New York man charged with hate crime for punching rabbi on Holocaust Remembrance Day

NEW YORK — A suspect was charged with a hate crime on Wednesday for allegedly attacking a rabbi in New York City the previous day, on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Eric Zafra Grosso, 32, allegedly approached the rabbi, shouted “Fuck Jews,” and punched the rabbi in the face and chest, knocking him to the ground, said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.

The victim was a rabbi in the Bukharian community who was wearing a kippah at the time of the attack. The incident took place in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens.

Grosso, from the Corona neighborhood, was arrested at a subway station shortly after the attack, Katz said.

“The gravity of this alleged assault is compounded by the fact that it occurred on International Holocaust Remembrance Day,” Katz said.

Grosso was charged with assault in the third degree, assault in the third degree as a hate crime and aggravated harassment in the second degree, and faces up to four years in prison.

Grosso pleaded not guilty, was released from detention and will appear in court next in March.

Jews are targeted in hate crimes in New York City more than all other groups combined, and the attack in Queens followed several other antisemitic incidents.

On Wednesday, a Jewish man was reportedly shoveling snow in Brooklyn when a suspect who was walking his dogs shouted, “Go eat that Jew.”

Last week, two teenagers were arrested for painting dozens of swastikas on a playground in a Jewish area of Brooklyn.

Last month in Queens, anti-Israel protesters chanted in support of the Hamas terrorist group outside a synagogue and Jewish school.