Antisemitism is becoming considered insanity per se taking the perpetrator out of the grasp of justice. Schizophrenics are not totally incompus mensus 24/7 nor in all aspects of life or mentation. Given Thomas' focus we need to understand what or who directed his attention to violence against Jews. The web is only an intermediary but not the facilitator. Whomever was in contact with him is responsible for influencing his violence. Pastors? Imams? Black Israelites? Street people? Black Supremecists? And what to do about it?
4
Here in Rockland County, our County Executive, Ed Day, has built a political career of out of stoking hate and fear of Hasids. A series of Goebbelsesqe videos that proclaim a 'Storm is Coming' were made for his campaign that paint Hasids as bent on "destroying our way of life". In this last election Day and his videos elected a new county legislator who has used violent rhetoric on social media, defining the Hasidic community as the 'Ramapo Mafia' and exhorting people to use violent means if necessary to prevent 'Rockland Sharia'. None of us here are surprised by this violence. We've been surprised it hasn't happened sooner.
8
Ever check this place out? It's like Amish country.
2
I personally suffer from, "schizophrenia." It's been 25 years since its onset. It's a very broad category of mental illness, as well, meagerly understood (by doctors and scientists.) When I sought help from my family and doctors on my own, i.e., voluntarily/with no one else's consulting: My parents took me to meet a psychiatrist at the hospital, and with no warning, they incarcerated me for four weeks... No word when I'd be let out... Like I was a SICKO! I was a really nice guy, who was having a really terrible time; had to drop out of college, to meet that! And, it was just the beginning... You should know, the tears I've cried these years - talk about discrimination! These people broke my heart... But, they didn't break me, like these poor people trying to celebrate Hanukkah, of all things! I am sorry this dirtball has the same title as me, "schizophrenic," but don't be deceived: you really have to know about it, before you can condemn it. I've learned a lot these 25 years, and am happy to answer as many questions as you might want to ask.
13
Mentally ill people aren't killing white people in churches on Christmas Eve or in stores selling Christian goods; other religions are not having their cemeteries desecrated among an ever growing list of recent varied attacks against Jews. This is pure anti-Semitism.
21
@Lola
There is obviously an element of anti-semitism here, and we all know who is whipping that sort of prejudice up in our society, and giving people permission to act on it, Donald Trump.
At the same time, it looks like schizophrenia played a big role in this attack. I know a schizophrenic, who is the nicest person when he is normal, was a brilliant aircraft engineer until he lost his job due to his schizophrenia, but who becomes a raging and dangerous lunatic when he has his attacks. When he is normal, he is an enlightened zen buddhist. His father and his grandfather both were driven by the disease to commit suicide.
5
Do we want to be a society that defies violence and hatred in all forms, or accepts it from certain groups of people? Hate is hate.
14
@Rachel
What about my friend who has threatened people's lives during attacks, but is a kind and enlightened zen buddhist (and was a brilliant aircraft engineer) when he is normal? The brain does not detoxify under certain conditions in schizophrenics. It makes them go really, really, crazy, hallucinate!
3
Although Mr. Thomas is apparently plagued by mental illness, that he was cleaning evidence out of his vehicle implies he wes still pretty well rooted in reality. And regardless of mental illness, he drove a long distance to a well known center of Hassidism, to the home of a rabbi adjacent to a synagogue. He was not too disordered for there to have been obvious premeditation.
The target of violence is not chosen in a vacuum, and regardless of having no known antisemitism in his past, it seems obvious that antisemitism fueled the choice.
26
@dennis
Some things the schizophrenic mind is able to do during an attack, but others are driven by that brain's inability to detoxify crazy making chemicals that we all have and clear our of our brains with sleep. The schizophrenic starts to hallucinate, and can believe and do things that he or she would never do in his or her right mind. It could even be that his brain had the idea of the anti Semitic attack planted in it by recent news stories., when he went off his rocker. The schizophrenic I know is the most peace loving, kind person in the world, but has become unpredictably and extremely dangerous during hallucinations. So we don't know why antisemitism was in his brain when he did this. You cannot accuse a schizophrenic of "premeditation"., though our unenlightened court systems will probably try.
