NYPD Releases Image of Suspect in Antisemitic Assault on Train

By Reuvain Borchardt

NEW YORK — The NYPD has released a photo and sketch of an alleged assailant who punched and bloodied a Jew on a Queens subway last month.

The victim, a 37-year-old accountant named Chaim who spoke with Hamodia about the incident and did not share his last name, was traveling on an E train in Queens around 7:30 p.m. July 26 between Roosevelt Ave. and Queens Plaza, when a group of four men began playing music and dancing for money.

“One of the dancers stepped on my foot — it could have been by accident, it wasn’t such a big deal,” Chaim said. “But maybe he thought I would do something against him. He then went for my phone – maybe he thought I was recording him, though I wasn’t.”

The dancer demanded Chaim’s phone and started grabbing at it.

“He said, ‘Give me your phone, Jew,’ and then, when he realized that he was struggling a bit, he punched me in the mouth. I started bleeding everywhere.”

As Chaim got off the train at the Queens Plaza stop, the assailant said to him, “If I had a gun, I would shoot you.”

Chaim, who had a laceration on his lip, went to Cornell Medical Center’s emergency room, where he received two stitches in his mouth.

On Saturday, the NYPD released an image of the suspect taken from surveillance video. As it is a grainy image, the nypd also produced a sketch of the suspect.

Dov Hikind, a former state Assemblyman who founded the group Americans Against Antisemitism and met with Chaim following the attack, told Hamodia on Sunday, “It is important that we apprehend those who are committing acts of hate — and to make sure there are consequences for acts of hate. The Police Department does a great job arresting people. The problem is little is happening to perpetrators at the end of the day. That has to change.”

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rborchardt@hamodia.com