Israeli yeshiva student assaulted in Crown Heights

(JTA) — For the third time in three weeks, a man affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement was assaulted in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.

The victim, a 22-year-old yeshiva student from Israel, was walking home from Chabad headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway when he was attacked at around midnight Tuesday, according to the CrownHeights.info news website. The student felt as if he was being followed and crossed the street, only to discover someone coming at him from the other direction as well, the report said.

The two assailants punched and kicked the yeshiva student until he managed to break free and run, catching the attention of police officers. An officer took one of the assailants into custody immediately, and another officer chased after the second assailant, catching him two blocks away. Both assailants were armed with knives, according to Crown Heights.info. The assailants, both African-Americans, had prior arrests.

The victim called the Crown Heights Shomrim neighborhood patrol, which assisted in putting the victim in touch with police and provided translating services in Hebrew until police translators were available.

The father of the victim told CrownHeights.info that the assailants “didn’t demand anything from him, all they wanted was to hurt him, to take his life,” and added “my son was lucky [that a police officer] who understood Hebrew just happened to be passing by that intersection and saw my son running for his life.”

On April 21, a 52-year-old father of two was beaten and choked while walking home in the afternoon from Shabbat services in Crown Heights. An arrest has been made in the attack.

Late on April 14, a haredi Orthodox man was assaulted outside of Chabad headquarters.

Crown Heights has a large Hasidic population among the mostly African-American neighborhood.