jersey city hasidic community
Jews and our allies from across the country … To truly understand the situation, one must understand an essential fact about the Hassidic community – that they are an umbrella of a number of cults within the Jewish community. The surrounding blocks are full of row houses in a rainbow of colors along with some empty lots. But that all changed Tuesday when David Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50, stormed the store with rifles, beginning an hourslong standoff with police that ended in both of their deaths along with three other people in the store. What’s more frightening is this is not a local issue. Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop tweeted Wednesday morning that “it has now become clear from the cameras that these two individuals targeted the Kosher grocery location.” But officials at a news conference later in the day repeatedly stressed that they could not definitively say what motivated the shooters. Shabbat shalom to the Satmar community in Jersey City, who experienced a horrific attack earlier this week. Harmon said that he and other locals have had a good relationship with their new neighbors, though gentrification has increased tensions in the area. “It’s the last place anybody would have thought was dangerous. In recent years the Hasidic community started moving into Jersey City looking for more affordable options than Brooklyn. Schnall drew a link between Tuesday’s shooting and the killings at synagogues in Poway, California, in April, and in Pittsburgh a little more than a year ago. The first results are in. The shootout also led to the death of Jersey City veteran detective Joseph Seals and another civilian named Michael Rumberger. They Became Targets. “The police told me not to leave,” Saldana said. Authorities believe Anderson and Graham intentionally targeted the store, and say the pair is believed to be responsible for the death of Jersey City Police Detective Joseph Seals, who was killed shortly before they attacked the store. The grocery store is on Martin Luther King Drive, one of the neighborhood’s central thoroughfares. “It’s the only kosher grocery store in Jersey City,” Levitin said, “It’s devastating that something like this happened to them.”. Ferencz was 32 and a mother of five. Schnall feared that, despite the largely tranquil feeling in Greenville before Tuesday, this is is simply the new reality: Jewish communities across the country are at risk. Former Democratic New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who used to represent Brooklyn’s Assembly district 48, issued a video of local residents in the Jersey City neighborhood where the shooting took place blaming the Jews for the murderous attack on them: Less than a day after the shooting, JC Kosher is already rebuilding. Members of the Jewish community pass by near the scene of a mass shooting at the JC Kosher Supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey on Dec. 11, 2019. These are areas that have within them an Orthodox Jewish community in which there is a sizable and cohesive population, which has its own eruvs, community organizations, businesses, day schools, yeshivas, and/or synagogues that serve the members of the local Orthodox community and … The shooters, identified as David Anderson and Francine Graham, were found dead in the store. They are part of a major movement of ultra-Orthodox Jews into communities around New York City in search of more affordable places to live. A woman and boy in the Greenville neighborhood in Jersey City, where several dozen Hasidic families from Brooklyn have settled. “We are not in the position at this time to say definitively why the suspect decided to stop in front of the supermarket and begin firing immediately.”. “It was horrible, like a movie.”. They got along with their neighbors and did not experience the anti-Semitic vandalism, harassment and assaults that have taken place recently in Brooklyn’s Hasidic neighborhoods. Then came the backlash. “I think we can do better to be a welcoming city,” Lavarro said. (Laura E. Adkins/JTA News). The couple had moved from Brooklyn, and the store they opened, JC Kosher Supermarket, became a cornerstone of the small but growing Jewish community of Greenville, a largely African-American neighborhood in this city across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Religious leaders in Greenville already have been working together to assuage the tensions that often accompany gentrification, Jersey City Council President Rolando Lavarro told JTA. “There have never been any attacks or incidents with the Jews who lived there,” said Rabbi Avi Schnall, the New Jersey director for Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox organization. Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop called the attack a hate crime on Wednesday, saying in a tweet it is clear the Jewish community in his city was targeted based on surveillance evidence. The shooting in New Jersey is still being investigated by police, but the alleged shooters are thought to hold black supremacist beliefs — part of which is a rabid hatred of Israel and the Jewish people. The small ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Greenville, Jersey City, consists of only around 100 families, a few schools, and a kosher market. Several chassidishe philanthropists have joined with chassidishe real-estate investors to transform Greenville into a chassidishe community with ample affordable housing. Men from a company called Gold Star Restoration were hammering away. We’re meeting for coffee on Zoom. Then on Tuesday, Ferencz was gunned down in the store, along with an employee and a customer. A woman and boy in the Greenville neighborhood in Jersey City, where several dozen Hasidic families from Brooklyn have settled. No AIPAC conference? And though