Jewish man stabbed in N.Y.C. by attacker who allegedly yelled ‘Allahu akbar,’ according to witnesses

Nava Silton, youth director at the Jewish Center, was packing up and readying to leave the Modern Orthodox synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan after running a program for the Jewish fast of Tisha B’Av on Thursday. She chatted with a friend, a 50-year-old man, who was leaving after praying the afternoon service of Mincha. Soon thereafter, she heard that someone had been stabbed outside the synagogue.

After running down the stairs and asking security what happened, she learned that it was the man with whom she had been talking and that he had just been taken to the hospital, Silton told JNS.

A man sitting on the stairs of a nearby church, who was eating his lunch, told her that he heard someone yell Allahu Akbar, and when he looked up, he saw someone stab someone else in the right side of the chest with a screwdriver.

“Then the guy had the gall to walk by him, sitting there on the steps, and say something like, ‘Someone should probably call 911. Someone on the street is hurt,’” Silton told JNS. “Like he was trying to pretend that someone else did it. Like he was trying not to look culpable.”

Silton told JNS that she visited her friend in the hospital. “I was a little shocked, because I thought that the attack was more superficial and not as deep,” she said.

The victim told Silton that after he was stabbed, he pulled the screwdriver out of his chest, fearing that he might fall on it and worsen his injury.

Jessica Tisch, commissioner of the New York City Police Department, stated that “this afternoon, two people were stabbed in separate attacks on the Upper West Side. Both victims, an Asian male and a Jewish male, were removed to Mount Sinai-St. Luke’s Hospital, and both are expected to survive.”

“The NYPD has arrested 51-year-old Raul Morales in connection with both assaults, and no other people are being sought,” she said. “Detectives are continuing to work the case and determine motive, but according to victim and witness statements, Morales yelled Allahu Akbar during both attacks. The NYPD is currently evaluating whether this is a potential hate crime.”

“While the perpetrator has no known mental-health history with the NYPD, the initial investigation suggests that mental health may have been a factor,” she stated. “At this time there is no known link between Morales and either of the victims, nor between the victims and each other.”

I have been briefed on today’s horrifying stabbings on the Upper West Side, where an Asian man and a Jewish man were attacked. According to witness and victim statements, the perpetrator yelled “Allahu Akbar” during both attacks. I am relieved that both victims are in stable… https://t.co/0LSGtvPojx

— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) July 23, 2026

Five hours after the attack, Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, stated that he was briefed on “today’s horrifying stabbings on the Upper West Side, where an Asian man and a Jewish man were attacked.”

“According to witness and victim statements, the perpetrator yelled Allahu Akbar during both attacks,” he said. “I am relieved that both victims are in stable condition. The NYPD responded immediately and arrested Raul Morales in connection with both assaults, and I am grateful to the officers for their swift response.”

“The NYPD’s initial investigation suggests that mental health may have been a factor,” he said. “They are also evaluating these stabbings as potential hate crimes. These hateful and despicable attacks have no place in our city.”

Tisch thanked “the bravery of a good Samaritan, who led our officers to the location where the perpetrator was hiding, as well as our NYPD cops who brought an end to the incident without further injuries.”

The Anti-Defamation League’s New York and New Jersey office stated that “this horrific incident took place just after a prayer service on the somber Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av and follows on the heels of another violent assault of a visibly Jewish person in New York City earlier this week.”

“This kind of violence has no place in New York City and must be immediately condemned and investigated,” it said. It added that it was working with the NYPD and community partners, and that it calls on Mamdani to “make it clear that there is no place for hate in New York City.”

The NYPD told JNS that officers responded to a 911 call about an assault at about 1:30 p.m. near West 84th Street and Central Park West on Manhattan’s Upper West Side on Thursday. Officers saw a 57-year-old man and a 50-year-old man alert and conscious, each with a stab wound to the torso, and both were hospitalized in stable condition, the NYPD told JNS.

A suspect was “taken into custody, and the investigation is ongoing,” the police department told JNS.

JNS asked if NYPD is probing the incident as a hate crime. “Everything is still fluid,” the department said.

Elliot Kaufman, a Wall Street Journal editorial board member, and his wife are members of the same synagogue as the victim. “The only reason to be surprised is that it’s your shul, not someone else’s,” he told JNS.

Rabbi Allen Schwartz, of Congregation Ohab Zedek, a Modern Orthodox synagogue on the Upper West Side which the victim also attends, told JNS that the full force of the law must be brought down on the attacker.

