Nine yeshivah students were violently assaulted on Monday night on a New York City subway while returning from Chanukah outreach activities aimed at bringing light and connection to fellow Jews.
Like thousands of Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis and yeshivah students around the world, the students were devoting their Chanukah to ensuring that every Jew in their area had the opportunity to celebrate the holiday. They were acting on the call of the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—who launched his global Chanukah awareness campaign in 1973, so that every Jew, regardless of background or location, could participate in the holiday joy and observances.
This particular group of yeshivah students headed to Union Square in Manhattan on Sunday and Monday afternoons, where they fanned out and set up three tables, offering passersby the opportunity to do a mitzvah. As it was still daytime when they began, they offered men the chance to don tefillin and distributed Chanukah kits containing a tin menorah, candles, a holiday guide and a dreidel.
The response was overwhelmingly positive. Dozens took the opportunity to put on tefillin and more than 200 Chanukah kits were given out over the two days.
“There were people who became emotional when we offered them a menorah,” says Menachem Reichman, one of the students. “Some said they had been trying to find one, and then we showed up and offered it to them. One woman, who was visiting from Australia, nearly burst into tears. She told us she lives just a few blocks from Bondi Beach, where a horrific terror attack at a Chabad Chanukah gathering had taken place the day before.”
On Monday evening, at approximately 8 p.m., the students regrouped and began their return to the Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn. They boarded the No. 4 train at Union Square, traveling to Franklin Avenue, where they planned to transfer to the No. 3 train, which stops directly across from Chabad World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway.
As they crossed the station to make their connection, the students were suddenly accosted by a man who without provocation began shouting at the group. The students, from Israel, did not understand what he was saying and did not respond, except for one who had with a basic command of English and asked why he was shouting. This appeared to further enrage the man. The students turned away and continued onto the No. 3 train home.
The man followed them onto the train and continued shouting profanities. According to witnesses, some of the slurs were directed at the students’ Jewish identity. Video footage shows the students making a clear effort to ignore the harassment, which persisted throughout the ride.
When the man grew increasingly aggressive, raising his voice further and moving toward the students in a threatening manner, one of the students took out his phone to record the incident. At that point, a second, younger assailant who was traveling with the profanity-yelling older man and is believed to be his son, lunged at the yeshivah student and attempted to seize the phone. When he failed, he joined the older man in verbally attacking the group.
As tensions escalated, Reichman stood up to check whether any of his friends needed assistance. The younger man immediately lunged at him, grabbed him by the neck, proceeding to strangle him for several seconds before turning to the group and threatening, “I’ll kill one of y’all!”
Other passengers attempted to defuse the situation, shouting at the attackers to “chill” and “stop it.” Moments later, the train pulled into a station, and the students disembarked, some moving to another subway car, others exiting the station and continuing the rest of the way back to Crown Heights on foot.
Once the entire group arrived, they reported the incident to New York City Police Department officers, who summoned the Transit Bureau. Squad cars were dispatched to document the incident and take statements.
On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams condemned the attack, writing on X: “This despicable act of hateful violence is clearly unacceptable. We can never allow such hate and antisemitism to persist in our city—it must be condemned and rooted out from the very fabric of our city. [NYPD] Hate Crimes Division is already investigating this incident.”
U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon also denounced the attack, stating that the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division will be investigating.
The MTA likewise condemned the hate crime.
While shaken by the incident, the yeshivah students resumed their outreach efforts on Tuesday and plan to continue throughout Chanukah.
“Despite the attack, we didn’t think for a second about stopping our Chanukah outreach or even about avoiding the subway,” said Shmuel Hershkowitz, the group’s coordinator. “We’re going to double down. We plan to bring more students with us and distribute even more menorahs.”
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