Chabad ‘let me down,’ suspect said, in hours before allegedly attacking their headquarters
The man arrested Wednesday night had attended a Purim service at a New Jersey Chabad in March
Chabad Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Jan. 9, 2024. Photo by Luke Tress
By Hannah Feuer and Louis KeeneJanuary 29, 2026
The 36-year-old man arrested and charged after repeatedly crashing into the entrance of the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in Brooklyn on Wednesday night has a history of engaging with Chabad and had ranted about his experience with the movement at a different yeshiva the day before the attack.
Dan Sohail was charged with reckless endangerment and attempted assault as hate crimes, police said.
Rabbi Levi Azimov, who leads Chabad of South Brunswick in New Jersey, said Sohail attended a Purim service at Chabad in March of last year. Sohail visited there twice more seeking spiritual guidance, Azimov told the Forward, though he did not express interest in converting to Judaism.
“I was able to talk to him for a few minutes and see that he’s not exactly stable,” Azimov said.
Azimov added that the suspect had also visited Chabad headquarters a few weeks ago and participated in a service there.
Rabbi Eliyahu Teitz, executive director of Yeshiva Gedola of Carteret, said Sohail had dropped into the yeshiva for afternoon prayer services on Tuesday, telling the students present that he was Jewish. Teitz, who was not there at the time, said Sohail began “yelling and screaming” and ranting about Chabad afterward.
Sohail told the students that God called him every day, according to Teitz, and that he had tried going to Chabad synagogues in the area.
“He felt that he was not getting any satisfaction from any of the Chabads,” Teitz said. “That’s one of the things he was talking about — I went to the Chabad in this place and they let me down, I went to the Chabad in that place and they let me down.”
Video confirmed by eyewitnesses shows the suspect repeatedly ramming his grey Honda sedan into the doors at 770 Eastern Parkway in the Crown Heights neighborhood, the main headquarters of the Chabad movement and one of the most recognized Jewish buildings in the world.
An eyewitness said the driver yelled at bystanders to move out of the way before he drove down a ramp leading to the doors.
Video from Daniel David Yeroshalmi via Storyful:
Police arrived at the scene around 8:45 p.m. and arrested him. There were no reported injuries. A bomb squad conducted a sweep of the vehicle and found no explosive devices, police said.
According to Chabad spokesperson Yaacov Behrman, the suspect had arrived at 770 Eastern Parkway earlier in the night and removed two metal bollards that block cars from going down the driveway toward the building.
The incident took place on the 75th anniversary of the date that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson became the leader of the Lubavitch movement. Thousands were gathered Wednesday night at the movement’s headquarters — Schneerson’s former home.
Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesperson for the movement, said on X that the ramming “seems intentional, but the motivations are unclear.” Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone, Chabad’s social media director, said in a post on X that the attack did not appear to be antisemitic.
The attack follows a rash of antisemitic incidents across the city. On Tuesday, a rabbi was punched in Forest Hills, Queens, and last week, a playground frequented by Orthodox families in the Borough Park neighborhood in Brooklyn was graffitied with swastikas two days in a row. In both incidents, the suspects have been arrested. Antisemitic incidents accounted for 57% of reported hate crimes in New York City in 2025.
Additional reporting by Jacob Kornbluh.
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. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
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.
