Exclusive: Mother Of Jewish Children Pelted With Eggs Tells CBS2 'Our Community Is Not Safe Anymore'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The mother of children targeted in a one of a series of egg attacks on Jewish targets over the weekend in Brooklyn is speaking out.
Police said a synagogue was vandalized with eggs around 6 p.m. Saturday on Dahill Road in Borough Park.
"We are just not safe anymore. Just because we're Jewish. And I feel this is racist," the mother told CBS2's Reena Roy.
She says her children were walking on the sidewalk when a group of strangers ran up and, according to police, threw an egg at a woman walking up a home's front steps.
"They came home, and they were shaking and these guys ran after us. All of a sudden we saw eggs being thrown," she said.
She did not want to be identified. It happened on 38th Street in Borough Park, Brooklyn on Saturday night around 7 p.m.
No one was hurt, but neighbors in the tight-knit Jewish community say it's only part of a disturbing string of egg attacks this weekend.
"I'm very nervous because I have a 15-year-old and he's going at night to the rabbi's," the woman said. "It's just bringing hate for no reason."
Police say a few minutes after the egg-throwing on 38th street, the same suspect threw an egg through an open door at the Sanz Synagogue on nearby Dahill Road.
That wasn't the case in a third incident on Sunday. Investigators say three males approached a 50-year-old woman from behind as she was walking with a child on 38th Street. One of them threw an egg at her, hitting her in the back. She refused medical attention.
"It's disturbing," said incoming NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea. He says police are working on finding those responsible, noting it comes of the heels of police arresting a teenager last week who was jumping out of a car, scaring people on the streets.
"We can arrest til the cows come home, and I think it's got to be more than that. It has got to be a full court press here of education," Shea said. "Community groups standing up, politicians standing up, as you've seen, really saying enough is enough."
The NYPD says it has deployed neighborhood coordination officers, patrol officers and anti-crime officers to the area to conduct patrols.
"We are really hurt, because it's a very nice community, very quiet," said Morty Brand, who lives next door. "We love our neighbors, and we would expect the neighbors to love us too."
The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is now investigating.
"I don't know what they want. I don't know what they mean," said Brand. "But I think we have to go after them and find who they are."
Earlier this month, four other anti-Semitic incidents were reported in one night. The victims were taunted, punched and chased.
A 16-year-old was arrested in that case.
City Council member Chaim Deutsch recently met with the NYPD and other community leaders to discuss the pattern of antisemitism.
"We must break this cycle. That requires police coverage in targeted communities, as well as aggressive prosecution when perpetrators are identified," he said in a statement on Sunday.
It's unclear whether the same group of people was responsible for the weekend's egg attacks. So far, no arrests have been made.