“There has to be a price to pay for Jewish blood and Jewish harm. There is mayhem going on,” he told JNS. “We’re a tiny percentage of the population, yet we’re over 50% of the attacks, and the mayor’s diatribes don’t help, of course.”

Thursday is Tisha B’Av, a fast day marking the destruction of the two Jewish Temples in Jerusalem, among other tragedies, and many Jews spend hours in synagogue during the fast.

The incident occurred a day after United Jewish Teachers requested enhanced NYPD presence near synagogues and Jewish institutions after Mamdani shared a video, in which he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “war criminal” and said he should be arrested.

The fast “is a time when we are all trying to get together and all trying to have more ahavas chinam, baseless love, and look what we have to contend with on such a day,” Schwartz told JNS. “We’re all preparing for Chodesh Elul,” the Hebrew month of Elul, which leads up to the High Holidays, “on Tisha B’Av. While we’re busy with introspection, they’re busy with their hate.”

“It’s just awful that this should come to a neighbourhood like the Upper West Side, which is such a progressive neighbourhood,” he said. “All the Jews are very much united. The fact is the victim is a visibly Jewish person. He wears a yarmulke, and I think he was targeted.”

The UJA-Federation of New York stated that it was “horrified but not surprised by today’s brutal attacks on the Upper West Side, when a man shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ stabbed two New Yorkers, one Asian and one visibly Jewish.”

“Words have consequences. Particularly, words from the mayor of New York City. These attacks came soon after Mayor Mamdani once again used his official platform to viciously attack Israel, the only Jewish state,” the UJA said. “We cannot ignore the dangerous climate created when elected leaders relentlessly portray Israel—and, by extension, the many Jewish New Yorkers who feel a deep connection to it—as uniquely evil and illegitimate.”

“At a time of rising tension and polarization, our city needs a mayor who rejects the dehumanization of every community, lowers the temperature and brings us together,” it said. “Jewish New Yorkers, all New Yorkers, deserve nothing less.”

Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations in New York City, told JNS that Mamdani’s “incitement is putting Jewish lives in danger in New York, home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel.”

The mayor has “spent months fueling hatred, demonizing Israel and legitimizing hostility toward Jews,” Danon said. “Now take responsibility for the consequences. Every time you pour more fuel on this fire, you make violence more likely. Stop the incitement before more people get hurt.”

As details continued to emerge about the attack, Mamdani’s press office said that what was supposed to be a 5 p.m. “talk with the people” live stream hosted by the mayor, in which he took questions from the public via Twitch, was canceled. (JNS sought comment from the mayor’s office.)

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul stated that she is “disgusted by what appears to be another senseless attack on New Yorkers simply because they’re Jewish.”

“The strength of New York has always been our ability to live together across every faith and background,” she stated. “Anyone who tries to tear that apart will be met with the full force of the law. New York will stand with our Jewish community today, tomorrow and always.”

In the first month of Mamdani’s term as mayor, anti-Jewish hate crimes were up 182 per cent compared to the prior year. Since then, the New York City Police Department has twice changed the ways it reports hate crimes, making it more difficult to compare statistics in recent months with prior years. Each month since January, Jews have been disproportionately attacked, often by manyfold, compared to their percentage of the population of the city, about 10 per cent. Still, Jews were targets of 55 per cent of all hate crimes in the city in the first six months of the year.

Mamdani promised on the campaign trail that he would have the Israeli prime minister arrested in the Big Apple, and his spokeswoman said that synagogues that host pro-Israel events violate international law.

Inna Vernikov, a Jewish member of the New York City Council, said the attack “comes a day after Mamdani incited more violence against New York City’s Jews.”

“I pray for the speedy recovery of the victims,” she wrote. “I never typically use this type of language on social media, but f**k you, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.”

Julie Menin, the first Jewish speaker of the New York City Council, stated that she is “absolutely sickened and furious by what appears to be an antisemitic stabbing on the Upper West Side.”

“While we await additional details to be confirmed, we know that what is happening in our city is abhorrent,” she stated. “The fear in the Jewish community is real. Every New Yorker deserves to feel safe in their neighbourhood, regardless of their faith or identity.”

“We must remain united in condemning antisemitism and ensuring those responsible are held fully accountable,” Menin added. “I thank the NYPD for its swift response in apprehending the assailant. My prayers are with the victims and their loved ones.”