We need more than psychiatric drugs to treat schizophrenia, we need basic research to find the rots of the disease which something it known about, but so far only drugs have been applied, and generally drugs only block, but do not heal, anything.
2
While it should in no way diminish the horror of this attack, nor the important conversation about mental illness, I was struck by the following statement: “Simply stated, it is no longer safe to be identifiably Orthodox in the State of New York. We cannot shop, walk down the street, send our children to school, or even worship in peace.” Quick: What does that sound like? Life as an identifiably black person in the country of the United States. And yet, where is the outrage?
52
@Anonymous Don't distract from the point. Wait until time to talk about that, not interrupt a vigil where an old man lay on the brink of death.
4
Orthodox Jews have been targeted for centuries, worldwide. It's because they are seen as being apart from society at large, because they look different, and because they have been, and are, seen as manipulators of finance and property. What is happening in NYC is a continuation of this bigotry. What is ironic is that the social justice crowd can't wrap its collective head around the fact that the perpetrators are not wearing MAGA hats and whistling the Horst Wessel Song. Thus, these acts are regarded to be the result of mental illness, not triggered by malevolent anti-Semitism which is rampant on the left, both here and abroad (witness the UK). Every group harbors bigotry and racism and if the virus is to be eliminated it must be seen for what it is.
12
@NYerExiled Actual statistics place the source of most antisemitic acts (as opposed to antizionist atatements) as the political right.
And the simplistic views of the right wing apologists do not change that.
Additionally the origins of antisemitism are a bit more complex than you wish them to be. If it was because they dress differently, why are Amish and Mennonites subjected to similar hatred?
And honestly now, what exactly is it about social justice (an obviously positive value to those with intelligence and sanity, and very highly valued by mainstream American Jews) that fgets the right so riled up?
Do you prefer social injustice, as our current administration dishes it out?
7
@dennis Not a very well made or good point. (Amish people dress and look a lot like Orthodox Jewish?)
1
I've always been puzzled as to the roots of the anti - Semitic feelings of some among the African - American community. Why the antagonism?
7
@BD Prejudice infects the hearts of all groups, unfortunately. Looking for explanation for it smacks of trying to justify it. There is no excuse for racism in any form. There is no excuse for violence. It should be denounced and actively defied no matter which group expresses it and no matter which group it is directed against.
4
@Rachel
True, but we also need to examine why Americans are so crazy. We need to get to the roots of it, cultural and physical. The brain is part of the body. many of the Trump supporter's minds are way, way off., because their bodies are way way off. The body and the mind are also biochemical machines.
1
Our mental health systems have been a dismal failure. Quite some years ago, we provided long-term care in institutions for the mentally ill. For the most part, they don't exist anymore. Today, at much greater cost, with significantly less care, and with greater risk to personal harm, long-term mental health care has been delegated to jails and prison. Or, those in need of care are released to the community with a scrip for an anti-psychotic med which they stop taking the moment they feel a bit better, and many end up living on the street in a life of horrid penury. Calling this an act of domestic terrorism, absolves our politicians from dealing with the root causes.
12
@Mr. Indpendent Also mentally ill children abound in the public schools. No one will remove them most times due to the school covering it up. Ak teachers how many times they have been threatened.
4
@Mr. Indpendent While you are right about societal shortcomings vis-a-vis severe mental illness, you are wrong to subsume murderous Jew-hated by one who apparently knew full well what he was doing into solely a mental health issue, thereby excusing the culpability of the individual and the potency of the societal sources of anti-Semitism, apparently homegrown, that supported, nurtured, empowered him and urged him on.
4
The attacker’s mental state is always important, but when victims belong to a group targeted by hate criminals, questions about mental health must not be allowed to obscure a hate crime. What this means in real terms is that an uncomfortable concern must be raised, for there has long been an overly casual acceptance by some in the African American community of anti-Semitism.
