The man accused of using a machete to hack five Orthodox Jews at a Hanukkah party had Jewish friends while growing up — and even did Sabbath chores for them, his mom told The Post on Wednesday.

Grafton Thomas, 37, “was born in a Jewish neighborhood in Crown Heights,” Kim Thomas said in her first public statements since her son’s arrest in the Saturday night bloodbath in Monsey.

Kim, 55, said her son would help one Jewish family observe the Sabbath by performing tasks prohibited by their religious beliefs.

“Grafton grew up going there on a Friday afternoon to turn off the lights for them,” she said.

That practice is commonly known as serving as a “Shabbos goy” — a non-Jew who performs Sabbath tasks.

Before his arrest, Kim said, Grafton was always welcomed warmly whenever he returned to Brooklyn from their home in upstate Greenwood Lake.

“If he goes down there, anyone that sees him on the block, in the neighborhood, hugs him, welcomes him,” she said.

Several longtime Jewish residents of the block where Grafton formerly lived told The Post they didn’t remember him as a neighbor.

Kim Thomas, a nurse, also disputed allegations by federal authorities that a swastika and references to Adolf Hitler and “Nazi Culture” found in her son’s journals were evidence of “anti-Semitic sentiments.”

Instead, she said, his writings are a symptom of his mental illnesses, which his lawyers have said include schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

“He writes all over the paper, he circles letters or words like a typical schizophrenic mind,” she said.

Kim said her son was being held under suicide watch at the Orange County Jail, where she visited him Tuesday.

“I said, ‘Mommy loves you, I am going to try to do everything to help,’ and he said, ‘We thank you.’ I said, ‘Who’s we?’ ” Kim said. “To this day he has not received medical attention.”

Kim also confirmed claims by her pastor that she tried to get Grafton committed during a May 14 court hearing after his arrest last year for allegedly menacing a cop.

Kim said her son was speaking to her when he stopped finishing his sentences, which she described as a sign of his mental illness flaring up.

Kim said she called 911 and asked for mental-health workers to respond, but the cops came instead and accused Grafton of threatening them with a knife.

“He got no help. They treated it as a criminal case and that was it,” she said.

Additional reporting by Reuven Fenton