Free Republic

NEW YORK – On the one-year anniversary of the antisemitic stabbing attack that rocked the Orthodox community in Monsey, New York, a number of residents in the area told Haaretz that they have applied for gun licenses to defend themselves in the last year. “People out there should know that we’re not just this little rabbit that anybody can play with,” says Abe, 28, who asked that his full name not be published. On December 28, 2019, a man stabbed attendees at a Hanukkah party in the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg on Monsey’s Forshay Road. Five people were injured...

The man charged in the stabbing attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Monsey that left five people wounded, one critically, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and other charges on Thursday, The Associated Press reports. Grafton Thomas appeared in Rockland County Court. On Monday, he pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges. His lawyer, Michael Sussman, argues that Thomas suffers from mental illness and is not responsible for his actions. Federal prosecutors say Thomas targeted congregants celebrating the seventh night of Hanukkah at the Monsey home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg on December 28 because of their Jewish faith....

Following last month's stabbing during a Hanukkah celebration at a Rabbi's home in Monsey, New York, Jews in the area are taking their safety seriously and have decided to defend themselves. Orthodox and Hasidic Jews in Rockland County are applying for pistol licenses, which would allow them to carry concealed, en masse. According to the New York Post , the Rockland County clerk's office saw a drastic increase in pistol license applications following the attack on Dec. 28th. Over the eight weeks prior to the attack, the clerk's office received an average of six applications per week across the county....

In the 24 hours since a man attacked a Hanukkah celebration in Monsey, New York, the left is blaming Donald Trump for inciting the kind of antisemitism that led to the crime. Grafton Thomas was arrested for stabbing five people and has been charged with multiple counts of attempted murder, but some are targeting Trump. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) blamed Trump and Rudy Giuliani on Twitter, linking to an op-ed he wrote in the Jewish publication Forward, including the false claim that Trump has not condemned extremism. WAPO and the rest of the left media reported on this but they...

Saturday’s stabbing during a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, N.Y., the latest in a spate of anti-Jewish violence in the region, drew bipartisan condemnation. But the attack also became a political football in a matter of hours, with several on the left jumping to point fingers at President Trump — in turn, inviting accusations that Democrats are distracting from anti-Semitism in their own ranks. Anti-Semitism long has been prevalent on the fringes of both ends of the political spectrum. But Trump foes quickly seized on the New York area attacks to suggest the president specifically fanned the...

A man accused of stabbing five people in a rabbi's home during a Hanukkah celebration in a predominantly Jewish town in upstate New York on Saturday night has pleaded not guilty. Grafton E Thomas, 37, of Greenwood Lake, was arraigned on five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary in Ramapo Town Court late Sunday morning. His bail was set at $5million.

The man accused of entering the home of a New York rabbi and stabbing five people with a machete in a horrifying anti-Semitic attack on Saturday night pleaded not guilty to multiple murder charges hours after the attack. Wearing a white jumpsuit, Grafton E. Thomas, 37, of Greenwood Lake, N.Y., appeared at the Ramapo Town Hall in Ramapo, N.Y. last Sunday morning, faces five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary. Bail was set at $5 million.

Whenever there is a horrible mass shooting, we have come to expect rampant speculation about the mental status of mass murderers as well as the ugly politicization that comes almost immediately after such horrific events. As a formerly practicing mental health professional, (MSW, Columbia University) I would never diagnose someone without a personal interview and at the very least, a thorough exploration of his or her family history. Plenty of books have been written about what these monsters have in common. Much as we would like to lump them together, they are still individuals with their own history, motivation, and...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called a Saturday night stabbing attack at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, N.Y., an act of domestic terrorism and said he was directing the state police hate-crimes task force to investigate. “This was a despicable and cowardly act,” Gov. Cuomo said in a statement about the attack in Monsey. The hamlet, located about 35 miles north of New York City as part of the town of Ramapo, has a large Orthodox Jewish population. The attack, which left five people injured, took place at an event at a rabbi’s home, according to media reports. The gathering...

After a public uproar, The New York Times has revised a column by Bret Stephens that cited an academic paper co-authored by an anthropologist who has been branded a white nationalist. An editor’s note, appended to the column headlined “The Secrets of Jewish Genius,” says a reference to the 2005 study was removed and that Stephens did not know the author “promoted racist views. “Mr. Stephens was not endorsing the study or its authors’ views, but it was a mistake to cite it uncritically,” the note said. “The effect was to leave an impression with many readers that Mr. Stephens...

