New York Jews scared, defiant as mayor decries anti-Semitism 'crisis' | 2020-01-01 11:57:24 (Visits: 744 Times) |  | | A police car patrols in Brooklyn on December 30, 2019 in New York City, two days after an intruder wounded five people at a rabbi's house in Monsey, New York during a gathering to celebrate Hanukkah
A police car patrols in Brooklyn on December 30, 2019 in New York City, two days after an intruder wounded five people at a rabbi's house in Monsey, New York during a gathering to celebrate Hanukkah (AFP Photo/Kena Betancur)
AFP•December 30, 2019
New York (AFP) - At a Hasidic synagogue in Brooklyn, police, state troopers and civilian volunteers stand guard as Orthodox Jews mark the end of Hanukkah under heightened security following a spate of attacks.
Worshippers express a mixture of fear and defiance, rushing into the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters in Crown Heights two days after a stabbing spree at a rabbi's house wounded five people.
"Anti-Semitism has never been so bad. It's becoming more and more of an issue. It's crazy," 23-year-old Chaim Kaplan tells AFP after completing his prayers Monday morning.
New York, home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, had long been a place where Jews felt safe.
But after Saturday's stabbing frenzy in New York's Rockland County, and a shooting earlier this month at a kosher deli in suburban New York's Jersey City that left six dead, the community is on edge.
"What are you gonna do?" asks Kaplan. "It's never been the Jewish attitude to back off. We've always been persecuted. It is what it is. We gotta fight it with love."
Others echoed his defiant attitude.
"I tell my family to go on and do whatever they have to do, like go to school and go to pray," said Ron Fulop in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood, also home to a large ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.
"Hiding doesn't help. The main thing is we pray to God that we be safe," the 40-year-old told AFP.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a series of measures to tackle what he called an anti-Semitism "crisis" sweeping the United States.
"It has taken a more and more violent form," de Blasio told NPR, adding that the "forces of hate have been unleashed."
De Blasio's remarks came after Grafton Thomas, 37, allegedly entered Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg's house during Saturday evening Hanukkah celebrations and stabbed several people with a machete before fleeing.
On Monday authorities charged Thomas with federal hate crime charges, in addition to five counts of attempted murder laid after the attack.
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