December 26, 2019

(JTA) — A Jewish man wearing a yarmulke was physically and verbally assaulted in Manhattan in one of three assaults against Jews in New York just over a 24-hour period.

A Miami man was arrested and charged with assault as a hate crime for the attack late Monday morning about two blocks from Grand Central Terminal, New York Police Sgt. Lee Jones told CNN.

The alleged assailant, Steven Jorge, 28, reportedly punched the 65-year-old victim in the face, knocking him to the ground, and then kicked him repeatedly. He also allegedly yelled “F*** you, Jew” at the victim, who was looking at his cellphone when the attack began, CBS New York reported.

The NYPD Bias Unit is investigating, according to CBS.

The attack was one of three assaults against Jews in New York in 24 hours, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

On Tuesday afternoon, a Jewish man was assaulted by a group of teenagers in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights. The teens followed the victim down the street, with one hitting him in the head and knocking him to the ground.

A police report was filed over the incident and the case was referred to the Hate Crimes Task Force, according to the local news website Crownheights.info. Surveillance cameras captured the incident, according to the site.

The third incident was reported as a case of aggravated harassment in Brooklyn, according to the ADL.

“We are appalled at the sheer frequency and aggressive nature of these incidents,” said Evan Bernstein, regional director for ADL New York and New Jersey. “They’re made particularly heinous by the fact they are occurring during a time when society is supposed to come together in peace for the holidays, and as the Jewish community is particularly on edge as it’s reeling from the deadly attack in Jersey City on Dec. 10.”

(JTA) — A federal lawsuit alleges that a Milwaukee weatherman and two other former employees of a local television station suffered discrimination because they are Jewish.

The lawsuit against Scripps Media Inc., the parent company of WTMJ-TV, was filed in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on Monday.

The incidents alleged by the weatherman, Scott Steele, took place between 2014 and 2017 and included twice finding a Christian cross and once a yarmulke left on his desk. The lawsuit also alleges a “constant struggle for Steele and other Jewish employees to take time off for Jewish holidays.” Steele alleges he was demoted to a “lesser role” at the station after requesting time off for holidays.

“Scripps began a campaign of retaliation against Steele for speaking up to protest the anti-Semitic discrimination workplace hostility he was suffering, and his criticism of the culture of discrimination at WTMJ 4,” the complaint said. “Scripps then manufactured false workplace ‘incidents’ against Steele, disciplined him for the imagined incidents, and ultimately wrongfully terminated his employment by the end of summer 2017.”

The lawsuit charges that tensions boiled over at a 2017 staff meeting called after management received an anonymous complaint and a staff survey where issues of anti-Semitism and discrimination were raised, according to the Journal Sentinel.

Steele filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last year.

Scripps did not comment to the newspaper, citing the pending litigation.