Plain evidence of such acceptance exists: there was the hateful letter by a Jersey City school board member basically recasting the attack on the kosher store as an act of community self-defense, or the Trenton council members who in September were excusing their own anti-Semitic remarks. I mention elected officials to make the point that such views are sufficiently socially acceptable for them to be publicly voiced by community representatives.
Yes, as a society we would benefit better mental health treatment and gun law enforcement, to cite just two major needs. But it is time for discussion within the African American community of acceptance of what can only be termed hateful attitudes toward other peoples that have been victimized. There is no upside to comparing suffering—both black people and Jews have endured more than their share—but there is value to keeping in mind that violence often follows hateful attitudes, and such attitudes can be addressed. The alternative of ignoring such attitudes comes with collective peril.
16
No doubt the perpetrator is mentally ill. One can reasonably say that any perpetrator of anti-Semitic violence is mentally ill, that any act of racist violence is an expression of mental illness.
But let’s not get caught up in parsing mental health, legal and sociological categories. Those who perpetrate or threaten the increasing number of acts of anti-semitism should be arrested and imprisoned. Those who actively encourage such acts should also be condemned and removed from society.
And those whose policies or pronouncements encourage the growth of intolerance, hatred, and divisiveness—even from the Bully Pulpit—should be removed from office by a law-abiding federal Government or an outraged electorate.
12
Mental illness can account for some of this tragedy, but the fact that this man travelled some distance, specifically attacking a rabbi's home during a Hannukah celebration, seems to demand more in the way of explanation. Why this place, this time, these people? Very, very strange, indeed.
5
Thank goodness he didn't have a gun! I don't agree that the Orthodox should get the national guard to protect them. If they must live separately, which makes them a target to to the anti-semitic, I think they should form their own watch groups. However, to be honest, they live together to feel safer, and could be a target anywhere as could orthodox Muslims, Amish, Sikh, or anybody not in a suit or sweats and a hoodie with headphones stuck in their ears. We need to stop all the Trumpian tribalism and find a way to respect others regardless of how they appear, who they worship, who they love, where they were born, or how much money they have.
6
Living separately does not or should not "make" you a target. One reason they live separately is because, for centuries, Jews have been pogramed or worse in country after country. Perhaps they don't feel safe out amongst the rest of society, where jewish men women and children are being harassed and beaten while walking down their home streets in Brooklyn.
In the adjacent article about the church shooter in Texas it is noted that the shooter was stopped by an armed parishioner. If only these people were armed as well.
4
@JDK
The shooter in Texas was stopped by a "trained" gun owner.
Possessing the gun doesnt do you much good on its own.
10
What difference does it make if he is anti-Semitic? Would it be any less tragic if he attacked 5 atheists? I’ve never understood the logic behind punishing one act more harshly than another based on the feelings of the assailant. And if this is “domestic terrorism,” what do you call the other tens of thousands of violent crimes in this country every year? Are they somehow not as bad?
The guy attacked 5 people. That’s the end of it.
7
I do not want to deter from the victims - and I hope they recover fully. I condone any violent act against anybody and any group.
But I do want to point out how quickly Governor Cuomo declared this to be a hate crime. He did the same about 2 weeks ago when a man was stabbed trying to enter his synagogue in Rockland County as well.
I just feel that trying to stop anti-semitism without looking at the root cause will be futile!
We need to ask: What is causing the rise in anti-semitism?
I have lived in Rockland County for nearly 20 years - it's a beautiful place with a diverse population.
About one third are jewish: modern, reform, orthodox - we all get along and families have inter-married with other faiths as well. We live together and respect each other!
But there is one group - that does not want to be part of our society, does not want to learn the NY State school curriculum, does not want to abide by zoning laws and other laws, and wants no contact with us.
They also place a heavy burden on our taxes as they choose poverty over working and rely on welfare to support their very large families.
They come into our towns and villages and drive us out! They destroyed the East Ramapo School system. They tell us that we should leave if we don't like it.
But they are also a powerful voting bloc (his) and that is the reason Cuomo is so quick to jump to judgement.
Talk alone will not alleviate this problem!
