Another Attacker Indicted for Antisemitic Beating of Joey Borgen in New York

The district attorney’s office of New York City’s Manhattan borough has indicted a sixth man for participating in a May 2021 gang assault on Joseph “Joey” Borgen, a Long Island man who had been attending a pro-Israel demonstration when he was brutally attacked by men screaming antisemitic epithets.

Salem Seleiman, 28, faces several charges with hate crime enhancements, including assault in the second and third degrees and attempted assault in the second degree. Arraigned in court on Thursday, Seleiman pleaded not guilty. He remains detained pending his ability to pay a $50,000 cash bond set by the court.

“As alleged, Salem Seleiman disrupted a peaceful pro-Israel rally when he participated in a brutal antisemitic attack on a Jewish man,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement announcing the actions. “Seleiman’s alleged conduct was abhorrent and many of the other individuals who joined him have already been convicted and are serving state prison sentences.”

He added, “Violently assaulting someone because of their religion is unacceptable, and we will continue to work with our law enforcement partners, community groups, and local leaders to address attacks on the Jewish community.”

Borgen was wearing a kippah while walking in Manhattan when Mohammed Othman, along with five other men, ambushed him without being provoked. They also shouted antisemitic slurs at and discharged pepper-spray into the eyes of the pro-Israel advocate, who suffered a concussion, wrist injury, black eye, and bruises all over his body during the attack. Two years after the attack, Borgen told The Algemeiner that the injuries he sustained that day, both physical and psychological, continue to diminish his quality of life.

On Thursday, Borgen expressed hope that Seleiman’s indictment “sends a strong message that antisemitic crimes, or any hate crimes for that matter, will not be ignored.”

He added, “Other cases right now are not being taken seriously enough, particularly the conduct of Columbia University protesters whom District Attorney Bragg let off scot-free despite their participation in unprecedented antisemitic riots at their school. It’s important that we continue to fight for justice.”

New York City has seen an explosion of antisemitic hate crimes in recent years. According to an Algemeiner analysis of New York City Police Department (NYPD) Crime Statistics data, between October and April, there were 285 antisemitic hate crimes in the city, a figure just slightly lower than the total recorded in all of 2022.

Last year, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recorded 8,873 antisemitic incidents— an average of 24 every day — across the US, amounting to a year unlike any experienced by the American Jewish community since the organization began tracking such data on antisemitic outrages in 1979. Incidents of harassment, vandalism, and assault all spiked by double and triple digits, with California, New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Massachusetts accounting for nearly half, or 48 percent, of all that occurred.

Breaking down the numbers, the ADL found a dramatic rise in the targeting of Jewish institutions such as synagogues, community centers, and schools, with 1,987 such incidents taking place in 2023 — a 237 percent increase which included over a thousand fake bomb threats, also known as “swattings.”

Other figures were equally staggering, with assaults and vandalism rising by 45 percent and 69 percent, respectively, while harassment soared by 184 percent. Antisemitic incidents on college campuses, which The Algemeiner has continued to cover extensively, rose 321 percent, disrupting the studies of Jewish students and leaving them uncertain about the fate of the American Jewish community.

The last quarter of the year proved the most injurious, the ADL noted, explaining that after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, 5,204 antisemitic incidents rocked the Jewish community. Across the political spectrum, from white supremacists on the far right to ostensibly left-wing Ivy League universities, antisemites emerged to express solidarity with the Hamas terror group, spread antisemitic tropes and blood libels, and openly call for a genocide of the Jewish people in Israel.

“Despite these unprecedented challenges, American Jews must not give in to fear,” ADL chief executive officer Jonathan Greenblatt has said in response to the surge of hate. “Even while we fight the scourge of antisemitism, we should be proud of our Jewish identities and confident of our place in American society. It may not feel so right now, but we have many more allies than enemies. And we call on all people of good will to stand with their Jewish friends and neighbors. We need your support and your allyship.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.