A Chicago woman has been charged with a hate crime for attacking a Jewish bartender with antisemitic abuse and a cocktail glass, CWB Chicago reported.
On Wednesday, prosecutors filed a hate crime charged against a pharmacy manager who is accused of using antisemitic language and throwing a cocktail glass at a bartender on November 7, 2021.
The incident, which occurred at The Underground bar, started when the woman, 30, began talking with the bartender and allegedly demanded that she remove her Star of David Necklace. She called the Jewish bartender a derogatory term and then used “offensive and virulently antisemitic language” to demand that she remove her necklace, Assistant State’s Attorney Loukas Kalliantasis said.
The bartender told her that she went to school in Israel. The woman then called her “derogatory terms” and repeated her demand that she take off the necklace, Kalliantasis recounted.
According to Kalliantasis, the bartender apologized and told the woman that she wasn’t trying to upset her. However, the woman responded that she hated Jews and once again told the Jewish woman to remove her necklace. She then said that the “bartender’s people were killing her people.” The bartender replied, “Oh, you’re Palestinian?”
It was at that point that the woman allegedly threw her cocktail glass, which was full, at the bartender, hitting her in the collarbone.
The bartender told security about the assault but the woman left before the bouncers could find her.
The woman was identified by the bar’s manager on security video and later matched with her photo on LinkedIn.
Kalliantasis said that the bartender identified her in a photo line-up.
The woman turned herself in to the police on Monday. She was charged with one count of committing a hate crime. The judge also ordered her to refrain from drinking alcohol or other intoxicants while out on bail.