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" .
Rabbi Ohana chased the man who grabbed the yarmulka. The attacker ran out of the subway station and was hit by a passing car.
The attacker’s friends then beat the rabbi, claiming he was the cause of their friend’s misfortune. They escaped before police arrived – abandoning their friend, whose broken legs precluded his escape.
Police of the NYPD’s 78th Precinct are investigating the attack. According to Vos is Neias – a NY-area based Jewish news site - Police arrested the man hit by the car and requested an ambulance, but are “trying to brush off the crime as just teenagers who don't know what 'Allahu Akbar' means.”
That Arabic declaration, meaning “Allah is great,” is often chanted by Muslims before or during terrorist attacks. It is also declared five times daily from muezzin as a call to prayer.
Park Slope is considered a safe and well-to-do neighborhood. It has become home to many Jews.
Blood Libel Alive and Well in Russia
Literature distributed in Novosibirsk, Russia, warned gentiles to beware of the Jews, who seek to kidnap their children before Passover in order to murder them and use their blood for matza (the unleavened bread that may only include flour and water according to Jewish law).
"Beware Russian parents,” read the pamphlets, according to Yediot Acharonot. “Keep watch over your children before the coming of April 2008, the Jewish holiday of Passover. These disgusting people still engage in ritual practice to their gods. They kidnap small children and remove some of their blood and use it to prepare their holy food. They throw the bodies out in garbage dumps.”
The "blood libel" regarding Jews and their supposed use of children's blood for making matzas dates back to 12th century England, and has served as an excuse for anti-Jewish violence on numerous occasions since.
Jews in Novosibirsk say the pamphlets are just the tip of the iceberg, and that anti-Jewish graffiti can be seen all over the region. Just 13,000 Jews live in the Novosibirsk region, which is located in Siberia.