Image by iStock

(JTA) — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that Brooklyn synagogues will receive more security after an attack on a Chabad synagogue on Friday night.

“The NYPD is adding security to this synagogue and others nearby,” the mayor said Sunday in a tweet which linked to a local article about the attack on the Chabad of Bushwick. “If you know anything about this incident, contact them immediately. New York City stands for tolerance and we will arrest anyone involved in anti-Semitic crimes. Attacks like this must stop,” the tweet also said.

The large plate glass window in the Chabad building was smashed by vandals as Rabbi Menachem Heller, his wife, and nine children say around the Shabbat table on Friday night.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The rabbi walked across the street and asked some people to call 911 since they do not use their phones on the Jewish Sabbath, NBC New York reported. He then flagged down a police car.

The family saw two people walking away from the front of the building right after the window was smashed, according to the report.

“We face this unfortunate experience not with discouragement, but with solid determination: to continue celebrating our faith, sharing our rich heritage, and offering our culture in an inclusive and warm environment,” Heller wrote Saturday night in a post on Facebook. “At the same time, we acknowledge the disturbing and increasingly frequent incidents of hate and prejudice in our New York community and its destructive and divisive effects, especially on young people. We encourage each other and the public to stand up against it, whenever it occurs, whatever form it takes, and towards whomever it is directed. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.”

In recent weeks there have been several attacks on identifiable Jewish men in Brooklyn.

The New York Police Department investigated 42 hate crimes through Feb. 4, compared with 19 at the same date last year. Most of those were anti-Semitic hate crimes, according to NBC NY.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount