Free Republic

Accused Monsey stabber Grafton Thomas kept journals filled with anti-Semitic writing and used a cellphone to search for “Zionist Temples,” including on Staten Island, according to court papers filed by federal prosecutors on Monday. Thomas, 38, even allegedly used the phone to find out where cops were protecting Jewish neighborhoods just hours before his alleged rampage, which injured five Hanukkah celebrants inside a rabbi’s home on Saturday night. Thomas filled several pages in his journals with statements that expressed his affinity with the anti-Semitic “Black Hebrew Israelite” movement and questioned “why ppl [people] mourned for anti-Semitism when there is Semitic...

The shooting that unfolded at a kosher market in Jersey City, N.J., was a "targeted" attack, according to officials who say at least one of the suspects had published anti-Semitic and anti-police posts online before opening fire Tuesday. Mayor Steven Fulop would not commit on Wednesday to calling the shooting an anti-Semitic attack, but said after reviewing surveillance footage, investigators believe the attack was plotted against the Jewish deli. He told reporters footage shows the gunmen passing by other shops before getting out of a van and aiming for the market.

The two people who stormed a kosher grocery store in Jersey City with rifles, killing three people inside and also murdering a veteran detective, have been identified as David Anderson and Francine Graham, four law enforcement sources familiar with the case tell News 4. Three sources say Anderson was a one-time follower of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, a group whose members believe they are descendants of the ancient Israelites and may adhere to both Christian and Judaic beliefs. There was a note with religious writings in the U-Haul he and Graham allegedly drove to the scene, but a motive...

They are sidewalk ministers who use confrontation as their gospel. Hebrew Israelites practice a theology that says God’s chosen ones — black, Hispanic and Native American people — have strayed and need to be led back to righteousness. So they post up on street corners in big cities, usually in predominantly black communities, wearing flashy garb — purple shirts or black robes, for instance. They shout, use blunt and sometimes offensive language, and gamely engage in arguments aimed at drawing listeners near. The attention-grabbing tactics of five of their followers at the Lincoln Memorial on Friday resulted in spectacular consequences....

In the initial media churn, they were nearly missed. But a small band of Hebrew Israelites, members of a historic but little-known American religious movement, may actually be at the center of a roiling controversy that has gripped the nation in recent days. It began with a now-viral video clip, filmed Friday at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, in which high school students from a Catholic school in Kentucky appeared to be in a faceoff with a Native American elder, who was beating on a drum. The boys, some wearing red hats with President Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan, appeared in...