NEW YORK — In November 2023, weeks after the Hamas invasion of Israel, two women tore posters of Israeli hostages off a lamppost on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

A Jewish woman who was walking her dog confronted the pair, saying, “Why are you ripping down posters of victims?”

“I don’t think these are real people. I think this is AI-generated,” one of the women, Stephanie Gonzalez, said. “I believe whoever is in Palestine is real. Whoever’s in Palestine is truly suffering.”

The other woman, Mehwish Omer, gave the Jewish passerby the middle finger, according to video of the incident the victim filmed and shared with The Times of Israel.

As the pair began to walk away, things escalated further: They attacked the Jewish woman, smacking her phone out of her hand and shouting, “Go fuck yourself,” as the victim pleaded, “Don’t assault me.”

“I’m going to assault you. I don’t care,” Gonzalez said.

The women then ripped a Star of David necklace off the victim’s neck, grabbed her by the throat, and clawed her face, causing bleeding in her eye and leaving red welts on her forehead and down her right cheek.

The attack took place on the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht, a mere week before the victim’s wedding.

After a police search, the attackers were arrested a week later and charged with a hate crime assault.

????WANTED????for a Hate Crime Assault at the corner of Riverside Drive and West 82 Street #UPPERWESTSIDE #manhattan On 11/09/23 @ 9:55 PM Reward up to $3500 Seen them? Know who they are? Call 1-800-577-TIPS or DM us! Calls are CONFIDENTIAL! #yourcityyourcall pic.twitter.com/Wv0mFphN74 — NYPD Crime Stoppers (@NYPDTips) November 10, 2023

????WANTED????for a Hate Crime Assault at the corner of Riverside Drive and West 82 Street #UPPERWESTSIDE #manhattan On 11/09/23 @ 9:55 PM Reward up to $3500 Seen them? Know who they are? Call 1-800-577-TIPS or DM us! Calls are CONFIDENTIAL! #yourcityyourcall pic.twitter.com/Wv0mFphN74

— NYPD Crime Stoppers (@NYPDTips) November 10, 2023

Now being resolved in New York courts, the case was one of a series of hate crimes that took place in the aftermath of the Hamas onslaught on Israel that saw 1,200 murdered and 251 taken hostage to Gaza.

Gonzalez, Omer and the victim, who asked to remain anonymous due to privacy concerns, appeared this month for a court hearing that illustrated complications surrounding hate crime sentencing and the lasting trauma caused to victims.

“For two and a half years, I really have lived with this,” the victim said. “My soul has not been able to rest.”

‘I will always have this with me’

The October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the resultant retaliatory war in Gaza led to a surge in antisemitic hate crimes in New York City. There were 69 antisemitic incidents reported to police in October 2023 and 62 in November, including the Upper West Side assault, compared to 33 incidents in the preceding two months combined.

‘For two and a half years, I really have lived with this. My soul has not been able to rest’

‘For two and a half years, I really have lived with this. My soul has not been able to rest’

The rate of reported antisemitic incidents started to decrease last year, with slightly fewer monthly attacks in 2025 compared to 2024, but Jews are still targeted in the city more than all other groups combined. In 2025, Jews were targeted in 57% of hate crimes, despite making up about 10% of the city’s population. Overall, reports of antisemitic crimes have trended upward in recent years, while attacks on other groups have declined.

Under New York law, hate crime enhancements that allow for harsher penalties are added to an underlying offense if prosecutors can prove the perpetrator was motivated by the victim’s identity. The crimes are viewed as more severe because they target and impact an entire group, not just the individual. Convictions are rare because proving intent is a high legal bar.

The cases sometimes spend years in the court system, and several prominent Israel-related offenses from 2023 and 2024 have been resolved in recent months. While the initial crimes often gain widespread coverage, the cases’ resolution usually receives far less attention.

Myles Utz was charged with a hate crime for throwing two glass bottles at a Jewish man and spitting at another while shouting, “Free Palestine.” He was sentenced this month to three years of probation, $375 in fees and virtual counseling.

