Hamilton Meets Firebomb Victim

By COLlive reporter

New York State Senator Jesse Hamilton has met on Tuesday with an Israeli-born Yeshiva student who was one of the victims of a molotov cocktail attack this past Friday.

Hamilton met 20-year-old Yosef Rachimi in front of Lubavitch Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn where the student studies.

As first reported on COLlive.com, a firebomb was thrown at Rachimi and his classmate Yisroel Gedassi in front of 356 West 37th Street near 9th Avenue in New York City.

According to a witness, a man screamed “I want to kill you!” before he tossed the Molotov cocktail inside a Snapple bottle at the two as they stood on the sidewalk, visiting local Jewish store owners.

“Incidents like this challenge the very core of our community,” Hamilton said. “Whomever the intended victim, whatever the perpetrator’s depraved intention, whenever these crimes occur – we must reject them.”

NYPD Spokesman Sgt. Lee Jones told a New York blog that the bochurim were not the target.

“It looks like an individual got into some sort of dispute with a manager at a food cart storage facility, came back, and threw a bottle containing a combustible substance,” Jones said, adding, “Yeshiva students were in the vicinity as well as the Muslim person who was the manager at the food storage facility.”

Hamilton said in his statement that “We must support all victims in speaking out, in helping the police apprehend the perpetrators, and in recovering from a traumatic experience. Incidents like this underscore the importance of the work of the United Against Violence Task Force I recently launched.”

He added, “We are working to bring community groups and neighbors together in rejecting violence and pursuing peace on our streets. I commend the NYPD for treating this case with the seriousness it deserves and await the conclusions of their investigations.”

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