Assailant disrupts Shabbat service at NYC synagogue, headbutts guard

A man disrupts Shabbat services and attacks a guard at Central Synagogue in Manhattan.

As synagogue security escorted the man out of the services, he struck a congregant and damaged synagogue property, then spit at and headbutted a member of the security team, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch says in a statement.

Tisch is Jewish, attended Central Synagogue growing up and was married there.

A police officer working security at the Reform synagogue took the assailant into custody.

Tisch says she spoke with the synagogue rabbi, that no one was seriously injured, and there are no known additional threats.

Extra police have been dispatched to the synagogue, Tisch says.

“I understand the sanctity of this space and its meaning for congregants. Central Synagogue is where I grew up,” Tisch says.

“In joy and in sorrow, it has always been a place of comfort and peace. What happened there tonight is deeply painful. A place of worship should never be a crime scene,” she says.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani says he is “horrified” by the incident.

“This despicable act has no place in our city, and our administration will do everything in our power to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe,” Mamdani says.

Jews are targeted in hate crimes far more than any other group in New York City.

The last major incident took place late last month when an attacker allegedly stabbed a Jewish man with a screwdriver immediately after he left services on the Upper West Side. The assailant also allegedly stabbed a non-Jewish man.

Hate crimes against Jews and some other groups have increased since Mamdani took office at the start of the year.

Jewish leaders have repeatedly warned that Mamdani’s anti-Zionist rhetoric was stoking hatred against Jews in the city.

Mark Treyger, the head of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, says tonight’s incident “is reprehensible, particularly at a moment when antisemitism and threats against Jewish New Yorkers have reached alarming levels.”

“Leaders have a responsibility to lower the temperature and reject rhetoric that makes targeting our neighbors seem permissible,” Treyger says in a statement.