Authorities are investigating after some bigot hurled an object through the window of a Bushwick synagogue, just as families gathered inside to break bread during the Sabbath, according to police and local religious leaders.
“Our community was seated around the table, enjoying each other’s company and the peace and joy of the Shabbat, when our front window was shattered and destroyed by the attackers, feet from where my children were playing,” Rabbi Menachem Heller, the head of Chabad of Bushwick–East Williamsburg, said in a Facebook post published hours after the incident occurred.
The sacrilegious snake, whom cops have yet to identify, threw the unknown item through the Flushing Avenue synagogue’s window on Saturday around 2 am, shattering it and covering the sidewalk between Knickerbocker and Porters avenues with glass, according to authorities, who said the attack injured no one.
Gov. Cuomo on Sunday called on both the state and city Police Departments’ Hate Crimes units to investigate the alleged bout of anti-Semitism, which followed several similar attacks targeting the borough’s Jewish community over the past months.
“This act of hate is shocking and abhorrent, especially at a time of great division in this country,” said Cuomo, who spoke beside a handful of other local pols, including state Sen. Julia Salazar (D–Bushwick) and Councilman Antonio Reynoso (D–Bushwick).
But the biased baddie will not deter members of the congregation from convening at their synagogue, according to Heller, who said the incident further united his community, which will only strengthen its efforts to promote togetherness in the face of hate.
“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,” the rabbi said in his Facebook post. “At the same time, we acknowledge the disturbing and increasingly frequent incidents of hate and prejudice in our New York community, and their 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.”
