Update: This remains an ongoing investigation and we will provide updates here as we receive additional information from NYPD.
NYPD continues to investigate this assault as a possible hate crime. In addition to the rabbinical students, a Muslim food-cart manager was also in the vicinity and may have been the intended victim. If this is true, ADL of course considers violence targeting a Muslim equally abhorrent. NYPD has released a description of the suspect and is offering a reward for information regarding the crime.
New York, NY, October 12, 2015 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today said it was concerned over reports of an incident in which an incendiary device was allegedly thrown at two Israeli rabbinical students in midtown Manhattan.
According to reports, in the early afternoon of October 9, a man threw a glass bottle filled with an accelerant at Yosef Rachimi and Yisrael Gadasi, near the corner of West 37th Street and Ninth Avenue. The two men, who were dressed in traditional Orthodox garb, were unhurt when the projectile missed them.
“We are quite concerned by reports of an unprovoked attack directed against two rabbinical students who were visiting New York City from Israel,” said Evan R. Bernstein, ADL New York Regional Director. “The possibility that these young men may have been singled out for an anti-Semitic attack because of their visibility as religious Jews is deeply troubling.”
Mr. Bernstein added, “We have been in close contact with NYPD, and reached out to several other Jewish community organizations, and are confident that law enforcement is actively investigating this case as a potential hate crime.”
According to ADL’s Annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents, which identifies both criminal and non-criminal acts, New York City experienced 147 incidents in 2014, including 54 in Manhattan and a 14 percent statewide increase.
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry. Follow us on Twitter: @ADL_NY