Gunman breaks into rabbi’s home during Rosh Hashanah meal for U of Michigan students
Police probing incident as robbery, not hate crime; no injuries as intruder stole bag but didn’t open fire; woman detained in connection with crime, but main suspect still at large
A gunman broke into the home of a rabbi in Southfield, Michigan, during a Rosh Hashanah meal with students from the University of Michigan Wednesday, the university president said. No one was injured.
The university president, Santa Ono, said the “armed individual” entered through an open back door, stole a bag and fled.
The gunman said “I’m taking everything, give me everything” and displayed a weapon, but did not fire any shots, according to a police statement cited by local media. The incident is being investigated as a robbery, not a hate crime.
A woman has been arrested in connection with the incident, but the main suspect is still at large, the Detroit News reported, citing officials.
It said roughly 20 students had attended the meal at the rabbi’s home in Southfield, a north Detroit suburb some 40 miles northeast of the University of Michigan’s main campus in Ann Arbor.
Ono said the university had beefed up security around the campus following the robbery.
“As tensions in the Middle East have escalated in recent days, it is more important than ever that we work collectively to offer solace and safety to one another,” he wrote.
Dan Kaplan, the father of a student who attended the holiday dinner, was quoted in the Detroit Free Press giving his son’s account of the robbery.
“When the gun got pointed at him, he ran,” Kaplan said. “He said two of his friends hid behind a couch and they were pretty shook up.”
“The whole time as it was happening, in his mind he thought it was not connected to antisemitism,” he added. “In his mind, he thought it was a burglary or home invasion.”
Ono, the university president, said in a statement last week that a Jewish student had been punched outside a historically Jewish fraternity off campus and bottles were thrown at the building.
Like other universities across the United States, the University of Michigan has seen a sharp rise in anti-Israel activity since the war in Gaza was sparked on October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
The Times of Israel Community.