There have been so many anti-Semitic attacks in the New York area within the past month that it’s difficult to keep them all straight. In trying to sift through this timeline myself using YouTube and local news reports, I kept coming across earlier incidents. I decided I would close out 2019 by attempting to assemble a timeline of anti-Semitic attacks in New York and surrounding areas which took place this year. I’m certain I won’t uncover them all simply because there are so many.
Jan 8: A stranger attacks a 13-year-old Jewish girl on the street in Brooklyn, grabbing her neck and slapping her in the face:
Jan 14: A 19-year-old Jewish man is attacked by a group of teens in Brooklyn:
The 19-year-old victim was walking down Empire Boulevard when he was accosted by a group of black teens.
“Do you want to fight?” one of the teens asked the victim, before punching the Jewish teen in the face.
The assailants knocked the victim to the ground, beat him repeatedly, then began to flee the scene.
When the victim pulled out his cellular phone to call for help, however, the gang turned back and attacked him again.
Jan 17: A Jewish man walking down the street is randomly attacked.
Feb 17: The windows of a synagogue in Brooklyn are smashed.
Mar 11: A man kicks a Jewish woman’s stroller in Brooklyn with a small child inside.
Mar 15: In Brooklyn, a subway poster of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is defaced with a swastika and the message “Die, Jew Bitch!”
HATE: #NYPD investigating image of Justice Ruth bader Ginsburg defaced with Swastika at the Nassau Ave Subway Station on the G line in #Brooklyn. pic.twitter.com/XqurW04Z3H
— NYC Scanner (@NYScanner) March 13, 2019
May 1: A man chases two Jewish teens down the street, allegedly for not moving out of his way. When a man intervened, the person chasing the girls yelled about the Jewish cult and spit at him:
Just happened: Crown Heights resident Jack Blachman confronts male harassing 2 Jewish children on Carroll and Albany. Perp screams “Jews are all the same…you invented the cult”, and spat in Jack’s face. Words matter. Thank you Jack for standing proud! pic.twitter.com/Lonu2ti4d9
— Yaacov Behrman (@ChabadLubavitch) May 1, 2019
May 4: Four teens attack a Jewish man in Brooklyn
May 7: An orthodox man walking along the street is sucker punched in the head by a stranger:
May 12: A Hasidic man and his four young sons are harassed on the street by high school students yelling “I love Hitler.”
May 20: At first I thought this was the same incident as the one above but the details and date appear to be different. Four men in a car follow a pair of Jewish teens shouting “We love Hitler.”
Jun 1: A teen on a bicycle came up behind a Jewish man and slapped his yarmulke off his head:
Jun 15: Two men drive around a Brooklyn neighborhood at night, threatening and harassing Jews on the street:
Early on the morning of June 15, a Saturday, two men in a white Infiniti drove around Borough Park, a vast, traditional Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in central Brooklyn. Surveillance footage posted on the local website BoroPark24 showed a man jumping out of the car’s passenger side as someone in a shtreimel and long black jacket walked down the sidewalk in their direction. As the car idled, the passenger approached the Jewish stranger, lunged at him in a linebacker-like stutter-step, and then darted to the waiting vehicle, which promptly sped away. Levi Yitzhak Leifer, head of the Borough Park Shmira neighborhood patrol, said there were at least six and as many as nine reported incidents that night involving the same vehicle.
Video of one of the incidents:
Jun 24: A Hasidic teen is punched in the head and robbed on the street.
Aug 12: A string of robberies on a Monday morning. All of the victims are Jewish but police decide the motive was robbery:
In the first attack, a 71-year-old man said a group of men came up from behind around 5:00 a.m. on Ross Street and pushed him to the ground.
They went through his pockets, punched him in the face and then ran away with nothing…
A half-hour later, a 67-year-old man was followed by the group on Clymer Street.
They punched William Weiser in the face and went through his pockets, but again made off with nothing.
Just 10 minutes later on Wythe Place, the group attacked a 56-year-old man. For the third time, they didn’t find anything in the victim’s pockets.
Aug 27: A stranger attacked a Jewish man named Abraham Gopin in Crown Heights, punching him several times and hitting him with a brick. The victim lost two teeth in the attack:
Aug 31: A man leaving his synagogue in Brooklyn is attacked by two men with a belt:
Sep 18: A 24-year-old Hasidic man is attacked in Brooklyn by a group of four.
Oct 1: A group of teens break windows at a synagogue during Rosh Hashana prayers.
VIDEO: At Throop av x Bartlett st, 4 youngsters punched out a window of the Rivnitz shul with a heavy object during High Holiday prayers on Rosh Hashana, please contact @NYPD90Pct or @WspuShomrim 7182370202 with any info. pic.twitter.com/q2Mvavpdey
— WILLIAMSBURG NEWS (@WMSBG) October 2, 2019
Oct 12: Another random attack in Brooklyn:
The incident took place on Saturday afternoon. The Jewish man was attacked by a black male riding a bicycle. He crossed in front of the Jewish man on his bike, slapped him and said “you dirty Jew,” COL Live reported.
