NEW CITY – Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul didn’t mince words while speaking at the Rockland County Jewish Federation Unity Rally on Monday night.
“There is no tolerance for hate in our state,” she said while addressing a crowd shaken by a rash of recent anti-Semitic violence. “We’re treating this as an act of domestic terrorism,” she said of the home invasion attack on Monday last Saturday night in which five orthodox Jews were attacked and wounded by a machete-wielding man.
The incident occurred in the middle of a Chanukah celebration.
“I’m here to represent Governor Cuomo and 20 million New Yorkers who stand with you tonight,” Hochul told a crowd of anxious Rocklanders who have been shocked and saddened, not only by Saturday’s events but a rising rate of anti-Semitic violence in the country. “You are not alone” she promised Rockland’s Orthodox community. “We stand in solidarity with you, to protect and honor your traditions and your ability to worship anywhere and anyhow you so desire.”
US Senator Charles Schumer, himself a decedent of Holocaust survivors, shared his sympathy and support with the community and evoked the Anti-Defamation League’s post World War II motto: Never Again, referring to the Holocaust. “Anti-Semitism grows and prospers when people of goodwill be silent. We will not be silent,” he said.
Schumer said the community must protect itself with words and actions. “So this afternoon I called for quadrupling the funding to protect synagogues, schools, and other houses of worship to provide security guards, to allow them to install cameras and strong doors and walls so this will be never again and it cannot happen again,” he said.
Hochul assured the crowd that she and Governor Cuomo planned to announce new legislation during his state of the state address that is intended to further protect minority communities. “Until then we are continuing to deploy resources to houses of worship and places where people are gathering for the holiday season.”
Schumer praised the community for the endurance, specifically thanking Josef Gluck, the 32-year-old who was present at the celebration, for defending his fellow revelers and recording the license plate of the suspected attacker as they fled the scene. He also praised those parishioners who remained at the party after the violence subsisted and the wounded were taken to receive treatment.
“(They) gathered to finish the Hanukkah prayers and light the candles in darkness, I would humbly ask everyone here to follow their example. “
