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February 11, 2016 12:18 pm
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Jewish Group Offers $5,000 Reward to Locate Stabber of Son of Prominent Brooklyn Rabbi

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avatar by Shiryn Ghermezian

A photo released by the NYPD of the man seen fleeing the scene of the stabbing in Crown Heights. The ADL is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the attacker.  Photo: NYPD.

A surveillance photo released by the NYPD of the man seen fleeing the scene of Wednesday’s stabbing attack in Crown Heights. The ADL is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the assailant. Photo: NYPD.

An international Jewish organization is offering a cash reward for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrator of Wednesday’s stabbing attack against an Orthodox Jew in Brooklyn, New York.

The Anti-Defamation League  announced it would pay $5,000 for such information.

The NYPD is searching for a black male who fled the scene after stabbing 25-year-old Yehuda Brikman — the son of a prominent local Chabad rabbi — outside of a check-cashing center in Crown Heights. Brikman is being treated for stab wounds to the back in Kings County Hospital, where his condition was stabilized. It emerged that Brikman was married last week.

The attack is being investigated as a possible hate crime by the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force.

“He was dressed in Hassidic garb. Right now we’re looking at it as a possible hate crime because he’s dressed in that fashion,” Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told the New York-based radio station 1010 WINS.

The NYPD released a surveillance photo of the man fleeing the scene and CBS New York described him as a black man, 20-30 years old, who is 5’10” and 180 pounds. He was last seen wearing a dark-colored jacket, blue hooded sweater, dark colored pants and black boots.

This is the second stabbing attack to take place against a member of the Crown Heights’ Jewish community within the last few months. The Algemeiner previously reported that a Hatzalah volunteer was stabbed in the back while walking in the neighborhood in November.

Evan R. Bernstein, ADL New York regional director, and Andrew Frackman, ADL New York regional board chair, issued a statement following Wednesday’s attack saying, “Brooklyn’s Jewish community is once again suffering from apparent targeted acts of hate.”

“This alleged hate crime is just one in a series of traumatic attacks over the past several months in which Jews across the city, especially in Brooklyn, have been singled out for violence,” they added. “While we have not documented a rise in the overall numbers of antisemitic incidents in New York City, we are seeing a troubling pattern in which members of the Jewish community in Brooklyn are experiencing the worst kind of antisemitism. Enough is enough.”

Bernstein and Frackman said community leaders, religious leaders and elected officials must “make clear with increased vigor” that crimes motivated by antisemitism and bigotry are not acceptable. They said taking a stand against acts motivated by bias or prejudice against any group is “a critical step in reducing the probability of incidents recurring.”

A source in the NYPD told the local blog Collive.com that additional security personnel will be placed in Crown Heights, covering the area of the attack and around schools and other high-alert locations in the neighborhood.

Anyone with information regarding the stabbing attack is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).

UPDATE: The ADL said on Thursday that it raised the reward to $10,000 with funding from “a concerned member of the community.”

“Our community wants nothing more than to see the perpetrator of this shocking crime brought to justice,” said Bernstein. “We hope that the additional reward will assist law enforcement with their grim task of apprehending whoever is responsible and that ultimately, nobody in New York should be fearful of walking in their own neighborhood.”

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