Mental illness no excuse for hate: Waterloo rabbi

A Waterloo rabbi speaks out on the recent attack during a Hanukkah celebration in an Orthodox Jewish community north of New York City.

On Saturday, Dec. 28, a knife-wielding man had stabbed five people at a rabbi's home in Monsey.

Grafton E. Thomas, 37, was arrested nearly two hours later and faces five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary. 

He pleaded not guilty on Sunday and his bail set at $5 million.

Rabbi Moshe Goldman, The Rohr Chabad Centre for Jewish Life Waterloo & Jewish Chaplain at the University of Waterloo tells Kitchener Today with Brian Bourke that he felt personally affected by the incident—having originally hailed from Brooklyn, New York⁠—and calls it attack on the Jewish community.

“There's definitely a feeling of fear, of terror, of uncertainty. I think these are very universal feelings that anybody would feel if something happened close to home,” he says. “For me, personally, this is close to home in a number of ways because I'm a member and leader in the Jewish community, and because its my home town.”

He also pushes back on responses that the attack was not fueled by anti-Semitism, but was due to mental health issues.

“I don't like when people blame this on mental illness, even if its all true⁠—let's say every attacker is dealing with a mental illness of some kind, which may be the case; they didn't attack there own mother, right? They're capable of choosing their target of a random Jewish person on the street; an identifiably Jewish person on the street, so I don't buy that. I think they're culpable; I think they're responsible; they need to be held responsible.”

According to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, it was the 13th anti-Semitic attack in New York since Dec. 8.

Rabbi Goldman says attack on the Jewish faith are, unfortunately, not unique and that there's a lot of work that needs to be done in combating hate.

“It is definitely hard to do and it's only human to feel overwhelmed; and its only natural to feel like things are spiralling out of control sometimes. But the reality is, if you take a step back and you look at it calmly, there are way more good people out there, there's way more good news; we can't allow the amount of dark—with the intensity of the dark—to discourage us.”

“There's definitely a lot of determination that attacks like this call out in the Jewish community. Definitely leads us to double down on our efforts in education, and educating the broader community; educating our own community and basically continuing the theme of Hanukkah.”

“The root of the issue is in culture; it's in education; it's in conversation. It's all kinds of things that have nothing to do with law enforcement, or self-defence.”

He says, every time these attacks makes the news, it puts the Jewish community on edge; worried about that it may inspire other anti-Semites. The rabbi says they're “very grateful for law enforcement,” and the community for being “very hospitable and welcoming to the Jewish community,” but even they have⁠—in past few months⁠—undertaken security upgrades at the Rohr Chabad Centre. 

“We're not shutting down God forbid; we're not running away; we're not hiding; but you have to keep an eye open.”

With files from the Canadian Press