MIDTOWN, Manhattan (WABC) — A rabbi from Jerusalem is speaking out following a frightening, unprovoked attack that happened during his first visit to New York City.<\/p>\n
Like anyone in the Big Apple for the first time, Israeli tourist Rami Glikstein is stunned by the city’s sheer scale.<\/p>\n
“Everything is big here. I ask for a small coffee, and they give me the size that in Israel is extra large! Everything is big,” Glikstein said.<\/p>\n
Also big was the man who set upon him with no warning, delivering a punch to the face so powerful that it vaulted Glikstein to the ground.<\/p>\n
It was a violent and unprovoked attack that started, Glikstein says, when the man approached, pointing at his yarmulke.<\/p>\n
“And start to shout, ‘hey, tell me what is your religion, tell me what is your religion,'” Glikstein said.<\/p>\n
He ripped the yarmulke from his head, threw it on the street and spat on it, and then attacked Glikstein.<\/p>\n
“It’s not the pain. It’s not the punch. It’s the thought,” he said. “That a Jewish man like me can’t go safely in this lovely city.”<\/p>\n
Glikstein is a rabbi in Jerusalem, and a chaplain for the IDF. He’s a father of seven, grandfather of 12 and son of a holocaust survivor.<\/p>\n
“I don’t realize that in New York, I think it’s the next big city with full of Jewish people, that I will have this kind of thing,” Glikstein said.<\/p>\n
Police quickly responded, and at Mount Sinai Hospital, doctors determined he was bleeding on the brain. His nose is broken, but not his spirit.<\/p>\n
“I will come back. I am not afraid,” he said. “Most all the people in New York are very good people and I will be coming back,” Glikstein said.<\/p>\n
The attack happened at lunchtime on a very busy block of 38th Street, just a few blocks away from Times Square.<\/p>\n
The assailant first started harassing Glikstein a few doors down but followed him, and then without provocation, sucker punched him in the face, sending him flying into the bike lane.<\/p>\n
Police have made no arrests so far. The investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n
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