Driver turns on men heading to NYC synagogue during Rosh Hashanah: sources

One disgusted driver shouted, “F–king Jew!” when he turned his van toward people heading toward a Brooklyn synagogue during Rosh Hashanah, police and law enforcement sources said.

The victims were walking on the road near Shaare Shalom Congregation on Avenue S near Ocean Avenue about 5:25 p.m. Thursday when the reckless driver approached them “in a threatening manner,” authorities and sources said.

“F-ing Jews! Kill the Zionists!” According to sources, the motorist turned towards at least two people and taunted them in an attempt to scare them.

A 50-year-old man who was crossing the road at the time and did not want to be identified told The Post that the driver did not try to hit him or have any adverse effect on him – but when he crossed the road. As he was moving towards, he saw devastation. High Holy Day Service.

“He’s playing a light and he likes to play loud Middle Eastern music, or foreign music,” the man said.

“He drove rapidly down the block, he made another turn (and) he apparently stopped those people in the crosswalk. He stopped them, and then the guy was basically telling them, ‘Look, what’s happening?’ Then the man moved his car up a little and said something about Jews.”

“A guy said he was walking towards her and he didn’t actually hit her,” the witness said. “He was driving fast…these are narrow streets…you’re not sure if he’s just driving fast or if he’s turning towards you, you know?”

But the pedestrian admitted he was “very upset” by the motorist’s alleged statements.

“This guy was certainly reckless, but when I heard the statements he made about those individuals, I thought it was a bias incident,” he said.

The driver, who appeared to be in his 30s, began heading north on Ocean Avenue in his black Ford Transit truck, sources said. He was absconding even on Friday.

No one was injured during this hate incident.

The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident.

In a similar anti-Semitic crime in May, a maniac tried to crush Sources reported that Orthodox students and a rabbi outside a Brooklyn Jewish school were reportedly shouting, “I will kill all the Jews.”

The crazed driver, identified by police as 58-year-old Asghar Ali, was shown on video revving his engine and speeding toward Orthodox Jews milling around the Mesivta Nachlas Yaakov school.

Police said there were no casualties in that attack either. Authorities listed five victims in the case: three 18-year-olds, a 41-year-old man and a 44-year-old man.

Sources at the time said Ali was a Pakistani immigrant livery cab driver with a history of mental illness.

Police figures show complaints of anti-Semitic incidents have increased in the five boroughs over the past year, with 275 complaints lodged by the end of September this year, compared to 157 in the same period last year.

So far in 2024, complaints of anti-Semitic incidents have accounted for nearly 56% of all bias complaints in the city, up from 41% over the same period in 2023.