Police investigating attack on man shoved through bagel shop window as possible hate crime
A discussion about religion in a bar early on New Year's Day ended with two men beating up and shoving a Jewish man through a window of a Lake View bagel shop after they accused him of "killing people in Gaza" and
"committing genocide," in what Chicago police are investigating as a possible hate crime.
The situation unfolded about 2:20 a.m. inside Monsignor Murphy's, 3019 N. Broadway, when the victim, a 27-year-old man, was chatting with two men about Judaism, according to a Chicago police report obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
The three left together as a group, and the discussion escalated when the two men became hostile, accusing the victim of "funding terrorism," according to the report.
"You're killing people in Gaza," they yelled, adding "You're killing Palestinians," and "You're committing genocide," according to the report.
At that point, the 27-year-old North Sider told them he was "getting uncomfortable with the conversation," and the two knocked him to the ground, began kicking and punching him, and hurled him through the front glass window of The Bagel Restaurant and Deli, 3107 N. Broadway, according to the report.
A witness, Britt Nerad, 22, told the Sun-Times she was with her friends at a restaurant across the street and saw the attack, thinking at first it was a robbery because it occurred near an ATM. When she saw one of the attackers appear to "go after" him with a piece of glass, she called 911.
"We looked out the window and only saw two people tussling around right outside The Bagel," Nerad said. "We couldn't tell at first if it was just people messing around but then we saw one of them pick up a shard of glass and it got pretty obvious that it was malicious."
Though the shard-wielding man did not injure the 27-year-old with the glass, Nerad said the victim appeared "pretty shaken up" and he told Nerad and her friends it was a hate crime.
He suffered a cut to the right hand and was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center in good condition, police said.
The attackers, who police said were not in custody, fled.
"It was just so out of place and unexpected," Nerad said. "Once we realized there was potential danger, it was definitely pretty scary."
Nerad hopes to see an arrest in the attack to deter others from doing something similar.
"If it was motivated by hate, I'd really like to see people face some punishment for that because of how serious that is in the current climate of hate in the country," Nerad said.
Anti-Jewish attacks have been on the rise Chicago, according to an annual report by the city’s Commission on Human Relations. The report, based on data categorized by the Chicago police, showed a 58% rise in reported anti-Jewish hate crimes from 2023 to 2024. The data includes hate crimes based on a victim’s testimony, even if the department’s felony review unit does not approve a hate crime charge, according to the Chicago Police Department.
Area 3 detectives are investigating.
Contributing: Mariah Woelfel