An attack on a local rabbi over the weekend “was not a hate crime or bias-related incident,” the Bergenfield, N.J., police department said on Monday.
Rabbi Avraham Wein, assistant rabbi at Congregation Keter Torah in neighboring Teaneck, N.J., and a faculty member at Torah Academy of Bergen County, a Modern Orthodox yeshiva high school for boys, was assaulted on Sunday afternoon outside his Bergenfield home.
Police say Jeffrey Zicchinella, a 40-year-old male from Ridgefield Park, N.J., stepped out of his vehicle and assaulted Wein in an unprovoked attack. A nearby resident quickly intervened to help, and both he and Wein sustained minor injuries.
Zicchinella is charged with two counts of simple assault and is being held in the Bergen County Jail. While police ruled out an antisemitic motive, they have not provided an alternative.
“This was a random act of violence,” Bergenfield Police Chief Mustafa Rabboh said on Monday. “No words were exchanged prior to the assault, and there is no indication that this attack was motivated by race, religion or ethnicity. It was simply an act of unprovoked violence, and the suspect will be charged as such.”
Rabboh said increased police patrols will continue throughout the community.
There was no immediate response from Wein or the local Jewish community.
