Just about every article article in today’s Google Alerts about Park Slope is about an incident that occurred in the Fourth Avenue subway station of the F train. An Israeli rabbinical student living in New York was allegedly attacked by a group of Arab teenagers.
It’s the first I’ve heard about this incident. Sadly, it had the feel of a hate crime. Afterwards, the attacker broke his leg when he ran out into traffic on Fourth Avenue.
Also sadly, the story is being used by right wing anti-immigration, anti-Arab news sources like Jihad Watch. Their lede went something like: “More of the wonderful fruits of unreflective, indiscriminate Muslim immigration into the U.S.”
The story really got around: it made it to Jerusalem and elsewhere:
From the Jerusalem Post:
A 25-year-old Israeli rabbinical assistant was assaulted by a group of Arab teenagers screaming “Allah akbar” in Brooklyn on Tuesday evening.
Uria Ohana, originally from Kfar Chabad, entered a subway station in the affluent Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn Tuesday evening, on his way to a lecture in Manhattan, when he noticed a group of Arab teenagers congregated on a bench in the station.
Ohana did not exchange words or make eye contact with the group, but proceeded upstairs to his train.
On his way, he felt someone grab his kippa from his head and then heard laughter. Ohana decided to chase the boys to retrieve his kippa.
The 18-year-old boy who grabbed the kippa left the subway station and ran into the street, where he was hit by a car, breaking his leg.
While Ohana chased the boy, the other teenagers began chasing him, screaming “Allah akbar.”
From the Israel News Service:
Oriah Ohana, a 25-year-old Israeli rabbi from Kfar Chabad, was attacked by a group of Arab men in Brooklyn, New York City, Tuesday evening.
An 18-year-old Arab man grabbed the yarmulka (kippa) off Rabbi Ohana’s head at the 4th Avenue and 9th Street train station in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn, while his friends kicked and punched the victim and screamed “Allahu Akbar” [Arabic: Allah is Great].
Rabbi Ohana chased the man who grabbed the yarmulka. The attacker ran out of the subway station and was hit by a passing car
From the News Blaze in Folsom, California:
A 25-year-old Israeli rabbinical assistant was assaulted by a group of Arab teenagers screaming “Allah Akbar” in Brooklyn on Tuesday evening.
Uria Ohana, an Israeli from Kfar Chabad, now working in Wellesley, Massachusetts, was on his way to a lecture in Manhattan, Tuesday evening. Ohana entered a subway station in affluent Park Slope, the densely populated area of Brooklyn, known as one of America’s 10 best neighborhoods.
Ohana may now have a different opinion of the area. As he entered the subway, at the junction of 4th Avenue and 9th Street, he noticed a group of Arab teenagers on a bench, but he went directly up the stairs to the train. One of the boys, reported to be an 18-year-old, grabbed Ohana’s kippa, pulling it off his head.