(JTA) — An Israeli man studying for the rabbinate in New York was stabbed while praying at Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in Brooklyn.
Levi Rosenviat, 22, who lives in the West Bank’s Gush Etzion bloc of settlements, was stabbed at 1:45 a.m. Tuesday in the neck and elsewhere in the synagogue of the building located in the Crown Heights neighborhood, according to reports. Rosenviat is reported to be in stable condition at Kings County Hospital.
He arrived in New York two weeks ago, according to the New York Daily News.
His alleged assailant, Calvin Peters, 51, was shot in the stomach by police and later died in the hospital. He reportedly entered the Chabad building shouting “I will kill the Jew! I want to kill the Jew!” according to the Daily News.
Peters had entered the building an hour earlier saying he was looking for a book, another Israeli student told the newspaper.
Police and security guards reportedly flooded the building moments after the attack. Peters initially put down his knife, but then picked it back up again. Police ordered Peters to drop the knife and shot him when he did not comply. A video of the encounter was posted by the Israeli news website 0404.
Police reportedly are calling the incident criminal, not terror-related, though with elements of a hate crime.
A Chabad spokesman told Israeli media that homeless men sometimes enter the world headquarters, which is open 24 hours a day, in order to get warm.
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