Members of the Guardian Angels stand outside of the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, Sunday, December 29, 2019. Image by John Kunza

(JTA) — The Guardian Angels said it would start patrolling in Brooklyn after an increase in anti-Semitic attacks in the New York City borough.

Curtis Sliwa, who founded the unarmed crime prevention group Guardian Angels, shakes hands with a Crown Heights resident Sunday, December 29, 2019. Image by John Kunza

The group’s founder, Curtis Sliwa, told NBC News that the patrols would start on Sunday, first at noon in the Crown Heights neighborhood and later in the day also in Williamsburg and Borough Park.

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Members of the Guarding Angels, led by the group’s founder Curtis Sliwa, patrol down Kingston Avenue in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, Sunday, December 29, 2019. Image by John Kunza

The Guardian Angels is a private, unarmed crime-prevention group.

The announcement came in the wake of at least eight attacks on Jews in Brooklyn since Dec. 13, and hours before an attack on a Hanukkah party at a Hasidic rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York in Rockland County, that left five injured, two seriously.

Members of the Guarding Angels stand watch in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood Sunday, December 29, 2019. Image by John Kunza

Sliwa said local leaders of the Lubavitch-Chabad movement asked for his group’s help. He said believes the Guardian Angels patrols will stop the attacks.

The Guarding Angels began patrolling Crown Heights, Brooklyn on Sunday, December 29, 2019 following a string of anti-Semitic incidents in the area. Image by John Kunza

“We’re a visual deterrence in our red berets and our red satin jackets,” he said. “Nobody’s going to commit an attack when we’re around.”

Members of the Guardian Angels stand outside of the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, Sunday, December 29, 2019. Image by John Kunza

Photos by John Kunza.

The post Guardian Angels will start Brooklyn patrols after increase in anti-Semitic attacks appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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