A second Orthodox man has been attacked with a rock in Brooklyn, just three days after an assailant yelled “Jew” before attacking the first victim.
Rabbi Avraham Gopin was exercising in Lincoln Terrace Park in Crown Heights on Tuesday when he was attacked by a man who used a large paving stone to hit him in the face, breaking his nose and knocking out two of his teeth.
We are praying for Rabbi Avraham Gopin’s swift recovery after he was viciously attacked Tuesday morning. We hope the police investigate this possible hate crime and find who committed this atrocious act. https://t.co/2I8cJXKttc pic.twitter.com/6RLTykx8qg
— American Jewish Congress (@AJCongress) August 28, 2019
It was followed on Thursday by a rock thrown through the driver's side of a vehicle being driven by an unnamed Orthodox Jewish man as he waited at a traffic light. The rock hit in the eye and causing lacerations to the head.
Speaking to CBS in New York, Rabbi Gopin, 63, described how the attacker had swung a rock “with full force towards my head.
“He said ‘Jew, Jew’. He said something in that direction…he was looking to kill. No doubt about it”
The rabbi said the man “jumped on me and start to fight with me, trying to knock me in the face – probably, I would say, 20, 25, 30 times with his fists, and I was protecting myself.”
He described surviving as “a miracle from God”.
Police have released footage of the man believed to be behind the attack on Rabbi Gopin.
🚨WANTED for ASSAULT: Do you know this guy? @NYPDHateCrimes is investigating an incident that occurred on 8/27 at around 7:40 AM, inside Lincoln Terrace Park in Brooklyn. The suspect punched the victim, then hit him with a rock. Any info, call or DM @NYPDTips at 800-577-TIPS. pic.twitter.com/hmioZMElbh
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) August 28, 2019
New York mayor Bill de Blasio vowed that the city will “stop at nothing to protect our communities from hate and violence.”
But in an opinion piece on the subject for the Forward, local Orthodox resident Avital Chizik-Goldschmidt accused city authorities of having done little beyond “tweets and press releases” to deal with the growing problem.
According to the New York Police Department there have been 145 antisemitic hate crime complaints in the city so far in 2019 – compared to 88 during the same period in 2018.