Deutsch, the Jersey City Hasidic leader, sounded a harmonious note, a dispute transpired in the weeks after the attack over an anti-Semitic Facebook message posted by Jersey City Board of Education member Joan Terrell-Paige. Areas and locations in the United States where Orthodox Jews live in significant communities. A group of Orthodox men were carrying a shiny new door to the building. Jersey City’s Jewish community is only about five years old. As police officers tried to stop Anderson and Graham, children were only a building away, with community members who were there praying trying to keep them calm and safe. IE 11 is not supported. Hasidic Jews outside 221 Martin Luther King Dr. in Jersey City on April 26, 2016. “The people walking past every day, they don’t have any problem [with the Jewish community],” Harmon told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The store, which some residents endearingly referred to as no more than a bodega, was where the Jews who lived in the neighborhood would go if they forgot to pack a lunch or needed some groceries before Shabbat. By Carol Kuruvilla, Daniel Marans, and Rowaida Abdelaziz. Now the Jewish community of Jersey City, and their friends and family in New York, are reeling and wondering what comes next. “It’s frightening. JERUSALEM — The horrific shooting in Jersey City was unfortunately the third deadly anti-Semitic attack at a Jewish institution in recent years. Another member of the local Hasidic community, Leah Minda Ferencz, co-owner of JC Kosher Supermarket in Jersey City was also killed in the Jersey Shooting. One Dallas kosher grocer removed the mask requirement. Speaking with Arutz Sheva Wednesday morning, Isaac Wollner, a member of the local Chesed Shel Emes organization, said the shooting took place in … Many members of the Hasidic community had scrambled Tuesday in the wake of the shooting, using WhatsApp to check in on loved ones, and communicating with their family throughout New York and the world to let them know they were all right. So when a shooting erupted at JC Kosher Supermarket on Tuesday — killing four people in what officials have described as an anti-Semitic hate crime — it struck directly in the heart of the close-knit community. “She was someone that we saw often, always a cheerful demeanor, always a smile on her face, really relaxed, very calm, very patient, just a nice person,” said Rabbi Shmully Levitin, a neighborhood resident and Chabad rabbi serving the city. “There needs to be more awareness in the Orthodox community that we live together in the community. Chris Murphy in attendance. It was the only kosher grocery in Greenville, a historically black neighborhood where around 80 families who were members of the Satmar Hasidic sect, priced out of rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn, had moved here in the past few years. “There has been a tremendous outflow from Brooklyn of young people,” he said. © 2021 jewish telegraphic agency all rights reserved. The Orthodox community is led by Rabbi Chaim Marcus. Leah Mindel Ferencz was a 33-year-old mother of three who owned the JC Kosher Supermarket with her husband as one of the first families to found a new Hasidic community in Jersey City. Moishe Ferencz owns the supermarket, a symbol of the growing Hasidic community in this northeastern New Jersey city of just under 300,000. Lavarro said the city had allowed residents to put “No Knock” signs on their doors to deter real estate developers and said that security could be increased in the area pending the result of the police investigation. Lourdes Saldana, who has lived in the neighborhood for 12 years, said even though she isn’t Jewish she loved going to JC Kosher, where the food was healthy and she would always buy the challah. ... Why this small bodega?”. Many had moved from Brooklyn to escape the borough’s high prices and had found a welcoming new home. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. “It’s beyond tragic,” Schnall said. The shooters also killed Moshe Deutsch, 24; Douglas Miguel Rodriguez, 49; and Joe Seals, a Jersey City police detective. The sole kosher grocery for the 100 or so Orthodox families here, the store signaled that the community was there to stay, hopefully for years to come. But many are hoping that in time, the store will reopen. Hasidic Jews Moved To Jersey City For A Nicer Life. Inside, boxes of children’s candy, cereal and croutons lined the shelves. And Orthodox Jews in New Jersey and New York followed the situation on Yiddish-language social media groups, said Yosef Rapaport, a Hasidic community leader from Brooklyn, New York. “Nobody ever imagined this would be the place where any terrorist will come,” Silberstein said. If you were religious, JC Kosher was where you went, sometimes more than once a day. The victims in the store were identified by authorities Wednesday as Mindy Ferencz, 32, who ran the store with her husband; Miguel Douglas, 49, who is believed to have worked at the store; and Moshe Deutsch, 24. his social media pages pushed anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. “It’s a risk and it takes courage to move out [of Brooklyn]. Unlike previous times, however, the bursts of gunfire intensified rather than dissipated. “But things like this can happen anywhere.”, By submitting the above I agree to the privacy policy and terms of use of JTA.org, A Hasidic man stands in front of JC Kosher Supermarket in Jersey City, N.J., the site of a shooting that left three dead along with the two shooters, Dec. 11, 2019. Slain Jersey City Victim, Moshe Deutsch, Remembered By Friend Moshe Hersh Deutsch of Brooklyn was a 24-year-old yeshiva bochur who loved doing chesed. “It’s such a nice, tightknit community,” said Rabbi Shmully Levitin of the Jersey City Chabad, a Hasidic organization, who goes to the nearby synagogue almost every