Victim Menachem Moskowitz was chased and beaten in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn by a man yelling antisemitic insults. Photo: Screenshot.

A Brooklyn man has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for a brutal assault on a rabbi in 2018 that left the victim badly bruised and with a fractured rib.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Donald Leo passed sentence on the offender, 44-year-old James Vincent, one month after a jury found Vincent guilty of strangulation as a hate crime and assault as a hate crime, among other charges. On April 21, 2018, Vincent engaged in an unprovoked attack on Rabbi Menachem Moskowitz as he walked home from shabbat services at a synagogue in the Crown Heights section of the borough.

The stiff sentence won fulsome praise from Jewish advocates in Brooklyn, where Orthodox Jews have frequently been targeted for violent assaults in recent years.

“Gratified to learn the perpetrator of this vicious hate crime on Menachem Moskowitz was sentenced by the Judge to 11 years in prison,” the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn (UJO) tweeted. “We hope this serves as a deterrent for others who consider attacking anyone based on hate.”

In an interview in the immediate aftermath of his ordeal, Moskowitz admitted that he feared Vincent would kill him.

“As I was walking home I passed a man smoking a cigar on the corner of Rutland and Schenectady and I said ‘good afternoon’ to him,” Moskowitz said at the time, explaining that “it’s a nice neighborhood and everyone is close.”

“As soon as [I greeted] him he began yelling at me ‘you fake Jews, who are you saying hello to? You’re fake Jews and you stole all my money and robbed me, and stole my mortgage and my house. I want to kill you!’” Moskowitz recalled.  “I thought the man was just crazy so I started walking away, and he shouted ‘you don’t walk away from me’ and started chasing after me.”

Moskowitz said the man caught up with him and placed him in a chokehold, punching and kicking him at the same time. “I started to feel dizzy, I felt my air going out, I started saying Shema, I thought I was going to die,” he remembered.

Two passersby then intervened, enabling the terrified Moskowitz to run home. He was later admitted to a hospital with a cracked rib and swelling, bruising and scratches all over his body.