Joseph Borgen was beaten up in 2021 on a Manhattan street by five men shouting antisemitic slurs, sustaining injuries that required surgery on his wrist, while walking to a pro-Israel rally.
The case of Borgen, who was wearing a kippah at the time, has drawn attention from Jewish organizations and political leaders, some who criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for not being tough enough on the attackers.
The DA’s office has issued a statement that, “antisemitic hate has no place in Manhattan.”
However, the case is finally making its way through the legal system with one of the defendants, Waseem Awawdeh—who was part of the group who punched, kicked, pepper-sprayed and hit Borgen with a crutch—has pled guilty to attempted assault in the second degree as a hate crime and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree and will be sentenced to 18 months when he goes to court on June 13.
Another defendant, Faisal Elezzi, has pled guilty to attempted assault in the third degree as a hate crime and will be sentenced on June 8 to three years probation and must continue with anti-bias programming. Both were required to make a public apology.
The three remaining defendants, Mohammed Othman, Mohammed Said Othman and Mahmoud Musa, will also be appearing in court June 8 to finalize a trial date expected to be either later that month or early July.
Initially, Awawdeh was offered a plea deal of six months by Bragg’s office, which prompted protests from some Jewish organizations and Borgen and his family.
“We acknowledge that two of the most egregious offenders will soon face trial and that Waseem Awawdeh will soon feel the consequences of his anti-Semitic actions,” said Michael Cohen, eastern director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), who has been in contact with Borgen and the district attorney’s office throughout the process.
“For the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the most important word when it comes to combating antisemitism is accountability for the perpetrator and support for our fellow Jews victimized, attacked, and terrorized by violent haters,” he noted. “Anyone who attacks a Jew must face the stiffest penalties under the law. This commitment serves to reassure our community and our victims that Jewish citizens cannot be attacked with impunity. It will hopefully also serve as a deterrent to anyone who thinks that it is open season for violence against Jews and Jewish institutions.”
Borgen, a Modern Orthodox Jew living on the Upper East Side, was attacked during the time of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza when Jews were particularly vulnerable to such assaults.
Cohen said the head of the FBI recently testified that 63 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes are directed at Jews, which make up only 2.4 % of the country’s population.
“One of them, Joseph Borgen, is still recovering from the vicious, violent attack,” he noted, adding that after the assault on Borgen, SWC worked with Long Island partners to organize a 5,000-person rally in Cedarhurst Park to demand that government leaders respond powerfully to antisemitic hate crimes.
Cohen said SWC was “proud” that Borgen “has used his horrific experience to help humanize the horrible hate crimes statistics and raise awareness of the human cost on innocent citizens, especially members of minority communities.“
There were more than 250 antisemitic incidents reported to authorities last year in New York City, a sharp increase over the previous year that mirrors a rise in such incidents across the nation. New York State had the highest number of anti-Jewish incidents, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
By Debra Rubin
