Flanked by a dozen of supporters, elected officials and Williamsburg community leaders, outside the home of slain Menachem Stark’s sister, multiple family members announced Monday an increased reward of $25,000 for information leading to the capture of the murderers.

“Nobody can describe the pain. The arrest is not going to anguish the pain of the family, community and any decent human being who saw the picture of the lovely family, a blossoming tree that has been cut to its branches,” said Rabbi David Niederman. “Children don’t have a father, a wife doesn’t have a husband. Why? What did he do?”

“I hate the fact that I have to come here and defend a good for people that love gossip and nonsense,” Moses Strulowitz, a brother in law to Menachem Stark, told reporters. “This guy was not only a wonderful father, a wonderful husband and a wonderful brother in law, he was a wonderful man for the community. You can’t stop anybody in this community and find anyone that has to say a bad word on this guy.”

“We are not – as Hasidic/Orthodox Jews – looking for any revenge,” he added. “Good things happen by good people and bad things happen by bad people. God will punish them no matter what.”

Assemblyman Joe Lentol echoed the disgust of some of the media’s negative coverage of the story, as expressed on Sunday by many leaders in the community and in government. “You understand that this was a good and honorable guy that ought not to be reviled by the press without even the benefit of a hearing or a trail,” the Assemblyman said.

He also speculated that Mr. Stark might have been killed because he carried money in his pocket at the time.

“There are a lot of people that get killed with money in their pocket. There are jewelers that get murdered. You don’t hear them get reviled in the press, do you? You don’t see other people kidnapped, for any reason, reviled in the press.”

“I don’t understand why the press has focused on a negative story, rather then the positive story that has been spun here today from the family, to tell you how generous and loving individual this man was,” Mr. Lentol added in dismay. Instead of getting comfort, the family has been getting negative focus, he said.

As chairman of the codes committee that handles criminal justice, Mr. Lentol noted that the family should take comfort on the fact that we have a new Police Commissioner in William Bratton, who came to the 90 precinct in order to get to the bottom of this case.

“Of course we don’t have any information to give you,” he said. “They [the NYPD] is trying to get the perpetrators by surprise, not by press.”

Another brother in law, Abraham Buxbaum, who spoke earlier today with YWN and various news outlets, broke into tears as he tried to speak on behalf of the family.

Photo: @alexsilverman/Twitter

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)