The NYPD is searching for a hateful attacker who snarled “Free Palestine!” before chucking a rock at a Jewish man in Brooklyn late last month.
The victim, a 47-year-old man, was wearing “traditional religious attire” when the bike-riding suspect rolled up to him on Montrose Avenue near South 5th Street in Williamsburg around 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 22, police and sources said.
“Free Palestine,” seethed the man, who was caught on surveillance video released Monday by the NYPD then hurling a rock at the victim.
The victim was struck in the right leg, and the blow left behind a cut, authorities said.
After the assault, the suspect pedaled away on the bike, heading west toward Broadway, cops said.
The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force was investigating, and so far, no arrests have been made, authorities said.
The rock-flinging bigot is believed to be about 25 years old and 5 feet, 10 inches tall, cops said.
He was last seen wearing a gray jacket, blue sweatpants, a blue hoodie, and white sneakers.
Last month, 62 hate crimes targeting Jewish victims were reported citywide — up from 45 such offenses reported in November 2022.
The city has seen a surge in antisemitic crimes since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in early October, according to NYPD data.
In a more recent incident, a thief on a moped ripped a traditional fur headpiece known as a shtreimel — valued at $2,500 — off the head of a Jewish man in Borough Park Saturday afternoon.
On Thursday — the first night of Hanukkah — a stranger pummeled a 30-year-old Jewish man dressed in traditional religious garb and called him a “dirty Jew” before snatching his cellphone in Crown Heights, cops said.
Two days earlier, an unhinged man hurled an anti-Semitic remark at a 66-year-old man who accidentally bumped into him inside a Lower Manhattan Duane Reade — and then punched him in the head, authorities said.
The city has also seen a recent increase in crimes targeting Muslim victims, NYPD data from November shows.
Seven anti-Muslim hate crimes were reported last month, compared to none in November of 2022, according to the statistics.
