Hate crime law to be named after the rabbi who died in Monsey attack
Rabbi Josef Neumann, 72, went into a coma after the event at Monsey during the Hannukah celebrations last December, and died from his wounds on Sunday.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFA WOMAN holds a hanukkiah during a solidarity rally in Brooklyn on December 29 following the attack in Monsey on Jews who were celebrating the seventh night of Hanukkah at the home of a rabbi.(photo credit: AMR ALFIKY/ REUTERS)
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has named the new domestic terrorism law after the rabbi who was stabbed at a synagogue in Monsey over Hanukkah, according to the Algemeiner.Rabbi Josef Neumann, 72, went into a coma after the incident last December, and died from his wounds on Sunday.Cuomo said that the law that would be named the “Josef Neumann Hate Crimes Domestic Terrorism Act,” which will reclassify certain hate crimes so that their punishment will now be a life sentence and without the possibility of parole.“We owe it to Mr. Neumann, his family and the entire family of New York to get it done now,” Cuomo said in a statement on Monday.Grafton Thomas, 37, broke into the home and synagogue of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg and stabbed five people. The other four have been discharged from the hospital.Federal prosecutors filed hate crime charges against Thomas on Monday. FBI agent Julie Brown reported that Thomas kept journals containing antisemitic statements and Nazi references. Additionally, the FBI agent said his cell phone was used to search "Why did Hitler hate the Jews?" on four separate occasions.
