Israeli educator and lecturer in the IDF Rami Glickstein, 59, suffered a vicious antisemitic attack while in New York last Monday, resulting in a brain bleed and a broken nose.
“I’m not so well,” he told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. “I can stand up, I can speak, but the doctors are very worried because of the bleeding inside my head. I also have a broken nose, and my head and leg are very painful.”
Glickstein was on his way to the Mr. Broadway kosher restaurant in Midtown Manhattan a week ago, when a man approached him and gestured at his kippah, yelling, “What is your religion?”
When Glickstein did not respond, the man grabbed the kippah from his head, threw it on the ground, and spat on it. Glickstein bent down to pick it back up, and the man punched him in the face, knocking him to the floor.
He was saved by two Orthodox Jewish men in kippahs, who intervened in the attack and gave Glickstein a chance to flee into the restaurant. The people in the restaurant called the police, and an ambulance took Glickstein to Mount Sinai Hospital.
“I don’t know who those two men are, but they were brave. They saw how big this man was, and yet they came to save me. This is the Jewish brotherhood.”
He and his wife are still waiting for their medical insurance to allow them to fly back to Israel, as he needs a doctor to accompany him on the plane.
No arrest on antisemitic attack, NYPD says investigation ongoing
As yet, there has been no arrest, and the investigation remains ongoing by the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force. Police are investigating the assault as a hate crime motivated by antisemitism.
Glickstein has only good words to say about the police and lawyers who have visited him and helped him during the process. He also met with the FBI as the attack is being treated as a hate crime.
Because the story circulated quickly in Jewish groups, Glickstein is now being recognized in the city.
“A lot of Jewish people that have seen me in the shul, in the street, stop and talk with me. There has been a lot of support.”
Despite the assault, Glickstein is still wearing his kippah out in public.
“I’m not afraid for myself, but I’m worried about my brothers,” he told the Post. “A lot of the Jewish people in New York told me that when they go out, they put a hat on top of their kippah.”
He explained that the attack was very brazen, and therefore, the community is understandably fearful for its safety.
“You have to understand, this guy attacked me in front of a very big and a very famous Jewish restaurant. A lot of Orthodox Jews come here. I wasn’t in a dark street in Harlem or somewhere like that. It was in the middle of Manhattan, middle of the city, in the middle of the day.”
“It’s only because I’m Jewish. It’s like something from the past, from 1939.”
Nevertheless, his Jewish pride remains strong.
The day after the attack, I said to my wife that I wanted to go back to the restaurant. “This will be my victory. My plan was to go and eat something there in the restaurant, so I will do it.” He confirmed that the food was indeed “very good.”
“I am so proud that I was born in Israel. I’m so proud that I am Orthodox Jewish, that I’m a rabbi, that I’m an officer of the Israeli army. And I’m very proud that we have this present, this great present that is the land of Israel, the present that God gave us.”