NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- 'Tis the season for hate.
A menorah was topped with five of its bulbs shattered sometime on Friday at a park in Mendham, New Jersey.
No arrests were made in the case, but the menorah was fixed and a relighting ceremony was held on Sunday -- the last night of Hanukkah.
"Any act of vandalism directed at any religion, race, gender or age should never be tolerated in our towns," said Mayor Christine Serrano-Glassner said in a statement. "This incident is being investigated by our Police Department in cooperation with the Sheriff’s Department, and all appropriate protocols will be followed," Serrano-Glassner added.
The Mendham incident is the second one being investigated as a possible bias crime in the Garden State during Hanukkah. A sidewalk and tree outside a Highland Park synagogue were sprayed with graffiti over the weekend.
The town, like several others with large Jewish populations in New Jersey, had increased police presence following the stabbing of five people at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, an Orthodox Jewish community north of New York City York during a Hanukkah celebration over the weekend.
A knife-wielding man stormed into a rabbi's home and stabbed five people as they celebrated Hanukkah in an ambush Gov. Andrew Cuomo called an act of domestic terrorism fueled by intolerance and a "cancer" of growing hatred in America.
The stabbings on the seventh night of Hanukkah left one person critically wounded, Cuomo said. The rabbi's son was also injured, he said.
Grafton E. Thomas, 38, was arraigned Sunday and pleaded not guilty to five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary. Bail was set at $5 million, and he remains jailed.
"Grafton Thomas has a long history of mental illness and hospitalizations. He has no history of like violent acts and no convictions for any crime," his family said late Sunday in a statement issued by attorney Michael Sussman. "He has no known history of anti-Semitism and was raised in a home which embraced and respected all religions and races. He is not a member of any hate groups."
"We believe the actions of which he is accused, if committed by him, tragically reflect profound mental illness," the statement said.
"Finally, we express our deepest concern and prayers for those injured physically and otherwise deeply affected by the events of Saturday night. ... We thank those who rendered medical attention to each of those injured."
At a celebration in Monsey on Sunday that was planned before the shooting, several members of the community stood guard armed with assault-style rifles. They refused to give their names when approached by an AP journalist, but they said they were there to defend their community.
"The Jewish community is utterly terrified," Evan Bernstein, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey, said in a statement. "No one should have to live like this."
The Simon Wiesenthal Center said it wants the FBI to create a special task force.