A 49-year-old man was spat on and subjected to anti-Jewish comments near Nostrand and Park Avenues in Brooklyn around 11:15 p.m. on September 15, and police are still asking the public for help finding the person responsible. The suspect fled westbound on a bicycle immediately after the confrontation, and no injuries were reported.
According to News 12 Brooklyn, police have requested public help identifying the suspect, who approached the victim before making the anti-Jewish statements and spitting on him. The NYPD is investigating the incident as a hate crime, as reported by JNS. Investigators described the suspect as a male with a dark complexion, last seen wearing a dark-colored shirt and pants, and released images of him in hopes someone can identify him.
Police Still Searching Months Later
Nearly two months after the incident, the case remains open, with police urging anyone with information to call 1-800-577-TIPS. The attack is one of several reported incidents that New York City officials have flagged as part of a broader pattern of antisemitic harassment playing out across the five boroughs this year.
That pattern was not confined to Brooklyn. The same account notes that the NYPD's Hate Crime Task Force separately sought help identifying a suspect accused of spitting in the face of a 13-year-old boy near 47th Street and 12th Avenue in Borough Park, after making anti-Jewish statements. No connection between the two cases has been established.
Citywide Numbers Show a Mixed Trend
Data cited by CNN in September found that antisemitic hate crimes were up 8% so far in 2026, accounting for 53.9% of all reported hate-crime incidents citywide, as detailed by CNN. That same report tallied 425 hate-crime incidents in the city so far in 2026, compared with 367 over the prior-year period, and counted 19 antisemitic incidents in August 2026 versus 22 in August 2025.
A later CNN report in late October cited updated NYPD figures showing 463 confirmed hate crimes citywide year to date, compared with 410 over the same span in 2025. Separately, The Times of Israel reported that NYPD data for January through September 2026 recorded 245 anti-Jewish hate crimes, three more than the 242 logged during the same period in 2025 — a 1.2% increase, according to the outlet. The Times of Israel also reported that anti-Jewish incidents made up 53% of the 463 confirmed citywide hate crimes for that period, and that the third quarter alone saw 59 confirmed anti-Jewish hate crimes, a 13% drop from the same quarter a year earlier. Because these figures come from reports published on different dates and covering different windows, they should not be read as a single running total.
Other Recent Cases Draw Scrutiny
The Brooklyn case comes amid other high-profile incidents cited in CNN's reporting. In late October, a woman identified as Anna Mochalova was accused of assaulting two men in separate Manhattan incidents on October 21; according to a criminal complaint described by CNN, she faces assault and menacing counts charged as hate crimes, along with weapons-possession and aggravated-harassment counts. CNN also reported that in July, two men — one Asian and one Jewish and wearing a kippah — were stabbed in separate incidents on Manhattan's Upper West Side after leaving a synagogue.
No arrest has been announced in the Nostrand Avenue case, and the investigation remains ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact police at the tip line listed above.
