though a year ago today they got shot

shook with a terrible attack they

made a decision that they're staying

here rabbi shapiro shared a message of

hope

standing in front of the kosher market

where one year ago today

heavily armed gunman launched a vicious

attack targeting the jewish community

and after a three-hour gun battle with

police four people were left dead

while the attack was spurred by

anti-semitic hate

two of the victims were jewish the two

in the middle

mother and store owner mindy ferentz and

a young rabbinical student

moshe deutsch another on the left was a

latino immigrant

douglas miguel rodriguez working to

provide by the way

for his family and to achieve his

american dream

and the guy to the right a jersey city

hudson county new jersey american hero

detective joe seals joe was a christian

last year this time around the holidays

around hanukkah it was a lot of

terrible attacks against jewish people

december 10th here two weeks later in

muncie and many attacks in brooklyn

but unfortunately it's a trend around

the world where anti-semitism

has grown the now boarded up market

where the shooting took place

never revived but shapiro says the

community has

we made a decision last year with some

other

civic leaders within the

african-american community

what can we do to bring people together

and we have done a couple programs

notably right before corona february 7th

we brought together a few hundred people

from jersey city community at a shabbat

dinner

i mean to have young african-american

high school kids from this community

celebrate shabbat with hasidic jews of

all walks of life

is really what unites us as a people he

said calling out anti-semitism at all

levels of community and government

is critical and acknowledged governor

murphy for doing so

it's my fervent hope that the light of

the menorah also leads our work

to seek out and remove hate in all of

its forms

from wherever it works new jersey's

attorney general and the anti-defamation

league held a virtual event today to

join in that message

rather than let those terrorists divide

us on that fateful day

we all responded by coming together by

grieving together

and by recommitting ourselves to protect

all of the diverse communities that make

this state

and this country the beacon of hope and

freedom

that it is for so many at a memorial

service today for detective joseph seals

jersey city mayor stephen fulop

acknowledged the anti-semitic attack

but doesn't believe the sentiment is

pervasive in his city we've done a lot

of community building nevertheless over

the last year

a lot of round tables with faith-based

leadership

covet has obviously changed some of that

so

hopefully when we're through this in

2021 we'll pick up again

but i think the city in many ways is

stronger and

showed how resilient we are as a result

of what happened on december 10th

and on this sacred first night of

hanukkah the jewish community will come

together tonight to celebrate

light winning over darkness but also to

acknowledge the hard work that still

remains

to drive out extremism and anti-semitism

in jersey city i'm Joanna Gagis

NJ Spotlight News