Full Breakdown
Syringe Stabbing of a Rabbi in Manhattan’s Diamond District
By Drooid · · How we work
The Attack on the Rabbi
Police say a 26-year-old man dressed in traditional Hasidic attire was walking near West 47th Street and Fifth Avenue when a woman speaking partly in Russian began following him. As he turned away, she approached from behind and jabbed his lower right back with a syringe, the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force reports. The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital and listed as stable. He told investigators he felt the needle-like prick and believes he was targeted because he is “visibly Jewish.”
Earlier Assault on Another Jewish Man
Hours before the rabbi’s stabbing, the same suspect deliberately bumped into a 37-year-old Jewish man on West 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. Video posted by the Manhattan Shomrim community shows the woman stalking the first victim, then confronting the second man and stabbing him in the arm with a sharp object. Police identified the attacker as Anna Mochalova, 32, a Brooklyn resident.
Legal Action and Charges
Mochalova was arrested on Saturday and charged with assault, assault as a hate crime, menacing, aggravated harassment, and criminal possession of a weapon. She is awaiting arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court. The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is handling both incidents as antisemitic hate crimes.
Community and Official Reactions
Moshe Spern, president of the United Jewish Teachers, publicly blamed Mayor Zohran Mamdani for the climate that allowed the attack, posting criticism on social media. The rabbi, whose grandparents survived the Holocaust, said the assault strengthened his resolve to continue Jewish outreach, noting that he returned to the Diamond District the following day to help men put on tefillin.
Rising Hate-Crime Context
The attacks occurred weeks after the NYPD disclosed that hate crimes in the city rose by nearly 13 % over the first nine months of the year compared with the same period last year, with anti-Jewish incidents accounting for more than half of the increase. Officials have highlighted the surge as part of a broader pattern of antisemitic activity in New York City.