Attack on Jewish teen in Queens classified as gang incident, drawing ire

The Jewish boy, David Paltielov, 16, remained hospitalized one week after the Nov. 29 attack in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens, New York.

By MARCY OSTER/JTA
George Washington Bridge between New York City and New Jersey, 2018. (photo credit: REUTERS/MIKE SEGAR)
George Washington Bridge between New York City and New Jersey, 2018.
(photo credit: REUTERS/MIKE SEGAR)
The attack on an identifiably Jewish teen in Queens, New York has been classified as a gang incident and not a hate crime, angering a local Jewish community.
The Jewish boy, David Paltielov, 16, remained hospitalized one week after the Nov. 29 attack in the Forest Hills neighborhood, the Gothamist reported. He was wearing a kippa and tzitzit at the time of the attack.
Members of the Bukharian Jewish community that the teen belongs to have called on the New York Police Department to reclassify the crime, pointing out that the boy did not know his attackers since he attends a neighborhood yeshiva and not the local public high school.
According to the Alliance for Bukharian Americans, some witnesses heard the attackers scream anti-Semitic phrases such as “Kill the Jew,” the Gothamist reported. Some 20 to 30 teens attacked Paltielov, and there were an equal number of onlookers, according to the report.
Waleska Mendez, a volunteer at Masbia soup kitchen in Forest Hills near the site of the incident, emerged from the building wielding a broom to stop the attack, the report said.
The two alleged assailants, Jonathan Torres, 18, and a 17-year-old male, were both charged Thursday with first-degree felony gang assault and second-degree felony assault.
Neighborhood community officers from the local police precinct told a community forum Thursday night that there have been problems between blacks and Hispanic students and Russian Jewish students at Forest Hills High School and that Paltielov was an unfortunate victim of the strife, QNS reported.
Two Orthodox Jewish teens were attacked in separate incidents in Brooklyn on the same day.