Queens man arrested for attacking rabbi on Holocaust Remembrance Day
/
A Queens man was arrested and charged with an alleged antisemitic assault on a rabbi in Forest Hills this week. Photo via Queens Shomrim/X
By Ryan Schwach
A man was arrested for an alleged antisemitic attack on a Queens rabbi in Forest Hills on Tuesday, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The man, 32-year-old Eric Zafra Grosso, who is from Corona, is accused of attacking the rabbi in an unprovoked incident this week.
According to the Queens district attorney’s office, between 2:20 p.m. and 3 p.m., on Tuesday Zafra Grosso approached the victim, identified by the Daily News as Rabbi David Shushan, at the intersection of Queens Boulevard and Yellowstone Boulevard in Forest Hills.
The Corona man allegedly said “f– Jews” and then punched the rabbi in the face and chest, causing him to fall to the ground.
“I was shocked,” the Bukharian rabbi told the Daily News. “It was a regular day. I was walking along, looking at the street, when this guy in a black hoodie and black pants comes out of nowhere, starts cursing at me and struck me.”
He said they fought for several minutes, rolling in the snow.
“I don’t know if he is unhealthy in his mind or not,” Shushan told the tabloid. “But he chose me because I was Jewish. I wear Jewish apparel in the streets. He chose me. It was simple. I was his target.”
Zafra Grosso fled, and was later located inside the Forest Hills-71st Continental Avenue subway station by a Queens Shomrim patrol, which responded to the incident. He was later arrested on a subway train by the NYPD.
He was charged Wednesday with assault in the third degree, assault in the third degree as a hate crime and aggravated harassment in the second degree.
Queens Criminal Court Judge Sharifa Nasser-Cuellar ordered Zafra Grosso return to court on March 16. If convicted of the top charge, he faces 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison.
A group of Queens elected officials condemned the attack.
“We are outraged by the antisemitic attack that occurred in our district, in which a Rabbi was verbally harassed, physically assaulted, and threatened for being Jewish,” said City Councilmember Lynn Schulman, State Assemblymembers Sam Berger and Andrew Hevesi, State Senators Joe Addabbo and Leroy Comrie and Representative Grace Meng in a joint statement. “This was a targeted act of hate, and it has no place in our community or anywhere in New York City.”
“This attack – occurring on Holocaust Remembrance Day — underscores the urgent responsibility we all share to confront hate before it escalates into violence,” they added.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was “horrified” by the incident.
“Antisemitism is not a thing of the past — it is a present danger that demands action from all of us,” he said. “There is no place for antisemitism in our city. I stand in solidarity with Jewish New Yorkers and my administration is committed to rooting out this hatred.”