10
@The Monte Scoop That is a different subject and I am well aware of it as I live in a neighborhood where that behavior is evident. But you don't blame the victim for that is giving a pass to those who would commit any crime against them.
7
While I condemn any violence, it is notable that no one mentions what a plague this hassidic community has been on the local school district. Hassidic communities do not just live and let live, but actively try to take over schools and neighborhoods.
6
@Samantha Kelly Blaming the victim are we? Listen, I live in an area where the Hassidic community is becoming more prevalent and though what you say has validity, that is quite another issue. Blaming the victims is never acceptable as they are not the evil-doers here. Nor are they criminals as is the perpetrator who took lives while the victims were in their own homes and celebrating their god.
6
If Mr. Thomas is mentally ill, it compounds the tragedy. It doesn't negate the fact that five people were stabbed - and many more psychologically traumatized - _because_ they are Jewish.
If Mr. Thomas is mentally ill, it makes the larger conversation even more important: where did he get these hateful anti-Semitic ideas? whose influence and rhetoric were waiting in Mr. Thomas's head for when his mind went to dark places?
There are too many people saying vile things about Jews, and because they fit comfortably within the larger liberal community, they are not called out for what should be unacceptably bigoted things to say about Jews. As a community, we have to get serious about rejecting anti-Semitic rhetoric. It has a trickle-down effect with devastating consequences.
7
I find myself recalling the Jersey City official who publicly lambasted the Jewish community in her neighborhood following the recent violent terror attack there. One wonders how much indirect responsibility she holds for Saturday night’s horror. How much of a role might her resentment- and hate-filled words, coming from her mouth then and earlier, have had in inciting the attack(s).
34
Sadly, we’ll probably always have mentally ill people, but the culturally available “off-the-shelf” tropes of anti-semitism too often make Jews the targets.
13
"Ms. Paige said Mr. Thomas had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and that she had struggled for years to understand why he wasn’t institutionalized."
Ms. Paige, I'd like to dump you in an institution for a few weeks. Maybe then you'd have a better understanding of mental illness, the difficulty of getting proper treatment, the exorbitant cost of generic psych meds, the hell of psych med side effects, and the impossibility of getting a psychiatrist to listen to you. Then, when you came out of the institution, you would spend the rest of your life listening to people make ignorant comments about you.
I have a mental illness; you aren't helping.
17
@Deborah Thuman
In addition, most people who live with mental illness are totally capable of living independently and don't require institutionalization, though they may require medication.
If you are experiencing hellish side effects of medication, I hope you will find a psychiatrist or other provider to help you find one that works better for you. They do exist.
3
So whatever else is involved, our minimally funded mental health care system is a starting point for understanding how it came to this.
37
@newageblues Indeed, it's so much easier to blame the government than look for actual solutions.
Well perhaps funding, rather than defunding, mental health programs would help.
7
Trump has been a big advocate of the violent far right, and still this community wildly supports him.
24
It seems this person is in dire need of treatment for schizophrenia -- he is apparently not anti-semitic and was raised to respect all people. I hope he gets the help he needs, and that the wounded heal quickly. Very sad and scary, all the way around.
From the article:
"In a phone interview on Sunday night, Ms. Paige said Mr. Thomas had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and that she had struggled for years to understand why he wasn’t institutionalized.
"There hasn’t been anyone who has given a real solution to deal with a grown man who is dealing with schizophrenia, other than ‘Go home and call us if something happens,’” Ms. Paige said.
Earlier, outside of Mr. Thomas’s mother’s home, tears welling in her eyes, she had told reporters, “Grafton is not a terrorist. He is a man who has mental illness in America, and the systems that be have not served him well.”
The statement said Mr. Thomas “has no history of anti-Semitism and was raised in a home which embraced and respected all religions and races. He is not a member of any hate groups.”
