Yeshiva University student attacked by 'masked thugs' as Mamdani faces accusations he doesn't care about antisemitism in NYC

A student attending Yeshiva University was assaulted Thursday night inside a subway station in Washington Heights, an incident school representatives and police say involved multiple assailants described as “masked thugs.” This comes as NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been hit with accusations that he doesn't care about antisemitism.

The NYPD said officers were dispatched shortly after 7 pm to the 1 train station at West 181st Street and St. Nicholas Avenue following a 911 report of an attack, per the New York Post. Authorities said the 20-year-old student at the private Jewish institution was struck and kicked by four unidentified suspects. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin, a clinical assistant professor of Jewish values at Yeshiva’s Sy Syms School of Business, also addressed the incident publicly.

“A Yeshiva University student was violently assaulted tonight by a gang of masked thugs,” Bashevkin wrote in a post on X. “This is beyond frightening for a visibly Jewish community in NYC."

Police said the victim was transported to Columbia University Irving Medical Center and was listed in stable condition.

University officials indicated the assault does not appear to have been bias-related. In a statement provided to The Post, a spokesperson said, “This evening at approximately 7 p.m., one of our students was assaulted in an unbiased attempted robbery off campus in the subway station at 181st Street,” adding, “He is back on campus in good condition."

However, the assault takes place as Mamdani has been facing greater scrutiny on the topic of antisemitism. This comes after he removed the head of the Office to Combat Antisemitism at City Hall, replacing the leader with the director of a progressive Jewish group, Phylisa Wisdom.

Wisdom has a long history of anti-Israel comments, according to the New York Post. This has made some skeptical and sparked accusations that Mamdani does not care enough about antisemitism.

When Mamdani went to see lawmakers on Wednesday about the city's budget, he also got grilled on the issue. He was asked about his past comments where he refused to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada" during his campaign for mayor.

Mamdani, after giving his testimony in Albany, was also asked by a Politico reporter about Kaif Gilani, who was the founder of "Hot Girls 4 Zohran." Gilani had previously shared pro-Hamas content on his social media as well as 9/11 conspiracies. The outlet reported that when Mamdani was asked if he had ever interacted with Gilani, he "smiled and ran away — literally."