A rash of despicable attacks on Jews in the Northeast has brought long overdue attention to burgeoning anti-Semitism. Several high-visibility attacks committed by black perpetrators have demonstrated the multifaceted nature of anti-Semitism, which left-wing politicians have previously claimed is practiced solely by right-wing white nationalists.
Between Dec. 23 and 27, eight anti-Semitic attacks targeted Jewish citizens of New York during the eight-day celebration of Hanukkah. Four alleged attackers include two black women, one black male, and one white male.
A ninth attack garnered special attention.
Around 10 p.m. on Dec. 28, Grafton Thomas, a black man from Greenwood Lake, New York, entered the Rockland County, New York, home of Rabbi Chaim Leibish Rottenberg with a machete “the size of a broomstick.” Inside, about 100 Hasidic Jews between two months and 80 years of age had gathered for the lighting of the menorah on the seventh night of Hanukkah. After stabbing five of the guests, Thomas attempted to enter the neighboring synagogue where many had escaped and barricaded themselves. On finding the doors locked, Thomas fled in his vehicle.
In less than two hours, Thomas, who was “covered with blood” and smelled of bleach, was arrested. As of Sunday, one of Thomas’s victims remained in critical condition. Held on a bail of $5 million, Thomas has pleaded not guilty to five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary.
Thomas’s attack came on the heels of several devastating incidents, including the violent stabbing of an Orthodox man by an unknown assailant in Rockland County, New York, on Nov. 20 and the deadly attack at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City on Dec. 10, in which two black shooters killed four, including a police officer, before being shot by police.
As of September 2019, incidents of anti-Semitic violence in New York City had increased 63% from 2018. Most attacks prior to December targeted Orthodox Jews and received only local media coverage.
Jerusalem Post Editor Seth J. Frantzman accurately referred to those attacks as a “slow-moving pogrom against Jews.” As New York Council Member Chaim Deutsch noted, “it seems like it’s open season on Jews in New York City.”
Until last week, leadership in New York had done little to address the long-lamented increase of anti-Semitic violence on its streets.
In fact, recently enacted bail reform laws in New York allow criminals, including those accused of hate crimes, to be released without bail into their communities if they caused no injuries to their victims. These laws allowed Tiffany Harris, who verbally and physically assaulted three Jewish women in Crown Heights on Dec. 27, to be released on Dec. 28. Harris was arrested again on Dec. 29 for punching another woman whose religion and ethnicity are unknown.
New York City Mayer Bill de Blasio has failed to acknowledge the source of much of the hatred directed against New York Jews. In September, he claimed most anti-Semitic attacks in the city were “committed by youth and mentally ill people,” the New York Post reported. Here, de Blasio backtracked from his statement in June that anti-Semitism is only “a right-wing movement.”
As a belated course correction, on Dec. 27, de Blasio announced increased police personnel would be deployed to Borough Park, Crown Heights, and Williamsburg to protect the Jewish populace. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is moving to create laws that would prosecute suspects in attacks like Thomas’s as domestic terrorists.
The attacks in New York and New Jersey demonstrate a face of anti-Semitism that has previously received little coverage. However, in our fervor to address a newly recognized danger, people must recall two important truths.
First, hate is never the remedy for hate. Second, anti-Semitism remains a multiheaded hydra espoused by white supremacists, anti-Israel campus groups, and advocates for groups like the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Its adherents may hold uniquely absurd rationales for their hatred of Jews, but the expression of their hatred comes with violence and intolerance that are all too similar.
In the face of devastation, everyone ought to unite in support of the beleaguered Jewish community. Together, we can find ways to offset and defeat all hate, regardless of the practitioner.
Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance writer from the Detroit area.
