NYPD vehicle stationed outside 770 Chabad center
NYPD vehicle stationed outside 770 Chabad centerNati Shohat/Flash 90

Following the stabbing in Crown Heights' 770 Chabad Lubavitch center on Tuesday, Michael Miller, Executive Directive of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) in New York, has called for additional security measures to be implemented to safeguard Jews at the site.

In the attack Calvin Peters (49), who police report had a long arrest record and mental illness, entered the center and stabbed Levi Rosenblat (22) in the head and under the shoulder, going on to threaten others with a knife shouting "I'm killing a Jew!" before being shot by police and later dying of his wounds.

In a press conference held two days after the stabbing, in which senior local  politicians from across the spectrum took part including New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, the question of rising anti-Semitism in New York arose time and again.

Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind noted on the recent savage terrorist attack on a Jerusalem synagogue, saying "this incident reminds us of the attack on Har Nof. Jewish communities in the world know what 770 represents, the study hall of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and the mother base of the largest Jewish chain in the world."

Speaking about the new security measures being launched, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams who arranged the conference said "these means are being put in place." He promised that 770 would receive the required security enforcement.

De Blasio in his remarks said "we'll need to place additional defense on all of the religious and Jewish sites in Crown Heights and streets throughout the whole city."

Noting on how the attack could have ended differently, Rabbi Chanina Sperlin of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Center (CHJCC) remarked that if the attacker had come earlier he would have arrived when the study hall was packed with Jews praying, which could have given him the opportunity to wound even more.