James Carlson, a non-student protester at Columbia University, was arrested in 2024 for occupying a campus building, stealing and burning a Jewish student’s Israeli flag, and smashing a glass panel in a police holding cell. Carlson last week pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and trespassing — both misdemeanors and not hate crimes — and had a felony charge dropped. He is expected to serve one year of probation, do community service, and pay $25 restitution to the student whose flag he burned.

Skiboky Stora was convicted of hate crimes last month for a series of incidents targeting Jews and others in 2023 and 2024. In one incident, he followed a husband and wife who photographed him tearing down hostage posters, shouting anti-white and antisemitic assaults, including, “Die, Jews, die!” He will be sentenced next month.

Taylor Pelton, charged with hate crimes for allegedly vandalizing the homes of Jewish Brooklyn Museum board members with antisemitic graffiti, will be sentenced this week.

Late last year, a judge sentenced Tarek Bazrouk to 17 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to attacking Jews at anti-Israel protests in three incidents. That case was handled by a federal court, though, while the others were prosecuted by city courts. Federal prosecutors sometimes pick up more serious hate crime cases.

Omer and Gonzalez pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors and a violation. They admitted to targeting the victim because she was “Jewish and expressed concern for Israeli victims of Hamas’ October 7th terror attack” and apologized, the District Attorney’s Office said.

Omer and Gonzalez admitted to targeting the victim because she was “Jewish and expressed concern for Israeli victims of Hamas’ October 7th terror attack”

Omer and Gonzalez admitted to targeting the victim because she was “Jewish and expressed concern for Israeli victims of Hamas’ October 7th terror attack”

As part of their plea agreement, they will be required to attend a counseling program and a guided tour of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, do 30 hours of community service at a Jewish organization, each pay $722 in restitution to the victim, abide by a protection order for the victim, and not be re-arrested.

If they complete the terms within the next year, they will be able to withdraw their misdemeanor guilty pleas, meaning they will not have a criminal record. Attorneys for Omer and Gonzalez did not respond to requests for comment.

“When they complete the terms of this plea deal, they will have some relief and some clearing of their record,” said the victim, a psychotherapist in her 40s. “As somebody who was attacked, I can’t clear my record. I can’t just do some things to get rid of the trauma. I will always have this with me.”

The District Attorney’s Office said, “We seek hate crime resolutions that prioritize accountability and deterrence with consideration of our victims and the impact of the crime on the affected community. We also look to address underlying causes of hate.”

“That includes partnering with organizations that run effective programs to help address bias, prevent future criminality, and hopefully, contribute to community safety and wellbeing,” the office said.

The attack was just one data point in the 323 antisemitic crimes reported to police in 2023, but the effect has been long-lasting.

“I am coming forward now out of a sense of obligation — to my community and to a broader public conversation,” the victim said in the courtroom in her first public comments on the case. “What I experienced was not an isolated incident. It is part of a pattern of growing social acceptance of open hostility toward Jewish people, often expressed through the language of political activism, but no less dangerous.”

She told The Times of Israel that, while she was being attacked, a rabbi from a nearby synagogue ran to the scene, getting in between the woman and the assailants, who told the rabbi, “Fuck your white privilege.” The attackers tried to “claw over him to get me again,” but the rabbi called the police and the assailants left.

In addition to the physical injuries, she remains emotionally scarred by the incident. She still suffers from nightmares and fears leaving home alone, usually going out with her husband accompanying her.

“This happened in my neighborhood. For two and a half years, I’ve always been looking over my shoulder, wondering, ‘Am I going to see one of them?’” she said. “My whole sense of safety was really forever changed by this.”

Ahead of this month’s court hearing, she met with an assistant district attorney, resurfacing memories of the attack and nightmares. During the meeting, her hands shook, and after, her hands and arms went numb, a common trauma response. Research has found that hate crimes often have a more severe impact than other offenses and affect the victim’s wider community.

‘This happened in my neighborhood. For two and a half years, I’ve always been looking over my shoulder’

‘This happened in my neighborhood. For two and a half years, I’ve always been looking over my shoulder’

There were no easy answers when it came to the sentencing, though. The victim applauded the District Attorney’s Office, the assistant district attorney who handled her case, and the police’s hate crimes unit, adding, “That’s not something you say lightly as a victim.” She acknowledged that first-time offenders, like her attackers, don’t often receive sentences that feel like “true justice” for their victims.

