A Rabbi was injured in a stabbing in Boston's Brighton neighborhood Thursday, according to a pair of advocacy groups.
The American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League's New England chapter said the victim was Rabbi Shlomo Noginski of Shaloh House, a Chabad center that runs a school, camp and more. Both groups condemned what happened as the police continue to investigate.
Without identifying the victim, Boston police said Thursday night that a 24-year-old man was arrested in a stabbing in Brighton, and that the victim was hospitalized with injuries that aren't believed to be life-threatening.
Khaled Awad, of Brighton, was arrested on charges of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon and assault and battery on a police officer, according to a Boston police news release. He will be arraigned in Brighton District Court; it wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney who could speak to the charges.
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Asked Thursday evening if the incident was being investigated as a hate crime, a Boston police representative said everything was being looked at while the investigation was in its preliminary stages.
The address they gave for the incident, which was called in about 1:19 p.m., is the same as Shaloh House Jewish Day School on Chestnut Hill Avenue.
Parents at the school were told Noginski was the one who was stabbed.
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"He is thank G-d, in stable condition and being treated in the hospital for stab wounds to his arm and police have arrested a suspected attacker," read a message to parents.
It wasn't yet clear what happened in the stabbing, or what motivated it, but the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League, while praying for Noginski's reovery, spoke to the fear the Jewish community has felt about anti-Semitism and violence.
"This terrible crime underscores the sense of vulnerability that many in the Jewish community feel today. Anti-Jewish activism has become a viral menace," AJC New England Regional Director Rob Leikind said in a statement.
"As this investigation unfolds, we call for full transparency so that the community gets answers as to why a Jewish rabbi was stabbed outside his house of worship," said Robert Trestan, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League New England, in a statement.
Police had the area around the school blocked off Thursday afternoon.
The school told parents that it went into lockdown after the incident unfolded outside, but all the children are safe.
