Life has changed dramatically for Jewish New Yorkers ever since Hamas attacked Israel sixteen months ago on October 7. In a city of eight million, where Jews make up barely a tenth of the population, they’ve become the targets of more than half the hate crimes reported to police.

It happens in broad daylight now. Most recently, on a Williamsburg sidewalk, where a young Jewish girl’s walk home turned violent when a stranger grabbed her hair and threw her to the ground.

“An 11-year-old female victim, wearing traditional Jewish attire, was approached by an unidentified individual who pulled the victim’s hair and dragged her to the ground,” the NYPD stated in a media release on Wednesday.

Police released two images of the attacker and said they are seeking the public’s help in identifying the suspect.

Behind these devastating numbers are parents who scan crowded rooms for exits, children who learn to watch their backs, and families whose celebrations turn to chaos, such as a Jewish couple who was attacked in June at their child’s fifth-grade graduation ceremony by an Arabic-speaking family.

“They targeted my family because we are Jewish,” the mother tells the New York Post. “A graduation event that was supposed to be joyous and memorable turned into a violent and traumatizing one.”

Sadly, the violence follows Jewish New Yorkers even onto their daily commutes. Last month during morning rush hour in Jamaica Hills, a 27-year-old man faced antisemitic harassment while riding the northbound F train. What began as verbal abuse from a stranger quickly turned physical, with the attacker slapping and punching the victim in the face. Like the young girl in Williamsburg, he declined medical attention.

The NYPD has since released a surveillance image of the subway attacker who managed to escape. He has a dark beard and mustache and wore a New York Yankees baseball cap under a dark hooded sweatshirt, a burnt-orange overcoat, black pants, and dark sneakers.