A Muslim saved a group of Jews being attacked on a New York subway in an apparent hate crime.
Hassan Askari, a student at Berkeley College in Manhattan, came to the aid of Walter Adler when he and three friends were attacked on the Q train running between Manhattan and Brooklyn on the night of Dec. 7, according to The Associated Press. Ten men and women, aged 19 and 20, verbally and physically assaulted Adler and his friends after they wished the assailants “Happy Chanukah” in response to their “Merry Christmas” wish. Askari, 20, tried to fight off the attackers, which gave Adler time to pull an emergency brake on the Brooklyn-bound train. The assailants were arrested at the next stop.
The attack is being investigated as a hate crime. One of the attackers reportedly had been arrested previously for a hate crime. “That a random Muslim kid helped some Jewish kids, that’s what’s positive about New York,” Adler, 23, told AP. Adler suffered a broken nose.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