21
@ourconstitution.info
Here we go again with the mentally ill excuse. If someone is capable of driving from Manhattan to a town 30 miles away to break into the home of a rabbi and then try to make a getaway back to Manhattan while using bleach to try to get rid of evidence, that would suggest someone is sane of mind in my view. Furthermore, the mental illness aspect does not adequately address why he specifically targeted Jews rather than, say, random targets that were near his place of residence. Although the NY area is home to many Jews, the statistical odds of a mentally ill person targeting them randomly in a place so far away seems highly unlikely to say the least.
5
@wonderer clearly you don’t have any understanding of schizophrenia. It is a serious, very dangerous illness that can be deadly for the patient and people around them. Religion often intersects with the disease as the afflicted often confuse psychotic episodes with religious ones, hence the insane person wandering about thinking they are Jesus Christ or that they have received a message from god or the devil. A schizophrenic can seem normal and function to some extent until they go off the rails.
6
@MN well, if they are a danger to society they need to be locked up. And this guy's relatives are just as guilty in this criminal act by letting him run around independently and justifying his evil and murderous act. And may I add PREMEDITATED AND CALCULATED.
2
I hope people don't excuse the fact that the perpetrator was mentally ill as a root of the problem of anti-semitism. Some can consider deep rooted anti-semitism as a mental ilness in itself. Also, while growing white supermacy is an issue, I believe the issue of African American anti-semitism needs to be addressed. It has been the reason for almost every anti-semitic incident in the NYC metro area in the last 2 weeks. It should be addressed by leaders of the black community and it has not been. With so many in the Orthodox Jewish community and African American community living in close proximity, especially in the NYC metro area, I would think African American leaders would show some support or unity and address the matter but have not seen it at all as of yet.
77
It took planning/research for this man to specifically target this one rabbi's house. There is far more to the story than mere mental illness. Mentally ill people listening to inner demons might attack someone close to home, but unlikely they would drive, before and after, many miles while in the midst of an acute psychotic episode. His family and friends may be correct in the mental illness history, but wrong to try absolve him of intent to murder, and anti-Semitism. He knew enough to get to where he thought he could strike fast, and kill many. I don't think he should be left off the hook. And if he is too ill to stand trial, he needs a very long term prison sentence.
Why aren't the leaders of black communities in NY not condemning the spate of anti-Jewish attacks? If these attacks continue, other people will begin to fear for their safety, too. It never ends with us Jews.
77
@Rosalie Lieberman
People who are too ill to stand trial don't get prison sentences; they are usually committed to a psychiatric facility for the "criminally insane."
3
@Barbara Yes, same difference. They are locked up, without a trial.
1
Kudo's to the NYPD for so quickly apprehending this madman. He may in fact be mentally ill, but his mental illness does not mitigate what he has done. Plenty of criminals are "nuts". Is the so called "son of Sam" free yet?
The economy is booming, and so is homelessness and mental illness. The 1% have more money than they can ever spend, and tens of thousands of our citizens call the sidewalks their homes.
Who is mentally ill?
34
We only care about our under served mentally ill on these rare occasions when madness leads to extreme violence, but still not enough to fund better care for those who can't afford to pay for their own treatment.
It is just another aspect of our failure as a nation to provide effective and reasonably inexpensive healthcare for all of our citizens. Our ongoing public health crisis.
Anyone that supports the status-quo of U.S. healthcare is a part of the problem and culpable for this tragedy.
26
Gov. Cuomo is apparently enjoying all the face time he's getting in the media, having predetermined that this is a case of domestic terrorism. But what this horrifying event really points to is an inadequate infrastructure in the state of New York for treating seriously and persistently mentally ill people. It puts a spotlight on Cuomo's own failed public policies.
41
Sadly, another historic example of man's inhumanity to man, with hatred of others that are different foster by religious leaders and now the internet.
The most recent stuff in the NY Metro area is particularly disturbing because it seems, in the last two anti-semitic attacks, it was black vs. Jews. And Jews singled out because of the way they look! Think about it. How different are the Payot (long sideburns) of the Orthodox Jews from the dreadlocks and corn-rows of many modern blacks?
Discriminating against a group of people because they look different, pray differently, or love differently then you would/should be the 1st thing that God should decree unacceptable.
We are all God's children. America, and Americans are better then this!
