Crime & Safety

Yarmulke Ripped Off Man's Head In Greenwich Village: Police

An attacker made antisemitic remarks Thursday before throwing the yarmulke back at the man in the Village, police said.

An image of the man wanted in connection to an anti-Semitic incident in the Village, adjacent to a photo of a yarmulke.
An image of the man wanted in connection to an anti-Semitic incident in the Village, adjacent to a photo of a yarmulke. (1: Photo courtesy of the New York Police Department 2: Getty Images/Rashad Aliyev)

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NY — A person grabbed a yarmulke off a man's head before making an antisemitic statement in Greenwich Village on Thursday, spurring an ongoing police hunt for the attacker.

Around 2 p.m., on the corner of Broadway and West 3rd Street, a man approached a passerby and grabbed the 34-year-old man's yarmulke off his head, police said.

A yarmulke, also known as a kippah or a koppel, is a brimless cap usually made of cloth, traditionally worn by Jewish men to fulfill the customary requirement that the head should be covered. Men in Orthodox communities wear it at all times.

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The man quickly demanded the attacker return it, at which point he threw the yarmulke back to him and made an antisemitic statement, police said.

The unidentified man then ran away. The 34-year-old was not injured, police said.

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The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force is investigating.

Police released a photo Thursday evening of the man wanted in connection with the antisemitic incident.

Photo courtesy of the New York Police Department.

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).

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