Driver swerves toward men heading to New York synagogue during Rosh Hashanah: sources

A hateful driver growled “Damn Jew!” as he swerved his van toward worshipers heading to a Brooklyn synagogue during Rosh Hashanah, officers and law enforcement sources said.

The victims were walking in the street, approaching Congregation Shaare Shalom on Avenue S near Ocean Avenue, around 5:25 p.m. Thursday when the reckless driver “came towards” them “in a threatening manner,” they said. authorities and sources.

“Damn Jew!” Let the Zionists fall dead! The motorist sneered as he turned toward at least two men in an attempt to scare them, according to sources.

A 50-year-old man who was crossing the street at the time and did not want to be identified told the Post that the driver did not try to hit him or direct vitriol at him — but he witnessed the chaos then that he was heading towards the high service of the holy days.

“He turned on a light and he heard loud Middle Eastern music or foreign music,” the man said.

“He sped down the block, made another turn (and) obviously stopped these people in the crosswalk. He stopped them in their tracks, and then the guy basically said, “Look, what’s going on? Then the man moved forward in his car and talked about Jews. »

“One person said he was walking towards him and he didn’t hit him,” the witness added. “He was speeding…these are narrow streets…You don’t know if he’s just speeding or if he’s turning towards you, you know?

But the pedestrian admitted to having been “very upset” by the motorist’s alleged statements.

“This guy was definitely reckless, but after hearing that he made statements to these people, I thought it was like a bias incident,” he said.

The driver, who appeared to be in his 30s, then took off in his black Ford Transit truck, heading north on Ocean Avenue, the sources said. He was still at large on Friday.

No one was hurt during this wave of hatred.

The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident.

In a similar anti-Semitic crime in May, a maniac attempted to mow down Orthodox students and a rabbi outside a Jewish school in Brooklyn while shouting “I’m going to kill all the Jews,” sources said.

The crazed driver, identified by cops as Asghar Ali, 58, was shown on video revving his engine and mounting the curb as he swerved toward Orthodox Jews crowding around the Mesivta Nachlas School Yakov.

No one was injured in this attack either, police said. Authorities have listed five victims in the case: a trio of 18-year-olds, a 41-year-old man and a 44-year-old man.

Ali is a Pakistani immigrant taxi driver with a history of mental illness, sources said at the time.

Police data shows that complaints of anti-Semitic incidents in the five boroughs have increased over the past year, with 275 through the end of September this year, compared to 157 for the same period last year.

So far in 2024, complaints about anti-Semitic incidents have accounted for nearly 56% of all bias complaints in the city, compared to 41% over the same period in 2023.