35
Mental illness is a contributory factor in many attacks. Healthy people ususally do not enter houses of worship with the intent to kill or maim. That does not excuse this attack or make it any less anti-semitic. If the perpetrator had never previously made anti-semitic remarks or associated with anti-semitic groups, does that mean this somehow wasn't an anti-semitic action? An assialant drove many miles to enter into a specific Rabbi's home to disrupt a planned Jewish celebration and kill whoever was present. Is that not prima facie anti-semitism? If it isn't then what is?
67
@J. Samuel You are so correct. If there had not been an atmosphere or antisemitism around this man, he would not have chosen the victims he chose. This bears no comparison to the truly insane acts of people like the man in Florida a few years ago who attacked and chewed the face off a man. This was clearly a focused act of violence, nothing more, nothing less.
18
@J. Samuel ...Thankfully, he did not have a gun like all the other crazy/angry U.S. attackers. Using a machete is very 3rd world, like in Honduras. And, he may have attacked these people because they were so different, not necessarily because they were Jewish.
4
@J. Samuel
In fact, people who live with mental illness are LESS likely to commit acts of violence and more likely to be victims. Mental illness is not the basis of such attacks. Clearly, this man was able to plan and carry out an attack far from home. Serious mental illness would make this difficult to do. Please don't further stigmatize mental illness with ill-informed comments.
4
There certainly seems to be a Black/Hasidic flashpoint in the tri-state area. Even the "man on the street" interviews after the Jersey City tragedy were full of blame for the Hasidic communities rather than sympathy for the victims. It has been thus since the Crown Heights riots in the early 90s and before.
78
$$ cut from mental health over the years allow sick people to wander the streets or they get put in prison. Neither course of action is acceptable to a civilized people.
I guess I answered my own unstated question.
28
I live not 3 minutes from the Rabbi's house. From what I heard from eyewitnesses who were there, nothing was said when Mr Thomas came into the house. After he was chased out, he turned to Mr Gluck and yelled to him, I'll get you later. The yelling took place outside of the house, not inside. This occurred during the Rabbi's lighting of his Menorah. Many of his congregants, after lighting their own Menorah's at home with family, would go to Rabbi Rottenbergs home to watch him. It was a daily event. Why Mr Thomas picked this night and this house, no one besides Mr Thomas knows. We always considered our little piece of heaven here in Monsey to be a very safe place to live. I myself have never ever removed the keys from my car! Not sure what to do.
21
People, including this President need to understand when they espouse hate - of anyone - it falls on many kinds of ears. This man is schizophrenic, but he's not deaf and his translation of hate speech is what we are witnessing. I don't agree that this is domestic terrorism and it does a disservice to our current reality to say that it is. This is a permanently psychotic aka schizophrenic individual simply picking up on an atmosphere of bigotry and hatred towards otherness and acting out, as someone ill in this way only can, his paranoia.
53
@Shane ... yes quite so; i.e. a schizophrenic, anti - semitic individual. Very similar to that male - female duo that attacked and killed several Jews across the Hudson. Quite schizoid.
6
Andrew Cuomo should address the mental illness and homeless crisis. Instead he spends time making sure that any Trump appointed judge be prohibited from officiating at weddings.
The homelessness disaster makes money for some people, including Cuomo’s sister. Andrew Hevesi recently stated at a meeting in Queens that Cuomo is to blame for this awful situation.
Re-open mental hospitals and keep mentally ill criminals in there until they are deemed no longer a threat to the rest of us.
14
It appears to be the failures of our mental health systems, at least as much as anti-antisemitism, which were responsible for this attack. The pious Jews who were victimized will likely see that first.
Stigma, and the availability of good services only to the wealthy, are implicated.
A yearly mental-health check-up should be recommended and covered, as well as expected and promoted, as part of mandated health insurance.
21
@MAmom2 . . .and no one know what the accused was thinking, maybe not even himself. He may have not thought of people being one religion or another. He could have been thinking they were space aliens.
