Orthodox Jews under attack as tensions spill over in New York
63-year-old Rabbi smashed in face with rock as anti-Semitic violence almost doubles in a year
IN THE late August sun Rabbi Avraham Gopin decided to go to the park to take some exercise. The 63-year-old went through his regular routine of stretching and jogging in the Crown Heights district of Brooklyn.
A man approached him. A confrontation ensued. The man grabbed a rock larger than his hand, and smashed the rabbi in the face, breaking his nose, knocking out two teeth, splattering blood on his tzitzit, the fringes worn by observant Jews.
“When he saw me, he jumped towards me, throwing rocks full force towards my head,” said Mr Gopin. “Then he jumped on me, start to fight ... trying to knock me in the face – 20, 25, 30 times with his fists and I was protecting myself. He was about to kill me.”
The Crown Heights community, home to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement and with one of the highest concentration of Jewish residents in New York City, was appalled and shocked.
But two days later, another attack in the district – a large object was hurled by a group of teenagers through a car window at a traffic light, while a Hasidic Jewish man sat at the wheel.
Two days later, a third – an Orthodox Jewish man – was hit with a belt outside a synagogue.
Then, at the weekend, a beach club down the road was closed after antiSemitic graffiti was daubed on its walls, praising Hitler and gas chambers.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) said there were 88 anti-Semitic attacks in the city by this point last year. This year that figure is at 145.
While many have been quick to blame white supremacists emboldened by the prevailing political climate, some locals and experts are not so sure.
“[It is] correct to say there are threats that come from the Right wing,” said Deborah Lauter, who heads the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes in New York. “There are also threats that come from the Left. People want to push me in that corner and say this is all about [Donald] Trump.” She said there was an atmosphere of intolerance in which others “have engaged as well”.
Rabbi Gopin’s attacker was described as African American, around 6ft tall with long black dreadlocks.
Andrew Cuomo, the New York governor and a fierce critic of the US president, said: “It is part of this new national anger and anxiety and frustration where we are demonising difference. I believe it’s the tone set by the president, who has unleashed the dogs of hatred.
“Has he been anti-Semitic? No. But once you demonise differences, once you release the cancer of hate, it is uncontrollable. And you demonise Muslims, and you demonise Mexicans, and you demonise the new immigrants and people who are different.”
Other blamed the spike in violence on copycats, following attacks like last year’s Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.
Bill de Blasio, the New York mayor, who is running a long-shot campaign for the Democratic nomination for the presidency, has placed the blame squarely with the Right.
Rabbi Eli Cohen, the executive director of the Crown Heights Jewish community council, takes a more nuanced view. “It’s very hard to see a link between the white supremacists marching in Charleston and what is happening here,” he said. “Many of the perpetrators have been African Americans, not white supremacists.”
Rapidly growing Hasidic enclaves elsewhere in New York are causing their own tensions.
In Rockland County, Republicans have faced accusations of anti-Semitism over a controversial video urging people to “take back control” from Jewish neighbours. The video was pulled from social media this week.
Many in the Orthodox community, which overwhelmingly votes Republican, are angry at New York’s mayor for not doing more about the attacks.
“Enough is enough,” said Dov Hikind, a former state assemblyman.
“Mayor de Blasio, we need you to address the out of control anti-Semitism... Jews being assaulted because they are Jews. We need this to be addressed not just through another press conference condemning anti-Semitism.”