The new year rang in with yet another anti-Semitic attack in New York.
Two women in Brooklyn on Wednesday afternoon allegedly punched and yelled anti-Jewish epithets at an Orthodox Jewish man, according to police.
The 22-year-old man was on a street corner in Williamsburg when the women began harassing and then chasing him down a street around 12:40 p.m., the New York Daily News reported, citing police.
“Fuck you, Jew! I will kill you Jew!” one of the women allegedly screamed.
The man was reportedly chased about three blocks before he was struck in his face and throat. His cellphone was also smashed on the ground.
Witness Moses Weiser, speaking with CBS New York, said the man’s attempt to call the police appears to have prompted the women’s turn to physical violence.
“They took him in, they threw him down to the ground and broke his phone and threw the phone to his head,” he told the station. “It’s unbelievable what’s going on. It’s a shame.”
The women, ages 24 and 34, were taken into custody by police and the victim was taken to a local hospital for treatment, police told HuffPost.
The youngest of the two women, identified by police as Jasmine Lucas of Brooklyn, was charged with second-degree assault and criminal mischief, authorities said.
The second woman was questioned and released without charges, CBS New York reported.
Police said an investigation into the incident remains ongoing by the New York City Police Department’s Hate Crime Task Force.
Hate crimes against members of the Jewish community have been on the rise in New York.
Saturday’s stabbing of five people celebrating Hanukkah in the town of Monsey was the 13th anti-Semitic attack in New York since Dec. 8, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has said there will be an enhanced patrol presence in Jewish communities in response to the hate-fueled uptick.
“People MUST be able to walk their own neighborhoods free from fear,” he tweeted Wednesday while confirming the two suspects’ arrests in the Williamsburg incident.
This story has been updated with additional information from police.