Aleksander Janik, a stylist who has been photographed with stars like Celine Dion, Rihanna, Brooke Shields and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday, the New York Post reported.
Janik pleaded not guilty to a hate-crime assault.
The stylist is accused of assaulting Rabbi Chezky Wolff after he and the Chabad rabbi argued about an unleashed dog. Wolff says that Janik made antisemitic comments, including about “dirty Jews,” while the stylist told the Post that he is “half-Jewish.”
Janik also admitted to the Post that he pushed Wolff, although he claimed it was in self-defense. “I support the Jewish community. I’m a very huge fan of every religion,” he told the paper. He told the Daily Beast that “my grandmother was in Auschwitz.”
“We have no response to an antisemite’s lies,” said Cary London, lawyer to Wolff and member of his congregation. “The Jewish people just want peace.”