New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the stabbing in a rabbi’s home next to a synagogue in Monsey, NY that left five people wounded is “an act of domestic terrorism” fueled by intolerance.
Five Hasidic Jews were stabbed by a machete-wielding attacker who broke into the house of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg late on Saturday night. The perpetrator, allegedly a black male, slashed at victims indiscriminately as they attempted to flee the chaotic scene.
“This is intolerance meets ignorance meets illegality,” Cuomo told reporters on Sunday, calling the attack the 13th incidence of anti-semitism in recent weeks. “This is violence spurred by hate, it is mass violence, and I consider it an act of domestic terrorism.”
Police have arrested the alleged perpetrator, though his possible terrorist motives are unknown. The man was arrested without struggle in Harlem shortly after midnight.
The attack took place during the Jewish holiday of Hannukah, as rabbi Rottenberg was hosting around 100 people in his home for the lighting of the candle marking the seventh night of the holiday. The rabbi’s home is located in Rockland County, which has the highest per-capita population of Jews of any US county.
The attacker’s knife rampage came a year and two months after a gunman entered the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and killed eleven worshippers. The suspect, Robert Gregory Bowers, was charged with multiple counts of murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, and ethnic intimidation, but was not formally charged with terrorism.
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