announced<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\nLarry Montes, 46, was charged with two hate crime counts and one count of damaging religious property resulting in bodily injury.<\/p>\n
According to a federal complaint, Montes began shouting during an Aug. 14 Shabbat service attended by about 375 people and damaged two ceremonial candlesticks. When security personnel attempted to remove him, he allegedly punched a female congregant.<\/p>\n
\u201cJewish Americans should never have to choose between exercising our constitutional right to worship and protecting ourselves from antisemitic violence,\u201d Jayne Zirkle, communications director for the Lawfare Project, told JNS.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe welcome these federal charges and the commitment to hold those responsible accountable under the law,\u201d Zirkle said. \u201cJewish Americans, like all Americans, are entitled to equal protection and to gather, worship and live openly without fear of being targeted because of our identity.\u201d<\/p>\n
An attack on Jews in synagogue is \u201can attack on the American principle that every person has the right to worship freely and safely,\u201d she told JNS.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe right to worship without fear is not a privilege. It is a constitutional freedom and a cornerstone of American life,\u201d she said. \u201cProtecting it is a responsibility we all share.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said that Montes directed an anti-black slur at a black security guard, spat in his face and headbutted him near his left eye. Montes also allegedly threatened to return to the synagogue.<\/p>\n
During a recorded interview after his arrest, Montes said, \u201cf**k the Jews\u201d and \u201cit\u2019s racial,\u201d according to the complaint. He also said, \u201cI will never affiliate with no filthy f**king synagogues, either here or in f**king Israel,\u201d the complaint states.<\/p>\n
He also allegedly described his conduct as \u201call religious motivated.\u201d<\/p>\n
He faces up to 40 years in prison for the three charges and remains in state custody and is expected to appear later in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.<\/p>\n
The New York City Police Department previously told JNS<\/a> that he faced 14 charges, including six hate crimes. Specifically, he faced four counts of hate crime assault, two counts of assault, criminal mischief as a hate crime, criminal mischief, disrupting a religious service, criminal trespass as a hate crime, two counts of aggravated harassment and two counts of harassment, the NYPD said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Aug. 18, 2026 \/ JNS) A Bronx man faces federal hate crime charges after allegedly assaulting a Jewish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-324436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}