Stabbing at Hanukkah party wounds five

Suspect is in custody after attack at rabbi’s N.Y. surburban home on Saturday night. A hate crimes task force is investigating.

MONSEY, N.Y. — An intruder with a machete burst into the home of a Hasidic rabbi in a New York suburb Saturday night, stabbing and wounding five people as they were gathering to light Hanukkah candles, officials and witnesses said. The toll might’ve been worse had those assembled not fought back, hitting the intruder with furniture and forcing him to retreat.

Officials and witnesses said the violence occurred around 10 p.m. as numerous people celebrated Hanukkah at the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg, in an area with a large population of ultra-Orthodox Jews. Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the attack “domestic terrorism” and ordered the State Police hate crimes task force to investigate. The New York Police Department said a suspect was arrested in Harlem and turned over to authorities in Rockland County. Grafton Thomas, 38 — from nearby Greenwood Lake, N.Y. — is facing five counts of attempted murder and one count of first-degree burglary. Police said two victims remained hospitalized Sunday.

An official said Thomas’ vehicle was tracked to Harlem, about 30 miles from Monsey. Officers detaining Thomas found him with blood on his clothing and smelling of bleach, prosecutors said. The FBI and State Police later took custody of Thomas, who pleaded not guilty to all charges at his arraignment. Bail was set at $5 million. Thomas’ criminal history includes an arrest for assaulting a police horse, according to an official briefed on the investigation. A lawyer representing Thomas at the arraignment said he had no convictions. Two family friends of Thomas said he had struggled with mental illness.

Aron Kohn, 65, said he was in the rabbi’s home during the attack and said the intruder stormed in and “started attacking people right away.” Kohn said that after the attacker fled, he tried to enter the synagogue next door — led by Rottenberg — but people inside apparently heard screams from the rabbi’s home and locked the door, Kohn said.

Yossi Gestetner, a co-founder of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, a group that covers New York and New Jersey, said one of the victims was the rabbi’s son.

The attack was the latest violence targeting Jews in the region, including a Dec. 10 massacre in New Jersey. Last month in Monsey, a man was stabbed as he walked to a synagogue. Cuomo said there have been 13 anti-Semitic attacks in New York since Dec. 8.

STEPHANIE KEITH / GETTY IMAGES A member of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg’s community hugs a well-wisher in front of the rabbi’s house Sunday in Monsey, New York.