A Bronx woman was arrested and charged with hate crimes after allegedly assaulting a Jewish woman aboard a New York City subway train while shouting antisemitic slurs, authorities said.
A spokesperson for the New York City Police Department told JNS that Diana Smith was taken into custody on Sunday after officers responded to a report of an assault in progress on a northbound train at the Canal Street subway station in Lower Manhattan.
According to police, the 23-year-old victim reported that Smith approached her, made antisemitic remarks and then repeatedly struck her, pushed her to the floor and attempted to choke her. Emergency medical personnel treated the victim at the scene for minor injuries, the NYPD said.
Video recorded by the victim shows the assailant shouting, “Jews are eating kids,” a modern variation of the centuries-old antisemitic blood libel falsely accusing Jews of murdering children.
“You’re a Jew, I smell the kids,” the woman says in the footage, before lunging toward the victim and shouting, “It’s okay for her to eat a kid, but I can’t choke her down?”
The Combat Antisemitism Movement condemned the attack that “quickly turned violent.”
“The victim was choked, thrown to the ground, punched, beaten and had her hair ripped out as passengers attempted to intervene too late,” the group stated.
Smith has been charged with assault as a hate crime, criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation as a hate crime and aggravated harassment, police said.
