New York City Street Sukkah Vandalized Ahead of Start of Sukkot Holiday

A sukkah was vandalized in New York City last Saturday, ahead of the start of the week-long Sukkot holiday.

The sukkah had been built outside the Chabad Israel Center at East 92nd Street and First Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side just hours before it was vandalized, ABC7 New York reported.

Video footage shows that at around 1:20 AM on Saturday morning an unidentified person urinated on the sukkah and then kicked it in.

The incident ended when a passerby intervened.

“We have been in touch with the authorities who are investigating this incident, though we’re not perturbed,” Rabbi Uriel Vigler said.

Referring to the passerby, Rabbi Vigler added, “We are grateful to the brave New Yorker, who demonstrated what New York is all about, standing up to look after one another.”

Watch an ABC7 New York report on the incident here:

According to New York City Police Department (NYPD) data, there was a 114% jump in antisemitic hate crimes in New York City in July 2022, compared to July 2021.

In August, the NYPD stepped up patrols near synagogues in Brooklyn amid a surge of antisemitic assaults taking place in the borough.

Last year, there was nearly a 50% rise in antisemitic hate crimes in New York City compared to 2020, an NYPD tally revealed.