A Jewish man wearing a kippah was one of two men stabbed near West 84th Street and Central Park West on Manhattan’s Upper West Side on Thursday, a rabbi of a synagogue in the neighborhood told JNS. The rabbi, who asked not to be named, told JNS that he has spoken to the victim, who is 50, and that two eyewitnesses told one of the rabbi’s congregants that the suspect shouted “Allahu akbar.”
The Anti-Defamation League’s New York and New Jersey office stated that its security partners on the ground said that “two men, at least one visibly Jewish, were attacked on the Upper West Side of New York City by a man, who witnesses allege yelled ‘Allahu akbar.’”
“This horrific incident took place just after a prayer service on the somber Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av and follows on the heels of another violent assault of a visibly Jewish person in New York City earlier this week,” the ADL office said. “This kind of violence has no place in New York City and must be immediately condemned and investigated.”
The office said it was working with NYPD and community partners and that it calls on Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, to “make it clear that there is no place for hate in New York City.”
Anna Schecter, of CBS News, reported that the 50-year-old was wearing a kippah. “The victim stabbed on 84th Street is Asian. The victim on West 86th Street is Jewish. The suspect is a male Hispanic,” she wrote.
Elliot Kaufman, a Wall Street Journal editorial board member, and his wife are members of the same synagogue as the victim. “The only reason to be surprised is that it’s your shul, not someone else’s,” he told JNS.
Rabbi Allen Schwartz, of Congregation Ohab Zedek, a Modern Orthodox congregation on the Upper West Side, told JNS that the full force of the law must be brought down on the attacker.
“There has to be a price to pay for Jewish blood and Jewish harm. There is mayhem going on,” he told JNS. “We’re a tiny percentage of the population, yet we’re over 50% of the attacks, and the mayor’s diatribes don’t help, of course.”
Thursday is Tisha B’Av, a fast day marking the destruction of the two Jewish Temples in Jerusalem, among other tragedies, and many Jews spend hours in synagogue during the fast.
The fast “is a time when we are all trying to get together and all trying to to have more ahavas chinam, baseless love, and look what we have look we have to contend with on such a day,” the rabbi said. “We’re all preparing for Chodesh Elul,” the Hebrew month of Elul which leads up to the High Holidays, “on Tisha B’Av. While we’re busy with introspection, they’re busy with their hate.”
“It’s just awful that this should come to a neighborhood like the Upper West Side, which is such a progressive neighborhood,” Schwartz told JNS. “All the Jews are very much unite. The fact is the victim is a visibly Jewish person. He wears a yarmulke, and and I think he was targeted.”
The New York City Police Department told JNS that officers responded to a 911 call about an assault at about 1:30 p.m. Officer saw a 57-year-old man and a 50-year-old man alert and conscious, each with a stab wound to the torso, and both were hospitalized in stable condition, the NYPD told JNS.
A suspect was “taken into custody, and the investigation is ongoing,” the police department told JNS.
JNS asked if NYPD is probing the incident as a hate crime. “Everything is still fluid,” the department said.
The incident occurred a day after United Jewish Teachers requested enhanced NYPD presence near synagogues and Jewish institutions after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani shared a video, in which he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “war criminal” and said he should be arrested.
Inna Vernikov, a Jewish member of the New York City Council, stated that the attack “comes a day after Mamdani incited more violence against New York City’s Jews.”
“I pray for the speedy recovery of the victims,” she wrote. “I never typically use this type of language on social media, but f*** you, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.”
Julie Menin, the first Jewish speaker of the New York City Council, stated that she is “absolutely sickened and furious by what appears to be an antisemitic stabbing on the Upper West Side.”
“While we await additional details to be confirmed, we know that what is happening in our city is abhorrent,” she stated. “The fear in the Jewish community is real. Every New Yorker deserves to feel safe in their neighborhood, regardless of their faith or identity.”
“We must remain united in condemning antisemitism and ensuring those responsible are held fully accountable,” Menin added. “I thank the NYPD for its swift response in apprehending the assailant. My prayers are with the victims and their loved ones.”
