The FBI has launched a hate crime investigation into an alleged antisemitic assault on multiple Jewish diners at a kosher restaurant in Queens, New York, the Algemeiner reported.
The incident occurred on July 20 at the Sezam restaurant. Bita Golbari, 51, told the Algemeiner that she and her husband were eating together with friends, including other Jewish couples, when two women entered the restaurant to join a group of men who were sitting nearby.
According to Gilboa, the two women were the ones who initiated the violence, but the men they joined also participated in the attack. One of the women had taken the purse of Gilboa's friend Elham Sharga, 45, and when Sharga asked why she had done so, the woman attacked her, pulling her hair and throwing her to the floor.
The other woman began hitting Sharga as she lay on the floor. Sharga said that the attackers were "hitting me on my head, my belly, my back, my neck." After the women began hitting her the men joined in the violence. "And then I heard the other guys come and they all started hitting me. I was thinking I was dying. I was screaming for help. My husband heard and came to help me. Then they started hitting my husband. His face was full of blood. His arm was bleeding.”
Sharga also said that the attackers shouted: "You guys are Jewish, we wanna kill you all tonight." She was hospitalized with broken ribs following the attack.
Golbari said that she was chased by one of the women even after she had left the restaurant. " She grabbed me and she said, ‘What the f-k are you trying to do? Are you trying to call the police on us? We are going to kill all of you Jews.’ And then she punched me so hard in the face I thought I was dead. And I said to myself, ‘She’s going to kill me.’ And I just ran for my life.”
Golbari's attacker fled when Gilboa found a man across the street who agreed to protect her. Her husband was also hospitalized following the attack and has since returned to the hospital twice due to the aftereffects of the concussion and fracture he suffered.
Sharga said that the attack was committed "all because we are Jewish."
Despite the explicit threats to kill the victims because of their Jewish identity, the management of the restaurant insisted that the incident was a mere drunken brawl and the NYPD did not classify the attack as a hate crime. However, this week, the FBI contacted Golbari to discuss the incident, indicating that it is now being investigated as a possible federal hate crime.
The NYPD has been criticized for its response to the incident. Israeli activist Hen Mazzig wondered in a post on X: "How many Jews do you have to hospitalize while yelling antisemitic slurs before the police take it seriously as an antisemitic crime?"
New York City has seen a significant rise in antisemitic incidents and hate crimes since the October 7 massacre committed by the Hamas terrorist organization. In 2024, 55% of hate crimes were committed against Jews, up from 44% in 2023.
In April, Deputy Inspector Gary Marcus, the commanding officer of the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force, stated that hate crimes against Jews "jump off the page as the single largest category of hate, at an astounding 62% of the total" in early 2025. He added that "well over half of all hate crimes in New York City are perpetrated against Jews."