‘I’ll kill you’: NYPD investigating attack on Hasidic Jews on subway

Footage shows assailant grabbing Jewish man’s neck, uttering threats; US assistant attorney general for civil rights vows investigation of ‘horrific’ incident

NEW YORK — The NYPD said Tuesday that officers were investigating an attack on Hasidic Jews on a New York City subway car in the US, in an incident captured on video.

In the footage from Monday, which has circulated on social media, two men approach a group of Hasidic men and begin hurling insults at them.

One of the Jewish men then appears to step in between the two aggressors and the other Jewish men, at which point the assailants turn on him and threaten to “teach [him] a lesson,” before one grabs him by the neck.

“The fuck you doing?” the attacker can be heard demanding of the Jewish man as he pushes him backwards. “I’ll kill you!”

“I’ll kill one of [you],” the attacker says again, before letting go of the man’s neck.

Several people can be heard shouting in the background for the men to “chill” and “calm down,” but nobody takes any other steps to stop them.

The subway train then pulls into the station and the Jewish men leave the car, while the two attackers continue to hurl insults at them as they go.

COL Live, a news outlet based in Crown Heights, the home base of the Chabad Hasidic movement, said the targets were a group of Chabad members who were returning to Brooklyn from Jewish outreach activities in Manhattan’s Union Square.

“No one stood up,” one of the victims reportedly said.

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, condemned the incident.

“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,” he posted on X. “Such acts of hatred must be unequivocally condemned, and those responsible must be held accountable.”

The incident was filmed by a different member of the community who was standing further down the train carriage and was not targeted.

Chabad, which has centers in cities worldwide, also organized the Hanukkah event that was targeted in this week’s mass terror shooting in Sydney, Australia.

The NYPD told The Times of Israel that the incident on the subway took place at around 8:40 p.m. on Monday night on a southbound 3 train near the Nostrand Avenue station in Brooklyn.

Police received a 911 call about an assault in progress, and on arrival, spoke with the victims, who were 20 and 21 years old.

“The unidentified individuals initiated a verbal dispute with two victims, grabbed them by their jackets, and made verbal threats,” a police spokesperson said.

There were no injuries, there have been no arrests, and an investigation is ongoing, the NYPD said.

The NYPD did not respond to a question about whether its Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating and did not mention a bias motivation in its statement.

But US Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said on X that her department will investigate the “horrific” incident.

The head of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), which covers the subway system, called the incident an “apparent bias assault,” adding, “This kind of hateful behavior has no place on the subway or anywhere, and is deeply offensive to New Yorkers.”

“The NYPD has access to video from train cars and stations to identify and apprehend the perpetrators, who should face maximum consequences from the justice system,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said in a statement to The Times of Israel.

Jews are targeted in hate crimes in New York City far more than any other group, according to NYPD data.

So far this year, there have been 287 antisemitic incidents reported to police, out of 516 total hate crimes, according to a tally of NYPD data. The antisemitic incidents amount to 56% of the total hate crimes in the city.

The figures are preliminary and subject to change, if, for example, an incident that had appeared discriminatory turns out to have had another motivation.