Every Jew Is A Target

"In the video you also see her choking me for a second before getting pulled off and that was what I was referring to when saying 'I was just assaulted'."

"I thought that was the end of it, but she came at me again and that's when the video cuts out. She choked me for a second time, kicked me and shoved me to the ground using the force from grabbing my hair."

"I was on the floor for the entirety of the next stop getting beaten all the while her hand never left my hair and her grasp was so strong that the clump of hair was ripped out."

"I noticed that while I was attacked, before and after I hit the ground, only one couple tried to help me." 

"I now understand that every Jew is a target." 

Unnamed Jewish Montrealer, 23-yr-old nurse 

"Jews are eating kids!"

"You're a Jew. I smell the kids."

"It's OK for her to eat a kid but I can't choke her down?"

Diana Smith, assailant 

A young Montrealer who happened to be an orthodox Jew now living in New York was choked, kicked, thrown to the floor and had the hair from her scalp pulled away by another passenger on a subway train in New York. The 23-year-old, a registered nurse by profession, took a video of the assault as it initiated, with her smartphone. The afternoon C train on May 31st was packed with commuters. A female who happened to be a large Black woman, after assessing the young woman as a Jew, turned about to face the aisle then shouted "Jews are eating kids!"

 

Leaning toward the young woman her assailant spoke directly to her: "You're a Jew. I smell the kids." The  woman whose sheer size overwhelmed the petite nurse physically shoved her, leading the onboard crowd to collectively gasp and prompting some of the passengers to intervene to draw the attacker away from the smaller woman. The video records the shock of the assailant at others disapproving of her violence: "It's OK for her to eat a kid but I can't choke her down?", she protests.

 

Posted on X by Combat Antisemitism Movement, the video became the subject of a New York Post story, leading to a discussion over the rise of antisemitism in New York City, under a mayor who overtly champions the 'cause' of Palestinian nationhood and constantly vilifies Israel. 

 

Agreeing to speak about her experience to the news media, the woman asked to remain anonymous. She was agreeable however, to sharing videos and photographs during the discussion. She also pointed out her despair that as she was being endlessly mauled, out of the subway car hosting a multitude of onlookers, only one couple made an effort to come to her aid.

 

Her attacker was identified as Bronx resident Diana Smith whom the New York Police Department confirmed as the assailant, listing the charges she is likely to face: assault, criminal obstruction of breathing and aggravated harassment, all in the context of hate crimes. It was left to The New York Post to reveal that the woman has a history of mental illness and police run-ins. She is yet to be indicted by the Manhattan District Attorney.

 

Clearly, the charges will be contested on a plea of the attacker not being guilty of the listed charges on the basis of mental illness. Like so many other similar instances of Jews being accosted, threatened and assaulted wherever they live in the diaspora, charges are laid and criminal prosecution is confounded by claims of mental illness, leading to withdrawn charges or the ensuing penalty hugely minimized in deference to someone's mental health leading to a psychotic incident.

 

The victims on the other hand? Stiff upper lip, Jews. 

 

 

"I honestly feel terrified and I've been just running on fear and adrenaline. I have not been able to sleep properly or have much of an appetite."

"I feel sick that people can watch another human be attacked and do nothing. That they can hear dehumanizing words and say nothing."

"Physically, I know I will be OK. Emotionally though, these scars will never fade." 

"It's stuff I saw on the news but not things that actually happened to people just on the subway home. I now understand that every Jew is a target. It isn't about Zionism, it's about Judaism." 

"People have hated and persecuted us for years. As Jewish people, we have seen where this leads."

"We said 'never again' after the Holocaust -- and yet."

Victim of New York Subway Attack