[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 9 (Monday, March 7, 1994)]
[Page 418]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on the Attack on Jewish Students in Brooklyn, New York

March 2, 1994

    This afternoon, I spoke with the family of Aaron Halberstam, the 
Lubavitcher student who was critically wounded by gunfire in Brooklyn 
yesterday. My prayers are with them, with their son, and with all of 
those affected by this spasm of brutal violence. It is an outrage that 
this crime, which has overtones of a hate crime, could occur in our 
American community. And it is a tragedy that such a tender, intelligent 
boy could be the victim of such brutality and immutable violence.
    For American Jewry, as for all of us, our country's unique tradition 
of tolerance and religious freedom makes us a refuge from the hatred and 
inhumanity that divides so many other cultures in this world. We respect 
the humanity we find in each other, and anything which attacks the bonds 
of community which unite us is an attack on us all.
    I commend the New York City Police Department for its swift and 
apparently successful investigation of this crime, and I would appeal to 
all men and women of good will--shocked as we are by this violence--to 
be calm and respectful of our system of justice. Those of us fighting 
for the safety and security of our neighborhoods, and for America's 
religious and cultural freedoms, will prevail.