Federal prosecutors charged a New Jersey man with federal hate crimes on Wednesday after he allegedly attacked three Jews outside a kosher restaurant in Manhattan in October.
Alazim Baker, 29, of Irvington, N.J., approached a visiting Israeli rabbi outside the restaurant and began aggressively asking the victim, “What is your religion?” and refused to let him enter.
“Baker then grabbed Victim-1’s yarmulke and threw it on the floor. He then stomped on the yarmulke and spit on it before punching Victim-1 in the face,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York stated. “While Victim-1 was lying on the ground and bleeding, Baker yelled toward Victim-1, in sum and substance: ‘Let me spit on that Jew.’”
The punch left the unnamed victim with bruises and caused a brain bleed, according to reports. Baker then allegedly attacked two other Jewish men who tried to help the rabbi while he yelled, “Your people own everything” and “I’m going to jail today.”
“As alleged, Alazim Baker deliberately targeted Jewish victims with violence,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “Violence motivated by antisemitism or any other anti-faith bias has no place in this great city.
Baker faces two counts of committing hate crimes, each of which carries a maximum of 10 years in prison.
