The Hill
By Emily Birnbaum - 11/26/18 11:41 AM EST


Los Angeles police over the weekend arrested a man who was allegedly caught on video repeatedly trying to run over two men near a synagogue. Authorities are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime, CBS Los Angeles reported.

Video from a security camera shows the driver apparently trying to hit two men dressed in clothing typically worn by Orthodox Jews on Shabbat. The driver, who has been identified as 32-year-old Mohammed Mohammed, reversed and tried to hit them again, according to the the local outlet. The man reportedly insulted a group of Jewish people leaving the synagogue before he got into his vehicle and attempted to run them over, the Los Angeles Police Department told the local NBC affiliate. The suspect's car crashed into another vehicle. No one was injured during the incident, according to NBC Los Angeles. Mohammed, who was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with a vehicle, is reportedly being held on $55,000 bail. “Why he chose us? Probably because of the yarmulkes on our heads,” one of the people targeted, who asked to remain anonymous, told CBS Los Angeles.

There has been an increase in anti-Semitic hate incidents in recent years, with an almost 37 percent spike in anti-Semitic hate crimes in 2017, according to the FBI in a recent report. Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said earlier this month that he is "particularly troubled by the increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes — which were already the most common religious hate crimes in the United States." "The American people can be assured that this Department has already taken significant and aggressive actions against these crimes and that we will vigorously and effectively defend their rights," he said.

Last month, a mass shooter committed the deadliest attack against Jewish people in U.S. history, killing 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/418238-video-shows-driver-repeatedly-trying-to-run-down-jews-walking

Video at link

New York Post (Metro)

By Tina Moore, Cedar Attanasio and Kevin Sheehan

November 4, 2018 | 5:30pm

https://nypost.com/2018/11/04/teens-hurl-pole-through-synagogue-window-as-jews-are-praying/

(Security video of attack at link)


A group of teens launched a metal pole through a glass window of a Brooklyn synagogue as members of the congregation observed the Sabbath on Saturday evening, authorities said. “People were praying inside at the time,” a man who was at the temple on Franklin Avenue near Myrtle Avenue in Williamsburg said on Sunday. “Everyone is upset already. So, this we don’t need this now.” The man, who did not give his name, lives in the largely Hasidic apartment complex above the first-floor synagogue, where one of the lower-floor windows was shattered by the pole.

Police are looking for four boys around the age of 16 after a witness reported the attack at about 5:45 p.m. Saturday. The youths ran south on Franklin Avenue after smashing the window, police said. Officials estimated that the property damage exceeded $250. Congregants on Sunday covered up the gaping hole in the synagogue window with a piece of black plastic.

It’s the latest in a spate of anti-Semitic attacks in New York City. Police on Saturday also released footage of a vandal who scrawled swastikas on a Brooklyn Heights wall. James Polite, 26, was also busted Friday for allegedly writing “Kill All Jews” in the stairwell of historic Union Temple in Prospect Heights. No one was injured in any of the attacks.