Everyone take a step back, take some big deep breaths, start working to address mental illness in our country and hatred everywhere, while being grateful that the suspect is in custody and hopeful that the remaining injured man survives at his advanced age.
6
@mouseone
You can't ignore the context in which this attack occurred. It's not a coincidence that this follows a spate of anti-semitic attacks in the area all committed by a narrow demographic.
2
Antisemitism - yes. Additional security for Jewish venues - yes. But Governor Cuomo grand standing for the Jewish vote - no. How like Trump. He avoids the obvious medical insurance solutions to serious mental illness because, obviously, how many votes do the mentally ill control?
13
I don't know how you can drive 30 miles, break into one synagogue and try to break into another, and attack visibly orthodox people with a machete during a Hanukkah celebration, and claim there's no anti-Semitism involved, just mental illness.
144
Mentally ill people, when they go into psychosis, see, hear, experience and believe things that are just not there. There brain is fooling them. Watch “ A Beautiful Mind”. That’s how and if he was anti-Semitic it was likely his broken brain that was doing it.
13
@Talbot
Schizophrenic people will latch onto things for no reason.
One need only look at John Hinkley Jr who shot President Ronald Reagan. Did Reagan's politics have anything to do with it? Nope. Apparently it was in service to his obsession with Jodie Foster.
Thats what schizophrenia does. Wanting to be with Jodie Foster means killing Ronald Reagan.
15
@Andrew He didn't attack a neighbor. He drove miles to a specific place with specific people and tried to clean his car with bleach afterwards. I can certainly believe he is mentally ill and didn't get the help he needed. But so are millions of others, who don't go around attacking Jewish people with machetes.
30
The killings in Monsey were a horrific tragedy and all of us should weep for the victims and the survivors.
As suggested in this article and reported in the NY Post, the perpetrator is seriously mentally ill. Andrew Cuomo should be ashamed of his Trumpian mouthing off for political purposes, calling it domestic terrorism. It is not that and his rush to judgment comment is just one more assault on the mentally ill. This tragedy is the consequence of our totally broken mental health system for which the Governor shares the blame. Shame on you Governor Cuomo.
Right across the river from Monsey in Poughkeepsie is a campus now overgrown with weeds that once housed the enormous Hudson River State Mental Hospital where my mentally ill father spent many months in the 60s. If Governor Cuomo wants to see where the problem comes from, he need look no farther than there.
I knew Mario Cuomo and even remember a party where Andrew ran around the yard as a child. His father would have been more responsible.
59
Yes and...
You have to acknowledge that mentally unstable individuals are triggered and persuaded by extreme views more readily.
The US approach to mental health, violence, hate speech and incitement is completely deplorable.
You have constant clickbait if politicians driving extreme views and social progressives leaving the floodgates open (in this case as you point out mental health institutions, in NYC the criminal court system)
28
@Andrew As the godmother of a mentally ill, self-destructive and potentially dangerous young woman, I know it is impossible for family to deal with some people.
There is no place, no asylum that she can go to as there was until the 1970s. Yes, involuntary institutionalization may again be the most humane answer for people like tis before they kill themselves or others.
30
What’s your point about the Mental Hospital? That it essentially incarcerated and mistreated people? That it should be reopened? That it never should have been closed? That Andrew Cuomo is to blame for its closure? That community supports and other resources that allow people with chronic severe mental illness to live at home rather than live out their lives in a “mental institution” are underfunded and inadequate?
Like you, I’m old enough to recall a younger Andrew and his esteemed father. Also, to remember Willowbrook. Are you missing those days? I mean of Willowbrook.
7
Orthodox Jews were always the canaries in the coal mine. In 19th, 20th, and sad to say, 21st century Europe, their different appearance meant that anti-semites singled them out first. It is now happening here. Anti-semitism runs deep in communities of color and among some in Congress. Until “call out culture” addresses this trend, expect these attacks to continue.
89
"Anti-semitism runs deep in communities of color." And racism runs deep in the Jewish community (the JDL, Meir Kahane, Stephen Miller...). Now that's out of the way. Let's end the hate and respective cultures of self righteousness that create climates of fear and violence.
1