Chabad Attacker Who Sought Jewish Conversion Charged With Hate Crime

A few days ago, an individual rammed his car into the Chabad world headquarters in Brooklyn.  What I call the anti-Semitism Lobby sprang into action, declaring the incident to be a hate crime motivated by anti-Semitism.  Mind you, they didn’t have any information about the victim or his reasons.  They didn’t even know his name, his religion, or his political beliefs.

Dan Sohail is the person who drove his car into 770 Chabad.
There is a video of Dan Inside 770 pic.twitter.com/kNBV1ZfPYw

— Ali (@MerruX) January 29, 2026

Who was the attacker?  Muslim? No. Anti-Israel? No.  Anti-Semitic? No. Mentally troubled,? Yes. Sought a Jewish conversion? Yes.

He is 37 year-old Dan Sohail. He visited a Chabad synagogue several times a few months ago. He’s  featured in a video (embedded above) of a group of Hasidim dancing in a religious celebration at 770:

Rabbi Levi Azimov, who leads Chabad of South Brunswick in New Jersey, said Sohail attended a Purim service at Chabad in March of last year. Sohail visited there twice more seeking spiritual guidance, Azimov told the Forward, though he did not express interest in converting to Judaism.

In fact, another Chabad source (see screenshot) contradicts this claim, saying Sohail did want to convert, but that the rabbis he approached rejected him.  This in turn, spurred the outrage that led to the assault.

But he didn’t want to harm Jews.  In fact, Sohail warned people to move away from his vehicle before he drove it into the building. His assault was intended against Chabad as an institution, not Jews or any other people.

It would not be unusual for Chabad to discourage a non-Jew from converting.  It is far more interested in “converting” secular Jews to their ultra-Orthodox way of life.  Traditionally, Jews are extremely wary of proselytizing or engaging in conversion because historically, this has been the cause of numerous anti-Semitic attacks. If you add that it was clear to his interlocutors that he was mentally unstable, that would further distance them from satisfying his wishes:

“He felt that he was not getting any satisfaction from any of the Chabads,” [Rabbi] Teitz said. “That’s one of the things he was talking about — I went to the Chabad in this place and they let me down, I went to the Chabad in that place and they let me down.”

It’s shameful that police have charged him with a hate crime. They’re certainly aware of his mental health issues. Charges of assault are certainly warranted.  But there was no anti-Semitic animus in his actions. In fact, a senior Chabad official confirmed this:

Also important to note: Antisemitism does not appear to be a factor in this.

— Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone (@Mottel) January 29, 2026

Sokhail wanted to become Jewish, but was turned away.  How do you charge someone with an anti-Semitic crime who wanted to convert to Judaism? In addition, a senior Chabad official has stated unequivocally that the motive was not anti-Semitic.  How will the city prosecute someone for a hate crime when the victim rejects the charge?

New York Jewish leaders exerted enormous pressure on law enforcement to declare this is a hate crime.  They would have raised a hue and cry if police had refused.  But common sense and decency should have dictated caution in determining charges.  His defense will raise the rejection and his mental condition as a serious mitigating factor in determining guilt and sentencing.

The pro-Israel faction on the New York City Council is exploiting the incident on behalf of its (unconstitutional) bill to ban pro-Palestine speech outside synagogues.  Further, in addressing the assault, pro-Israel leaders rallied around the flag and denounced the horrors of anti-Semitism by, in some cases, linking it to criticism of Israel or even terrorism. As usual, in the guise of sympathy for Jewish suffering, they peddled their politics.  Instead of protectors of Jews, they are speech police who damage the constitutional protections inscribed in our country’s sacred founding document.

The effort was spurred by a Palestinian protest outside a Queens synagogue, which hosted a land sale of Palestinian property.  The demonstrators shouted slogans in support of Hamas. Despite this being constitutionally protected speech in the public square, the Israel Lobby determined that such expressions indicated support for terrorism.  In its eyes, words such as these link you to terrorists and you might as well be one as far as it is concerned.  Offending the scruples of Zionists apparently trumps the Bill of Rights.

Unfortunately for them, the 770 incident doesn’t fit neatly into the script: not anti-Semitic, not mentally stable.  As always, things are more complicated than the ideologues, whether Zionist or MAGA, make them out to be. But in this case, it’s doubly troubling since Israel has lit a genocidal fire that is consuming both its apologists and critics.  If we are not careful, the fire will consume us.

This Chabad rabbi thinks the way to go is to militarize Jewish worship. He’s conveniently introduced not just anti-Semitism, but terrorism into an incident that is neither:

Major NYC landmarks and high target sites receive protection from the NYPD Counter Terrorism Unit. The officers are on constant alert, equipped with AR15 platform rifles, actively deterring potential attacks.

770 requires this same level of visibility and defense, not just on holidays, but every Shabbat and during high traffic events.

Inflammatory rhetoric places a target on the backs of over one million Jewish New Yorkers and 150,000 Israeli residents, the majority of whom served in the IDF, as all Israeli citizens over 18, served in the IDF.

Honoring your commitment to ending antisemitism and not allowing intimidation of Jews, requires recognizing that your rhetoric delegitimizing the Jewish state fuels the fear, intimidation and violence we are seeing on our streets.

The political “leaders” below have poured gasoline on the fire.  They can’t miss an opportunity to disseminate disinformation when it’s in their political interest:

I unequivocally condemn the reprehensible car-ramming attack targeting Chabad World HQ in NY. Chabad is a pillar of Jewish community in America. The poisonous hatred of antisemitism is pure evil. This cancerous bigotry towards Jewish people today is towards Christians tomorrow.

— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) January 29, 2026

For the second day in a row, Jewish New Yorkers were the targets of antisemitic violence. Thankfully, there appear to be no injuries — but an attack against the Jewish community is an attack against all New Yorkers.

My team is coordinating with the NYPD and have offered any… https://t.co/RbvzQnolqA

— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) January 29, 2026

I am closely monitoring what appears to be a deliberate attack at 770, the Chabad Headquarters in Crown Heights.

Antisemitism is poison. It has no place in our city, and it will be confronted and rooted out. I will continue doing everything in my power to ensure that happens. https://t.co/gNcrHerbBi

— Eric Adams (@ericadamsfornyc) January 29, 2026