A 26-year-old Chabad rabbi returned to Manhattan's Diamond District on Thursday, less than 24 hours after a woman allegedly followed him and stabbed him in the back in an attack New York police are investigating as a possible antisemitic hate crime.
The rabbi, identified as Yosef, a Brooklyn resident who recently received rabbinical ordination, resumed his daily Jewish outreach activities along West 47th Street, where he regularly visits Jewish merchants and workers to help them perform religious rituals and study Torah.
Young Chabad rabbi stabbed in Manhattan's Diamond District
The woman suspected of attacking him had not been arrested, according to the report.
"I'm still shaken," Yosef told Chabad.org from 47th Street on Thursday. "I never imagined that I would be stabbed just for being Jewish, here in New York City."
The attack occurred Wednesday at approximately 6 p.m. as Yosef walked along West 47th Street, the commercial heart of Manhattan's Diamond District, an area known for its concentration of jewelry businesses and longstanding Jewish merchant community.
According to the account, a woman followed him along the sidewalk before stabbing him in the lower right side of his back with an object believed to have been a large syringe.
Yosef was left bleeding and was taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment.
Surveillance footage circulated online appears to show the woman ignoring other pedestrians while closely following Yosef from behind. At one point, he appears to maneuver around a parked vehicle in an attempt to put distance between himself and the woman.
The same woman was reportedly seen earlier pursuing another visibly Jewish man.
Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime and continuing to search for the suspect.
According to Chabad.org, Yosef travels daily from Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood to Midtown Manhattan as part of his outreach work.
He visits Jewish jewelers, merchants and craftsmen in the Diamond District, helping men put on tefillin — small leather boxes containing passages from the Torah that observant Jewish men wear during weekday morning prayers.
He also encourages them to observe additional mitzvahs, or Jewish religious commandments, and shares Torah teachings with them.
Despite the attack, Yosef returned Thursday to the same streets and businesses he regularly visits, saying he wanted to strengthen the spirits of fellow Jews.
He said thoughts of his grandparents, both Holocaust survivors, had stayed with him since the stabbing.
"They survived the Holocaust, experienced the worst of hatred, and still went on to build a proud Jewish family," he told Chabad.org.
Yosef said he knew how his grandparents would have encouraged him to respond.
"Don't back down. Go back out there and help another Jew put on tefillin. Do another mitzvah. Stand taller and prouder than ever."
Their example, he said, inspired his decision to resume his activities immediately.
"That's why I came back today. Their answer to hatred was more Jewish life. Mine will be too," Yosef said. "We'll never back down. We'll just keep spreading more light."