Two adult brothers walking home from a Brooklyn synagogue on Yom Kippur were attacked by men who spewed anti-Semitic slurs, the Anti-Defamation League said.
The group said that the two men were walking from the Flatbush Park Jewish Center in Mill Basin on Tuesday wearing yarmulkes and prayer shawls when they were accosted by three men who instigated a scuffle.
"They called us pigs, Jews, stuff I don't even want to say on TV," one of the victims, Dani, told NBC 4 New York.
The two brothers, Dani and Eli, sought medical attention after the attack, which ADL director Evan Bernstein called an "appalling act of apparently hate-inspired violence."
"The fact that this assault occurred at the most solemn time of the year for Jews makes the incident even more disturbing," he said.
Dani said he believes the attackers targeted him and his brother.
"They came at a right time because they know no one's using their phones, they know people are in synagogues, they know people are home, people are sleeping, people are fasting. They know people are not gonna be around," he said.
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Brother Eli said because he had been fasting for Yom Kippur he was feeling woozy from the attack. Doctors wanted to take his blood at the hosptital and give him anti-biotics, but he refused, he said, saying he didn't want to break his fast.
Bernstein says that the ADL was "confident that the NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the attacks as a potential hate crime and that they will do their best to bring the perpetrators to justice."
Police sources told the Daily News that the case was being investigated as a possible bias crime.
"For it to escalate where I got assaulted in my neighborhood, by somebody I've never seen, to come and feel assaulted, I feel ashamed," said Dani.
Anyone with information on the men should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
