Two hateful attackers were caught on disturbing video threatening to kill a group of young Jewish men on the subway \u2014 and grabbing one of them by the collar \u2014 in Brooklyn this week.<\/p>\n
The group of eight boys and young men was heading back to the Chabad Lubavitch headquarters in Brooklyn from a Hanukkah celebration in Union Square on Monday night when the antisemitic bigots began hurling slurs at them, one of the victims recalled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey yelled at me, and the son said, \u2018I\u2019ll kill you,’\u201d Mendy Asraf, a 20-year-old yeshiva student visiting from Israel, told The Post, noting the attackers appeared to be a father and son.<\/p>\n
A viral video shows a group of young Jewish men being attacked and threatened while riding the subway in Brooklyn on Monday night \u2014 and police are investigating the incident as a hate crime. Instagram\/jewishlivesmatter<\/p>\n
The vile pair first confronted the group while they were transferring to the No. 3 train at the Franklin Avenue stop, yelling \u201cF\u2013k the Jews,\u201d Asraf said.<\/p>\n
The harassment ramped up once on the train, when one of the Jewish men began filming the heinous onslaught. <\/p>\n
One of the aggressors grabbed one of the victims by the collar of his coat, as the other yelled \u201cI\u2019ll kill you\u201d and pointed a finger gun at his head, social media footage of the incident shows.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really afraid. When he made his fingers the sign of a gun towards me, I was really afraid. I didn\u2019t know what he had in his pockets,\u201d Asraf said.<\/p>\n
He said the group stayed fearfully silent as other passengers around them tried to intervene.<\/p>\n
\u201cChill!\u201d one straphanger can be heard pleading in the video in a desperate attempt to squash the scuffle.<\/p>\n
The harassment ramped up once on the train, when one of the Jewish men began filming. Instagram\/jewishlivesmatter<\/p>\n
Police said they received a report about the alleged assault around 8:41 p.m. from two of the victims. Instagram\/jewishlivesmatter<\/p>\n
The group of Jewish men got off at the next stop at Nordstrom Avenue and ran to the nearest police precinct to file a report, Asraf said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it could be a very dangerous situation,\u201d he said, adding he and the others feared for their lives.<\/p>\n
Asraf said he believes they were targeted because of their faith \u2014 and police confirmed they are investigating the harrowing incident as a hate crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look like religious Jews,\u201d Asraf noted. \u201cThey recognized our appearance along with the menorahs,\u201d which the men had as part of their outreach for the Hanukkah Jewish holiday.<\/p>\n
Police said they received a report about the alleged assault around 8:41 p.m. from two of the victims.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhile on board, the unidentified individuals initiated a verbal dispute with two victims, grabbed them by their jackets, and made verbal threats,\u201d police said.<\/p>\n
The two aggressors seen in the video had not been publicly identified as of Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NYPD has access to video from train cars and stations to identify and apprehend the perpetrators, who should face maximum consequences from the justice system,\u201d MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis kind of hateful behavior has no place on the subway or anywhere, and is deeply offensive to\u00a0 New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n
No injuries were reported.<\/p>\n
But Asraf said the altercation put him, his family, and his pals on edge in the aftermath of the terrorist attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia\u2019s Bondi Beach Sunday that killed 15 people and left dozens more wounded, including children.<\/p>\n
The group of Jewish men got off at the next stop at Nordstrom Avenue and ran to the nearest police precinct to file a report, Asraf said. Instagram\/jewishlivesmatter<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter Sydney, it\u2019s not realistic to try to even fight with these people because you don\u2019t know what they have in their pockets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Asraf said his mother warned him about studying in New York as a visibly Orthodox Jew, telling him: \u201cIt\u2019s going to be dangerous \u2014 keep your eyes open.\u201d<\/p>\n
Four months into his year of yeshiva studies in the city, Asraf said he\u2019s never experienced such unchecked levels of antisemitism.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt a little antisemitism, but nothing like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additional reporting by Marie Pohl<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two hateful attackers were caught on disturbing video threatening to kill a group of young Jewish men on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":451562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,12648,1121,43556,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,28715,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-451561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-antisemitism","10":"tag-brooklyn","11":"tag-hate-crimes","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-subways","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-us-news","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115730952665588239","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}