Read: American Jews are terrified

There has always been anti-Semitism in New York City. Orthodox Jews, who are usually visibly identifiable by the way they dress and the geographically concentrated nature of their communities, have often been the targets. But Evan Bernstein, the New York–New Jersey regional director at the Anti-Defamation League, told me he has seen the situation “ramping up” over the past few years. “We’re seeing more and more assaults,” he said. Incidents have included graffiti sprayed on the walls of Jewish schools, men stabbed on their way to synagogue, and verbal and physical harassment following a measles outbreak earlier this year.

Still, the suburbs of Rockland County have continued to feel somewhat removed from the violence, Rivkie Feiner, another local community organizer, told me. Monsey has been the kind of place where mothers send their kids out to ride bikes or around the corner to play at a friend’s house without worrying, she said: It’s “an insular, safer community.” Recently, however, as Hasidic enclaves have grown in size, local community members have clashed over issues such as traffic and taxes. In April, the Rockland County Republican Party released a widely condemned video warning that “a storm is brewing” and that Jews were “plotting a takeover” in the area. Saturday night’s stabbing was “like lighting a match and throwing it on a pile of tinder,” Bernstein said. “There’s a lot of hate out there.”

After a lifetime of feeling secure in the suburbs of New York, Feiner is no longer confident that she and her family are safe from violence, especially because her sons dress in a way that clearly marks them as Jewish. “You have to be aware of your surroundings,” she said, “and not have your head buried in the sand.” Bernstein, who has long worked with the Rockland County Jewish community on security issues, said she plans to teach her 11-year-old son how to defend himself on his way home from the bus stop: “Use your briefcase as a weapon if someone approaches,” she said, giving an example of a possible tactic. “Just thinking that I have to do that is just beyond horrifying, as a parent.”

The Hanukkah stabbing has started a new conversation about communal security, says Yossi Gestetner, a co-founder of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, who lives a seven-minute drive from the house in Monsey where the attack took place. Ambulances were still at the scene when he got there last night, he told me, but people were already saying it was time to embrace stronger forms of self-defense. One person quipped to Gestetner that “we have sidelocks,” referring to the long curls of hair that some Jewish men wear close to their ears, and now “it’s time for sidearms.” “I don’t think it’s in the culture of Hasidic Jews to be with weapons,” Gestetner told me.