Hanukkah party stabbing victim’s daughter says ‘prognosis is not good’

The family of one of the stabbing victims at a Hanukkah party in New York says 72-year-old Josef Neumann’s “prognosis is not good.” 

“The doctors do not have high hopes for him,” Nicky Kohen, Neumann’s youngest daughter, told reporters on Thursday, according to The Journal News. 

Kohen added that Neumann, who had the most severe injuries and has been unconscious since Saturday’s attack, might not be able to walk, talk or process speech again. 

The Orthodox Jewish great-grandfather suffered a fractured skull, a shattered right arm and was cut in the neck, Kohen said, while fighting off a man with a machete who stabbed four other people.  

“Our father’s status is so dire that no surgery has yet been performed on the right arm,” Neumann’s family said in a New Year’s Day statement that was posted on Facebook by the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council. 

Kohen said on Thursday that her father is undergoing surgery at Westchester Medical Center, according to The Journal News.

Neumann’s daughter is also expected to speak at a press conference later in the day, when officials will provide an update in the case and unveil additional security measures for the town of Monsey.

“As a family we all believe that God has a plan,” Kohen said. “Please stand up and stop this hatred. It cannot keep going on. We want our kids to go to school and feel safe.”

Grafton Thomas, 37, was arrested shortly after the attack and has been charged with five counts of attempted intentional murder and federal hate crime charges. 

The stabbing followed several anti-Semitic incidents in the New York area, including a shooting in Jersey City at a kosher market that killed three people.