A Bloody Hanukkah Attack

Stand for Israel | December 30, 2019

US-CRIME-STABBING — Members of the Jewish community gather outside the home of rabbi Chaim Rottenbergin Monsey, in New York on December 29, 2019 after a machete attack that took place earlier outside the rabbi's home during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah in Monsey, New York. - An intruder stabbed and wounded five people at a rabbi's house in New York during a gathering to celebrate the Jewish festival of Hanukkah late on December 28, 2019, officials and media reports said. Local police departments, speaking to AFP, declined to give the number of people injured, but a suspect has been taken into custody and a vehicle safeguarded, an NYPD spokesman said. (Photo by Kena Betancur / AFP) (Photo by KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images)

The joyous festival of lights turned into a night of terror and fright for a New York congregation who were holding a Hanukkah ceremony at their rabbi’s home. The Times of Israel reports that an attacker injured multiple worshipers, with two left in critical condition, in just the latest anti-Semitic attack:

The rabbi in upstate New York had just concluded the Hanukkah candle-lighting in his home where dozens of Hasidim had gathered, when a masked man entered with a machete, stabbing five people before making a beeline to an adjacent synagogue where congregants had barricaded themselves inside, eyewitnesses said Sunday.
The attack left at least two people in critical condition and reignited fears of anti-Semitism in the insular ultra-Orthodox community, just a month after another stabbing attack and amid what officials have described as a spate of anti-Jewish assaults in the New York region…
Eyewitnesses and others described a Hanukkah party that quickly became a scene of horror, with people trying to fend off the attacker or escape the scene.
According to accounts, the attacker entered the home of Chaim Leibish Rottenberg in Monsey around 10 p.m. and silently began slashing those present. In the ensuing melee, attendees responded by hurling tables and chairs to fend off the knifeman, who ultimately left the building in the direction of the nearby synagogue.
He fled the scene after realizing the Jewish house of worship was locked…