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A Jewish woman from New York told the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) that she was the target of antisemitic harassment on board a Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) train two weeks ago.
The woman — who identified herself only as “Judy,” for privacy reasons — said she was verbally harassed and followed by a male passenger as she traveled from Manhattan to Lawrence on January 20. The man allegedly shouted “Sieg Heil” and “Heil Hitler” at her and performed Nazi salutes as the train passed through Nassau County’s Five Towns area.
“He just zoomed in on me,” Judy recalled. “It was immediate.”
Targeted Without Warning
Judy said she was not wearing any visible Jewish symbols at the time. She had not spoken to the man or interacted with him before the harassment began. “I don’t know how he knew,” she said. “Maybe I have a Jewish face.”
The train car was lightly occupied. Judy said she often preferred sitting in quieter, nearly empty cars and had done so many times in the past without incident.
Nazi Salutes and Threats in a Nearly Empty Train Car
As the train moved forward, Judy said the man repeatedly yelled “Sieg Heil” and “Heil Hitler,” directing his abuse exclusively at her. He moved back and forth along the aisle to keep her in view.
“You f***ing Jew,” he screamed, over and over, according to Judy. At one point, she said, he swung a metal canister in his hand. “I didn’t know what was in it,” she remembered. “Alcohol, acid, water- – you don’t know these people. I really felt I was going to be harmed.”
Only a few other passengers were present. None appeared Jewish, making it clear Judy was being singled out.
One woman urged Judy to sit beside her. By then, panic had fully set in. “I was completely frozen,” Judy said. “I should have moved, but he was following me wherever I went.”
The man ignored everyone else. “He didn’t even look at her,” Judy said. “He was only interested in me.”
As the train approached Cedarhurst Station, Judy tried to move toward the exit. The man trailed her and physically blocked the door, preventing her from leaving the car, she said. In retrospect, she noted, she should have gone to a different exit, but added, “I wasn’t thinking clearly. You can’t think straight in the moment.”
The man continued shouting and performing Nazi salutes while singing a song Judy later learned was rapper Kanye West’s “Heil Hitler” song.
Harassment Continues on Platform
The man exited the train at the same station as Judy. From the platform, he continued shouting antisemitic slurs as passengers disembarked. “All you Jews—f— off,” Judy recounted him yelling. “Sieg Heil. Heil Hitler. He just kept repeating it.”
A conductor approached and offered to escort Judy along the platform to her vehicle. She asked to wait briefly so she could see which direction the man went and avoid crossing his path.
Only after he moved away did she leave. No police officers responded. No report was taken.
Once she reached her car, the shock set in. “I had to sit there for about ten minutes just to compose myself,” Judy said. She explained that she often remained calm in the moment and only felt the impact later. “I was really shaken.”
She added that the incident permanently changed how she traveled. “From now on, I will never sit in an empty car again,” she said.
An Earlier Arrest That Shattered Her Sense of Safety
For Judy, the incident reopened a deeper trauma. In October 2024, she said, she was arrested by police as she walked past an anti-Israel demonstration outside her Manhattan office, an area where protests were taking place regularly at the time.
Judy said she noticed an older Neturei Karta man among the demonstrators and spoke to him briefly in Yiddish, which she spoke fluently. However, she realized that the Hasidic man did not.
She then uttered “poy,” a reflexive expression of disgust. Moments later, she said, a different protester — wearing an “I Love Hamas” shirt styled to resemble the familiar “I Love New York” design with a large heart — began shouting at police to arrest her.
The protester claimed she had spat on him. Judy said that accusation was false and that even a Naturei Karta man nearby told police she had not.
Nevertheless, officers moved in. “The next thing I knew, I was in handcuffs,” Judy said. “I kept telling them, ‘Look at me. I’m not an agitator. I’m just going into work.’”
Surrounded by Mob, Then Taken Away in Handcuffs
As police waited for transport, Judy said a hostile crowd formed around her. “There was a mob around me calling me a ‘f—ing Zio,’” she said. Because of the location, officers had difficulty getting a vehicle. While they waited, police positioned themselves between her and the crowd. Four officers eventually pushed her into a white police van.
One female officer, Judy recalled, quietly took her office key card and slipped it into her pocket so her name would not be visible. “That meant a lot to me,” she said.
Nothing happened to the protester in the Hamas shirt. He was wearing a keffiyeh and a mask, Judy said, “the whole nine yards.”
Four Hours Behind Bars
Police transported Judy to One Police Plaza, where she was held in a jail cell for four hours. During that time, she suffered a panic attack. “They just left me alone in the cell,” she said. “It was bizarre.”
A detective told her she was under arrest and that officers would decide whether to formally book her or issue a desk appearance ticket. She was eventually released with a desk appearance. No bail was required. She later hired a lawyer and pled guilty on advice from multiple trusted figures, including members of the Jewish community and law enforcement contacts.
“They all told me the same thing,” Judy said. “The atmosphere wasn’t right.”
‘Everything My Parents Warned Me About Came Back’
As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, Judy said both incidents struck with devastating force. “It hit deep,” she said.
“All the words my parents told me came flooding back,” she said. “When he was screaming ‘Heil Hitler,’ it all came to life.”
“I kept thinking — how many years has it been? Eighty? And this is happening again,” she added.
For decades, her parents and grandparents viewed America as a refuge — a place where Jews could live freely after unimaginable trauma.
Today, Judy said, “I worry for my grandchildren. I really do.”
“I always thought we were safe in America,” Judy emphasized. “I never thought antisemitism would become this open or this normalized here. And I don’t see a future for Jews in this country the way I once did.”
Take Action
CAM has launched Report It — a secure app to report antisemitic incidents anonymously and in real time. Don’t stay silent — download it today on the Apple Store or Google Play. See it. Report it. Stop it. Together, we can fight this hate.
