5 stabbed at rabbi's house on Hanukkah, suspect charged with attempted murder

A man stabbed and wounded five people as they gathered at a rabbi's home north of New York City to celebrate Hanukkah, in an attack that the governor said Sunday was fuelled by intolerance and evidence of a "cancer" in American politics.

A suspect is in custody at the Ramapo Police headquarters faces five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary, according to Police Chief Brad Weidel. Police identified him as Grafton E. Thomas of Greenwood Lake, N.Y.

Thomas, 37, on Sunday pleaded not guilty to all charges. Bail was set at $5 million US. 

His criminal history includes an arrest for assaulting a police horse, according to an official briefed on the investigation. A lawyer representing Thomas at the arraignment said he had no convictions. 

The Saturday night stabbings north of New York City on the seventh night of Hanukkah come on the heels of a string of attacks targeting Jews in the region, including a massacre at a kosher grocery store in New Jersey earlier this month.

The rabbi's home is in Monsey, a town not far from the New Jersey state line and one of several in the Hudson Valley that has seen an influx of Hasidic Jews in recent years. The Rockland County town is 56 kilometres north of New York City.

One person was very seriously wounded and remained in critical condition, the governor told reporters. The rabbi's son was also injured, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. His status and that of the other victims was not clear.

The attack was the latest in a string of violent incidents targeting Jews in the region, including a Dec. 10 massacre at a kosher grocery store in New Jersey. Last month in Monsey, a man was stabbed while walking to a synagogue.

Authorities have not provided a motive for the attack, but Cuomo said it was an example of larger problems.

'An intolerant time'

"This is an intolerant time in our country," he said to reporters outside the rabbi's home on Sunday morning. "We see anger, we see hatred exploding."

"This is violence spurred by hate, it is mass violence and I consider this an act of domestic terrorism," Cuomo said. "Let's call it what it is."

He added: "It is an American cancer on the body politic."

Shimon Koffler Fogel, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), an advocacy group in Canada said that "Jew hatred expressed as violent attacks like this one are becoming commonplace" and "must be condemned by all,"

Watch: New York Gov. calls the Hanukkah stabbings an 'act of terrorism.'

'These are terrorists': Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Hanukkah stabbing

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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo met with members of the Hasidic Jewish community and spoke to the media following Saturday night's stabbings north of New York City.

Police said the stabbings happened around 10 p.m. A witness saw the suspect fleeing in a car and alerted police to a licence plate number, said Weidel, the police chief in Ramapo, which covers Monsey. That allowed police to find his vehicle as he entered New York City, where police apprehended him.

"It was critical to the case," said Weidel.

The Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council for the Hudson Valley region tweeted reports that the stabbings took place at the house of a Hasidic rabbi during a Hanukkah celebration.

The large home on Forshay Road remained cordoned off with yellow crime-scene tape early Sunday. According to public records, the home belongs to Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg, who leads the adjacent synagogue. Several state and local officials had described the location of the stabbings as a synagogue.

"The guy came in wielding a big knife, sword, machete — I don't know what it was," said Josef Gluck, who hit the assailant with a coffee table during the attack.

"He took it out of his holder, started swinging," Gluck said.

Aron Kohn told The New York Times he was inside the residence during the stabbings.

"I was praying for my life," said Kohn, 65. "He started attacking people right away as soon as he came in the door. We didn't have time to react at all."

The attack drew condemnation from top state officials, including Attorney General Letitia James and Israel's president and prime minister.

Yossi Gestetner, co-founder of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, said that upon arriving at the scene of the stabbing, which took place seven minutes from his house, he heard a number of responses from the community.

"People were saying it's time that people be armed, have self-defence classes, wondering what the government will do with security presence at congregations," Gestetner told CBC News.

He said there are "multiple strings of hatred taking place" against the Jewish community, but that a backdrop of "anti-orthodox bigotry" is driving the spate of violence.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also responded to the attack.

"Israel unequivocally condemns the recent expressions of anti-Semitism and the vicious attack in the middle of Hanukkah on the rabbi's house in Monsey, New York," Netanyahu said. "We send our wishes of recovery to the wounded. We will co-operate in every way with the local authorities in order to defeat this phenomenon. We offer our help to each and every state."

Cuomo, who called the stabbings a "cowardly act," directed the New York State Police hate crimes task force to investigate.

"Let me be clear: anti-Semitism and bigotry of any kind are repugnant to our values of inclusion and diversity and we have absolutely zero tolerance for such acts of hate," he said in a statement. "In New York we will always stand up and say with one voice to anyone who wishes to divide and spread fear: You do not represent New York and your actions will not go unpunished."

Jewish communities in the New York City metropolitan area were left shaken following a deadly Dec. 10 shooting rampage at a Jersey City kosher market. Six people — three people who had been inside the store, a police officer and the two killers — died in the gunbattle and standoff that New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal has said was "fuelled" by hatred of Jews and law enforcement.

Police presence to increase in Brooklyn

Last month, a man was stabbed while walking to a synagogue in the same town that was the site of Saturday night's attack; he required surgery. It's unclear whether the assailant has been arrested.

And this past week in New York City itself, police have received at least six reports — eight since Dec. 13 — of attacks possibly motivated by anti-Jewish bias. Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that police presence would increase in Brooklyn neighbourhoods that are home to large Jewish populations.

"I am so sad for this openly Orthodox Jewish community and the ones across the region," tweeted Evan Bernstein, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey who went to the scene in Monsey. "When will a break from this hate come? When will the community be able to be relaxed again? Hanukkah will never be the same for so many of the Jews impacted."