{"id":325661,"date":"2026-08-20T09:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T09:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/325661\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T09:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T09:28:12","slug":"manhattan-central-synagogue-attacker-faces-federal-hate-crime-charges-the-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/325661\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhattan Central Synagogue attacker faces federal hate crime charges \u2013 The Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"This<\/p>\n

This image shot on May 20, 2019 shows New York Central Synagogue on Lexington avenue. Photo by DANIEL SLIM\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Grace Gilson<\/a><\/p>\n

\n August 20, 2026\n <\/p>\n

(JTA<\/a>) \u2014 The man accused of disrupting Shabbat services at Manhattan\u2019s Central Synagogue last week now faces federal hate crimes charges in addition to the state ones leveled against him immediately after the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese charges serve as notice that the Department of Justice will intervene to protect the public in the face of antisemitic and racially motivated attacks,\u201d Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department\u2019s Civil Rights Division said in a statement<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Larry Montes, 46, of the Bronx, New York, was charged with two counts of committing hate crimes, each of which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, and one count of damage to religious property resulting in bodily injury, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n

During the attack last Friday at the Reform synagogue in Manhattan, Montes, who was sitting near the front of the sanctuary, allegedly stood up nine minutes into the service and began shouting, \u201cYou know who the f\u2013ck I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montes then approached the stage of the synagogue and knocked over two ceremonial silver candle sticks, causing them to be damaged, according to the complaint filed by an FBI agent investigating the case.<\/p>\n

As the synagogue\u2019s head of security attempted to remove Montes from the sanctuary, he then said \u201cF\u2013ck you people\u201d and \u201cI don\u2019t f\u2013ck with you people\u201d before punching a 63-year-old congregant in the face and knocking her to the ground.<\/p>\n

While Montes was handcuffed and arrested in the lobby of the synagogue, he then allegedly told a security guard \u201cF\u2013ck you [n-word]\u201d and headbutted him near his left eye socket.<\/p>\n

During his subsequent interview with NYPD officers following his arrest, he allegedly told officers, \u201cF\u2013ck the Jews. \u2026 It\u2019s racial\u201d and \u201cI will never affiliate with no filthy f\u2013cking synagogues, either here or in fucking Israel.\u201d Montes allegedly told officers that he had felt disrespected at the service, so he \u201cgot up, start[ed] some sh\u2013t, [and] smacked somebody around.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked by NYPD officers why he felt disrespected at the service, Montes allegedly replied, \u201cit\u2019s all a racial thing\u201d and that it was \u201call religious motivated.\u201d Montes also stated during his post-arrest interview that he identified as Jewish, according to the complaint. Montes\u2019 aunt previously told the New York Post<\/a> that he was \u201cmentally traumatized because of his desire to belong to that religion [Judaism].\u201d<\/p>\n

Montes has been in custody since his arrest immediately after Friday\u2019s attack. He was arraigned that same night and is due in Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The federal charges come as the attack has sparked widespread condemnation<\/a> from New York leaders, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and spurred a Jewish security watchdog group to call on the NYPD to place more officers in hotspots for potential hate crimes.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared<\/a> on JTA.org.<\/p>\n

Did you know that only 2% of Forward readers donate to support our nonprofit newsroom? That 2% make it possible for millions to read the Forward without a paywall or subscription \u2014 removing any barriers to the full and fair Jewish story.<\/p>\n

But while the Forward is free to read, it isn\u2019t free to produce. Big stories \u2014 like deep dives into the antisemitism data, political scoops or reporting trips to college campuses\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 take months of research and fact-checking. All while we keep you informed of what you need to know each day.<\/p>\n

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This image shot on May 20, 2019 shows New York Central Synagogue on Lexington avenue. Photo by DANIEL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-325661","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\/325661","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=325661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}