That must come as a relief to the men who were shot in the legs and a disappointment to the rabbis and community leaders who’d love more face time in front of the TV cameras if only they could show there was anti-Semitism.
The designation of "hate crimes" gives community activists more power and more reasons to go on TV to pontificate.
Police are still seeking the shooter and a motive.
The Anti-Defamation League has expressed deep concern over Thursday’s shooting at the Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic synagogue in North Hollywood.
…"Statistics consistently show Jews to be far and away the most frequently targeted religious group, with 74 percent of hate crimes motivated by religion being perpetrated against Jews in Los Angeles County," added Susskind, citing the most recent Hate Crime Report of the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations.
Orthodox Jew Duke Helfand reports for the Los Angeles Times:
Each Saturday morning without fail, Orthodox Jewish families in North Hollywood emerge from their homes and slowly make their way to the many synagogues along the area’s leafy streets and boulevards.
The observant Jews pass by kosher restaurants, groceries and day schools, welcoming one another with the traditional Sabbath greeting — "Good Shabbos."
Their presence has helped transform North Hollywood into a vibrant Jewish hub, one rivaled in Los Angeles only by the Pico-Robertson and La Brea/Fairfax districts.
"It’s like a small Israel," said Rami Barzilay, 77, owner of Elite Market down the street from the Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic Synagogue, the site of Thursday’s shooting that wounded two congregants.
How can the LAPD be so sure it was not a hate crime? Why do the news media accept this as gospel? Two men were shot walking into prayer at a synagogue. That seems like a hate crime to me.
