Another seemingly random antisemitic attack took place in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Thankfully nobody was killed, but it was still alarming and part of an insidious, growing trend. A Hasidic Jewish man was walking along the sidewalk in broad daylight on Saturday when an assailant suddenly ran up on him from behind, screaming antisemitic slurs. In a cowardly attack, he swung and viciously punched the Jewish man in the side of the head from behind and then ran away. (CBS New York)

The NYPD are looking for the man behind another violent attack in Brooklyn. The incident marks the latest in a disturbing trend. It’s another violent attack on a Jewish person that the NYPD is investigating as a hate crime.

Police say it happened Saturday around 1 p.m. in front of 545 Broadway in Williamsburg.

The 42-year-old victim was punched in the face by a person he did not know who was shouting anti-Jewish slurs at him.

There’s something strange about the CBS news coverage of this story, along with some of the other local news sources I was able to locate. While a reward is being offered by the Anti-Defamation League and the police are asking for help in identifying the attacker, the CBS coverage strangely omits any pictures or even descriptions that might help in identifying the attacker for the public. Is it because no information is available? Did the victim not get a good look at his attacker?

That’s not the case. If you go to Crown Heights Info, they have more details, plus a video. You can easily find the video from a local security camera right on Twitter. Give it a look. (Warning: potentially disturbing content depicting violence.)

Exclusive Video of a Anti-semitic attack yesterday 7:30pm in front of @SatmarHQ school on Keap st x Marcy Ave, Yingerman was attacked in his head, B"h no serious injuries @WspuShomrim @NYPD90Pct @NYCMayor @NYPDBklynNorth @NYPDHateCrimes @NYPDONeill ⁦@UnitedJewish⁩ ⁦⁩ pic.twitter.com/bzRoWUqFUo

— WILLIAMSBURG NEWS (@WMSBG) May 8, 2019

How is the press not providing a picture and description of the assailant so the public can help identify him? Would it really be so difficult for reporters to say the suspect was “an apparently young black man wearing a backpack, a grey hoodie, and dark pants?” They had no trouble identifying the victim as “an obviously orthodox Jewish man.” We are apparently at the stage now where it’s politically incorrect to mention the race of a suspect in a criminal case if they are anything other than Caucasian.

Getting back to the actual story, this is unlikely to be some random event. There’s been a long history of antipathy in New York City between black residents and the Jewish community that I’ve never been able to understand. Where did this come from? These are two communities that have frequently been subject to bigotry and attacks over the course of history. One might expect they would have a number of shared interests and goals, at least in political terms.

But for some reason, relations in New York between the African-American and Jewish communities have been terrible for as long as anyone can remember. You can go back to a deep dive in New York Magazine back in the eighties where they attempt to find the roots of the problem. It’s complicated, to say the least, but by this point, it almost seems as if nobody even remembers where this systemic antisemitism came from. But nothing excuses the sort of cowardly attack we witnessed in this video.