‘Allahu Akbar’-shouting attacker stabs 2 men outside NYC synagogue

Police said officers responded around 1:30 pm to reports of an assault near West 84th Street and Central Park West on Manhattan's Upper West Side, where they found a 57-year-old man and a 50-year-old man, each suffering stab wounds to the torso. Both victims were transported to Mount Sinai-St. Luke's Hospital in stable condition.

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NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the victims included "an Asian male and a Jewish male."

"The NYPD has arrested 51-year-old Raul Morales in connection with both assaults, and no other people are being sought," Tisch said. "Detectives are continuing to work the case and determine motive, but according to victim and witness statements, Morales yelled Allahu Akbar during both attacks. The NYPD is currently evaluating whether this is a potential hate crime."

"While the perpetrator has no known mental-health history with the NYPD, the initial investigation suggests that mental health may have been a factor," she added.

Nava Silton, youth director at the Jewish Center on Manhattan's Upper West Side, told JNS she had been speaking with the Jewish victim moments before the attack after the congregation's afternoon Mincha service on the Jewish fast day of Tisha B'Av. A man sitting outside a nearby church told her he heard someone yell "Allahu Akbar" before seeing the suspect stab the victim in the chest with a screwdriver.

"Then the guy had the gall to walk by him, sitting there on the steps, and say something like, 'Someone should probably call 911. Someone on the street is hurt,'" Silton said. "Like he was trying to pretend that someone else did it. Like he was trying not to look culpable."

Silton later visited the victim in the hospital. "I was a little shocked, because I thought that the attack was more superficial and not as deep," she said. According to Silton, the victim told her he pulled the screwdriver from his own chest after being stabbed because he feared falling onto it would worsen his injuries.

The assault occurred on Tisha B'Av, Judaism's annual day of mourning commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem and other tragedies throughout Jewish history.

It also came one day after Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a video renewing his attacks on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling him a "war criminal" while acknowledging that New York City has no legal authority to arrest the Israeli leader despite making the pledge a centerpiece of his mayoral campaign.

Hours after Thursday's attack, Mamdani said he had been briefed on "today's horrifying stabbings on the Upper West Side, where an Asian man and a Jewish man were attacked."

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"According to witness and victim statements, the perpetrator yelled Allahu Akbar during both attacks," Mamdani said. "I am relieved that both victims are in stable condition. The NYPD responded immediately and arrested Raul Morales in connection with both assaults, and I am grateful to the officers for their swift response."

"The NYPD's initial investigation suggests that mental health may have been a factor," he added. "They are also evaluating these stabbings as potential hate crimes. These hateful and despicable attacks have no place in our city."

The Anti-Defamation League's New York and New Jersey office noted that "this horrific incident took place just after a prayer service on the somber Jewish holiday of Tisha B'Av and follows on the heels of another violent assault of a visibly Jewish person in New York City earlier this week."

"This kind of violence has no place in New York City and must be immediately condemned and investigated," the organization said, adding that it was calling on Mamdani to "make it clear that there is no place for hate in New York City."

Rabbi Allen Schwartz of Congregation Ohab Zedek, where the victim also worships, said the attacker must face the full force of the law. "There has to be a price to pay for Jewish blood and Jewish harm. There is mayhem going on," Schwartz told JNS. "We're a tiny percentage of the population, yet we're over 50% of the attacks, and the mayor's diatribes don't help, of course."

The UJA-Federation of New York directly connected the attack to the mayor's rhetoric.

"Words have consequences. Particularly, words from the mayor of New York City. These attacks came soon after Mayor Mamdani once again used his official platform to viciously attack Israel, the only Jewish state," the organization said. "We cannot ignore the dangerous climate created when elected leaders relentlessly portray Israel—and, by extension, the many Jewish New Yorkers who feel a deep connection to it—as uniquely evil and illegitimate."

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon echoed that criticism. "Mamdani's incitement is putting Jewish lives in danger in New York, home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel," Danon said. "The mayor has spent months fueling hatred, demonizing Israel and legitimizing hostility toward Jews. Now take responsibility for the consequences. Every time you pour more fuel on this fire, you make violence more likely. Stop the incitement before more people get hurt."

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also condemned what she described as "another senseless attack on New Yorkers simply because they're Jewish."

"The strength of New York has always been our ability to live together across every faith and background," Hochul said. "Anyone who tries to tear that apart will be met with the full force of the law. New York will stand with our Jewish community today, tomorrow and always."

The stabbing comes as antisemitic incidents continue to dominate New York City's hate crime statistics. According to figures cited by JNS, anti-Jewish hate crimes were up 182 percent during Mamdani's first month in office compared with the previous year. Although Jews comprise roughly 10 percent of New York City's population, they were the targets of 55 percent of all reported hate crimes during the first six months of the year.