A car was repeatedly driven into a synagogue in Brooklyn on Wednesday night in a suspected hate crime. The grey Honda Sedan rammed into the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters, hitting the entrance door multiple times until it came off its hinges.
Footage of the incident showed bystanders yelling at the vehicle as it reversed and smashed into the side entrance. When the driver got out, he said: “I dunno, it slipped. It slipped, you f***ing ***hole,” before being arrested by police.
Yaacov Behrman, a Chabad spokesperson, described the incident as “very frightening,” noting that it occurred on the 75th anniversary of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson accepting leadership of the movement. “We know how dangerous it is to be Jewish today worldwide,” he said.
Police are investigating the attack as a potential hate crime. The NYPD bomb squad swept the vehicle for explosives but found none. Sources said the driver, who is known to the local Jewish community, maintains his car suffered a mechanical issue. He had reportedly sought to convert to Judaism but was denied.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the incident “horrifying” and stressed that “antisemitism has no place in our city.” The attack comes amid a surge in antisemitic hate crimes in the US, with nearly 70 percent of religious-based hate crimes in 2024 targeting Jewish people, according to FBI data.
