A Brooklyn woman said she was left terrified after being chased and stoned by a mob of Orthodox Jewish men who mistook her for an anti-Israeli protestor.
The woman, who remained anonymous over fears for her safety, told the Associated Press she was afraid for her life when she was set upon by the mob on Thursday night near the global headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.
The chaos unfolded after Israel‘s hardline security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir gave a speech at the headquarters, which was met with furious protests outside the building.
One other woman was reportedly left bloodied in the clashes outside alongside an anti-Israeli Orthodox Jewish man, who was seen in footage shared to social media being shoved to the ground by other Orthodox Jewish men.
Later in the evening, the woman who was chased by the mob said she was mistaken for one of the demonstrators as scenes on the Brooklyn street turned ugly.
She said she was unaware of the protests near her apartment in the Crown Heights neighborhood of the New York City borough until she heard police helicopters flying overhead.
After walking over to investigate at around 10:30pm, she said she covered her face with a scarf to avoid being filmed at the event, but the move sparked fury from the mob.
‘As soon as I pulled up my scarf, a group of 100 men came over immediately and encircled me,’ she said.
A Brooklyn woman said she was left terrified after being chased and pelted with objects by a mob of Orthodox Jewish men who mistook her for an anti-Israeli protestor on Thursday night
The woman was seen in shocking images being set upon by the mob on Thursday night near the global headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement
Recalling the terrifying moment the mob pounced on her, the woman said: ‘They were shouting at me, threatening to rape me, chanting ‘death to Arabs.’
‘I thought the police would protect me from the mob, but they did nothing to intervene.’
A lone police officer was seen escorting her from the danger, and they were reportedly followed for several blocks by the gang of men.
Video shows two of the men kicking her in the back, another hurling a traffic cone into her head and a fourth pushing a trash can into her.
‘This is America,’ one of the men can be heard saying. ‘We got Israel. We got an Army now.’
At one point, she and the police officer were nearly cornered against a building, the video shows.
‘I felt sheer terror,’ the woman recalled. ‘I realized at that point that I couldn’t lead this mob of men to my home. I had nowhere to go. I didn’t know what to do. I was just terrified.’
The crowd later erupted in cheers as she was helped into a police vehicle and driven away from the scene, with one man heard yelling ‘get her’ as she was bundled into the car.
The chaos unfolded after Israel’s hardline security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir gave a speech at the Chabad-Lubavitch movement headquarters, which was met with furious protests
Pro-Israel and anti-Israel protestors clashed earlier in the day on Thursday (pictured)
‘I’m afraid to move around the neighborhood where I’ve lived for a decade,’ she said after the encounter.
‘It doesn’t seem like anyone in any position of power really cares.’
The Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters previously made headlines last year when footage swept social media showing Orthodox Jewish members emerging from a tunnel they had built under the building.
Following the clash on Thursday night, a police spokesperson told AP that one person was arrested and five people were issued summons, but did not say if anyone involved in harassing the woman was charged.
Mayor Eric Adams said Sunday that police were investigating ‘a series of incidents stemming from clashing protests on Thursday that began when a group of anti-Israel protesters surrounded the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters — a Jewish house of worship — in Brooklyn.’
He said police had spoken to a different woman on the pro-Palestinian side of the protest who suffered injuries after she was harassed by counter protesters.
Photos shared online showed that woman with blood streaming down her face, although she has not been identified.
Adams said: ‘Let me be clear: None of this is acceptable, in fact, it is despicable.
‘New York City will always be a place where people can peacefully protest, but we will not tolerate violence, trespassing, menacing, or threatening.’
The Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters previously made headlines last year when footage swept social media showing Orthodox Jewish members emerging from a tunnel they had built under the building
The appearance of Itamar Ben-Gvir brought protests last week
Police said one person was arrested and five people were issued summons following the ugly scenes last week, but did not say if anyone involved in harassing the woman was charged
In a statement from Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesperson for Chabad Lubavitch, the group denounced the mob that chased the woman as well as the demonstrations against Ben-Gvir.
‘The violent provocateurs who called for the genocide of Jews in support of terrorists and terrorism — outside a synagogue, in a Jewish neighborhood, where some of the worst antisemitic violence in American history was perpetrated, and where many residents share deep bonds with the victims of Oct. 7 — did so in order to intimidate, provoke, and instill fear,’ he said.
‘We condemn the crude language and violence of the small breakaway group of young people; such actions are entirely unacceptable and wholly antithetical to the Torah’s values.
‘The fact that a possibly uninvolved bystander got pulled into the melee further underscores the point.’
