Rami Glickstein, a 58-year-old Israeli educator, was assaulted Monday in what police believe was an antisemitic attack while on his way to a kosher restaurant in the heart of New York City.
Glickstein said he was walking toward the well-known “Mr. Broadway” restaurant on 38th Street in Manhattan when a man approached him, pointed at his kippah, and said, “Tell me about your religion.” When Glickstein did not respond, the man snatched the kippah off his head, threw it to the ground, and spat on it. As Glickstein bent down to pick it up, the attacker punched him in the face.
Rami Glickstein was assaulted in a suspected antisemitic attack
Other Jewish bystanders who witnessed the incident shouted at the assailant and called the police and an ambulance. Glickstein managed to get to his feet and enter the restaurant before being taken to a hospital. The suspect fled the scene and has not yet been apprehended by police.
“My Israeli pride was hurt,” Glickstein said. “It pains me that I couldn’t fight back, and I regret that deeply.” He added that, in addition to his educational work, he also lectures in the IDF.
The attack comes amid a surge in antisemitic incidents targeting Jews and Israelis in New York since the start of the war on October 7. Earlier this month, Vincent Sumpter was sentenced to five years in prison for a 2024 attack on Israeli yeshiva student Yechiel Michel Dobruskin, a member of the Chabad community in Crown Heights. During that attack, Sumpter shouted “Free Palestine,” threatened passersby, and stabbed Dobruskin with a knife, missing his heart by just four centimeters. “He was threatening children,” Dobruskin later recalled. “I told him to leave—and then he pulled a knife.”
In August, the FBI opened a hate crime investigation after a violent assault on Jewish diners at a kosher restaurant in Queens. The attack occurred on July 20 at the “Sissam” restaurant, where a group of men and women reportedly shouted, “We’re going to kill all the Jews,” before attacking patrons. Two victims were hospitalized—one with broken ribs and another with a concussion and facial injuries.
One woman described the assault, saying, “They threw me to the ground, the women kicked me and beat me all over—my head, stomach, back, and neck. Then the men joined in. I thought I was going to die. I screamed for help.”