The shooting event in which devotees were murdered undermines peace in Jersey City • Residents do not know how to act: "There have never been attacks against Jews who live here"

• Photo: AFP

Every Friday at noon, Leah Mindel Franz would make a warm, warm kugel for her customers at the small grocery store she and her husband, Moshe, opened about four years ago.

The couple moved to Jersey City from Brooklyn, and the grocery store they opened became the cornerstone of the small Jewish community in Greenville, a neighborhood with an African-American majority just across the river from Manhattan. It was the only training store that served the community of about 100 ultra-Orthodox families living in the neighborhood, and more than that - it served as a symbol of the Jewish community's intention to stay there and prosper.

Then on Thursday, Franz was killed by killer bullets as she stood at the door of the grocery store, along with another employee at the store and a customer. She was 32 at the time of her death, the mother of five children.

'We saw her a lot and she was always happy, always had a smile on her face. Very calm, very patient, just a very nice person, "said Rabbi Shmuli Levitin, a resident of the neighborhood. "Their move from Brooklyn to here was a brave act, and they not only moved on their own, but also opened a business here with the knowledge and hope that the community would grow and need their services," he added.

The shooting events in Jersey City began with the murder of a police officer in a nearby cemetery before the two casualties arrived in their ammunition-laden commercial vehicle to develop a grocery store and began firing in all directions. Also killed were Moshe Deutsch, 24, Miguel Douglas, 49, and Officer Joe Sills. The killers, David Anderson and Francine Graham, were killed in the exchange of gunfire with police forces.

Photo: AFP

Now, members of the Jersey City Jewish community are trying to recover and think about what to do next. Many left Brooklyn because of the cost of living and rebuilt their home across the river. They did not think for a moment that this was a danger zone. Residents say they got along well with their neighbors and did not encounter anti-Semitic violence or vandalism, the kind that has been targeting the ultra-Orthodox community in Brooklyn for the past year.

"There have never been attacks or incidents against Jews who live here," said Rabbi Avi Schnall, Agudat Israel's regional director in New Jersey. Schnell worked with Greenville Jews to build relationships with the non-Jewish communities in the neighborhood. He sees a direct link between the Jersey City incident and Jewish synagogue attacks in Pawi, California and Pittsburgh. "It's more tragic, it's scary," he says. "What's more frightening is that this is not a local event. Jews were shot dead in three places during one year, ”he added.

Less than a day after the shooting attack, the grocery store has already begun renovation work. Truckers with building materials arrived at the scene and the store's entire window shattered was temporarily replaced by wooden boards. Inside the store you could see boxes of candy, cereal and snacks left on the shelves. The police collected dozens of rifle bullets from the shop floor. The renovations were stopped for a moment only when New Jersey Governor Chris Murphy and New York Israeli Consul General Danny Dayan came to a prayer service at the "Greenville Congregation Auditorium" adjacent to the grocery store.

Photo: AFP

The store where the attack happened is on Martin Luther King Boulevard, one of the neighborhood's main traffic jams. Opposite the grocery store is a Catholic school, down the street is a Pentecostal church and a mosque next to it. Among them are businesses that serve the region's diverse population. Alongside well-kept homes, there are also quite a few abandoned buildings and in the streets you can see garbage and broken bottles, evidence of neglect.

Jersey City residents say the Greenville area has undergone a gentrification process in recent years, with more affluent families coming in from the outside and buying homes at prices out of reach for the neighborhood's original residents. Most of the new residents, Douglas Harmon, who has lived in the neighborhood all his life, are Orthodox Jews. Harmon says the relationship with the new neighbors is good. In a video message distributed in ultra-Orthodox groups, Harmon, a contractor by profession, appears to suggest renovating the grocery store for free and wishing all the best to his Jewish neighbors. "People who come here every day have no problem with Jewish residents," he said in an interview. "As long as you're a good person, people will respect you everywhere."

But the entry of new residents into the neighborhood was also accompanied by some tension. Jersey City City Councilwoman Rolando Lavaro said the city has worked in recent years to ease tensions and listen to residents' concerns. "I think we can do more to be a welcoming city," he says. "I also think we can do more to balance the preservation of the culture and heritage of those who have lived here for years, and the needs of the new communities that have come to Jersey City."

Joseph Rappaport, an ultra-Orthodox activist from the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, said those moving to Jersey City are doing so because of rising housing prices that make it difficult for many families to find homes in the area. "There's a huge influx of young people leaving Brooklyn," he said. 'In the synagogues it is hard to find little children. No one can afford to live here. "

But even in Jersey City, the young ultra-Orthodox find it hard to find peace. Rabbi Shanal says he is worried that the Greenville community, which has so far enjoyed a calm life, will also have to get used to a new reality, where Jewish communities across the United States are in danger. "It's worrying that it happened here," he said, "but such things can happen anywhere else, too."