Importance Score: 65 / 100 🔴
Brooklyn Assault: A woman in Brooklyn reports fearing for her safety after being pursued, struck, spat upon, and bombarded with objects by a group of Orthodox Jewish men. They apparently mistook her for someone involved in demonstrations against an Israeli official.
Crown Heights Incident: Woman Reports Mob Attack
The incident, captured on video, occurred Thursday near the global center of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Crown Heights, where Itamar Ben-Gvir’s presence sparked altercations between activists and members of the local Orthodox Jewish community.
The woman, a resident in her 30s, stated to The Associated Press that she investigated after hearing police helicopters. She arrived around 10:30 p.m., but the demonstration was mostly over. To avoid being filmed, she covered her face.
“Immediately after covering my face, a group of approximately 100 men approached and surrounded me,” said the woman, who requested anonymity due to safety concerns.
“I Had Nowhere to Turn”
“They were verbally abusing me, threatening sexual assault, and shouting antisemitic slurs. I anticipated the police would safeguard me from the group, but they offered no assistance,” she recounted.
As the verbal abuse escalated, a lone officer attempted to escort her to a secure location. They were followed for blocks by hundreds of men and boys, who were shouting insults in both Hebrew and English.
The footage shows two men kicking her from behind, another throwing a traffic cone at her head, and a fourth pushing a garbage can toward her.
“This is America,” one of the men is audible saying. “We have Israel. We now possess an Army.”
The video reveals a moment when she and the officer were nearly trapped against a building.
“I felt complete panic,” the woman remembered. “Knowing I couldn’t lead that mob to my residence, I felt helpless with nowhere to turn and didn’t know what course to take — I was simply petrified.”
After covering a few blocks, the officer rushed the woman into a police cruiser, prompting someone to yell, “Get her!” The crowd cheered as the vehicle departed.
The woman, a lifelong New Yorker, reported physical injuries and emotional distress. She believes the police should treat the ordeal as a hate crime.
“I’m uneasy moving around the neighborhood where I’ve resided for a decade,” she informed the AP. “It seems as though no one in a position of authority truly cares.”
Police Investigate Alleged Assault
A police representative mentioned an arrest and five summonses issued after the demonstration but did not specify if anyone involved in the assault was charged.
Mayor Eric Adams stated Sunday that the police were examining “a series of events resulting from opposing protests on Thursday, which started when a group of anti-Israel demonstrators surrounded the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters—a Jewish place of worship—in Brooklyn.”
He mentioned that the police spoke with another woman on the pro-Palestinian side of the protest who was hurt after being harassed by counter-protesters. Pictures online showed the woman with blood on her face.
“Let me state clearly: None of this is acceptable; in fact, it is appalling,” Adams added. “New York City will consistently be a place where individuals can peacefully protest, but we will not tolerate violence, trespassing, intimidation, or threats.”
The demonstration was one of many in response to Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist figure embarking on his first U.S. state visit since joining Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet three years prior.
Having been previously convicted in Israel for racist provocation and association with a terrorist organization, he has urged his followers to challenge Palestinians and assert “Jewish Power.”
The protest against Ben-Gvir’s Brooklyn appearance led to condemnations from different Jewish groups, some of whom criticized demonstrators for targeting a religious landmark.
Chabad-Lubavitch Condemns Violence
Past Incidents: The neighborhood surrounding the Chabad headquarters was also the site of the 1991 Crown Heights riot, in which Black residents assaulted Jews, vandalized homes, and damaged businesses for three days, sparked by outrage over a boy’s death in a crash involving a rabbi’s motorcade.
Rabbi Motti Seligson, a Chabad-Lubavitch spokesperson, condemned the anti-Ben-Gvir protesters and the group that pursued the woman.
“The violent instigators who advocated for the genocide of Jews in aid of terrorists and terrorism—outside a synagogue, in a Jewish neighborhood, where some of the worst antisemitic violence in American history was inflicted, and where many residents share profound connections with the victims of Oct. 7—did so to cause fear and spark intimidation and tension,” Seligson stated.
“We denounce the crude language and violence of the small, breakaway group of young people; such actions are completely improper and wholly contrary to the Torah’s values. The fact that a possibly uninvolved onlooker was brought into the melee further underlines the point,” he concluded.