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Joseph Borgen was beaten in the streets while wearing a kippah. Now, he’s fighting in the NYC court system
(New York Jewish Week) — Before Joseph Borgen was beaten in the street nearly two years ago, on the way to a pro-Israel rally, he enjoyed playing basketball after returning home to the Upper East Side from his day job as an accountant.
In the time since Borgen, now 30, was attacked, that hasn’t been possible. The incident — in which five men shouting antisemitic slurs punched, kicked, pepper-sprayed and beat Borgen with crutches — left him needing surgery on his wrist. Only recently has he started going back to the gym.
“It’s something that is still lingering and I’d love to put it in my rearview,” Borgen, who is the eldest of five siblings, told the New York Jewish Week. “It doesn’t just only affect me. My little brother was seeing me on the news. He’s still a kid. We’re very close.”
The attack on Borgen drew national attention, and came amid a string of antisemitic assaults in the United States surrounding the May 2021 conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Now, Borgen is caught in a conflict of a different kind, one that illustrates the long tail of hate crimes that have faded from public consciousness. He doesn’t want the beating to define him, but finds that its after-effects have festered — and that a controversy over the ensuing trial of his alleged attackers has spurred him to become a passionate, if ambivalent, advocate against antisemitism.
“There is some value and good in speaking about what happened and just getting the message out there,” Borgen said. “But it’s not something I want to harp on.”
Joey Borgen, victim of a violent antisemitic attack last yr which took place few blocks from Times Square, said “The attack on me was no isolated incident. Pittsburgh to Poway to across the river in NJ— violent, deadly antisemtism is increasing to record levels”#ShineALight pic.twitter.com/4x29t9Pzi2
— JCRC of New York (@JCRCNY) November 29, 2021
Borgen was walking to a pro-Israel rally when he was attacked in the street in midtown Manhattan on May 20, 2021 — the same day Hamas and Israel announced a ceasefire after 11 days of conflict. A blurry video of the attack that circulated on social media showed a small crowd of men surrounding Borgen, kicking him and beating him with sticks. A photo of Borgen from later that night shows Borgen with a puffy red face, and wearing a neck brace.
“I was just wearing a kippah, listening to music, just minding my own business — and it all just erupted,” Borgen said, recalling the incident. “Before I can even really react or do anything, there’s a group of individuals surrounding me. I didn’t have the time to process what was going on.”
Borgen is still facing those who have been accused of attacking him — but that confrontation has moved to the courts. The lead perpetrator, Waseem Awawdeh, was charged with hate crime assault, along with a list of other charges. The case is still in process, and the next hearing is on April 20.
“I can’t even tell you how hard personally I’ve been fighting for this,” Borgen told the New York Jewish Week. “If there’s no accountability or consequences of what took place, what happened to me is going to happen to someone else.”
Borgen is currently worried that Awawdeh will go to prison for a small fraction of the maximum sentence he faces, which, according to Borgen’s attorney, is 15 years. That concern stems from reports in the New York Post and New York Sun that Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg offered Awawdeh a six-month plea deal.
Those reports have sparked a chorus of criticism, as well as a letter to Bragg by nearly two dozen groups lobbying against the deal. The signatories were a mix of right-wing, pro-Israel and Orthodox groups, including the Rabbinical Council of America, an association for Orthodox rabbis; the Zionist Organization of America, a right-wing organization; and Americans Against Antisemitism, a group founded by former New York State Assemblymember Dov Hikind, who represented a Brooklyn district.
“Failing to impose severe consequences here would send the dangerous and unacceptable message that Jews can be brutally attacked with impunity,” said the letter, which was sent earlier this month.
Hikind told the New York Jewish Week that he wants more Jews to vocally support Borgen. “We need to fill the courtroom,” Hikind said. “Unfortunately, we’re just not there. The community needs to come out.”
The six-month deal, however, seems like far from a sure thing. Awawdeh’s lawyer, Peter Marc Frankel, confirmed the deal to the Post in January, as did prosecutors on the case. But speaking to the New York Jewish Week on Monday, Frankel said he was unsure if the deal would come to fruition.
