London man charged with attempted murder in stabbing of rabbi on city street
(JTA) — A London man was charged with attempted murder in the stabbing of a rabbi on a city street.
The suspect in custody was identified as Stanley Frances of Stoke Newington, located in northeast London. He is scheduled to appear at Thames Magistrates’ Court on Monday, the London-based Jewish Times reported. He also was charged with possession of an offensive weapon, according to the report.
He was taken into custody the day after the Friday morning attack on Rabbi Alter Yaacov Schlesinger of the Satmar Yeshiva in Stamford Hill, the Jewish Chronicle reported. The rabbi, who is in his 50s, is reported to be in stable condition after being stabbed multiple times on High Street in Stoke Newington.
Passersby detained Frances, who they said perpetrated the attack, until police arrived.
Police said they are “maintaining an open mind” about the motive for the attack, The Guardian reported. They have not yet said the attack was a hate crime or linked to anti-Semitism.
A construction site manager and his brother ran toward the alleged attacker and held him down after hearing a “serious scream.”
The manager, Lazar Friedlander, told the daily newspaper Express that he believes the rabbi was targeted for being Jewish.
“Why he stabbed the Jewish man? I reckon it was a hate crime,” Friedlander said.
Northern London is home to a large Orthodox community as well as many non-Orthodox Jewish residents.
The post London man charged with attempted murder in stabbing of rabbi on city street appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO