The crash occurred just before 9 p.m. Eastern Time at the building on Eastern Parkway near Washington Avenue. At a press conference, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said officers assigned to a detail outside Chabad headquarters “heard a commotion in the building’s main entrance.”
Tisch said when the officers responded, they saw a driver strike the rear door of the building, reverse his vehicle and then strike the rear door again. Video shows the Honda sedan repeatedly ramming into the wooden doors while people are screaming.
Officers ordered the driver out of the car and placed him under arrest. The driver has not yet been identified, and charges are pending.
Police said no injuries were reported. A representative for Chabad said the synagogue was evacuated as a precaution.
The NYPD Bomb Squad swept the vehicle and found no explosive devices.
Law enforcement investigating crash as a potential hate crime
The incident is being investigated by the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force. Tisch said as a precaution, the NYPD will be increasing security around houses of worship across all five boroughs.
In a statement, Chabad said that “a car crashed into a side entrance” of the building that “encompasses one of the most important synagogues in the world. From video and witness accounts it seems to have been intentional.”
He interacted with law enforcement at a Chabad in New Jersey, police say
South Brunswick officials said the same man interacted with police in November at the Chabad in town.
“He was acting odd, and crisis counselors were called as well. He said he wanted to convert and was homeless,” officials said.
Police responded and recommended a mental health counselor. The man was not arrested.
Local, federal officials react to the incident
In a social media post, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that he was “relieved that no one was injured in this horrifying incident.”
“This is deeply alarming, especially given the deep meaning and history of the institution to so many in New York and around the world,” Mamdani wrote. “Any threat to a Jewish institution or place of worship must be taken seriously. Antisemitism has no place in our city, and violence or intimidation against Jewish New Yorkers is unacceptable.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wrote on X that “an attack against the Jewish community is an attack against all New Yorkers. My team is coordinating with the NYPD and have offered any assistance we can provide in their investigation.”
The Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, Harmeet Dhillon, said she instructed criminal prosecutors to open a civil rights investigation into the incident.
Jewish Council for Public Affairs CEO Amy Spitalnick said this incident adds to the “too-long list of violence targeting Jewish institutions and communities.”
“This real and rising crises of antisemitism, extremism and violence require whole-of-government and whole-of-society solutions — from city, state and federal officials, from partners across communities, and from civil society — not only to invest in physical security measures, but also to build the resiliency to hate and extremism in the first place,” she said in a statement.
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