“I don’t know if it’s going to happen, frankly,” Frankel said. “It’s unclear at this point. I don’t know if it’s going to be a six-month deal, but I would not expect a shorter deal, certainly.”
The deal has not yet been openly discussed in court, and Borgen’s lawyer, Ross Pearlson, who is representing his client pro-bono on behalf of the Anti-Defamation League, told the New York Jewish Week that “it’s not clear” if the six-month deal will hold.
“I’m unaware of any offers being made,” Pearlson said. “I believe that a year would be more appropriate. Six months to me still seems a little light considering the mob violence and the damage that was done to [Borgen].”
Bragg’s office declined to comment on the deal. The ADL likewise did not respond to requests for comment on the case.
Shortly after the attack, in 2021, a prosecutor on the case said that Awawdeh had told one of his jailers, “If I could do it again, I would do it again,” according to the Post. But Frankel told the New York Jewish Week that “that quote was taken completely out of context” and that Awawdeh has offered to meet and apologize to Borgen. He also met with the prosecutors to explain how remorseful he felt.
“[Awawdeh’s] behavior was the result of bad impulse control and a bad reaction to a bad situation, rather than an effort to try to seek someone out who is Jewish to commit a hate crime,” Frankel said.
Pearlson added that Borgen “has been traumatized by this event.”
“He’s very emotional when I speak to him about it,” Pearlson said. “He gets agitated for each one of these court appearances. When we talk about the case, he’s passionate about it.”
There are now five defendants in the case, including Awawdeh, and the D.A.’s office is treating them differently based on their alleged respective roles in the beating.
“Justice is not one size fits all,” Pearlson said. “It doesn’t move quickly, but in this case, it’s not the D.A.’s office delaying things or dragging its heels. There’s going to be some element of justice done.”
The fact that Borgen’s case is being prosecuted at all puts it in the minority of hate crimes complaints in Manhattan. According to NYPD statistics, police precincts in the borough received 241 hate crime complaints in 2022, and made 118 arrests based on those complaints.
Bragg’s office told the New York Jewish Week that 92 hate crimes were prosecuted in Manhattan last year. His office currently has 20 open hate crime cases related to antisemitism for this year. A report last year in The City, a local publication, found that most hate crimes charges are dropped before any convictions take place.
Although Borgen remains involved in the case, and has spoken about his experience publicly, he suggested that it was still hard to think about.
“Some people have said, ‘God only put you through this because you can handle it,’” said Borgen, who is modern Orthodox and puts on tefillin daily. “But if I start to think about it in those terms, I don’t want to go there. I don’t want to let it factor into my views on God and spirituality because if I did, it might make me start to question and wonder about things. I don’t want to go down that road.”
On March 9, Borgen appeared in court, sitting in the same room as his alleged attackers. While he could not comment on the specifics of the hearing, not wanting to impact court proceedings, he said that “it sucks to be in the same room as individuals who could have killed me.”
“I don’t like going to court,” Borgen said. “I do it because when I’m there with other people, a large group of Jewish individuals, it sends a message that we’re not lying down and taking this.”
—
The post Joseph Borgen was beaten in the streets while wearing a kippah. Now, he’s fighting in the NYC court system appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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California Democrat Scott Wiener Accuses Israel of ‘Genocide’ in Sharp Reversal Following Debate Backlash
California State Sen. Scott Weiner. Photo: Screenshot
California State Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat seeking to succeed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the US Congress, announced on Sunday that he believes Israel’s military campaign in Gaza meets the definition of “genocide,” a sharp reversal from a recent debate in which he declined to use the term.
Wiener’s declaration came after a contentious candidate forum last week in San Francisco, during which he declined to answer a direct question about whether he believed Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. That hesitation was met with jeers from the audience.
In a video posted Sunday on the X social media platform, Wiener, who is Jewish, said he had “stopped short of calling it genocide, but I can’t anymore,” citing the “devastation and catastrophic death toll” in Gaza as justification for using the term. Weiner also accused Israeli officials of making “genocidal” statements while justifying their military operations against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza and claimed that Israel schemed to “destroy Gaza and push Palestinians out.”
