NEW YORK – A Brooklyn woman ran up behind a Hasidic Jewish man and knocked off the traditional fur hat (shtreimel) he was wearing atop his head on Saturday, a video posted to Twitter by safety patrol group Boro Park Shomrim shows.
"[The woman] randomly approached him, first asked him something about Jesus, when he kept walking, she said'F***ing jew '& knocked his shtreimel off," Boro Park Shomrim told The Jerusalem Post.
The shtreimel hat, which is worn by Hasidic men on Shabbat and during holidays, typically cost upwards of $5,000.
Another day and another disturbing incident in #BoroPark. This despicable incident happened this afternoon but thanks to our volunteers, she was caught and subsequently arrested by @NYPD66Pct. @NYPDHateCrimes pic.twitter.com/kCEfFpqbrb
— (@BPShomrim) September 18, 2022
The suspect was arrested on Saturday night by New York Police Department with assistance from Boro Park Shomrim volunteers.
Brooklyn’s Boro Park is home to one of the largest ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities outside of Israel.
"Attacks on Jews will only get worse"
Local Jewish groups quickly denounced the incident.
"We take note of this incident and are reaching out to our partners and Law Enforcement to find out more," Anti Defamation League New York/New Jersey said.
"We take note of this incident and are reaching out to our partners and law enforcement to find out more."
ADL New York/New Jersey
Watchdog group StopAntisemitism called on New York lawmakers to take action.
"Until more strict legal penalties are put into place, attacks on Jews will only get worse. Lawmakers must be held responsible for their part," StopAntisemitism said.
Gov. Hochul responds to rising antisemitism in New York
“The rise of antisemitism is of deep personal concern to me as a human being and a leader of this state,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday at the annual Jerusalem Post Conference in New York.
No place outside of Israel has a larger Jewish population than New York, she said, vowing to make sure the Jewish community is safe.
“That is why we’ve worked very hard to reduce those numbers and to make sure that our victims have support that we’re making sure that we have resources to protect the vulnerable locations – the synagogues, the yeshivas – bringing over $68 million to fortify them, and they should have the latest technologies to protect them,” she said.
Omri Nahmias contributed to this report