New York City police are investigating an alleged hate crime in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, after a young Orthodox Israeli man from the Chabad sect was stabbed on Friday night while walking on the street.by two men who accosted him and asked if he was Jewish.
According to his friends, the victim did not go to receive medical attention and went to sleep without attending to the wound. When they saw his wound on Saturday morning, his friends called the Hatzalah ambulance service, and the victim was taken to receive attention at a hospital. The police are investigating the incident as a hate crime.
In a conversation with Israel National News, a friend of the victim's, Menachem Cohen, describes the feelings in the community following the incident.
Cohen discussed the incident and his connection with the victim: "On Saturday, he told us about it. It was published on all of the community news websites. We study at the 770 Yeshiva (the Chabad Yeshiva at 770 Eastern Pkwy.); every Chabadnik knows it, of course. He (the victim) is getting married in another month and a half, and he came to the Rebbe to prepare for the wedding."
Cohen adds: "I understand the police are investigating. The Jewish 'Shomrim' organization is also investigating. We hope to find the footage, and we will be able to see what happened there. Shomrim provides means of protection such as pepper spray, but we can't use it on Shabbat because of the prohibition of carrying."
When asked at the end if the assailants are known to the community, Cohen says: "We don't know the people who attacked him. They are not from the neighborhood and don't know anyone from there. They came to do an antisemitic act against a Jew in a haredi neighborhood in New York. They attacked him on a main street, but it was 2-3 in the morning, so no one was there. We will not surrender and will not be scared off by these incidents."