32 years later: The US recognizes the antisemitic terror attack that shocked New York

The US Department of Justice has granted unprecedented federal recognition to the family of Ari Halberstam, a Chabad teenager who was murdered in a shooting attack on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1994. In an official letter, the federal prosecutor stated that if the attack had occurred today, the authorities would have investigated it as a civil rights violation and sought to prosecute the terrorist for a federal hate crime.

"There is no doubt that if the murder of your son, Ari Halberstam, had occurred today, we would have investigated it and sought to prosecute the perpetrator for a federal hate crime," wrote Jay Clayton, the former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, in a letter sent at the end of July to Devorah Halberstam, Ari's mother. Clayton, who has since been appointed as the US Director of National Intelligence, added that the attempted murders of the 14 other young people who were in the vehicle with Ari would have been handled in the same way.

The attack took place on March 1, 1994. A vehicle carrying 15 Chabad yeshiva students was making its way from Manhattan to Crown Heights after the students had visited the Lubavitcher Rebbe in the hospital. As they drove onto the Brooklyn Bridge, Rashid Baz, a driver of Lebanese descent, opened fire on them. Three young people were wounded, and Ari, 16, was critically injured and died five days later.

Initially, the authorities described the shooting as a "road rage" incident, and Baz was prosecuted in the state of New York for murder, 14 counts of attempted murder, and a weapons offense — charges that did not require the prosecution to prove an antisemitic motive. He was convicted and sentenced to 141 years in prison. Only after a struggle led by Devorah Halberstam for more than six years did the Department of Justice and the FBI classify the incident in 2000 as an act of terrorism.

In a confession given to investigators years after his conviction, Baz said that he had followed the vehicle and chose to target its passengers following the massacre committed by Baruch Goldstein against Muslim worshippers at the Cave of the Patriarchs four days earlier. When asked if he would have shot at a vehicle carrying Black or Hispanic people, he replied: "No, I shot them only because they were Jews." However, the attack was never investigated as a federal hate crime and civil rights violation case. Baz died in prison in 2023.

One of the survivors of the attack, Rabbi Yossi Spalter, told CBS last night (Monday) that even at that moment, he had no doubt what was behind the shooting. "We all knew that we were attacked for the simple reason that we were Jews, and that we were targeted because of our kippahs and hats," he said. According to him, for decades the question hovered over the survivors: "Why were we denied our civil rights?". The retroactive recognition, he added, provides a certain security that the harm done to them will no longer be swept under the rug.

Clayton explained that the legal framework existing today was not available to prosecutors in 1994 at all. The central federal law that authorities rely on today in cases of hate crimes was only enacted in 2009, and significantly expanded the Department of Justice's ability to prosecute for violence committed due to the victim's religion or origin. In a speech he gave in June, Clayton said that Baz's conviction for murder "does not by itself give full expression to the horrific behavior," and that "Ari Halberstam deserved the full force of the law."

However, the letter does not announce the opening of a new investigation. Clayton admitted that the passage of time and Baz's death pose significant obstacles, and that the prosecutor's office does not currently recognize any additional investigative steps that could lead to federal charges. Alongside this, he ordered the civil rights and national security units to preserve the facts of the case and be prepared to act if new evidence is discovered. "We are committed to continuing to stand guard in the pursuit of justice," he wrote.

Devorah Halberstam said that the letter proves that the administration has not abandoned the victims of the attack. "With the rise in hate in the US and around the world, I am very worried about the safety of the Jews of New York," she said. "I will continue to fight so that no other mother will have to bury her child because of hate, as I was forced to do."

New York City Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, welcomed the move, even though he himself faces criticism from elements in the Jewish community who accuse him of fueling antisemitism due to his harsh anti-Israel positions. "I am glad that the murder of Ari Halberstam is recognized as the despicable act of antisemitism that it was," he stated. "This recognition is long overdue, and it is a testament to Devorah's extraordinary determination for more than three decades."