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The man who was stalked and then stabbed with a syringe by a woman on a busy Midtown street Wednesday defiantly returned to the scene the next day, convinced he was targeted because he is “visibly Jewish” and vowing not to be intimidated by hate.
Two days after the terrifying attack, Yosef, 26, a rabbi who spoke on the condition his full name not be revealed, told The Post Friday he was “shaken” but undaunted.
His attacker has not been caught.
“We can’t allow hate to stop who we are. We need more light in the world,” said Yosef, who took the subway into Manhattan on Thursday.
The lifelong Brooklynite returned to West 47th Street to continue his Jewish outreach, helping men fulfill the Jewish commandment to put on tefillin, a pair of small black leather boxes that contain scrolls with verses of the Torah.
Yosef has spent four days a week for the past three years doing outreach in Manhattan’s Diamond District, where his father has worked for years.
At around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, video shows Yosef — dressed in traditional Orthodox garb, including a black hat — being stalked on a bustling street as passersby ignored his struggle to escape the Russian-speaking woman.
Yosef felt a sharp, needle-like prick in his lower right back as he approached a nearby grocery store, according to sources.
With his shirt soaked in blood, he was taken to Bellevue Hospital.
Yosef believes the unprovoked attack was motivated by antisemitism.
“I never met that person before,” he said. “She passes by other people. I’m visibly Jewish.”
The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the attack.
Yosef said he was released from the hospital after roughly three hours and was determined to return to 47th Street the next day to continue his outreach.
“I traveled the country. I never really experienced antisemitism anywhere in America on a personal level,” he told The Post.
Despite feeling “shaken,” Yosef said he made up his mind as he left the hospital: “I’m going back tomorrow.”
His return stunned members of the community.
“They were in shock when I came back,” he said of visiting friends on 47th Street just hours after his harrowing ordeal.
Yosef said he draws strength from his grandparents, who survived the Holocaust.
“They went on to build a Jewish home after the Holocaust,” he said. “If they could survive, I thought I must go back to spread the light.
“We can’t be intimidated. We have to be strong.”