Nov 9: A man breaks windows at a Jewish school for girls.
Nov 14: Police arrest an 18-year-old for throwing eggs at Jewish people on the street in Brooklyn.
Nov 20: A Hasidic man is beaten and stabbed by a stranger:
The incident happened at around 5:40 a.m. near the shul at 2 Howard Drive. Police said at least one person jumped out of a car, punched the man repeatedly and then stabbed him more than once, CBS2’s Tony Aiello reported.
The 30-year-old victim, who is married with four kids, did not know his attacker, police said.
Ramapo Police Chief Brad Weidel said the young man who found the victim reported it as a man struck by a vehicle. First responders realized he’d actually been savagely attacked.
“The viciousness of this assault, it was an attempted murder is the way I see it,” Weidel said.
Dec 3: A group of teens are caught throwing rocks at a Jewish school bus full of kids in Brooklyn:
Dec 10: Two people enter a Jewish market in Jersey City and begin shooting. Four people, all of them Jews, were killed. Eventually the shooters, one of whom had some connections to the Black Hebrew Israelites, were killed by police. The Mayor of Jersey City later says it appears the shooters intended to enter a Jewish school next door. Fortunately, the door was locked.
Dec 12: An Israeli woman is harassed and attacked on the subway by a woman who allegedly said it was a shame the Jersey City attackers hadn’t killed more Jews.
Dec 23: From the NY Post:
Steven Jorge, 28, of Miami allegedly shouted, “F- -k you, Jew bastard!” as he punched and kicked a 65-year-old Jewish man who was wearing a yarmulke.
That night, in Williamsburg, two Jewish boys were attacked by two teens who punched the younger boy in the stomach.
Dec 24: A group of teens throw a chair at a Jewish man, then chase him and punch him in the face. Here’s video of the attack:
I found disturbing footage of chair throwing & assault on Chassidic Jew Tue on Albany & Lincoln. Victim is uncomfortable reporting due to the discovery reform (attacker may know his identity). Same group assaulted someone later that night on Union Kingston. @NYPD77Pct @NYPD71Pct pic.twitter.com/f5jEAL5SkR
— Yaacov Behrman (@ChabadLubavitch) December 31, 2019
Dec 25: From CNN:
On Christmas Day, a 40-year-old man dressed in “traditional religious clothing” walking home was approached by an individual who blocked his path. That individual allegedly punched the victim in the face when the man tried to let him pass.
Dec 26: A homeless woman rants and hits a Jewish woman in the face with a handbag:
Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge Hilary Gingold said suspect Ayana Logan, 43, “could benefit from some mental health services,” and agreed to her supervised release on the promise the defendant would attend bi-monthly mental health appointments.
Logan is charged with third-degree assault for allegedly yelling out an anti-Semitic slur and hitting a 34-year-old victim with a handbag in Gravesend about 4 p.m. Thursday.
“You f–-king Jew, your end is coming!” Logan shouted at the woman, who was with her 3-year-old child, prosecutors say.
Dec 27: Two incidents on this day. First, from the NY Times:
Shortly before 7 a.m., an unidentified man walked into the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters, approached a member of the Hasidic community and threatened to shoot someone, the police said.
The police were still looking for the man who made the threats, who ran east on Eastern Parkway, toward the Crown Heights-Utica Avenue subway station.
The second incident involved a woman who slapped three Jewish women who were walking down the street:
The woman accused of slapping three Orthodox Jewish women in the face and yelling, “F–k you, Jews!” was released without bail Saturday amid a spate of anti-Semitic hate crimes in the Big Apple…
Harris, 30, allegedly approached three women, ages 22, 26, and 31, near Eastern Parkway and Kingston Avenue early Friday, then slapped them and barked the offensive expletive, cops said.
Dec 28: Five people are stabbed at a Rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York. Police later arrest Grafton Thomas who had written anti-Semitic comments in a journal found at his home along with searches for Hitler on his phone. He may have been influenced by the Black Hebrew Israelites.
Dec 30: Two men yell “Hey Jew boy” at a Jewish teen.
A pair of goons flashed a knife as they yelled “Hey Jew boy” at a Brooklyn teen — the latest in a string of unsettling anti-Semitic incidents in the Big Apple, law enforcement sources said Tuesday.
The hate was spewed as the 17-year-old victim was walking on Avenue O near 8th Street at around 7:30 p.m. Monday, the sources said.
Seeing all of this it’s amazing that this hasn’t been a much bigger story. I sincerely hope New York can get a handle on these attacks in 2020.