An assault on a pair of Jewish children was among the four antisemitic attacks in New York City to have occurred in the space of two days this week, police in the city confirmed on Thursday.
The two boys, ages 6 and 7, were allegedly struck from behind by a group of teenagers in the lobby of a residential building in Williamsburg section of Brooklyn on Monday night. according to police. The victims were treated for minor injuries.
The incident took place just hours after an Orthodox Jewish man was attacked on a busy Manhattan street by an assailant who reportedly yelled, “F–k you, Jew bastard.”
A suspect, 28-year-old Steven Jorge of Miami, was arrested following the assault — which took place on E. 41st Street, near 3rd Avenue — and charged with a hate crime.
On Tuesday, two further hate incidents targeted Jews in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.
One occurred around 2 a.m. on Kingston Avenue, where a group hurled antisemitic slurs at a 25-year-old man — with one of them throwing a drink at the victim.
The second occurred around 6 p.m. when a Jewish man was followed by eight African American teens on Kingston Ave. Once the group closed in on their target, the victim was punched in the head and knocked to the ground. One of the teens filmed the incident on his cellphone.
More than half of the hate crimes reported in New York City this year have been antisemitic in nature, with over 150 incidents targeting Jews — a rise of 63 percent on the previous year, according to figures released by the New York Police Department in September.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted on Wednesday, “It’s not enough to condemn anti-Semitism — we have to confront it. The despicable crimes committed against our Jewish community over the last 24 hours are an attack on ALL New Yorkers. The NYPD is actively investigating all of them and will bring the perpetrators to justice.”