Ring of Hate: Five Attacks on Jews in 48 Hours
By Yochonon Donn
Boro Park – In a record spate of attacks targeting Jews, what has happened this past 48 hours stands out for its intensity and ferocity.
Five anti-Semitic assaults have been recorded on the streets of New York City since Monday evening, with Jews beaten, punched, assaulted and taunted. In Crown Heights, Williamsburg, Manhattan and Boro Park, Jews who have been targets are pleading for city officials to take the current rise in hate crimes seriously.
City and state leaders have blasted Twitter with condemnations but, aside for arrest, little action has been taken. Bystanders mocked a police bus standing in front of the Shomrei Shabbos shul on 13th Ave. — with no one inside.
“Five Jews violently attacked in last 48 hours in NYC,” tweeted Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein on Wednesday night. “Whatever government has been doing is clearly not enough. Our community needs protection and we need it now. No more time left.”
The sole arrest in the grisly series of assaults came Wednesday, when a man from Miami was charged with assault as a hate crime in the incident where a 65-year-old man was repeatedly punched and kicked while walking and looking at his phone in midtown Manhattan.
The victim said that Steven Jorge, 28, yelled a curse word at him while calling him a “Jew.” The incident happened on Monday morning at 3rd Ave. and East 41st Street. The victim was treated at the scene and immediately filed a police report.
Another assault occurred hours later, this time in Williamsburg. Two chassidishe children, ages 6 and 7, were punched by a gang of teenagers while standing in the lobby of an apartment building at 99 Wilson Street. The perpetrator all fled.
The next incident happened less than 24 hours later in Crown Heights, in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. A 25-year-old Jewish man was walking on Kingston Avenue when he was accosted by a group of African American teenagers, who shouted anti-Semitic slurs at him. When the victim took out his phone to record the offensive, a Slurpie was thrown at him, along with a barrage of more expletives.
One member of the gang was seen filming the assault before they all fled.
Later that night, also in Crown Heights, a middle-aged man standing on Union Avenue was suddenly fist-punched in the back of his head by a gang of six people.
Early Wednesday morning, a young man was the target of a hate crime in Boro Park.
Surveillance camera footage showed the victim walking on 13th Ave., the on corner of 48th Street, at approximately 1 a.m. when three hoodlums approach him. One of them abruptly attacks the Jewish man with blows to the face and runs off. Hatzolah treated the victim on the scene for minor injuries.
Condemnations poured in from the state and city’s political leadership.
“This horrific and cowardly act of antisemitism is repugnant to our values, and it’s even more despicable that it occurred over the holidays,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.
“It’s not enough to condemn anti-Semitism — we have to confront it,” tweeted Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“No one should be afraid to walk the streets of New York based on their religious identity,” tweeted Attorney General Letitia James.
“In New York City,” added City Comptroller Scott Stringer, “hate has no safe harbor — and never will.”
The Anti-Defamation League announced that it is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the assaults.
The NYPD has reported 166 anti-Semitic incidents so far in the year 2019, just through September. This comprised nearly 55 percent of all reported hate crimes, according to NYPD Crime Statistics. But the department’s record at arresting and charging the perps is at a dismal 40 percent.
Cuomo has directed the state hate crimes task force to investigate the assaults — as he had multiple times over the past few months. No one, however, can recall state police ever involved in an investigation, leaving observers to wonder what exactly he meant by the direction. It is notable that state police have never released results of their alleged involvement in the hate crimes probes.
As bad as the attacks have been, it is expected to become much worse after a new law goes into effect next week.
The new law eliminates judges’ discretion to detain most criminals on bail and allows every defendant access to all information related to his case. That is expected to hike the number of crimes that go unreported.
A case last week illustrates how the new law will play out. A 33-year-old man who was released from custody without bail for menacing with a knife two weeks ago entered Yeshva University’s girls’ dormitory building early Friday and set a series of fires. He was charged and immediately released, again without bail. He was arrested hours later after he broke into someone’s house in Staten Island. He was booked and, again, released without bail.
“We are deeply worried for the future of this great city,” Councilman Chaim Deutsch said in a statement earlier this week. “We don’t want to see our streets turn back in time, to the dangerous days of the 1980s.”