Anti-Semitic attacks on the rise in NYC; reward offered in recent attack
BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, Brooklyn (WABC) -- The NYPD's latest crime statistics show reported hate crimes against Jewish people are up 275% percent year over year, with 15 reported in January versus 4 in January 2021.
And evidence of that spike continued over the weekend.
Police are working to determine who drew swastikas on two school buses in Williamsburg.
The vandalism was discovered at Division Avenue and Rodney Street and is believed to have happened sometime after Friday night.
And surveillance video shows the moment Friday night when someone ran up behind a 24-year-old Jewish man and punched him in the back of the head.
It happened around 10:30 p.m. outside 104 Stockton Street near Marcy Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
The man was walking with someone else, both wearing traditional Hasidic clothing.
The punch knocked the victim's shtreimel off his head.
"It's sad, New York that this shoulda' happened. It shouldn't happen. It's going on in New York and America, and all over the world as well," an unnamed Brooklyn resident said.
Scott Richman, Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League New York/New Jersey, says that as far as he is aware, the incident was a "surprise attack."
"I'm not aware of any statements that were made. He came up from behind, so it wasn't as if they were having some sort of altercation. This was a surprise attack," he said.
The Anti Defamation League is offering a $7,500 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction, saying "the Jewish community is on extreme edge, and this violence has got to stop. It is becoming normalized, and we simply cannot accept that as the state of affairs."
Minutes before that Stockton Street attack, police say a 44-year-old Jewish man was also punched just around the corner at Myrtle and Marcy.
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