New York Jewish Man Accused of Harassing Muslim Neighbor for Months, Trying to Kill Him

A Jewish man is charged with attempted murder and hate crimes in connection with a months-long campaign of harassment and violence against a Muslim neighbor, authorities said.

Izak Kadosh of Brooklyn is charged with more than 40 felonies, including attempted second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder as a hate crime, first-degree assault as a hate crime, second-degree burglary and second-degree burglary as a hate crime, according to a criminal complaint from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.

According to the complaint, Kadosh’s attacks are motivated by his religious and ethnic differences with his neighbor.

Kadosh told his neighbor he was going to break into his apartment and kill him because Kadosh is Jewish and his neighbor is Muslim, according to the complaint.

Kadosh was arrested Saturday, two days after he was accused of breaking into his neighbor’s apartment, destroying items inside, covering the walls with blue paint and oil and smearing feces on a Quran, according to the complaint.

That same day, Kadosh also hit his neighbor in the head with a mallet, causing him to be hospitalized and require staples in his head and a chest tube due to internal bleeding, according to the complaint.

Kadosh pleaded not guilty Monday in Kings County Criminal Court. Bail was set at $25,000 cash or $125,000 surety, prosecutors said.

A public defender representing Kadosh did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.

The neighbor, identified in the complaint as Ahmed Chebira, told The New York Times that the harassment began after he moved into the building in October.

“I told him to leave me alone,” Chebira told the Times on Wednesday. “Everyone has their own religion in America; I have no problem with anyone.”

He said he was worried Kadosh would be outside the hospital when he was released and was relieved to have been arrested.

The complaint details allegations dating back to early March. Kadosh is accused of slashing his neighbor’s tires, pouring a white substance on his door, punching him in the head and pushing him to the ground, breaking several of his ribs and repeatedly threatening his neighbor’s life, according to the complaint.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul called the allegations “despicable.”

“Everyone deserves to feel safe in New York, and we will continue to fight against Islamophobia and all forms of hate,” Hochul wrote on X. “Hate has no place in our state.”

Anti-Semitic and Islamophobic attacks have increased in the country in the months following Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent war against Hamas in Gaza.

Earlier this week, a 22-year-old man was arrested and charged with multiple hate crimes after police said he shouted “Free Palestine” before slashing a Jewish man’s torso near a Brooklyn synagogue.