Chabad Hasidic man visiting from Israel was reportedly walking through the Brooklyn neighborhood when he was approached by two men who asked if he was Jewish.
By Ben Rappaport, United with Israel
A Chabad Hasidic man who was walking through the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights on Shabbat morning was stabbed in what is being treated as a possible hate crime, CrownHeights.info reported.
According to a police report, the man, dressed in traditional Jewish clothing, was at 2 am approached by two men who asked him if he was Jewish.
The two men then proceeded to attack the Jewish man, stabbing him in the arm with a screwdriver.
The attack left the Jewish man with a small puncture wound, according to CrownHeights.info.
The victim later returned home and called medics who transported him to the hospital, where his condition was defined as stable. He was later released from the hospital.
According to Yaacov Behrman, a representative of Chabad Lubavitch Headquarters in Crown Heights, “On Friday night, around 2 am, a visiting student from Israel was stabbed in the arm with what appears to be a screwdriver.”
“The victim informed me that he was briefly hospitalized. The attack was carried out by two males.”
Behrman added that the attack “is currently being investigated as a hate crime. According to the victim, he was questioned about his Jewish identity. Despite being visibly traumatized, the victim expressed gratitude for not having sustained more severe injuries.”
“This incident is deeply concerning, and we have full confidence in the NYPD’s ability to conduct a thorough investigation and apprehend the perpetrators,” Behrman concluded.
A report by Americans Against Antisemitism released at the end of 2022 documented 194 cases of anti-Jewish hate crime assaults in NYC between April 2018 and August 2022.
Perpetrator groups were identified in 99 of the assaults. Out of these, 69% were carried out by blacks, 17% by Muslim/Arabs, 11% by Hispanic, and 3% by Whites.
Out of all the cases, 94% of the anti-Jewish attacks were perpetrated against Jews that could easily be identified as such.
151 of the 194 were assaults were perpetrated in 4 neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations, with 25% carried out in Crown Heights.
Only 2 cases in which a perpetrator was sentenced to prison were identified.