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No Arrest Yet in Antisemitic Attack, Kippah Desecration Against Israeli Educator Visiting Manhattan
A view of lower Manhattan, from The Green-Wood Cemetery, during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, May 27, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Brendan McDermid
Police in New York City have opened a hate crime investigation in response to reports of a violent assault in Midtown Manhattan on Monday afternoon against an Israeli man following the theft and desecration of his kippah.
Near the Mr. Broadway kosher restaurant, an unknown man reportedly saw Rami Glickstein, pointed to his head covering, and instructed him to “tell me what your religion is.”
The 58-year-old from Ofra — north of Jerusalem in the West Bank — ignored the provocation, which in turn led to further escalation. The man — described as in his 20s or 30s — grabbed Glickstein’s kippah, threw it on the ground, and spat on it. When Glickstein knelt to retrieve the violated symbol of his Jewish identity, his attacker punched him in the face and ran, according to multiple reports.
Witnesses on the scene around 6:30 pm on West 38th Street called an ambulance for Glickstein which then took him to the Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital, where he was treated for injuries to his face.
“My pride as an Israeli was wounded more than my body,” Glickstein said of the incident, according to local news outlet 5TownsCentral. “I froze — I’ve never encountered hatred like this in my life.”
Ofir Akunis, the consul general of Israel in New York, released a statement following the hate crime.
“The attack is a direct result of the daily incitement worldwide, including in the United States, against Jews and Israel,” Akunis said. “Lies, verbal violence, calls to carry out another Oct. 7 massacre, and blood libels that are spread without any restraint — such as the false blood libel about Gaza — influence many, some of whom do not hesitate to attack physically.”
New York City has experienced a surge in anti-Jewish hate crimes since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza. The US as a whole and several other countries around the world have reported similar spikes in antisemitic activity, with many incidents against Jews or Jewish institutions invoking Israel and the Gaza conflict.
Akunis called for “all US public leaders” to “immediately and forcefully condemn the attack and the calls for violence such as to ‘globalize the intifada.’”
Glickstein, an educator who works as a lecturer for the Israel Defense Forces speaking on the topics of Jewish history and resilience, declared that “my Israeli pride was hurt,” adding that “it pains me that I couldn’t fight back, and I regret that deeply.”
Responding to the attack, the Combat Antisemitism Movement posted on X that “the rise in antisemitism in New York has become unbearable.”
On Wednesday, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released research about antisemitic crime in New York City in 2024, recording 976 incidents. Of New York’s boroughs, the ADL identified Manhattan as possessing the highest number with a count of 587, followed by Brooklyn with 253 and Queens at 85. The researchers reported 24 in Staten Island and 27 in the Bronx.
The ADL described the figures as “the highest count in any US city last year and the highest count in any US city since ADL has been tracking such incidents.”
According to the ADL’s researchers, last year over 50 percent of the anti-Jewish physical attacks in the city “targeted Orthodox Jewish victims (36 out of 69 total), though this group makes up only about one-fifth of New York City’s total Jewish population. Observant Jewish people often wear visible markers of their Judaism, such as [kippahs], making them vulnerable to random antisemitic attacks in public, which we fear have become increasingly normalized.”
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Tucker’s Ideas About Jews Come from Darkest Corners of the Internet, Says Huckabee After Combative Interview
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – In a combative interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, right-wing firebrand Tucker Carlson made a host of contentious and often demonstrably false claims that quickly went viral online. Huckabee, who repeatedly challenged the former Fox News star during the interview, subsequently made a long post on X, identifying a pattern of bad-faith arguments, distortions and conspiracies in Carlson’s rhetorical style.
Huckabee pointed out his words were not accorded by Carlson the same degree of attention and curiosity the anchor evinced toward such unsavory characters as “the little Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes or the guy who thought Hitler was the good guy and Churchill the bad guy.”
“What I wasn’t anticipating was a lengthy series of questions where he seemed to be insinuating that the Jews of today aren’t really same people as the Jews of the Bible,” Huckabee wrote, adding that Tucker’s obsession with conspiracies regarding the provenance of Ashkenazi Jews obscured the fact that most Israeli Jews were refugees from the Arab and Muslim world.
The idea that Ashkenazi Jews are an Asiatic tribe who invented a false ancestry “gained traction in the 80’s and 90’s with David Duke and other Klansmen and neo-Nazis,” Huckabee wrote. “It has really caught fire in recent years on the Internet and social media, mostly from some of the most overt antisemites and Jew haters you can find.”
Carlson branded Israel “probably the most violent country on earth” and cited the false claim that Israel President Isaac Herzog had visited the infamous island of the late, disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The current president of Israel, whom I know you know, apparently was at ‘pedo island.’ That’s what it says,” Carlson said, citing a debunked claim made by The Times reporter Gabrielle Weiniger. “Still-living, high-level Israeli officials are directly implicated in Epstein’s life, if not his crimes, so I think you’d be following this.”
Another misleading claim made by Carlson was that there were more Christians in Qatar than in Israel.
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Pezeshkian Says Iran Will Not Bow to Pressure Amid US Nuclear Talks
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that his country would not bow its head to pressure from world powers amid nuclear talks with the United States.
“World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads… but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us,” Pezeshkian said in a speech carried live by state TV.
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Italy’s RAI Apologizes after Latest Gaffe Targets Israeli Bobsleigh Team
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics – Bobsleigh – 4-man Heat 1 – Cortina Sliding Centre, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – February 21, 2026. Adam Edelman of Israel, Menachem Chen of Israel, Uri Zisman of Israel, Omer Katz of Israel in action during Heat 1. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Italy’s state broadcaster RAI was forced to apologize to the Jewish community on Saturday after an off‑air remark advising its producers to “avoid” the Israeli crew was broadcast before coverage of the Four-Man bobsleigh event at the Winter Olympics.
The head of RAI’s sports division had already resigned earlier in the week after his error-ridden commentary at the Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony two weeks ago triggered a revolt among its journalists.
On Saturday, viewers heard “Let’s avoid crew number 21, which is the Israeli one” and then “no, because …” before the sound was cut off.
RAI CEO Giampaolo Rossi said the incident represented a “serious” breach of the principles of impartiality, respect and inclusion that should guide the public broadcaster.
He added that RAI had opened an internal inquiry to swiftly determine any responsibility and any potential disciplinary procedures.
In a separate statement RAI’s board of directors condemned the remark as “unacceptable.”
The board apologized to the Jewish community, the athletes involved and all viewers who felt offended.
RAI is the country’s largest media organization and operates national television, radio and digital news services.
The union representing RAI journalists, Usigrai, had said Paolo Petrecca’s opening ceremony commentary had dealt “a serious blow” to the company’s credibility.
His missteps included misidentifying venues and public figures, and making comments about national teams that were widely criticized.