A chilling hate crime occurred in Crown Heights at around 2 AM Shabbos morning, when a Lubavitch bochur was stabbed near Eastern Parkway and Kingston Avenue, close to Chabad Headquarters, by a man shouting “Free Palestine!”

The perpetrator, a black male in his early 20s, also asked the victim if he wanted to die before the attack.

Locals quickly responded to the stabbing, detaining the attacker until police arrived to make an arrest a few blocks away.

The victim was transported to the hospital and is expected to recover thanks to the swift response of paramedics. The incident is being investigated by the NYPD’s Hate Crimes unit.

Yaakov Behrman of the Jewish Future Alliance condemned the attack, telling YWN, “This act of hateful violence highlights the dangerous impact of anti-Semitic incitement and hate propagated by some local politicians and leaders… When hate and incitement against a group are preached, it invariably leads to violence.”

NYPD Deputy Chief Richie Taylor of the Community Affairs Bureau told Yeshiva World News that this incident is being investigated by the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force and there will be an increase in police presence at 770 from now through the Yomim Tovim.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)