LAPD increases patrols near synagogues after stabbings at New York Hanukkah event

Los Angeles police have stepped up patrols in and around Jewish communities and synagogues after a man stabbed and wounded five people gathered for a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi’s home in New York.

The increased patrols are “out of an abundance of caution,� LAPD Chief Michel Moore tweeted Sunday morning. The LAPD did not elaborate on the extra security measures.

“The LAPD stands with members of our Jewish community,� Moore tweeted. “There is no place for hate in Los Angeles.�

The stabbings happened on the seventh night of Hanukkah, which the victims had been celebrating in the rabbi’s home north of New York City. One person was seriously wounded and is in critical condition.

It follows a series of attacks targeting Jews in the region, including a shooting at a kosher grocery store in New Jersey earlier this month that left six dead, including a police officer and three people inside the store.

Beverly Hills police arrested Anton Nathaniel Redding of Millersville, Pa., earlier this month in connection with the ransacking of the city’s Nessah Synagogue in which prayer books were shredded and several Jewish relics damaged.

Redding has been charged with vandalism of a religious property and commercial burglary, charges that include a penalty enhancement for a hate crime, police said.

Hate crimes in Los Angeles County have reached their highest point in nearly a decade, according to an annual report by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations. Although religious crimes overall declined slightly, anti-Jewish crimes rose 14% and constituted 83% of religion-motivated crimes.

In April, a shooting at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in San Diego County that left one dead came exactly six months after 11 worshipers were killed at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

Times staff writer Sarah Parvini contributed to this report.