Charges dismissed against Reuven Kahane, NY rabbi and developer accused of hitting Columbia protesters with his car
Prosecutors drop charges in incident that drew widespread attention as university protests rocked Columbia campus.
Pro-Palestinian protesters near Columbia University in Manhattan, February 2, 2024. (Luke Tress)
(New York Jewish Week) — All charges have been dismissed against a Manhattan rabbi and real estate developer who had been accused of ramming his vehicle into pro-Palestinian protesters in May.
Charges were also dropped against two protesters who were arrested at the scene.
Reuven Kahane had been arrested and accused of assault after the altercation with the demonstrators, who were protesting outside the Upper East Side home of a Columbia University trustee.
The protesters were affiliated with Columbia University Apartheid Divest, an alliance of anti-Israel student groups that had characterized the incident in a press release as “Zionist driver runs down peaceful pro-Palestinian demonstration.”
Police said at the time that an argument had broken out between Kahane and the protesters as the protesters were leaving the scene, and that Kahane had “tapped” one of the demonstrators with his car. Kahane said he had shouted at protesters banging on his car.
Police arrived a few minutes later and arrested Kahane and two of the activists, Maryellen Novak, 55, and John Rozendaal, 63, for criminal mischief.
Now, the case against Kahane has been dismissed. The New York State Unified Court System confirmed that the case had been dismissed last month pursuant to speedy trial limitations that stipulate a trial must take place within a certain amount of time after the incident. The case no longer appears in court records.
Kahane says that the charges against him were baseless.
“Nothing whatsoever that they accused me of happened,” he said in an interview on Wednesday, saying that the case had been “completely dismissed and sealed.”
Novak and Rozendaal also had their charges dropped. Following the May arrest, a fundraiser for Novak, identifying her as a “safety marshal” for protesters, raised more than $11,000.
Rozendaal had previously been arrested in March for disrupting an Easter service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral as part of a pro-Palestinian protest. None of the student protesters on the scene were charged.
At the time of the incident, Columbia was being rocked by anti-Israel demonstrations, and city officials, including Mayor Eric Adams, repeatedly said that “outside agitators” were responsible for much of the unrest. The Upper East Side protest took place days after a group of pro-Palestinian protesters on the university’s Morningside Heights campus had forcibly occupied a building. Police arrested dozens while clearing out the building, and many of those charges were ultimately dismissed as well. More than 25% of those arrested were also not affiliated with the university.
Kahane, an ordained rabbi who heads a real estate firm, believes that the May altercation and his arrest drew widespread attention because he shares a name with his second cousin, the late extremist rabbi Meir Kahane. He said he met Meir Kahane “numerous times” while the two were living in New York but that he is “not a Kahanist.” While in New York, Meir Kahane led the Jewish Defense League, a far-right group, and his political party was later barred from the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, for racism. He was assassinated in New York City in 1990.
“I think if my name was Joe Smith, I don’t think anybody would have picked this up,” Reuven Kahane said.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
