(JNS) A 13-year-old Jewish boy from Crown Heights was assaulted as he rode his bike to school in the heavily-Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood at about 8 a.m. on Monday, the victim’s mother told JNS.
“Whatever the motivation was, whether it was hate or not, this was a case where a 40-year old adult smacked a kid who looks like he is 10-years-old,” said the mother, who asked not to be named. “It’s just completely inappropriate.”
“We should be able to send our boys off to school on their bikes without worrying,” she added.
The 13-year-old rides his bike to his yeshiva daily without problems, according to his mother. On Monday, he was “suddenly slapped in the face” as he rode on the sidewalk. “He was so scared that he was going to be attacked further that he drove away as quickly as he could,” she said.
She told JNS that her family is working closely with the New York City Police Department to find the alleged assailant.
“The point of pursuing a case is making sure that this person is brought to justice to ensure that our kids can walk around our neighborhood safely,” she told JNS. “If it turns out that hate was a motivating factor in this case, then we have to facilitate good feelings between our communities.”
The NYPD told JNS that it had a report on file for an alleged assault on Monday, when “a 13-year-old male was punched in the face by an individual in front of 655 Parkside Avenue causing pain and swelling.”
“The victim refused medical attention,” the NYPD stated. “There are no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing.”
Rabbi Yisrael Eliashiv, who teaches at a Chabad yeshiva in Crown Heights, told JNS that he started teaching his class that morning and a student, who is usually “very involved,” wasn’t paying attention and appeared “very detached.”
“I asked him what was going on, at which point he proceeded to tell me what had happened to him 15 to 20 minutes prior,” Eliashiv told JNS.
“Such an attack means a lot, but there’s a certain fatigue setting in as well. There’s the outrage of ‘how could someone do something like that for no reason to a child going to yeshiva,’ of course,” the rabbi said. “Yet, at the same time, there’s a certain attitude of sighing and thinking ‘here we go, another one,’ or shrugging your shoulders and saying, ‘at least no one was seriously injured this time—no one died.’”
“This attack on a visibly-Jewish child is reprehensible,” stated the Anti-Defamation League’s New York and New Jersey office. “Everyone—and especially children—should feel safe on the streets of Brooklyn.”
Eliashiv has no doubt that the attacker was motivated by Jew-hatred.
“Almost everyone in Crown Heights can tell you stories of close calls they’ve had, and while a few might have been due to mental illness or drug usage, it’s generally made very clear during the incidents that this is specifically about targeting Jews,” he said.
He noted that attackers might walk past 10 potential victims, who aren’t visibly Jewish, before assaulting an Orthodox Jew.
“Public officials can do something very simple—stop ignoring the laws in the book and prosecute people for crimes. Make it so there are consequences for their actions,” he said. “Increase police patrols.”
Crime escalates when criminals get away with petty crimes, according to Eliashiv.
“This is what is happening all around us. Our community suffers the highest rate of hate crimes in New York City, and yet there’s no task force, no public discussions, no activism from anyone outside our community,” he said. “All of that would be OK if at the very least the criminals were sent to jail, instead of allowed to victimize over and over and over.”
Since the story of his student has spread, Eliashiv has heard from half a dozen students, who have told him about similar things that happened to them.
“Not over the past year, but over the past couple of weeks,” he said.
Rabbi Yaacov Behrman, a Crown Heights community activist, told JNS that rising crime is concerning for the community, whether it is motivated by antisemitism.
“When a Jewish boy is slapped in the face, we have to work under the assumption such an attack is motivated by hatred because of the recent increase in anti-semitism,” he told JNS. “But if the police discover that it turns out to be a random act of violence, I mean, it doesn’t make it any less bad.”
“Crown Heights is struggling with two major issues,” he told JNS. “We have an increase in hate and an increase in people, who are struggling with mental health or with homelessness that are committing violent crimes.”
“Both issues are not being dealt with enough,” he said.
