Police are offering a reward as they look for two men in the smashing vandalism of a synagogue in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Erica Byfield reports.
A window of a Brooklyn synagogue was smashed on the Sabbath while the rabbi and his family, including young children, were inside.
A large plate glass window was shattered in front of Chabad of Bushwick on Flushing Avenue early on Saturday, Rabbi Menachem Heller said.
Heller said his family, including nine children, stays at the center on the Sabbath.
They saw two people walking away from the scene.
Heller said they walked across the street and asked people to call 911 because, as observant Jews, they don't use their phones on the Sabbath. They also flagged down police officers.
"If they have issues there are other ways of dealing with it than letting out their hatred onto others," he said.
NYPD Assistant Chief Jeffrey Maddrey, commanding officer of Patrol Borough Brooklyn North, met with Heller Monday for a roundtable discussion about stepping up patrols at the synagogue.
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"We are going to work to stomp out this hate in our community," he said.
Capt. Timothy Skretch, the commanding officer of Precinct 90, said, "The relationship doesn't end today. It's only going to increase."
Governor Andrew Cuomo called the vandalism an "act of hate;" Mayor de Blasio called the rabbi and also tweeted his support for the synagogue.
"I felt really good hearing from him that he was taking it so seriously," said Heller.
The city has seen a sharp increase in reported hate crimes so far in 2019, the NYPD said. Police had investigated 42 hate crimes through Feb. 4, compared with 19 at the same point last year. Most of those were anti-semitic.
