Attackers Threatening Orthodox Jews on NYC Subway Prompts Federal Investigation
Two hateful attackers were caught on disturbing video threatening to kill a group of young Jewish men on the subway — and grabbing one of them by the collar — in Brooklyn this week.
The group of eight boys and young men was heading back to the Chabad Lubavitch headquarters in Brooklyn from a Hanukkah celebration in Union Square on Monday night when the antisemitic bigots began hurling slurs at them, one of the victims recalled.
“They yelled at me, and the son said, ‘I’ll kill you,'” Mendy Asraf, a 20-year-old yeshiva student visiting from Israel, told The Post, noting the attackers appeared to be a father and son.
The vile pair first confronted the group while they were transferring to the No. 3 train at the Franklin Avenue stop, yelling “F–k the Jews,” Asraf said.
The harassment ramped up once on the train, when one of the Jewish men began filming the heinous onslaught.
One of the aggressors grabbed one of the victims by the collar of his coat, as the other yelled “I’ll kill you” and pointed a finger gun at his head, social media footage of the incident shows.
“I was really afraid. When he made his fingers the sign of a gun towards me, I was really afraid. I didn’t know what he had in his pockets,” Asraf said.
He said the group stayed fearfully silent as other passengers around them tried to intervene.
“Chill!” one straphanger can be heard pleading in the video in a desperate attempt to squash the scuffle.
The group of Jewish men got off at the next stop at Nordstrom Avenue and ran to the nearest police precinct to file a report, Asraf said.
“I thought it could be a very dangerous situation,” he said, adding he and the others feared for their lives.
Asraf said he believes they were targeted because of their faith — and police confirmed they are investigating the harrowing incident as a hate crime.
The group of eight boys and young men was heading back to the Chabad Lubavitch headquarters in Brooklyn from a Hanukkah celebration in Union Square on Monday night when the antisemitic bigots began hurling slurs at them, one of the victims recalled.
“They yelled at me, and the son said, ‘I’ll kill you,'” Mendy Asraf, a 20-year-old yeshiva student visiting from Israel, told The Post, noting the attackers appeared to be a father and son.
The vile pair first confronted the group while they were transferring to the No. 3 train at the Franklin Avenue stop, yelling “F–k the Jews,” Asraf said.
The harassment ramped up once on the train, when one of the Jewish men began filming the heinous onslaught.
One of the aggressors grabbed one of the victims by the collar of his coat, as the other yelled “I’ll kill you” and pointed a finger gun at his head, social media footage of the incident shows.
“I was really afraid. When he made his fingers the sign of a gun towards me, I was really afraid. I didn’t know what he had in his pockets,” Asraf said.
He said the group stayed fearfully silent as other passengers around them tried to intervene.
“Chill!” one straphanger can be heard pleading in the video in a desperate attempt to squash the scuffle.
The group of Jewish men got off at the next stop at Nordstrom Avenue and ran to the nearest police precinct to file a report, Asraf said.
“I thought it could be a very dangerous situation,” he said, adding he and the others feared for their lives.
Asraf said he believes they were targeted because of their faith — and police confirmed they are investigating the harrowing incident as a hate crime.
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