A 20-year-old Columbia University protester who declared himself a “Jew hater” and expressed support for Hamas has pleaded guilty to three federal hate crimes involving violent assaults on Jewish individuals during anti-Israel demonstrations in Manhattan.
Tarek Bazrouk, of Queens, admitted in federal court to targeting and attacking three Jewish victims between April 2024 and January 2025 in separate incidents near the New York Stock Exchange, on the Upper West Side, and outside Columbia’s campus.
Among the most high-profile attacks was a violent assault on Columbia student Jonathan Lederer, whose brother was holding an Israeli flag when Bazrouk allegedly tore it away and punched Lederer in the face. Witnesses say Bazrouk shouted Nazi slogans during the assault and accused Lederer, whose family lost relatives in the Holocaust, of being a “baby killer” for supporting Israel.
“I told them I support a two-state solution,” Lederer later said. “I want peace on both sides. But they didn’t want to hear it.”







