UPDATE: 10:15 a.m. on Thursday, March 21: The two Orthodox Jewish men attacked on the Upper West Side over the weekend were struck by pellets from a BB gun or a gel blaster, the victims told the Daily News.
“I saw a white vehicle passing,” Jeffrey Solomon, 65, told the publication. “I looked over at my friend, and he looked stunned. I said, ‘Have we been shot?’ He said, ‘Yes.'”
The men were leaving an Upper West Side yeshiva when they were hit, the Daily News added.
There have been no arrests as of Thursday.
You can read more about the incident — HERE.
Original Story
By Gus Saltonstall
Two Orthodox Jewish men were pelted Sunday night on the Upper West Side, according to Councilmember Shaun Abreu and the police.
A 65-year-old man and a 19-year-old man were crossing the street at West End Avenue and West 100th Street, when they were struck by multiple small objects thrown from a white car traveling south on the avenue, a police spokesperson told West Side Rag.
Abreu told the Rag that both men were “Orthodox Jews,” and were treated for injuries at the 24th Precinct station house.
The car fled the scene.
The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force has been notified and is investigating, police said. There have been no arrests.
The attack happened one day after Effy’s Cafe, a popular American/Israeli restaurant on West 96th Street, was vandalized and spray painted.
“The NYPD hate crimes unit is investigating multiple antisemitic crimes in the last few days on the Upper West Side — including vandalism of Effy’s cafe and in Riverside Park, and an attack on two Orthodox men,” Abreu wrote on social media Monday morning. “Look out for your neighbors. Hate has no place here.”
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Sad.
None of these incidents should be taken lightly given the temperature of our country and the world. I just pray that these incidents are not harbingers of things to come. I’m not Jewish, but I am human and care for everyone in society.
How terrible — and how easy this was to predict. We can all read the writing on the wall about increased rates of anti-Semitic violence. This confirms that we need more a police presence on West End Avenue and the neighborhood at large and that our local representatives and governing bodies need to PREPARE AND EXPECT acts of violence like this in this current anti-Semitic climate.
A supremely cowardly thing to do, to attack people like this from a moving car and flee. If they have something to say or ask, they can stop and ask to talk. Shame on them. Let’s see if they have the spine to give themselves up, at the very least for the supposed ‘principles’ they had to convince themselves they had.
A huge crowd turned up to
A huge crowd turned out to eat at Effy’s last night. I’m proud of our neighborhood. We stand together and won’t be silent!
Infuriating.
they have traffic cams. they could identify the car.
Not if they have fake plates or a license plate cover, both of which are increasingly common…
Southbound WEA would cross many co-ops and other residential buildings. It shouldn’t be that hard to get a license from all the cameras.
Not sure what the NYPD can charge the owner of the vehicle with? Objects thrown without serious injury. I hope the police can find out and pay them a visit.
Sadly, antisemitism is rampant at my Alma mater as well: https://freebeacon.com/campus/middlebury-students-tried-to-host-a-vigil-for-victims-of-oct-7-attack-administrators-told-them-to-remove-the-word-jewish/
What is happening on campus’s is not antisemitism. It is against the Israeli terrorist Regime that is murdering innocent Palestinians. Protesting pro Palestinian rights is NOT antisemitic. The world is waking up to Israeli’s lies.
That is not antisemitism . You might disagree with the reasoning of the college – but their reasoning does not equate anti semitism. Unfortunately this word is being thrown around at every turn to silence discourse .
It certainly is antisemitism. Middlebury put limitations and qualifiers on the Jewish students request solely because they were Jewish. The pro-Palestinian group had no such restrictions.
The community leaders allow for limitations and qualifiers on the Muslims who work and live on the UWS. There are Muslims who aren’t practicing or even fasting during Ramadan, there are Muslims against terrorism, that think Hamas makes them look bad. But you don’t welcome them on the UWS.
If there are actual incidents of intimidation or restrictions on the community in the UWS, request an article about them. I’m sorry to hear that and I would 1000% hope that most people realize that not all Muslims support Hamas. Just like all people supportive of a Palestinian state are supportive of Hamas (nor are all supporters of Israel supportive of Netanyahu). But local restrictions and hate against one community do not mean that restrictions and hate against other communities don’t exist. And both should be reported.
I support peaceful protest and protesters but these last two events are so hateful and counterproductive to any expression of any view that could help end any suffering. Just awful. I’m so sorry for the two men involved at the offense they suffered, at the injuries, and at the fear for them, their families, and the community that such things may happen. I hope the car is identified and the perpetrators at least shamed in the press if there is no legal recourse. Shocking and horrible.
Maggie, I disagreed with you recently about the citizens’ paying expenses of migrants, but I agree with you on this. Some action must be taken.
So awful. I really hope the police catch them and the DA punishes them.
Disgusting.
Cowardly and disgusting. I’m Asian American and I can so easily see how this could’ve happened to me or another Asian American, especially while Trump was president and using terms like “China-virus” and “kung-flu.”
It really bothers me that there are some who have trouble differentiating between Netanyahu and his regime (which acts in ways that many – perhaps most – Israelis and many Jewish Americans do not support) and our Jewish-American neighbors.
Instead of working to reduce tensions between Jews and Muslims, our community leaders do their very best to ignore Muslims that get harassed by cops who have nothing to do with the Palestinian protests and who are against Hamas. That isn’t helpful.