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(JNS) — A Lyft driver kicked a Chabad rabbi out of his car in Washington, D.C. and attacked him on Sunday, sending the latter to an urgent care facilities with cuts on his face.
Menachem Shemtov, 29, director of Chabad Georgetown and the son and grandson of prominent Chabad rabbis in the nation’s capital, told the Washington Post that he asked the driver to lower the music in the car. The driver—who looked much younger than the photo on the Lyft app suggested—turned the music off.
Rabbi Menachem Shemtov also shared two videos, one from a witness, who he said was the Lyft driver who assaulted him near Florida Ave & Connecticut Ave. A Lyft spokesperson says the company “deactivated the driver” upon learning the incident. No arrest so far. @wusa9 https://t.co/BGuhT5JCL5 pic.twitter.com/uWeFBCDElQ
— Matthew Torres (@News_MTorres) January 29, 2024
“He made a passive-aggressive comment about how I should book a quiet car next time,” Shemtov told the Post. “Then 20 seconds later, he said, ‘Get out of my car.’” Pressed for a reason, the man said, “I don’t like your energy. Your energy is kind of offending me.”
“He was just saying ridiculous stuff as an excuse or reason to get me out of the vehicle,” Shemtov told the Washington Jewish Week. “He slashed me with his keys about an inch below my eyeball.”
VIDEO ⬇️
Rabbi Menachem Shemtov, son of DC’s Rabbi Levi Shemtov was violently attacked by a Lyft driver after being kicked out of the car because driver didn’t like his ‘energy.’
Driver can be heard yelling “f… ing God,” raising possibility of a hate crime. pic.twitter.com/UOCWG4h78w
— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) January 29, 2024
“Videos of the incident, taken by both Shemtov and witnesses, show the driver punching and hitting the rabbi with a set of keys,” the Post reported. “The attacker fled the scene, according to a police report, which described his vehicle as a red Toyota sedan bearing the Maryland license plate 3FR1602.”
The Post added that video footage showed the driver following Shemtov out of the car “and yelling at him for slamming the car door. He then punched Shemtov in the face.”
“When the rabbi moved to take pictures of the car, the driver followed him and slapped him repeatedly with his keys, leaving cuts across Shemtov’s face,” the paper reported. It quoted the rabbi saying he didn’t fight back, and “This is the most aggressive thing to happen to me.”
The police report “said the incident was not being investigated as a hate crime,” the paper added. Shemtov told the Post, “I don’t know what other energy he could be referring to. … I don’t know what to attribute to me other than who I am.” (Lyft didn’t respond immediately to a query from JNS.)
