Two Chabad-Lubavitch yeshiva students were attacked in New York City this past Friday afternoon, COLlive reports.
The students were part of a group that had boarded a sbuway heading from Brooklyn into Manhattan to carry out weekly mitzvah assignments with Jewish business owners and others in the city.
Two 19-year-old students who requested anonymity told COLlive the attack occurred while they were walking on West 37th Street near Ninth Avenue.
A brother of one of the students said, “A firebomb was thrown at one of them. It exploded and there was fire. They were shocked. An Israeli woman was walking by and ran over to check if they were okay.
“Thank G-d, it missed them and landed on the pavement,” he added. “It was a male who had thrown it at them, but they were only able to see his back because he ran away. They didn’t hear him shout or say anything.”
This is the first reported attack on Jews or Israelis in New York since the start of the recent escalation in Arab terror in Israel.
The New York Police Department has accordingly raised security in Jewish neighborhoods. Residents in Crown Heights commented they were seeing more officers on patrol this past week than had been seen during the high holy days, COLlive noted.