Hanukkah stabbing attack victim dies

A man who was among five people stabbed during a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi’s home in New York last December has died from his injuries, an Orthodox Jewish organization announced.

“We are sad to inform you that Yosef Neumann who was stabbed during the Hanukah attack in Monsey late Dec 2019, passed away this evening,” the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council (OJPAC) said in a tweet late Sunday night. 

The funeral for Neumann, 72, is scheduled for Monday. No other details were immediately offered about the service.

In late December, an assailant covering his face with a scarf entered the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg in Monsey, N.Y., and stabbed five people as they celebrated Hanukah. All of the victims were Hasidic Jews, OJPAC said at the time. 

The stabbing attack took place Saturday night Dec 28, 2019 during a Hanukkah celebration in the Forshay area of Monsey at the home of Rabbi Chaim Leibish Rottenberg. The incident left five people wounded. The funeral of Mr. Neumann OBM will be Monday.

— OJPAC (@OJPAC) March 30, 2020

Neumann’s family said in a statement following the attack that a knife had penetrated Neumann’s skull and went directly into his brain, The Associated Press reported. They said at the time that the injury could have left him partially paralyzed and with permanent brain damage. 

In the aftermath of the attack, Neumann reportedly went on life support and underwent several operations for his wound. 

“We were hoping and praying he would then pull through. This is so very sad he was killed celebrating Hanukkah with friends just because he was a Jew,” Rabbi Yisroel Kahan told The Journal News. 

The attack came as New York authorities grappled with a significant spike in anti-Semitic incidents around the state. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) declared that the attack was an “an act of domestic terrorism” spurred by “hate.”

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt called for greater protection following the attack in Monsey and other communities, saying that it was “heart-wrenching to see the holiday of Hanukkah violated.”

The suspect in the attack, Grafton Thomas, was indicted in January on federal hate crime charges. He is being charged with attempting to kill victims based on their religion, among other things. Thomas has pleaded not guilty.