New York mayor decries recent assaults against Jews
A Hasidic Jewish teenager was attacked in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn on Friday, and a Hasidic man said he was targeted by the same man minutes before. The attacks, which are being investigated by the police department’s Hate Crime Task Force, follow a string of antisemitic assaults in the borough over the past month.
Videos of the first assault shared by the Flatbush Shomrim Safety Patrol show an unidentified man following the 22-year-old victim and then slapping him in the face before running off and jumping into a passing van.
@NYPDHateCrimes is investigating this attack, and make no mistake an attack on our Jewish community is an attack on every New Yorker. We will catch the perpetrators of this assault.
Please contact the NYPD with any information. https://t.co/Z5eNveEOVW
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) February 13, 2022
The incident took place around 10:30 p.m., Yeshiva World reported. A second victim, 14, said he was approached by the same man a few blocks away but was able to escape unhurt after the man tried to punch him.
In both cases, a second man was seen filming the attack from inside the van.
Get the Forward delivered to your inbox. Sign up here to receive our essential morning briefing of American Jewish news and conversation, the afternoon’s top headlines and best reads, and a weekly letter from our editor-in-chief.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams issued a statement on Twitter Saturday, saying that “an attack on our Jewish community is an attack on every New Yorker. We will catch the perpetrators of this assault.”
Also recently, a crossing guard was removed from her post after allegedly spewing antisemitic slurs at parents and their children, including Rabbi Erica Gerson and her 9-year-old daughter, in January.
“She called us ‘nasty people, now we know why there’s no peace in the Middle East,’ and along with that, she cursed a kosher establishment,” Gerson told ABC7 New York. “The whole thing was totally surreal.”
NYPD statistics released earlier this month show a 275% increase in attacks targeting Jewish people —- 15 reported incidents — in the first month of 2022 compared to the previous January.
Antisemitic incidents accounted for 37% of hate crime incidents in New York City in 2021, an increase of more than 50% over the previous year. Police last year made 58 arrests in cases of anti-Jewish crimes.
In 2020, New York state led the nation with the most documented antisemitic incidents —- 336 of the 2,024 documented nationally —- according to an audit published by the Anti-Defamation League.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!