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An NYPD car parked on a city street. Photo by Smith Collection\/Gado via Getty Images<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Hannah Feuer<\/a> A 32-year-old man has been arrested after a rabbi was verbally harassed and assaulted in Forest Hills, Queens on Tuesday, according to police.<\/p>\n The suspect, Queens resident Eric Zafra-Grosso, was charged with assault and aggravated harassment as hate crimes, police said. An investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n On Tuesday afternoon, the suspect approached the rabbi, who is also 32, at the intersection of Queens Blvd. and 71st Ave. He made antisemitic comments, then punched the rabbi in the chest and near his face, according to police. The rabbi did not know his attacker, police said.<\/p>\n The suspect fled the scene to a nearby train station, where police arrested him, according to Queens Shomrim, the neighborhood watch group.<\/p>\n The rabbi\u2019s identity has not been made public. An erroneous report identified Rabbi Colonel Henry Soussan as the victim. Reached by phone Wednesday, Soussan said that was false, and that he had not been to Queens in nearly 30 years.<\/p>\n New York officials quickly issued condemnations of the incident, which occurred on Holocaust Remembrance Day.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m horrified by the antisemitic assault on a rabbi in Forest Hills. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, New Yorkers were confronted with a painful truth: antisemitism is not a thing of the past\u2014it is a present danger that demands action from all of us,\u201d Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted to X<\/a>. \u201cThere is no place for antisemitism in our city. I stand in solidarity with Jewish New Yorkers and my administration is committed to rooting out this hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n The assault occurred a few miles from the synagogue Agudath Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, where earlier this month protesters chanted, \u201cWe support Hamas here.\u201d Mamdani drew scrutiny for issuing a delayed condemnation<\/a> of the chants.<\/p>\n Other New York leaders also condemned Tuesday\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are outraged by the antisemitic attack that occurred in our district, in which a rabbi was verbally harassed, physically assaulted, and threatened for being Jewish,\u201d read a joint statement<\/a> issued by six local elected officials. \u201cThis was a targeted act of hate, and it has no place in our community or anywhere in New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYet another sickening reminder of the scale of the hatred we are confronting,\u201d Mark Levine, the city\u2019s Jewish comptroller, posted to X<\/a>. \u201cWe need everyone in this city united in combatting this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJanuary 28, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n