A man shouting “Allahu Akbar” stabbed two men in separate attacks on Manhattan’s Upper West Side Thursday afternoon, one of them a Jewish man leaving Tisha B’Av services, prompting an outpouring of condemnation aimed in part at New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani over what Jewish groups called an inflammatory climate he has helped create.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch identified the suspect as 51-year-old Raul Morales. According to a law enforcement official, Morales approached the first victim, Chok Sung, 57, at West 84th Street and Central Park West, and stabbed him in the back with a knife. He then walked to West 86th Street, where he stabbed a second man, Yezhak Grunhaus, 50, once in the chest with a screwdriver as Grunhaus left a synagogue. Both men were taken to Mount Sinai Morningside and are expected to survive; police said they were in stable condition. Tisch said there is no known link between Morales and either victim, or between the two victims themselves, and that “according to victim and witness statements, Morales yelled ‘Allahu Akbar'” during both attacks. She said the NYPD was evaluating the stabbings as a potential hate crime, adding that “the initial investigation suggests that mental health may have been a factor,” though she said Morales has no known mental health history with the department. Sources said Morales has two prior arrests, both for drug possession in 1991.
Nava Silton, who had been speaking with Grunhaus inside the Jewish Center on West 86th Street shortly before the attack, ran outside afterward and spoke with witnesses who heard Morales shout before he struck. “The perpetrator tried to act like a normal person and that he wasn’t involved and muttering someone should call 911. Literally pretending he was not culpable,” Silton said. She said Grunhaus was able to speak afterward and described someone driving a screwdriver into the right side of his chest. “It was serious, but he’s speaking, and he’s conscious,” she said, calling him “an incredible person.” Grunhaus’s rabbi, Allen Schwartz, said he spoke with him afterward and that he had been “pierced on the right side of his chest,” heard screams, and then “everything went blank for him.” Schwartz said Grunhaus would be “home before Shabbos.” Grunhaus asked not to be publicly identified in earlier reports because his elderly mother, in Israel, was asleep at the time of the attack and he wanted to tell her himself.
Marianna Ellenberg witnessed the first stabbing and described the moment for reporters. “He was entirely like this [kneeling on his knees], and the knife was sticking out his back. He was just like kind of so stoic,” she said. “We saw her [his wife] covering her mouth. She was just scared.” She called it “a surreal image” given the bright, sunny early afternoon setting on Central Park West.
Michael Jacobs and Morris Dahan of Manhattan Shomrim, the Orthodox community’s volunteer civilian patrol, rushed to the scene after receiving calls. Jacobs said Grunhaus was “fully identifiable as Jewish” at the time of the attack. “He was wearing a skull cap, a yarmulke, a kippah, and he lives here in the neighborhood. He’s known in the neighborhood. He’s a respected person in the neighborhood. Minding his own business, just going to pray,” Jacobs said. Shomrim members canvassed the area, gathered witness statements, and learned Morales had fled into a nearby NYCHA public housing building, passing the information to police. Dahan described the arrest that followed: “He was inside of an apartment, and they went in there, 50, 60 cops with dogs, canine, sledgehammers, whatever they need to break into doors. And sure enough, 15 minutes later, they came out with him.” Morales was taken into custody around 2:45 p.m., roughly half an hour after a witness reported seeing him walking erratically nearby and shouting incoherently, including the word “Islam.” Tisch credited a bystander who helped lead officers to Morales’s location. A knife and screwdriver were recovered after the arrest.
Political Fallout
The attack, on the fast day mourning the destruction of the two Temples, drew swift condemnation from New York and Israeli officials alike, several of whom explicitly tied it to Mamdani’s own recent rhetoric toward Israel. Governor Kathy Hochul called it “another senseless attack on New Yorkers simply because they’re Jewish” and 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.” City Council Speaker Julie Menin said she was “absolutely sickened and furious,” adding, “The fear in the Jewish community is real. Every New Yorker deserves to feel safe in their neighborhood, regardless of their faith or identity.”
Mamdani wrote on social media that he had been briefed on the “horrifying stabbings” and was “relieved that both victims are in stable condition,” calling the attacks “hateful and despicable” and saying they “have no place in our city.” He credited the NYPD’s swift response in arresting Morales.
The UJA-Federation of New York rejected any suggestion that the attack was unrelated to the city’s political climate. “We’re horrified — but not surprised — by today’s brutal attacks,” the organization said. “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. 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.” The statement pointed to a video Mamdani had posted the day before the attack, which drew outrage from New York Jews for its accusations against Israeli forces in Gaza.
Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, wrote that “months of incitement against the Jewish state from Mamdani have helped create a climate in which Jews are targeted.” Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said Mamdani had spent months “fueling hatred, demonizing Israel and legitimizing hostility toward Jews” and said the mayor must now take responsibility for the consequences. State Assemblymember Nily Rozic, an Israeli-American, said, “If you can’t fully condemn calls to ‘globalize the intifada,’ you should be prepared to confront the normalizing of that rhetoric. Words inflame, embolden, and lead to violence against Jewish communities.” The Council of Orthodox Jewish Organizations of the Upper West Side said the attack “will be remembered in the context of Mayor Mamdani’s inciteful rhetoric and vilification of the only Jewish State and its leaders,” adding, “This must stop to ensure the safety and security of the Jewish people in New York.” City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov offered a blunter reaction on social media: “I pray for the speedy recovery of the victims. I never typically use this type of language on social media, but F— YOU @NYCMayor!” State Assemblymember Micah Lasher, who was at the scene, said he was “praying for the survival and recovery of the victims.”
Part of a Larger Pattern
Thursday’s stabbings came a day after a separate antisemitic attack in Brooklyn, in which a man shouting antisemitic slurs shoved a 64-year-old Jewish man, who required hospital treatment. Jews remain the most targeted group for hate crimes in New York City by a wide margin: 178 confirmed antisemitic hate crimes were recorded citywide between January and the end of June, accounting for 55% of all hate crimes in the city, according to the NYPD, even though Jews make up only about 10% of the city’s population.
