Must be price for Jewish blood, 'mayhem going on,' rabbi tells JNS after man wearing kippah stabbed in NYC by attacker who, witnesses say, yelled 'Allahu akbar'

On Tisha B'Av, a 50-year-old Jewish man wearing a kippah was stabbed in the chest with a screwdriver outside a synagogue on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Witnesses reported the attacker yelled "Allahu Akbar." The victim, who attends Congregation Ohab Zedek, pulled the screwdriver out himself and is expected to survive.

"There has to be a price to pay for Jewish blood and Jewish harm. There is mayhem going on,"

Rabbi Allen Schwartz told JNS. The NYPD arrested 51-year-old Raul Morales in connection with this and a separate stabbing of an Asian man, both occurring on the same day. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch stated that mental health may be a factor, and the NYPD is evaluating both incidents as potential hate crimes. The attacks prompted condemnation from Governor Kathy Hochul, the Anti-Defamation League, and UJA-Federation of New York, with some criticizing Mayor Zohran Mamdani for allegedly fueling antisemitism through his anti-Israel rhetoric.