day to pray and would often shop at the JC Kosher. Steinmetz said Ferencz tried desperately to … Down the street is a Pentecostal church, a mosque and a string of businesses. Douglas Harmon, 43, a lifetime Greenville resident and local building contractor, said most of the new arrivals are Jewish families. Community members said JC Kosher had become the community’s de facto hub, with Ferencz operating at the center. “She was a wonderful woman,” said Mark Silberstein, who shopped there frequently, saying Ferencz, a mother of three, would often bring her children to the store when they were done with school. ‘Democracy is not working’: An 8-minute interview with a member of the Proud Boys. This is taking place in three places throughout the country in the past year, that people are being gunned down.”, Charles Barkley jokes about losing weight to dance the hora at daughter’s Jewish wedding, NBA player Meyers Leonard caught using anti-Semitic slur on video game platform, Trump showed off photos of naked women at a shiva, report says, This Jewish female artist from the comic book golden age was overlooked for decades, For over 40 years, this man bought millions of dollars of New York’s leavened bread products before Passover. Residents said the shootout made the street lined with shops feel like a war zone. Next to JC Kosher is a local synagogue, where the community members would go to pray. In March, a contract was signed for the purchase of a three-story building at 221 Martin Luther King Avenue in Jersey City to serve as the temporary shul. A Hasidic man stands in front of JC Kosher Supermarket in Jersey City, N.J., the site of a shooting that left three dead along with the two shooters, Dec. 11, 2019. “We know there is significant speculation about the shooters’ motive,” said New Jersey Attorney General Gubrir Grewal. Police are still investigating whether it was a hate crime. Schumer calls on Andrew Cuomo to step down, Brazilian police raid church whose pastor prayed for another Holocaust, Ukrainian senior academic proposes to rename city of Uman for Nazi collaborator, Brooklyn rabbi who fled to Israel to escape sexual assault charges in 2010 extradited to US, Czech prime minister opens Jerusalem embassy office on COVID-related Israel trip with Hungarian counterpart. These Are The Victims Of The Jersey City Shooting Six people, including two shooters, died during a shootout in New Jersey that appears to have deeply impacted a burgeoning Hasidic Jewish community. In a video circulated Wednesday in Hasidic group text messages, Harmon offered to help clean out the store for free and offered his best wishes to the Jewish community. JERSEY CITY, N.J. (JTA) — Every Friday afternoon, Leah Mindel Ferencz would cook hot kugel and cholent and serve them in the small grocery store she and her husband, Moshe, opened here about four years ago. He said he did not know if the shooting was at all related to issues in the neighborhood. t’s frightening. Thousands of Orthodox Jews participated in a COVID-19 study last year. JERSEY CITY, N.J. — On Martin Luther King Drive, JC Kosher Supermarket had become the center of a small but growing Hasidic community. A Hasidic man stands in front of JC Kosher Supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey, the site of a deadly anti-Semitic shooting, December 11, 2019. The Black Hebrew Israelite movement has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Jersey City has seen a migration from Brooklyn of Chabad Lubavitch Jews and Satmar Hasidim. No problem. The expansion of Hasidic communities in New York's Hudson Valley, the Catskills and northern New Jersey has led to some anti-semitic rhetoric … On Wednesday, as authorities worked to piece together Tuesday’s events, Greenville Jews gathered around the neighborhood to mourn and pray. Credit Bryan Anselm for The New York Times This is taking place in three places throughout the country in the past year, that people are being gunned down.”. “I think we can do a better job of balancing preserving the culture, heritage and values of those who have been in the city in longtime residence, and balancing the needs of communities that are newer to Jersey City.”. When the store opened, residents no longer had to cross the Hudson River just to buy food — and people really liked the kugel. The incident started with the fatal shooting of a police officer at a cemetery before the two assailants, a man and a woman who were suspects in a homicide, holed up in the market, engaging police in a lengthy gun battle. Placed in the context of the rising anti-Semitic attacks around the country, of which Hasidic Jews often find themselves the victim, the small community was left frightened. The … (Laura E. Adkins/JTA News) “Once again, … Jersey City Board of Education member Joan Terrell-Paige, seen at a meeting on Feb. 4, 2019, was critical of the city's Hasidic community in a Facebook post. Part of that change is from the Hassidic Jews moving into the area and has been the cause of discussion both in Jersey City and in the Jewish community of Hudson County. Officials say it remains unclear whether the attack was motivated by anti-Semitism. Many Hasidic Jews have moved into the neighborhood where the shooting took place. Jersey City residents say the area has been gentrifying, with a boom in new construction in the past few years. Yosef Rapaport, a Hasidic activist in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, said the new arrivals in Jersey City have been driven by rising prices that have made homes harder to afford in Brooklyn. We have to acknowledge and see one another.” Watch how members the Jersey City Hasidic Jewish community and the African-American community came together last night to bring a little bit of light and lots of holiday cheer to the grief-stricken neighborhood of Greenville in Jersey City.