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Man Stabs 5 Jewish Worshipers Celebrating Hanukkah at Rabbi’s Home in New York

HeadlineDec 30, 2019

In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo has condemned an attack against Jewish worshipers celebrating Hanukkah inside the home of a Hasidic rabbi in the New York suburb of Monsey.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo: “This is violence spurred by hate. It is mass violence. And I consider this an act of domestic terrorism. Let’s call it what it is. These people are domestic terrorists.”

Witnesses say the attacker burst into Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg’s home wielding a machete, stabbing five Jews among 100 who had gathered to celebrate Hanukkah. Police say a suspect, 38-year-old Grafton Thomas, was arrested driving back along the George Washington Bridge.

His lawyer and friends say Thomas has a long history of mental illness, including schizophrenia, and that he has no known history of anti-Semitism. All five victims of the stabbing have survived. One remains hospitalized with a skull fracture. The Hanukkah attack comes after a string of other attacks targeting the Jewish community in the New York region, including a fatal shooting at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City and the stabbing of a Jewish worshiper on his way to a synagogue in Monsey.

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