Rabbi recalls attack outside Chabad House at Yale

NEW HAVEN — Though he received several blows to the head, Rabbi Shua Rosenstein said things could have been much worse.

“I survived it because I’m healthy and young, relatively, but if they’d done this to an older person I don’t think they could have survived that, which scares me,” he said.

Last spring, Rosenstein, 38, stepped out

side the Chabad House at Yale University where he works, and was assaulted by two teenagers.

He said they shouted anti-Semitic slurs and epithets at him while dealing him blows to the head before stealing his car keys and driving off.

Although his attackers shouted religious abuse at him, he said he cannot know whether he was targeted on the basis of his religion.

He said city police, who apprehended the alleged attackers after they crashed Rosenstein’s car, told him the teenagers previously had victimized non-Jews.

Five teenagers were charged, and the two assailants received hate crime charges.

“I haven’t felt unsafe since then. I haven’t had any reason to,” Rosenstein said. “I did get a tremendous amount of support from the local and state government, both New Haven and the state of Connecticut.”

Rosenstein said Mayor Justin Elicker was on the phone with him within an hour and the police have supported Chabad by providing additional security during the high holidays.

“We take hate crimes very seriously,” said Elicker in a statement. “In the instance of a potential hate crime, our Police Department responds aggressively both to ensure that the persons involved are held accountable and to ensure that victims who may be traumatized feel a sense of safety and resolution.”

Eli Sabin, the alder for Ward 1, authored a resolution condemning antiSemitism that passed unanimously in the aftermath of the attack on Rosenstein.

“We need to do much more to invest in real public safety and to address the root causes of violence as well as the racism and hate that can sometimes fuel it,” he said.

Rabbi Shua Rosenstein