The man who carried out a vicious antisemitic attack on Israeli educator and IDF lecturer Rami Glickstein and two other Jewish men in October 2025 has been charged with hate crimes, according to an unsealed indictment released by the Justice Department on Wednesday.
Glickstein, 59, suffered a vicious antisemitic attack while in New York on October 27, 2025, resulting in a brain bleed and a broken nose.
The incident took place while he was on the way to Mr. Broadway kosher restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. The attacker – Alazim Baker – 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 wearing kippot, who intervened in the attack and gave Glickstein a chance to flee into the restaurant.
Baker then made antisemitic statements to the two individuals who sought to intervene. He also punched one of them in the head and aggressively pursued the third man, who collided with a large, hard object while evading Baker.
Charge over hate crimes connected to Jewish victims assault
The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, and Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI, Terence G. Reilly, announced on Wednesday that Baker was charged with two counts of committing hate crimes in connection with his assaults on the Jewish victims.
“As alleged, Alazim Baker deliberately targeted Jewish victims with violence,” said Clayton. “Violence motivated by antisemitism or any other anti-faith bias has no place in this great city.”
“Alazim Baker allegedly committed despicable hate crimes against multiple members of the Jewish community,” said Reilly. “Hate crimes like those in this indictment tear at the fabric of our communities.
“The FBI remains dedicated to holding perpetrators of these offenses accountable to deliver justice for victims and reaffirm to the American people that targeted violence will not be tolerated.”
Baker, 29, of Irvington, New Jersey, is charged with two counts of committing hate crimes, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.