NEW YORK, NY – The father of a victim of an antisemitic hate crime called out New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg for not taking his son’s case seriously during a Monday House Judiciary committee hearing.
Joseph Borgen was severely beaten during an antisemitic attack in 2021 at a pro-Israel event in New York City that sent him to the hospital, according to CNN. Barry Borgen, Joseph’s father, testified Monday for the “Victims of Violent Crime in Manhattan” during a committee hearing and criticized Bragg’s response to his son’s attack, even offering a “sweetheart deal” to one of the defendants.
“This has been going on for two years, they have film of this in black and white from people in the street and Times Square, it’s an open and shut case, and DA Bragg is just schlepping this case along with no solution, offering deal after deal,” Borgen said. “One fellow, Waseem Awawdeh, was hitting my son with crutches and was offered a sweetheart deal, didn’t take it yet, he was let out on probation … In fact, while he was out on bail, he had an incident with road rage with an elderly man on the street. Bragg brought him again, nothing, just ‘go out and behave yourself,’ this will just embolden him and he doesn’t care.”
MUST WATCH: Joseph Borgen’s father tells @JudiciaryGOP about DA Bragg’s release of the antisemitic assailant who savagely beat his son –and even warned he would do it again. pic.twitter.com/QEw0XPhQYr
— Rep. Barry Moore (@RepBarryMoore) April 17, 2023
Joseph Borgen was assaulted on Mary 21, 2021, during a pro-Israel rally in Times Square, according to the Jewish News Syndicate. The attackers kicked and punched Borgen repeatedly, one used crutches while yelling antisemitic slurs such as “dirty Jew” and “Fuck Israel.”
Borgen also called out Democrats Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York and Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, both of whom are Jewish, for not aiding his son’s case.
“Mr. Nadler, you’re a Jewish New Yorker, I called your office numerous times, I called Mr. Schumer’s office, another Jewish New Yorker, numerous times no one called us back,” Borgen said to Nadler. “Neither one of you came out and made a statement about my son’s incident. You’re a Jewish New Yorker, you have Jewish roots here and behavior like this enables Mr. Bragg to do whatever he wants to do. If you guys would have come out with a statement from Washington and said ‘We condemn this beating of Mr. Borgen’s so, we condemn antisemitism, we condemn this act,’ maybe Mr. Bragg would have taken this case a little more seriously.”
Anti-Jewish hate crimes have skyrocketed in New York City from 191 in 2021 to over 250 incidents in 2022, according to the Times of Israel. A 2022 report from Americans Against Antisemitism found that, between 2018 and 2022, only two individuals who were accused of antisemitic hate crimes were given prison sentences in New York City, and less than 10 out of 194 were convicted.
The DA’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Original report by Kate Anderson on April 17, 2023, edited by SNN for localization.
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