The state senator also acknowledged the emotional weight the word holds for many Jews, given its origins in describing the Holocaust.
For years, I’ve condemned Netanyahu and his extremist government and the devastation they’ve inflicted on Gaza. It’s why I’ve been clear I won’t support U.S. funding for the destruction of Palestinian communities. I’ve stopped short of calling it genocide, but I can’t anymore. pic.twitter.com/71nIt6K527
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) January 11, 2026
Denying accusations of genocide, Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication.
Another challenge for Israel is Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
Wiener’s accusation of genocide marks a complete reversal not only from his recent debate answer but also from a new profile of him published in The Atlantic, in which he denied accusations of genocide lobbed at Israel and decried the weaponization of the war in Gaza as a “purity test.” He compared such ideological mandates to medieval attempts to divide the Jewish community between “good Jews” and “bad Jews.” Weiner also argued that Jewish liberals are being pushed out of progressive spaces if they don’t demonstrate sufficient hatred for Israel.
“If part of your Jewishness is, you know, that you support the homeland of the Jews and the home of one-half of all Jews on the planet, then that makes you a bad Jew,” Weiner said. “If you’re not willing to use the exact language that we want you to use, then you’re a bad Jew.”
The article came out on Sunday, the same day of his social media post accusing Israel of genocide.
Weiner has been a frequent target of anti-Israel demonstrators. In October, a group of agitators confronted the state lawmaker and accused him of supporting “genocide.”
Mallory McMorrow, a Democratic candidate for US Senate in Michigan, similarly lamented that accusations of “genocide” against Israel are becoming a “purity test” within Democratic primaries. She argued in a new interview with Detroit Public Radio that there exists a “broadly shared goal among most Michiganders, that this violence needs to stop, that a temporary cease fire needs to become a permanent cease fire, that Palestinians deserve long term peace and security, that Israelis deserve long term peace and security.”
However, the candidate argued, “I also feel like we are getting lost in this conversation, and it feels like a political purity test on a word — a word that, by the way, to people who lost family members in the Holocaust, does mean something very different and very visceral.”
McMorrow, who has previously claimed she agrees that Israel committed a so-called “genocide” in Gaza, suggested that some candidates in the race are “using this as a political weapon and fundraising off of it.” Abdul El-Sayeed, a progressive Democrat in the Senate race, has condemned Israel for committing “genocide” and has called for an arms embargo on the Jewish state.
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Megyn Kelly Gushes Over Nick Fuentes: ‘There Is Value to Be Derived From That Guy’s Messaging’
Megyn Kelly hosts a “prove me wrong” session during AmericaFest, the first Turning Point USA summit since the death of Charlie Kirk, in Phoenix, Arizona, US, Dec. 19, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Caitlin O’Hara
Megyn Kelly expressed her sympathies for white nationalist Nick Fuentes and antisemite Candace Owens, two Holocaust deniers who are rising in popularity among millennials and Gen Zers, in a video interview with fellow right-wing podcaster Tucker Carlson published last week.
Immediately following the murder of prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk last year, Owens began promoting the conspiracy theory of Israeli involvement, sentiments likewise promoted by Carlson.
“And then came Candace Owens. And she really drives people crazy. She drives them crazy,” Kelly said, provoking snickers from Carlson. “Very angry. I didn’t call her out for Israel possibly being involved with Charlie Kirk. Well, I didn’t call her out because I was totally fine with those questions being raised.”
Kelly then raised her open palm to her face and declared, “And still am!”
Carlson cackled again in response and Kelly continued, insisting, “But I am. I’m sick of this bulls–t. I’m allowed to have questions about what if anyone aligned with Israel or from Israel might have had to do with Charlie’s death.”
Kelly: “I am sick of this ********! I am allowed to have questions about what if, anyone, aligned with Israel or from Israel might have had to do with Charlie’s death.”
She’s gone, folks. Stop giving her the benefit of the doubt.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) January 8, 2026
In October, Florida state Attorney General James Uthmeier announced charges against Nicholas Ray of Spring, Texas for alleged death threats made with a “zionistarescum” X account against Jewish conservatives identified online by Owens as allegedly involved in Kirk’s murder.
