{"id":220914,"date":"2026-08-17T06:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T06:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/new-york-city-man-charged-with-hate-crimes-after-alleged-synagogue-assault-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T06:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T06:10:16","slug":"new-york-city-man-charged-with-hate-crimes-after-alleged-synagogue-assault-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/new-york-city-man-charged-with-hate-crimes-after-alleged-synagogue-assault-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"New York City man charged with hate crimes after alleged synagogue assault – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police say Larry Montes struck a woman and a security guard after he disrupted Shabbat services
A New York City<\/a> man is facing hate crime charges after police say he assaulted a woman and a security team member while disrupting Shabbat services at Central Synagogue in Manhattan \u2013 all in plain view of a live stream.
The New York<\/a> police department identified the suspect in the case as Larry Montes, 46, who was arrested after the episode at the synagogue. Montes was charged with two counts of assault as a hate crime and one count of criminal mischief as a hate crime, along with other alleged violations, police said.
The incident unfolded just after 6pm on Friday as services were getting under way at Central Synagogue, located on New York City\u2019s busy Lexington Avenue.
According to the NYPD commissioner, Jessica Tisch, security was attempting to remove Montes from the synagogue when he struck a 63-year-old woman, damaged synagogue property, and spit at and head-butted a member of the security team. Police said the woman suffered a small laceration to her lip and an injury to her right forearm.
An NYPD sergeant assigned to the synagogue immediately intervened and took Montes into police custody, Tisch said.
A live stream of the service captured<\/a> the tense moments inside the synagogue. It showed a man shouting as a security guard tried to restrain him and remove him from the building.
Tisch said there were no additional suspects being sought.
\u201cI understand the sanctity of this space and its meaning for congregants,\u201d Tisch wrote on X<\/a> on Saturday evening. \u201cCentral Synagogue is where I grew up.
\u201cIn joy and in sorrow, it has always been a place of comfort and peace. What happened there tonight is deeply painful. A place of worship should never be a crime scene.\u201d
The NYPD\u2019s hate crime taskforce is investigating the case.
New York City\u2019s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, condemned the attack, writing<\/a> on X: \u201cEvery New Yorker must be able to observe their religion without fear of violence. This despicable act has no place in our city, and our administration will do everything in our power to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe.\u201d
Mamdani added that there was \u201cno known ongoing threat in or around the synagogue\u201d.
New York\u2019s governor, Kathy Hochul, also responded to the allegations against Montes, calling them \u201cappalling\u201d on X<\/a> and writing: \u201cJewish New Yorkers have every right to worship openly, proudly, and without fear.\u201d
A statement<\/a> from Central Synagogue pledged to \u201ckeep on gathering for joyful, meaningful Judaism with our \u2026 family every week\u201d.
<\/span> This article was amended on 16 August 2026. The incident at the synagogue happened on Friday, not Saturday as an earlier version said.<\/p>\n

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Police say Larry Montes struck a woman and a security guard after he disrupted Shabbat servicesA New York City man is facing hate crime charges after police say he assaulted a woman and a security team member while disrupting Shabbat services at Central Synagogue in Manhattan \u2013 all in plain view of a live stream.The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":220915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}