A stranger snarled, “F–k Jews” and pummeled a rabbi heading to his synagogue in Queens on Holocaust Remembrance Day, police and prosecutors said Wednesday.
The victim – a 32-year-old yarmulke-wearing rabbi in the Bukharian Jewish community – was walking at the intersection of Queens Boulevard and 71st Avenue around 3 p.m. Tuesday when the menace approached him and spewed the antisemitic vitriol, authorities said.
That sparked a dispute between the rabbi – who sources say was on the way to his house of worship – and the vile pedestrian, according to police and the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
Tensions peaked when the crazed stranger punched the religious leader in the chest and face, knocking him to the ground, cops and prosecutors said.
The victim was treated at the scene for minor injuries, police said.
Quick-responding cops — with the help of the Shomrim Queens Safety Patrol — arrested the alleged attacker, identified as Eric Zafra-Grosso, 32, at the nearby Forest Hills-71st Continental Avenue subway station, the DA’s office said.
He was charged with two counts of assault – one as a hate crime – as well as aggravated harassment, prosecutors said.
Zafra-Grosso, who cops said had no prior arrests, was granted supervised release during his Wednesday arraignment before Judge Sharifa Nasser-Cuellar — over prosecutors’ request that he be held on $40,000 bail.
He was due back in court March 16 and could spend up to four years in prison if convicted of the top charge.
“Anti-Jewish hate crimes account for far too many bias-motivated incidents across our city, and my office will use every tool at its disposal to hold perpetrators accountable,” Queens DA Melinda Katz said in a statement.
“We will continue working with our communities to ensure Queens remains a place where everyone can live openly and without fear.”
The broad-daylight attack drew swift rebuke from several local elected officials – Rep. Grace Meng, State Sens. Joe Addabbo and Leroy Comrie and Assemblymembers Andrew Hevesi and Sam Berger.
“We are outraged by the anti-Semitic attack that occurred in our district, in which a Rabbi was verbally harassed, physically assaulted, and threatened for being Jewish,” they wrote in a joint statement. “This was a targeted act of hate, and it has no place in our community or anywhere in New York City.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani reshared the pols’ statement on X and wrote that he was “horrified” by the attack.
“On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, New Yorkers were confronted with a painful truth: antisemitism is not a thing of the past—it is a present danger that demands action from all of us,” he said.
“There is no place for antisemitism in our city. I stand in solidarity with Jewish New Yorkers and my administration is committed to rooting out this hatred.”
City Comptroller Mark Levine condemned the attack as “yet another sickening reminder of the scale of the hatred we are confronting.”
“We need everyone in this city united in combatting this,” he said.
