In December

Coming close on the heels of a wave of violent anti-Semitic attacks against the Jewish community and synagogues in U.S, five people were stabbed at a rabbi’s suburban home in New York on Monday (Dec 30), CNN reported.

The suspect invaded a rabbi’s home and attacked a Hanukkah celebration in Monsey, New York with a machete. He was subsequently arrested and was charged with five counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs involving an attempt to kill,

According to FBI investigators the suspect’s diaries had references to Adolf Hitler and Nazis, and his internet search history included queries such as “German Jewish Temples near me,” “Why did Hitler hate the Jews?” and “Prominent companies founded by Jews in America.”

One of the victims, Josef Neumann, suffered multiple stab wounds to his head, neck and arms. He is unlikely to ever regain consciousness.

At least nine incidents of attacks on members of Jewish community and their place of worship have been reported in the last one month. Six people were killed at a Jersey City, New Jersey kosher market by two assailants, one of was ideologically motivated by a Black Hebrew Israelite movement.

In September, a group of teens smashed the windows of a synagogue in Williamsburg as congregants prayed on the night of Rosh Hashanah.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported "near-historic" levels of anti-Semitic activity nationwide in 2018. ADL’s most recent Audit of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States recorded 1,879 acts in 2018, with a dramatic increase in physical assaults, including the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history. A wave of anti-Semitic robocalls targeted Jewish schools, JCCs and synagogues, and a significant number of incidents occurred at K-12 schools and on college campuses.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to beef up police patrols in Brooklyn neighborhoods of Boro Park, Crown Heights and Williamsburg.