An Orthodox Jewish man was assaulted with a belt in Brooklyn in the third such attack in a week.
By Benjamin Kerstein, The Algemeiner
In the third such attack within a week, an Orthodox Jewish man has been assaulted in Brooklyn.
New York’s local CBS affiliate reported that the attack took place in Midwood on Saturday, just after the Sabbath.
According to local blog CrownHeights.info, the victim saw two men drinking in front of a synagogue before they began insulting him with anti-Jewish slurs. One of the men knocked the victim over and began hitting him in the face with his own belt.
New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind said of the attack, “A young Jewish man was called a f***ing Jew and then belted over the head with a metal belt buckle!”
Last Thursday, another Orthodox Jewish man suffered injuries to his eye when he was attacked in his vehicle.
On Tuesday, another man was severely beaten with a rock, knocking out two teeth and breaking his nose.
On Friday, the New York Police Department said they were stepping up patrols in response to the attacks.
Rabbi Eli Cohen, executive director of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council, told The Algemeiner last week that the attacks are “a disturbing trend.”
“Statistics don’t lie,” he said, “and we have seen an increase in incidents over the past year and a half.”
Yaakov Behrman, a community leader and director of a drug prevention program in Crown Heights, connected the attacks to a larger problem with anti-Semitism in the U.S., saying, “We see in Congress for the first time, we have congressional leaders in Congress that are promoting anti-Semitic ideas.”
“We see that the country is, unfortunately, heading in the wrong direction and Brooklyn is heading backwards, which is also a very serious concern,” he asserted.