She was unsure what an appropriate punishment would look like, saying that she doubts if jail time would have compelled her attackers to reconsider their antisemitic ideology.

“I do not speak today with hatred toward the defendants or toward any community. I believe in the possibility of growth and change. I have accepted the terms of the agreement,” the victim said in the courtroom. “What I am asking for, and what I hope this moment can contribute to, is a clear and consistent message from our institutions, our leaders, and our city: that Jewish people are entitled to safety.”

She recognized that courts need to balance deterrence and rehabilitation in their sentencing, but in general, believes that antisemitic crimes should be “sentenced in a way that provides a bigger deterrent.”

“Are we putting social justice ahead of actual justice?” she said.

Other victims have grappled with the consequences of violent assaults for years.

In 2021, six attackers beat Joey Borgen while shouting antisemitic remarks. Borgen agitated for punishments against his assailants for years and the last of his attackers was sentenced to prison last year. The attack became a landmark antisemitism case in the city, sparking a public conversation about the handling of antisemitic crime.

Borgen said the experience gave him a view into the justice system and political machinations that left him jaded.

He criticized the justice system, politicians, including Jews, and Jewish organizations for not being forceful enough in combating discrimination, saying too many were playing politics for their own gain instead of representing victims. Borgen moved to Israel last year, citing frustration following the attack.

“No one in these positions acts out of the goodness of their own heart. They need to be forced to act, and no one is forcing them to act,” he said. “Once I came to that realization, my conclusion, I was like, ‘I’m making myself crazy here, and I need to get out.’”

Mitch Silber, the CEO of the Community Security Initiative, a Jewish security group in the New York region, said hate crime sentencing often comes down to the judge handling the case.

“Individual judges have been far more forgiving than we in the Jewish community security establishment believe is appropriate,” said Silber, the former director of intelligence analysis at the NYPD. “They create an environment that, rather than deterring future hate crimes because there are consequences, people see a green light.”

In many cases, there is also a “mental health component” acknowledged by the court, resulting in the perpetrator being sentenced to a “treatment track” rather than more serious consequences, Silber said, adding that he also questions whether rehabilitation works.

“People are exploring what an effective rehabilitation might include. Clearly, it’s got to include more than just going to the Holocaust museum,” he said. “Are there effective rehab programs when it comes to hate? I haven’t seen it, but I do believe they could be designed.”

‘People are exploring what an effective rehabilitation might include. Clearly, it’s got to include more than just going to the Holocaust museum’

‘People are exploring what an effective rehabilitation might include. Clearly, it’s got to include more than just going to the Holocaust museum’

The city has made some recent changes in how hate crimes are handled. The NYPD said last week that it will report its monthly tally of hate crimes differently. Previously, the police had reported hate crimes that were under review, but will now only report incidents that have been investigated and confirmed as bias incidents.

The NYPD said the methodology will provide a more “accurate representation” of the incidents, but experts have said that the new system could give the false impression that hate crimes were decreasing.

The update is significant because the NYPD’s monthly tally is seen as a barometer of how widespread discriminatory crime is in the city.

In January, New York City Councilmember Eric Dinowitz, the chair of the council’s Jewish Caucus, introduced legislation that would require the police to report on the status of all hate crime cases. The bill is part of City Council Speaker Julie Menin’s broader plan to combat antisemitism in the city.

The victim who was clawed in 2023 just before her wedding, canceled her Shabbat Kallah, a pre-wedding gathering, because she was afraid to leave her home. She was hours late for her Moroccan henna ceremony because she was at the police station identifying her attackers.

A makeup artist was able to conceal her facial wounds for the wedding. During the ceremony, she and her husband, an Israeli, wrapped themselves in an Israeli flag instead of a tallit prayer shawl.

While the wedding ended with that “very meaningful” moment for the couple, the victim is still questioning the fallout.

“We want to walk a very important line, as Jews, between justice and mercy, but [there’s] the question of, ‘Is this enough of a deterrent?” she said. “The safety of this community and the peace of this community rests in part on decisions like these.”

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