SNIP Sarah Bernhardt and Franz Kafka; Albert Einstein and Rosalind Franklin; Benjamin Disraeli and (sigh) Karl Marx — how is it that a people who never amounted even to one-third of 1 percent of the world’s population contributed so seminally to so many of its most pathbreaking ideas and innovations? The common answer is that Jews are, or tend to be, smart. When it comes to Ashkenazi Jews, it’s true. “Ashkenazi Jews have the highest average I.Q. of any ethnic group for which there are reliable data,” noted one 2005 paper. “During the 20th century, they made up about 3...

There I was, watching my old VHS copy of The Boys from Brazil, idly reading the lab reports on the swabs I took from my gentile neighbor’s kids when he wasn’t looking, and revising the bassoon part of a concerto I’ve been working on, when I saw something alarming trending on Twitter. Not ‘eugenics’, but ‘Bret Stephens’. ‘What’s he done now?’ I asked in six languages, two of them not from the Indo-European language family. In today’s New York Times, Bret Stephens discusses Norman Lebrecht’s excellent new history of the Jews in modern times. Lebrecht describes the unparalleled contributions of...

It isn't Islamophobia when they really ARE trying to kill you Unlike Far-Left Jews who lost their little minds when Rudy Giuliani claimed he was “more Jewish than George Soros,” real Jews agree with him DECEMBER 27, 2019 BY BARENAKEDISLAM 13 COMMENTS According to a prominent California Rabbi, George Soros and Bernie Sanders are apostates, and thoroughly despicable. Rudy Giuliani is a great friend. Although his comments have been virulently condemned by Far-Left Jews as “anti-Semitic,” his remarks actually were spot on. INN (h/t Maurice) The other day, Rudy Giuliani said that “George Soros is hardly a Jew and that...

President Trump and members of Congress on Sunday voiced outrage at the knife attack that injured five people at the home of a Hasidic rabbi in New York state, calling for unity in condemning anti-Semitism — even as some Democrats urgently pressed Trump to take a stronger public stand on the issue. Congressional leaders, rank-and-file members of both parties and most of the Democratic presidential contenders steered clear of politics as they tweeted statements Sunday morning and afternoon denouncing the stabbing in Monsey, N.Y. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she was “deeply disturbed” by the attack and called for Americans to “condemn and...

According to police, a suspect entered a synagogue known as Rabbi Rottenburg’s Shul, located in the Forshay neighborhood in Monsey, on Saturday and pulled out a machete, which he used to stab people. Two people were critically injured and three received minor injuries. ... According to Vos Iz Neias, a black male entered the synagogue and pulled out a machete, then removed its cover and started stabbing people. The Orthodox Jews Public Affairs Council of the area posted on Twitter that five people were stabbed.

Five victims were stabbed by a black man armed with a machete who walked into Rabbi Rottenberg’s Shul in the Forshay neighborhood of Money and began stabbing people at random. Eyewitnesses tell YWN that the suspect fled in a vehicle and did not say anything before going on his rampage. Hatzolah transported the victims to the hospital – one of them is in critical condition with a stab wound to the chest. At around midnight, the vehicle was located in Harlem, NY, and a suspect was taken into custody.

Several people have been wounded Saturday night New York time in a stabbing attack at what is known as Rabbi Rottenburg’s Shul, located in the Forshay neighborhood in Monsey, according to the ultra-Orthodox website Vos Iz Neias. Videos of the stabbing attack began disseminating on social media around 5:30 a.m. Israel time.

Update: Raids by the FBI are now being reported also in Brooklyn, possibly related to the raids in Monsey. Several locations were raided in Monsey including the office of a local alarm company suspected in helping in the misuse of federal education funds, the Talpios Yeshiva on College Road, the Belz Yeshiva on Main Street, Shaar Efraim, Ateres Tzvi, and many local offices in locations on Route 59, Robert Pitt Drive, and more. Federal agents have been seen roaming the streets of Monsey and visiting several locations around town today, Wednesday. The raids are part of an investigation into whether...