News Sparks: Confetti Turns to Violent Explosion in B’nai Brak, Anti-Jewish Crimes in UK Spike, and Williamburg Attacker Charged

By Yehudit Garmaise

Accidental Explosion in Wedding Hall Injures Seven in B’nai Brak

When a 15-year-old wedding guest, in B’nai Brak on Feb. 9, tried to spray confetti with a device that is intended to shoot powerful fireworks outside, an explosion resulted and accidentally injured seven other guests: two moderately, five lightly, and several guests were treated for shock.

“When we arrived at the scene there was a lot of commotion on the nearby street and inside the hall,” a Magen David Adom paramedic said. “We entered the hall and saw three young men in their twenties: fully conscious and suffering from injuries to the upper body. We provided medical treatment to stop the bleeding and evacuated them to the hospital.”

In UK, Anti-Jewish Hate Incidents Hit Record High 

Anti-Semitic hate crimes have hit a record high in the UK, where 2,255 incidents, both in person and online, were reported last year, according to the Community Security Trust (CST), which is a charity that monitors anti-Semitic attacks.

In addition to 173 violent assaults on Jews, last year’s anti-Semitics incidents included a surge in people in passing cars shouting abusive at Yidden.

The 2,255 incidents are the most the CDT has ever recorded in one year and a 34% increase from the 1,684 incidents the charity recorded in 2020. 

The biggest surge in hate crimes in the UK previously took place in the first week of May 2021, while Gaza was launching hundreds of rockets to land in Israel as a way to “protest” a decision of the country’s Supreme Court to evict six Palestinian families from land whose territory is unclear. 

NYPD, with Shomrim’s Help, Charge 15-Year-Old Attacker in Williamsburg

NYPD officers apprehended and charged, last Shabbos, the 15-year-old perpetrator of several violent anti-Semitic attacks in Williamsburg, Yeshiva World News reported.

The NYPD said that the teen, who had hit and shoved two Chassidic Jews, has been taken into custody by the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force. 

Williamsburg Shomrim provided camera footage and eyewitnesses to assist the NYPD in finding and charging the young perpetrator with three counts of assault and two counts of committing a hate crime.