A Jewish man was stabbed on Thursday afternoon on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, along with one other victim, in what was potentially a hate crime, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. 

“Detectives are continuing to work the case and determine motive, but according to victim and witness statements, [the suspect] yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ during both attacks,” Tisch wrote on X. 

The NYPD press office told Jewish Insider that police responded at 1:31 p.m. to a 911 call near West 84th Street and Central Park West and found a 57-year-old man conscious and alert with a stab wound to the back. Officers then encountered a 50-year-old man two blocks away with a stab wound to the chest, who was also awake and responsive. The other victim was Asian, Tisch said. Medics transported both men in stable condition to a nearby hospital.

The NYPD has arrested 51-year-old Raul Morales in connection with both assaults, Tisch announced, and the NYPD is investigating the incident as a potential hate crime.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned the stabbings on X on Thursday evening, saying, “These hateful and despicable attacks have no place in our city,” but he did not mention antisemitism.

Mamdani added that the NYPD’s initial investigation “suggests that mental health may have been a factor. They are also evaluating these stabbings as potential hate crimes.”

The attack occurred on the Tisha B’Av holiday just outside of The Jewish Center, a Modern Orthodox congregation. New York assemblymember and congressional nominee Micah Lasher, who is Jewish and represents the area, told The Times of Israel that the Jewish victim was wearing a kippah. 

The Jewish victim is a member of Congregation Ohab Zedek, another Modern Orthodox synagogue on the Upper West Side, a source familiar with him told JI. 

City Council Speaker Julie Menin wrote on X that the attack “appears to be an antisemitic stabbing.”

“While we await additional details to be confirmed, we know that what is happening in our city is abhorrent,” wrote Menin, the first Jewish person to ever serve in her role. “The fear in the Jewish community is real. Every New Yorker deserves to feel safe in their neighborhood, regardless of their faith or identity.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul similarly called the incident “what appears to be another senseless attack on New Yorkers simply because they’re Jewish.”

Jewish groups had warned a day earlier that a video released by Mamdani on Tuesday night railing against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he accused Israel of a litany of war crimes, put Jewish New Yorkers at risk.

A 64-year-old Jewish man was injured in a separate incident in Brooklyn on Tuesday morning when a man shouting antisemitic slurs shoved him to the ground, injuring his back and hip, police said. The NYPD is investigating the attack as a hate crime. 

This is a developing story.