There has been no actual evidence showing Israeli complicity in Kirk’s murder, for which Tyler Robinson, 22, has been charged. He was romantically involved with his transgender roommate, and prosecutors have reportedly argued that Kirk’s anti-trans rhetoric was a key factor that allegedly led him to shoot the Turning Point USA founder.
Kelly also praised Fuentes during her conversation with Carlson.
“He’s very interesting and he’s very smart,” Kelly said of Fuentes, who has praised Adolf Hitler. “And on a lot of things there is value to be derived from that guy’s messaging. I’m sorry, but he actually has a lot of things he talks about that you’re like ‘that’s not a bad point about our country.’”
Adopting a mocking affectation, Kelly said, “I won’t condemn and say that Candace Owens is hateful. They want me really, really badly to condemn Candace Owens. And I’m sorry to break it to them but I am responsible for what I say. Not for what anybody else says. I am not Candace Owens’s policeman. And by the way they’re kidding themselves that if just one more voice will say something nasty about Candace she can finally be controlled.”
In response to right-wing X influencer Ian Miles Cheong (who has 1.2 million followers and reportedly posts from Malaysia) sharing a clip of this statement, Kelly raged back: “You’re a pathetic misinformation whore. I was explaining why young white men are listening to Fuentes & made clear that while I believe he makes interesting points about the govt etc I was not speaking about his thoughts on Jews, women, blacks etc. F–k you & your lies.”
In December, the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) released a report analyzing online support for Fuentes, suggesting he has received a major boost from inauthentic amplification by anonymous actors in foreign countries such as India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Malaysia, and Indonesia. For example, the research revealed that “in a sample of 20 recent posts, 61% of Fuentes’s first-30-minute retweets came from accounts that retweeted multiple of these 20 posts within that same ultra-short window – behavior highly suggestive of coordination or automation.”
Earlier this month, Owens blamed Zionists for inspiring US President Donald Trump to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
On Tuesday, Fuentes wrote on X in reference to Venezuela: “Your oil, our choice. Forever [American flag rmoji],” a reference to his infamous popularization of the phrase “your body, my choice” among his Groyper followers.
Fuentes described his views on Venezuela on Jan. 3, explaining that while he thought the military action “initially seemed like a solid operation to cleanly, bloodlessly, and quickly remove Maduro from power last night” he thought “this new policy of ‘running Venezuela’ with US soldiers sounds like a massive over-commitment. I have zero confidence in nation-building. Big mistake.”
The next day Fuentes continued on X, articulating his foreign policy vision of banditry, fantasizing, “Now that Venezuela has been liberated, we must send every single Venezuelan illegal, refugee, and criminal back home. Take the oil, remigrate the foreigners.”
On Sunday, Fuentes promoted another conspiracy theory, asserting that “the chaos in Iran is totally astroturfed by Israel and the US for regime change. This was always their endgame after over a decade of industrial sabotage, sanctions, political subversion, & espionage. Why do you think Iran wanted nuclear weapons? To prevent this exact scenario.”
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Fundraiser for ICE agent who killed Renee Good includes antisemitic attack on Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey
(JTA) — Supporters of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot and killed Renee Good, a U.S. citizen, in Minneapolis last week are flocking to an online fundraiser to, in its organizer’s words, “Defend the Agent Who Stopped a Deadly Attack on America’s Border Enforcers!”
Included in the fundraiser’s pitch: antisemitic language directed at the city’s Jewish mayor, Jacob Frey.
After stating that Good had engaged “in a blatant act of domestic terrorism aimed at killing or maiming the men protecting our borders from the endless invasion,” the description continued: “But this didn’t happen in a vacuum — it’s the direct result of anti-American traitors like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (who is Jewish) fanning the flames of resistance.”
The description went on to call Frey a “sanctuary city traitor” and states, “His rhetoric empowers violent agitators, turning Minneapolis into a warzone for our heroes enforcing the law and deporting the hordes that weak leaders like him protect.”
