Car rams into Chabad New York headquarters in apparent antisemitic attack

A driver rammed a car into the entrance of the Jewish Chabad movement’s New York headquarters on Wednesday. The apparent antisemitic attack comes amid growing security concerns within the Jewish community in the nation’s largest city. The iconic Chabad headquarters is located in the Crown Heights neighborhood. Video footage of the incident showed the vehicle repeatedly slamming into the building’s entrance, eventually knocking a door off its hinges. Police later arrested the unnamed driver.

Chabad spokesperson Motti Seligson confirmed in a statement that the ramming appeared to be intentional. There were no reported injuries in the attack. The New York Police has opened a hate crime investigation after the incident. 

Crown Heights Shomrim, a Jewish neighborhood watch group, revealed the driver had previously been arrested after trying to enter a Chabad synagogue in New Jersey. 

“Authorities believe he was angered by that incident and subsequently targeted Chabad Headquarters,” Shomrim announced. “At this time, there are no known links to terrorism,” the organization added. 

“This is deeply alarming, especially given the deep meaning and the history of this institution to so many in New York and around the world,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said after the attack. 

“Any threat to a Jewish institution or place of worship must be taken seriously. Antisemitism has no place in our city and violence or intimidation against Jewish New Yorkers is unacceptable. I stand in solidarity with the Crown Heights Jewish community,” he added.

However, Mamdani is a controversial figure who has publicly accused Israel of genocide, embraced anti-Zionism and called for the globalization of the Intifada, which equates to terrorism and violence against Jews. New York’s first Muslim mayor has also threatened to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he arrives to New York. Pundits have argued that Mamdani lacks the authority to carry our arrests of foreign leaders on U.S. soil. 

Several Jewish American organizations condemned the car ramming attack in New York. 

“We’re horrified by tonight’s car ramming attack at Chabad World Headquarters,” the UJA-Federation of New York said in an official statement. 

New York State Governor Kathy Hochul explicitly blasted the attack as “antisemitic violence.”

“An attack against the Jewish community is an attack against all New Yorkers,” Hochul stated. 

Mamdani started his tenure earlier this month by revoking the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, which includes demonization of Israel and calls for the Jewish state’s destruction. 

While officially claiming to oppose antisemitism, Mamdani is said to be considering appointing a critic of ultra-Orthodox Judaism as the head of the city’s office fighting antisemitism.

“While the New York City mayor gives us lip service about ‘standing in solidarity’ on Holocaust Remembrance Day, he considers Jews who despise Judaism to help us fight antisemitism,” said Inna Vernikov, a Republican and minority whip on the New York City Council.

Anti-Jewish and anti-Israel incidents have soared in the United States and worldwide since the Hamas-led massacre on Oct. 7,2023, in which 1,200 Israelis died.

U.S. campuses, such as New York’s Colombia University, became hotbeds for anti-Jewish and anti-Israel violence and threats. Last year, Brown University Prof. Hedy Wald warned that campus antisemitism had become reminiscent of “echoes of the Holocaust.”