The two killers in Jersey City targeting a Jewish market is yet another “wake-up call” that Jews are being targeted by extremists and anti-Semites, the director of ADL New England tells the Herald.
The gun battle and standoff Tuesday left six people dead — the two killers, a police officer and three people inside the kosher market.
Surveillance video of the attackers made it clear they targeted the Jewish market, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop said Wednesday, and he pronounced the bloodshed a hate crime against Jews.
“It’s a serious community concern when a Jewish business is targeted for violence,” said Robert Trestan, director of ADL New England. “This is another wake-up call that while Jews are a tiny percentage of the population, we remain a target among extremists and anti-Semites.
“This is part of a trend of people escalating their hatred toward Jews,” he added.
Investigators believe the two dead attackers — who were believed to be a couple — identified themselves in the past as Black Hebrew Israelites, a movement in which members have been known to rail against whites and Jews, according to a law enforcement official.
Authorities found social media postings from at least one of the killers that were anti-police and anti-Jewish, the official said. The killers were identified as David Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50.
The bloodshed began at a graveyard, where police say Detective Joseph Seals, 40, was gunned down by the assailants. They then drove a van about a mile to the kosher market.
Two of the victims at the store were identified by members of the Orthodox Jewish community as Mindel Ferencz, 31, who with her husband owned the grocery, and 24-year-old Moshe Deutsch, a rabbinical student from Brooklyn who was shopping there. Authorities identified the third victim as Miguel Douglas, 49.
“We are as devastated as we are horrified,” the Boston Jewish Community Relations Council and Combined Jewish Philanthropies said in a statement. “The store is the center of a growing Jewish community in Jersey City, located next to a synagogue and yeshiva. We have reached out to the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey to offer our love and support. We pray that the families of the victims find comfort during this unimaginably painful time and we pray for the full recovery of the wounded.”
Eleven people were killed in an October 2018 shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history. Last April, a gunman opened fire at a synagogue north of San Diego, killing a woman and wounding a rabbi and two others.
“We are deeply sorry to hear the terrible news that affected the Jersey City community,” Consul General of Israel to New England Zeev Boker said in a statement. “We keep those affected by the anti-Semitic attack in our thoughts and want to thank American first responders for their relentless commitment and bravery. Antisemitism and all other forms of hate have no place anywhere and we must continue to combat it.”
Herald wire services contributed to this report.