The fundraiser was posted Jam. 7 on GiveSendGo, a crowdfunding website popular with right-wing causes, and has raised more than $186,000 of its $200,000 goal as of Monday afternoon. The co-founder of GiveSendGo, Jacob Wells, has promoted the campaign extensively and claims to have corresponded directly with the ICE agent, Jonathan Ross.
“God bless you all! Keep sharing,” Wells wrote on the social network X, receiving positive responses from the actor Dean Cain, among others.
After being circulated online and verified by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the clause “(who is Jewish)” was removed from the description of Frey late Monday.
The campaign’s organizer is named as “Tom Hennessey,” and appears to have launched the fundraiser before Ross himself was identified. The campaign does not name Ross.
An account named “TomHennessey69” on X who has claimed credit for the fundraiser bills himself as a “white independent journalist” and “soap enthusiast.” In addition to a stream of anti-immigration rhetoric, Hennessey has also made several antisemitic posts, including one on Monday that blamed Jews for the recent Hanukkah mass shooting in Australia.
“Notice the pattern? Jews arrive in Australia, flood it with non-Whites. Non-Whites rampage—eventually turning on Jews. Jews then push new anti-semitism laws aka free speech bans, gun control to disarm Whites, and ban White nationalist groups for noticing,” Hennessey wrote, adding, “Australia, not a good look for jewish diaspora, many such cases.” In another reply to his post, Hennessey endorsed a neo-Nazi account’s pro-Hitler message.
Hennessey has also used similar language as the fundraiser’s to describe his own Jewish opponents.
Online, the GiveSendGo link has been promoted by figures including Turning Point USA pundit Jack Posobiec and Minnesota-based right-wing journalist Liz Collin.
It is not the only fundraiser to have been set up by self-proclaimed supporters of Ross since Good’s killing. A separate campaign without antisemitic language launched on GoFundMe, a more mainstream crowdfunding website, has raised more than $467,000 to date since its launch on Friday.
The largest donation to date on the GoFundMe fundraiser, $10,000, came from Bill Ackman, the Jewish activist investor who has become a prominent advocate against antisemitism.
“I am [a] big believer in our legal principal [sic] that one is innocent until proven guilty,” Ackman wrote on X over the weekend, in a post about why he donated. He added that he had “intended to similarly support the gofundme for Renee Good’s family” but that “her gofundme was closed by the time I attempted to provide support.”
Comments online suggest that the two fundraisers for Ross may be linked and may have a direct line to Ross himself.
In a Sunday update, the GoFundMe campaign’s organizer, Clyde Emmons, wrote, “the creater [sic] of the givesendgo fund has direct contact with Johnathan! so I am in contact with him gave him my number and he said he would pass it onto John himself so I can finally add him as the beneficiary so he can get these funds he deserves.”
On X, Collin wrote that she was in contact with both organizers and that the GiveSendGo campaign is “now the preferred method to donate to the ICE agent.”
The fundraisers for Ross were launched partly as a response to a GoFundMe for Good’s family, which raised more than $1.5 million before its organizers closed donations.
“Renee was a Christian who knew that all religions teach the same essential truth: we are here to love each other, care for each other, and keep each other safe and whole,” that campaign’s organizers wrote.
Comparisons between ICE agents and Nazis or the Gestapo have grown since the agency has stepped up its presence in American cities under President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans. Some Jewish communal leaders, including several in Minnesota, have vocally criticized ICE’s actions, with a few linking them to the memory of the Holocaust.
Since Good’s killing, Frey has vocally criticized ICE’s presence in Minneapolis, using an expletive in a press conference as he urged the agents to leave. The fundraiser’s description of the mayor notes this, also blasting Frey for his executive orders.
“These agents are the tip of the spear in reclaiming our country from the illegal invasion—deporting criminals, invaders, and threats that politicians like Frey invited in and shield,” the description states.
It concludes: “Stand tall: Donate today to send a message that we back the men removing illegals and invaders from our soil, no matter the sabotage from mayors who put foreigners over Americans. No apologies, no retreat—Mass Deportations Now!”
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