Woman Attacked by Pro-Israel Mob: 'I'm Afraid to Walk Around My Own Neighborhood Now'

On Thursday night, a Crown Heights resident in her 30s was getting ready for bed when she heard police helicopters hovering overhead. She knew protests were happening nearby at the global headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Crown Heights, due to the group inviting Israel's ultranationalist Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to give a speech. (Ben-Gvir has repeatedly called for cutting off all food and aid to Gaza, and was convicted of incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organization in Israel.)

But when she stepped out to see what was going on, she didn't anticipate she'd become a target of violence in her own neighborhood, she told Hell Gate. Video posted to social media showed what happened next, with the woman being followed, kicked, spat on, verbally assaulted, and struck with a trash can and a road cone by members of a mob of Orthodox Jewish men and boys as she tried to get home. Only one police officer came to her aid, despite dozens of NYPD cops witnessing the scene, she said in an interview. That officer seemed totally overwhelmed, she said, and the incident left her shaken and afraid for her safety.

On Sunday, Mayor Eric Adams said police were investigating the incident, but categorized it as one of a series of unfortunate events "stemming from clashing protests" that "began when a group of anti-Israel protesters surrounded the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters." 

Chabad-Lubavitch spokesman Rabbi Motti Seligson expressed regret that a bystander got "pulled into the melee." "We condemn the crude language and violence of the small breakaway group of young people; such actions are entirely unacceptable and wholly antithetical to the Torah's values," he said.

But the woman said the actions of the group of about 100 men and boys who mobbed her were not just those of a "small breakaway group."

"I am afraid to walk around my neighborhood now. I'm very afraid of being recognized," she said.

In an interview with Hell Gate conducted on Monday afternoon, the woman shared more details of the 10 minutes on Thursday night that she was followed and attacked in Crown Heights, including the lackluster response from the NYPD officers who were present on the scene. "This was just a grotesque, negligent failure on the part of the NYPD run by Eric Adams, to not respond to the violence that happened because of who the perpetrators were," she said. 

In a follow-up conversation Monday, the woman said she had since spoken to an NYPD detective who told her they were going to try to prosecute those involved, although she had still been unable to formally report the incident because the officers she'd been waiting to talk to at her apartment "never showed up."

Hell Gate is keeping her name, exact age, and the specifics of her profession confidential for her safety.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.