Footage posted to social media on Tuesday shows a young Jewish man on a train being violently grabbed by the neck in what Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon dubbed a “hate crime.”
“This is a deeply disturbing hate crime targeting young Chabad men on a train in New York, whose only act was sharing the light of Hanukkah,” Danon posted on X/Twitter along with the footage. “Such acts of hatred must be unequivocally condemned, and those responsible must be held accountable.”
While The Jerusalem Post has yet to confirm the background of the incident, the footage shows the Jewish man being assaulted by two black men on the train. One of the assailants grabs the Jewish man by the neck, forcing him backwards.
“F*** you doing? “F****** touch me,” the man demanded.
“I’ll kill one of ya’ll n*****,” the other assailant tells another young Jewish man.
Chabad shluchim celebrate Hanukkah in New York City
Several hours earlier, Danon posted a video of Chabad shluchim (messengers) celebrating Hanukkah in New York City.
“Thank you to Chabad Shluchim around the world who bring light and faith to the Jewish community,” Danon wrote. “Happy Hanukkah from New York City.”
The New York City Jewish community is the largest Jewish community in the world outside Israel.
This incident comes amid a series of other incidents targeting Jews and Jewish events since the start of Hanukkah on Sunday.
In addition to the infamous Bondi Beach shooting, which claimed the lives of 15 people, as well as one of the shooters, in Sydney, dozens of people were arrested after protesting outside Amsterdam’s Royal Concert Hall on Sunday.
Earlier, on Saturday, a gunman fired 20 bullets into a Jewish family's Hanukkah-decorated home in California.
According to door cam footage, the suspect shouted antisemitic slurs such as “f*** the Jews” as he fired at the home from his car.
Mathilda Heller contributed to this report.