A suspect has been arrested in the antisemitic stabbing of a Jewish man in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights, the New York Post reported.
Armani Charles, 23, is accused of stabbing Elias Rosner, 35, in the chest outside a Chabad synagogue in Crown Heights last week, on the third night of Hanukkah.
The victim told the Post that his attacker ranted about how he was “going to kill a Jew today” and engaged in antisemitic slurs before stabbing him.
“I’m going to kill Jewish people, I’m going to kill a Jew today, I don’t give a f-k," the attacker allegedly said. "We wouldn’t be in this mess if the Holocaust had happened."
Rosner said that he believes in "standing up to bullies," which is what caused the attacker to single him out from the crowd of Jewish people who were outside the synagogue at the time. He explained that his martial arts training allowed him to avoid suffering a fatal injury when he was stabbed.
Charles was arrested following a weeklong manhunt and faces hate crime charges.
The stabbing came one day after another antisemitic incident in New York City, when Jewish students were threatened on a subway train after a Hanukkah celebration in Union Square. Police stressed that the two incidents are not believed to be connected.
According to testimony provided to Yeshiva World News, the students had been returning to Crown Heights after spending several hours in Manhattan engaged in Hanukkah outreach activities, aimed at sharing the holiday’s message and observance. The group boarded a No. 3 train heading toward Brooklyn.
During the ride, two men who entered the subway car allegedly began directing antisemitic insults at the visibly Jewish students. According to the testimony, the verbal harassment quickly escalated into a dangerous situation.
One of the students began recording the incident on his phone to document what was happening for the police. “That’s when everything changed,” the student said. “As soon as the younger one realized I was filming, he attacked me.”
Footage recorded by another student shows the assailant striking the victim inside the subway car. No other passengers are seen intervening during the altercation.
“One stop before Crown Heights, we ran off the train in panic,” the student said. As they exited, the attacker was seen making a threatening hand gesture, suggesting the use of a gun. The recording continued as the phone was placed away. “I realized this could turn deadly,” the student said. “I quickly put the phone in my pocket - but the camera was still recording. You can hear everything. You can see the fear.”
Community leaders expressed concern over the attack and called for increased vigilance and law enforcement presence amid a rise in antisemitic incidents.