(JTA) — New York police have arrested a man who allegedly punched a Brooklyn Jewish man in the head and charged him with a hate crime.
Eric Gerena, 32, who was arrested Tuesday, also was charged with assault in the third degree.
In the attack Friday night, the victim — a Hasidic man wearing a shtreimel, a traditional fur hat — was talking with a group of similarly dressed men outside a synagogue in the Williamsburg neighborhood when he was knocked down.
The assailant did not use any anti-Semitic slurs or racial epithets during the attack, which was captured on surveillance video. Gerena has been arrested previously but has no previous hate crimes charges, police told the New York Post.
