Jewish Student Punched at Medgar Evers College

A Jewish male was attacked by a young African American man at Medgar Evers College in Crown Heights on Wednesday evening. Police are hoping eyewitnesses and possible surveillance footage will lead to the perpetrator’s arrest.

The victim, a student at the school on Crown Street between Bedford and Franklin Avenues in Crown Heights, was talking with other students in a hallway of the college’s science building at approximately 7:30 pm when he was approached by a black man who punched him in the stomach and face and yelled anti-Semitic remarks at him, police said.

The victim, who was wearing a yarmulke, asked, “why did you hit me,” to which the attacker replied, “I don’t like Jewish people or white people.”

The victim did not require hospital treatment.

NYPD and College Campus security responded to the scene, and have secured witnesses and surveillance footage of the attack, which they will be reviewing in the hopes of identifying the attacker. It is not known if the assailant is affiliated with the school.

The incident is being treated as a hate crime by police.

Following the incident, Medgar Evers President Rudolph Crew spoke with members of the Crown Heights community, and said he is taking the incident “very seriously,” a source told COLlive. “The school President said that if it turns out the attacker is a student of the school, he will be immediately expelled,” the source said.

“This was an awful act of violence and of ignorance,” Dr. Crew said. “While such incidents are fortunately rare on campus, even one is too many. To attack someone because of his or her race or religious beliefs is appalling. I want to make it clear that we have zero tolerance for this type of behavior and we will do everything in our power to ensure the assailant is found and held fully accountable for these hateful actions.”

Dr. Crew also commended a young Muslim woman standing with the victim at the time, who came to the defense of the victim. “The fact that a Muslim woman came to the defense of an orthodox Jewish man is a true reflection of the values that permeate this great institution,” he said.

Dereck Skeete, Dean of Enrollment Management, said he cannot recall a similar incident ever taking place at Medgar Evers.