Jewish American Heritage Month

New York police fatally shoot man who stabbed student in synagogue

Posted By richards on December 10, 2014

A crime scene investigator, center, passes a member of the Lubavitch community as he enters Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic headquarters on Tuesday. Photograph: Mark Lennihan/AP

A man who stabbed a Jewish student in the side of the head in a prominent New York synagogue was shot dead by police after lunging at officers with a nine-inch blade.

Calvin Peters can be seen in a dramatic video obtained by the New York Post, where onlookers in the basement of the Chabad Lubavitch headquarters in Brooklyns Crown Heights neighborhood ask the suspect to put the knife down while an officer points his gun at the man.

The standoff took place after the 49-year-old man reportedly entered the synagogue at about 2am, asked for a Bible, walked out, and returned to stab a 22-year-old student in the side of the head, according to the Post. The student was conscious but bleeding profusely.

According to witnesses, the attacker repeatedly said Kill the Jews, Chaim Landa, a spokeswoman for Chabad Lubavitch, told the Associated Press. A lawyer for Peters family told the AP he had a history of bi-polar disorder.

Calvin Peters was a loving and devoted father, Jeffrey A St Clair said. And the family is quite frankly shocked and disappointed at what happened. Our prayers go out to the person that was injured. But we really ask that you respect our privacy and allow them to grieve.

The incident began around 1.40am; an officer on foot patrol in the neighborhood was flagged by a bystander and told that the man had already stabbed someone.

Inside the synagogue basement, the video shows an officer pointing his gun at the man as he holds a knife, and several Hasidic men ask the man to put the knife down, or set it on the table.

You gonna shoot me? You gonna shoot me, yo? the man with the knife asks an officer.

If you dont drop the knife I will, he says, as onlookers urge the armed man to, Put the knife [down], put the knife, put the knife.

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New York police fatally shoot man who stabbed student in synagogue

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Man fatally shot after stabbing at NYC synagogue

Posted By richards on December 10, 2014

NEW YORK (AP) A man with a history of mental illness slipped into the headquarters of a major Jewish organization in Brooklyn in the middle of the night and stabbed an Israeli student in the head as he was studying in the library.

Then, as the screaming, bloody victim was taken away, the attacker lunged at police with his knife and was shot and killed, authorities said.

Calvin Peters, 49, could be seen on amateur video waving the knife inside the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters in Crown Heights around 1:40 a.m. Tuesday after the attack on 22-year-old Levi Rosenblat. Rosenblat, wounded in the side of the head, was listed in stable condition.

Police said the stabbing was not believed to be connected to terrorism. But it shook the Jewish community, still reeling over an attack on a Jerusalem synagogue by two Palestinian cousins last month that left four worshippers and an officer dead.

"The entire Jewish community is impacted by these cruel and senseless attacks," said New York state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, whose Brooklyn constituents are largely Orthodox Jews. "How can we help but be reminded of the recent, horrible tragedy ... which left five innocent people dead?"

At least one witness said he heard Peters repeatedly saying, "Kill the Jews!" according to Rabbi Chaim Landa, a Chabad-Lubavitch spokesman.

Police were still interviewing witnesses but quoted Peters as saying instead, "I'm going to kill all of you." The case was not immediately classified as a possible bias crime.

Chabad-Lubavitch is a large, worldwide Hasidic movement that runs schools, synagogues and other institutions and reaches out to nonobservant Jews to encourage them to embrace their heritage and religious traditions. It is active on college campuses and in cities around the globe.

Peters had wandered into the building earlier Monday and was ushered out, then returned after midnight and asked: "Do you have any books in English?" before he was escorted out again, police said. The building, which also contains a synagogue, is open 24 hours a day.

Chabad-Lubavitch officials said security at the building was tightened after the stabbing. They would not say what measures were in place at the time of the attack.

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Man fatally shot after stabbing at NYC synagogue

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Why Jerusalem has two 'Ramban synagogues'

Posted By richards on December 10, 2014

Interior view from the Ladies' Gallery, with a late-afternoon study circle in progress. Photo: Jacob Solomon

Meanwhile, the Ramban Synagogue in the Old City began to revive and continued to flourish after 1967. So today Jerusalem has two Ramban Synagogues, by sheer default.

A Sabbath morning visitor to the Ramban Synagogue in Katamon will find a medium-sized and comfortable sanctuary with a very full congregation, whose veterans create an air of stability and authenticity within a predominantly youngish, well-Jewish-educated crowd.

A distinctly upbeat atmosphere resonates though the proceedings, which are under the spiritual guidance of Rabbi Dr. Benjamin Lau.

Gold menorah-fronted parchment scroll declaring Rabbi Benny Lau as the spiritual leader of the congregation. Photo: Jacob Solomon

The services and Torah readings are conducted by experts, and experts are in considerable supply at the Ramban falling into the categories of the best, the very best, and the very, very best which it comes to cantillational accuracy and fidelity to the definitive tunes of the day.

Rather surprisingly, the rich congregational singing included a substantial item hardly known outside Anglo-Jewry. I subsequently found that people with those roots were (and are) among the makers and shakers of the synagogue.

Though mainstream Ashkenazi in rite, custom, and clientele, the synagogue has tidbits that give the Ramban Synagogue in Katamon individuality. The prayer for the welfare of the State of Israel is not the standard version, but a composition by one of the congregations early leaders. A candidate for the official version in the early years of statehood, it didnt get to the top of the selection process.

And there is no hiatus during the services final chorus. The glass doors slide open to laden tables in the adjoining courtyard, the reader proceeds seamlessly from Adon Olam to kiddush at the reading desk, and after a thunderous Amen, all flow to the eatables and drinkables without delay.

And finally yes do come to the Ramban on Shabbat morning if you are single, eligible, and prospecting!

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Why Jerusalem has two 'Ramban synagogues'

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