‘We Didn’t Know What Else Was Going to Come’: Rabbi Recalls Friday Night Window-Shattering Incident at Brooklyn Synagogue
by Algemeiner Staff
The shattered front window of Chabad of Bushwick. Photo: Facebook.
The front window of a Chabad synagogue in Brooklyn was shattered by unidentified vandals on Friday night.
Rabbi Menachem Heller — the head of Chabad of Bushwick — was inside with his family and community members at the time of the incident.
“It was really scary,” he was quoted as saying by CBS New York. “We didn’t know what else was going to come after that.”
“It was really scary. We didn’t know what else was going to come after that.” Rabbi Heller explains what it was like as the front window of the Chabad of Bushwick Synagogue was smashed by vandals early Saturday morning while about 15 people were inside. @CBSNewYork pic.twitter.com/CQCmM4YddB
— Aundrea Cline-Thomas (@AClineThomas) February 17, 2019
A police investigation has been opened in the case.
In a Facebook post, the rabbi wrote, “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. 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.”
According to data compiled by the New York Police Department (NYPD), there was a significant spike in antisemitic hate crimes in 2018, with Jews being the most-targeted minority group in the city.
