Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Anti-Israel protester who allegedly threatened Jewish man on the subway gets hate crime charge

Christopher Husary, 36, was indicted for allegedly threatening a Jewish man around the time of protests against an exhibit on the Nova music festival massacre

(New York Jewish Week) — New York prosecutors indicted a man for an antisemitic hate crime that allegedly occurred around the time of controversial protests against an exhibit on the Oct. 7, 2023, Nova music festival massacre.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Friday that Christopher Husary, 36, had been indicted for attempted coercion as a hate crime and aggravated harassment.

Bragg’s office said Husary’s alleged victim, a 35-year-old Jewish man, boarded a subway at Fulton St. station in lower Manhattan on the evening of June 10 and saw Husary drawing an inverted red triangle, a Hamas symbol, on a subway door.

The Jewish man then allegedly used his cell phone to photograph Husary, who then approached the man, who was wearing a kippah, and demanded he delete the photo.

According to Bragg’s office, Husary berated and threatened the Jewish man, calling him a “Zionist” and saying, “You’re not a real Jew.” He then added, “We’ll find you and there will be consequences.”

The victim reported the incident to police two weeks later, on June 22, Bragg’s office said. The same day, the New York Post published an article identifying Husary as a resident of a wealthy San Francisco suburb with a history of legal trouble. Soon afterward, the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force launched an investigation into the incident.

The incident occurred around the time that protesters gathered outside a Lower Manhattan exhibit commemorating the victims of Hamas’ massacre at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, where more than 360 people were killed.

The protest, led by the hardline activist group Within Our Lifetime, was widely decried as antisemitic by government officials and Jewish leaders.

Protesters gathered in Union Square before taking the subway to the exhibit. A man appearing to match Husary’s description, and wearing a Hezbollah shirt, was at the Union Square protest. The New York Post report similarly said Husary wore a mask and a Hezbollah shirt at the protest.

In a separate incident on the same day, a protester in a crowded subway car in the same area allegedly demanded that “Zionists” identify themselves. Anas Saleh, 24, was arrested weeks later and charged with attempted coercion in the third degree for the incident.

Widely circulated footage showed a man matching Saleh’s description shouting, “Raise your hand if you’re a Zionist” on a packed subway car.

“This is your chance to get out,” the man shouted. The call was repeated by other activists on the train, many of whom were wearing keffiyehs, or Palestinian scarves frequently worn by activists, that covered their faces.

Antisemitic hate crimes have surged in New York City in the past year.

Prosecutors are pursuing hate crimes charges in a number of high-profile cases, including in an indictment announced this week against activists who allegedly sprayed Hamas triangles on the home of the Brooklyn Museum’s Jewish director. That incident was also tied to a campaign led by Within Our Lifetime.

 

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version