The man accused of going on a stabbing rampage at a Hanukkah celebration in upstate Monsey is “not a terrorist” — he’s just mentally ill — family friends claimed Sunday in an apparent response to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s statements earlier in the day that the attack was an “act of domestic terrorism.”

Grafton Thomas — who is accused of storming into a rabbi’s house in Monsey Saturday night and wounding five people with a machete — is “not a violent person,” according to his pastor of 10 years, Reverend Wendy Paige of the Hudson Highlands Cooperative Parish.

“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,” Paige said.

“I have been his pastor for a long time and I have seen him, he is not a violent person, he is a confused person.”

Thomas, 37, has suffered from mental illness for more than 20 years and has been in and out of hospitals for treatment, according to Paige, who did not say what condition he had been diagnosed with or what medications he’d been prescribed.

Paige appeared to be responding to Gov. Andrew Cuomo calling the attack on Jewish worshipers an “act of domestic terrorism” on Sunday morning.

She spoke to reporters down the block from the Greenwood Lake, NY, home where Thomas lives with his mother.

A friend of the mom, Taleea Collins, said outside the home that Thomas is “a lovely person.”

“Grafton has always been a loving, loving man towards me. He calls me ‘auntie’ sometimes,” she claimed. “He’s just a lovely person. I’ve never seen him be violent and I know that he suffers from mental illnesses.”

“He’s not a terrorist he’s a loving loving man, with a lot of creativity and just a wonderful spirit,” Collins added.

Thomas was held on $5 million bail Sunday after a prosecutor alleged he was found covered in blood by the NYPD in Harlem and tried to cover up his role in the attack by dousing himself in bleach.

The mayor of Greenwood Lake, Jesse Dwyer, told The Post that Grafton lived like a hermit in recent years.

“He almost seems to have been isolated in his home for the last couple of years,” said Dwyer, who said he grew up with the accused anti-Semite.

“It’s a tight-knit community and when things stand out you tend to notice them, and nothing stood out about him,” Dwyer said.

Paige, the pastor, apologized to the families of the victims on behalf of Thomas and his mother.

“We apologize to the families for him,” said Paige. “We apologize because we know this was not him, this was an action out of mental illness, please understand… Please Let’s work on our systems for mental illness.”

“Grafton has mental illness and that is the sound of his confusion and these actions,” Paige added.