A man was arrested for an alleged antisemitic attack on a Queens rabbi in Forest Hills on Tuesday, Holocaust Remembrance Day, reported the Queens Daily Eagle.
The 32-year-old suspect is accused of carrying out an unprovoked attack on the rabbi.
According to the Queens district attorney's office, between 2:20 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, the accused approached the victim at the intersection of Queens Boulevard and Yellowstone Boulevard in Forest Hills.
The man allegedly said "f**k Jews" and then punched the rabbi in the face and chest, causing him to fall to the ground.
"I was shocked," the rabbi told the Daily News. "It was a regular day. I was walking along, looking at the street, when this guy in a black hoodie and black pants comes out of nowhere, starts cursing at me and struck me."
He said they fought for several minutes, rolling in the snow and clarified that he was singled out because he is visibly Jewish.
"I don't know if he is unhealthy in his mind or not. But he chose me because I was Jewish. I wear Jewish apparel in the streets. He chose me. It was simple. I was his target," the rabbi said.
The suspect fled the scene and was later located inside the Forest Hills-71st Continental Avenue subway station by a Queens Shomrim patrol, which responded to the incident. He was subsequently arrested on a subway train by the NYPD.
He was charged Wednesday with assault in the third degree, assault in the third degree as a hate crime and aggravated harassment in the second degree.
Queens Criminal Court Judge Sharifa Nasser-Cuellar ordered the suspect to return to court on March 16. If convicted of the top charge, he faces 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison.
The attack was condemned by local leaders, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who said he was “horrified by the antisemitic assault on a rabbi in Forest Hills."
“On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, New Yorkers were confronted with a painful truth: antisemitism is not a thing of the past-it is a present danger that demands action from all of us. There is no place for antisemitism in our city. I stand in solidarity with Jewish New Yorkers and my administration is committed to rooting out this hatred," he added.
New York has seen a sharp uptick in incidents of antisemitism since October 7, 2023. Data released by the New York City Police Department on the day before the mayoral election in November, won by Mamdani who has come under fire for his anti-Israel views, revealed that Jews were the victims in 62% of all hate crimes reported last month, with 29 antisemitic incidents out of a total of 47.
On the very day that Mamdani was elected, swastikas were sprayed on the Magen David Yeshiva in Brooklyn.
Nearly two weeks after the election, antisemitic graffiti reading “F**k Jews" was found scrawled on a sidewalk in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Last week, two teenagers were arrested after allegedly spray‑painting dozens of swastikas and other antisemitic messages throughout a Brooklyn playground frequented by Jewish children.