Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

North Carolina police seek suspects in anti-Israel attack at public library

Asheville police arrested one person for two counts of allegedly resisting officers.

Police car lights
Police car lights. Credit: Fleimax/Pixabay.

The Asheville Police Department in North Carolina arrested one person and is seeking other suspects in connection to a June 29 assault at West Asheville Library.

The department is “steadfast in our commitment to reducing all acts of violence in our community, particularly those targeting vulnerable groups like our Jewish Community,” stated Mike Lamb, the police chief. Esther Manheimer, the city’s Jewish mayor, added that it won’t “be cowed by individuals resorting to violence.”

Police officers arrested Taylor Danielle Zarkin, 35, of Alexander, N.C., on June 29 and charged her with two counts of resisting officers, per a police report on the police department’s website. The Algemeiner reported that “two Jewish residents and a senior citizen were beaten and dragged” out of the library. The 79-year-old Holocaust survivor told the paper that “we are happy that the police are taking this seriously and have escalated this to the major crimes division.”

“So much of the New York Oct. 7 story is the role that the New York Jewish community played in fighting for the return of the hostages,” Hindi Poupko, of the UJA, told JNS.
“Jewish New Yorkers deserve to mourn in peace, free from hatred and intimidation,” stated New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. “There is no excuse for this. None.”
Organizers of the rally accused the NYC mayor of breaking campaign promises to “the Palestine movement” and claimed that he has “repeatedly capitulated to Zionist pressure.”
Luis Har was freed from captivity in Gaza in a daring Israeli military operation 129 days after he was abducted during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.