NEW YORK – New York City saw three anti-Semitic attacks within 24 hours between Monday and Tuesday, as NPR, Haaretz and others report. We at the International Multi-Faith Coalition send our prayers to our Jewish brothers and sisters and applaud the response by the New York City Police Department to increase its presence in Brooklyn neighborhoods, home to the largest Jewish communities.
The first incident occurred in the Manhattan's Murray Hill neighborhood on Monday, when police said a man wearing a kippah was violently assaulted, as reported by CBS New York. The victim said he had been looking at his phone when someone started yelling anti-Semitic comments, and that when he looked up, he was punched in the face and kicked repeatedly after he fell to the ground. Dov Hikind, founder of the Americans against Antisemitism organization, said the victim was going to need MRIs and that "his life is changed forever." Police arrested and charged a 48-year-old man from Miami.
Then, in the early hours of Tuesday, a group of youths shouted expletives and anti-Semitic slurs at a Jewish man walking down the street in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights, the Shomrim neighborhood watch group told Yeshiva World News. When the man took out his phone to film the incident, one of the suspects threw a beverage and continued shouting anti-Semitic remarks, according to the Yeshiva World News.
The third incident was an apparent assault of a Jewish man, also in Crown Heights, on Tuesday afternoon. The ADL has offered $10,000 for information on those responsible. A suspect punched a Jewish man in the back of the head while another filmed the attack, according to the Yeshiva World News.
“We are appalled at the sheer frequency and aggressive nature of these incidents,” Regional Director for ADL New York and New Jersey Evan Bernstein. “They’re made particularly heinous by the fact they are occurring during a time when society is supposed to come together in peace for the holidays, and as the Jewish community is particularly on edge as it’s reeling from the deadly attack in Jersey City on December 10th. Enough is enough; now is the time for society to come together in rejection of this hate and for public officials and community leaders to speak up, lead by example, and demand meaningful change to protect the Jewish community.”
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