  Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images Agudath Israel’s Shlomo Soroka: ‘There’s a feeling that if this happened to a different community, it would be covered differently'By Haley Cohen Jewish leaders in Chicago are urging the local prosecutor to upgrade the charge against a Muslim man who allegedly shot a Jewish man walking to synagogue on Saturday in West Rogers Park, home to one of the city’s largest Orthodox Jewish populations, to a hate crime. The 22-year-old suspect reportedly yelled “Allahu Akbar” as he exchanged fire with police officers responding to the initial shooting. “We’re very disappointed,” Shlomo Soroka, Agudath Israel of Illinois’ director of government affairs, told Jewish Insider. “I hope they add hate crime charges on later but regardless, even if there are technical reasons that they didn’t file hate crime charges, they have to understand what this really was — not even this specific incident — but what we have been saying for a long time, that the visibly Jewish community, which is the Orthodox community, is at grave risk. And it’s not just here in Chicago.” Before the charges were announced, Soroka said that law enforcement was not doing enough to “reassure” the “anxious community.” “Certain details around the incident are not being shared or reported with the public,” he said. “There’s a feeling that if this happened to a different community, it would be covered differently.” You May Have MissedVANCE'S VIEWSVance: Pro-Israel Americans responded in a ‘more militaristic way’ to Oct. 7 than IsraelisThe GOP vice-presidential nominee added it’s in the American interest to avoid war with Iran. OUSTING UNRWAKnesset passes law banning UNRWA operations in Israel A second law prohibits Israeli government officials from having any contact with UNRWA. Read more...      |
10.28.2024
Chicago Jewish leaders ‘disappointed’ law enforcement downplaying antisemitism as motive in shooting
