The Police Department’s Hate Crime Task Force is investigating a string of anti-Semitic attacks that occurred throughout Brooklyn during Hanukkah.
The hate spree began in Williamsburg on Dec. 23 , when a pair of teenage bruisers attacked two children — aged six and seven — from behind, punching one of them in the stomach in the lobby of a public housing complex on Wilson Street near Bedford Avenue at around 8:40 pm, according to police.
The next day in Crown Heights, a group of harassers hurled a bottle and a string of curse words at a 25-year-old Jewish man on Kingston Avenue near President Street at around 1:40 am, according to a Police Department spokeswoman, who added that the victim was unharmed.
Less than four hours later, some punks punched a 56-year-old Jewish man from behind on Union Street between Utica and Rochester avenues in Crown Heights. The victim was not seriously harmed, and refused medical attention at the scene, cops said.
The most recent attack took place on Dec. 26, when an assailant yelled “you f—— Jew, your time is coming” at a 34-year-old woman, who was walking with her three-year-old son on Avenue U near W. Fifth Street — before hitting the mother with her bag, police sources told the New York Post.
Authorities arrested a 42-year-old man for the latest attack, charging him with assault as a hate crime, weapons possession, harassment, and acting in a manner injurious to a child, cops said.
The attacks come at the tail end of a year that saw a sharp rise in hate crimes — as New Yorkers reported 311 incidents through September of 2019, compared to 250 during the same period of 2018, with 52-percent of those targeting Jewish people, according to the Police Department statistics.
The recent string of attacks during the eight-day religious holiday drew fierce condemnation from elected officials.
“As the world celebrates the holiday season NYC Jews are beaten on the streets,” tweeted Chaim Deutsch (D–Sheepshead Bay). “We can’t even get through the 8 days of Chanukah without a hate crime here in NYC.”
Mayor de Blasio promised to increase the Police Department’s presence in Jewish enclaves throughout the borough, and vowed that the cops would track down those responsible.
“In light of recent anti-Semitic attacks, the NYPD will increase their presence in Boro Park, Crown Heights and Williamsburg,” Hizzoner tweeted. “Anyone who terrorizes our Jewish community WILL face justice.”
