Photo: Tony Webster/ Wikimedia Commons

A spokesperson for a major Jewish human rights group told The Algemeiner on Friday that it is troubled by the early morning stabbing of an Orthodox Jew in Manhattan.

Evan Bernstein, New York Regional Director for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), said, “We are concerned by the report of a violent attack on Avraham Fekete, a traditional Orthodox man, at the Bleeker Street subway station early this morning.” 

At approximately 3:00 am, 55-year-old Fekete was stabbed inside the subway station in Greenwich Village. NYPD officers told the New York Post that the victim was found with stab wounds to his face, neck, arms and hands. Fekete, the report noted, “was wearing traditional Hasidic clothing” and only speaks Yiddish. He told police through an interpreter that he was sleeping on a bench on the No. 6 train platform when “he woke up and saw a black man holding a razor.” The victim was stabbed repeatedly and then robbed. Two passersby flagged down a police car following the attack. Fekete was rushed to Bellevue Hospital where he is in stable condition.

ADL’s Bernstein added that the organization is “also keenly aware – and respectful – of the NYPD’s current classification of this attack as being motivated by robbery, and not by the victim’s religion. We appreciate the NYPD’s ongoing investigation into this crime and we wish Mr. Fekete a full and speedy recovery.”

Friday morning’s stabbing is the latest in what appears to be a series of attacks targeting Orthodox Jews in New York. In February, Keny Rochelin was charged with attempted murder as a hate crime after knifing 25-year-old Orthodox Jew Yehuda Brikman in Crown Heights. In separate incidents in November and December, two Orthodox Jewish men were also victims of stabbings in Crown Heights.

Following  the assault on Brikman, the ADL issued a statement in which it expressed its worry that “Brooklyn’s Jewish community is once again suffering from apparent targeted acts of hate…This alleged hate crime is just one in a series of traumatic attacks over the past several months in which Jews across the city, especially in Brooklyn, have been singled out for violence.”

“While we have not documented a rise in the overall numbers of antisemitic incidents in New York City,” the ADL added, “we are seeing a troubling pattern in which members of the Jewish community in Brooklyn are experiencing the worst kind of antisemitism.”