Authorities in California are investigating a possible hate crime after two Jewish men reported being attacked as they spoke Hebrew.
The pair, who declined to be identified, said a group of three men attacked them as they waited for a table outside a restaurant in San Jose.
“Every punch connected directly to where they wanted, to the head directly,” one victim told KGO. “It was on purpose to hit and make maximum damage.”
One witness near the scene in the 300 block of Santana Row reported hearing one of the attackers say “don’t mess with Iran,” the second victim said.
“We don’t have any problem with them,” he told the station. “But I heard at the beginning of the fight, something with, ‘F the Jews.'”
San Jose police confirmed officers responded to a report of a fight near the location, where two victims had been approached by three suspects before an altercation erupted.
“Both victims were evaluated by medical personnel on scene for minor injuries,” police told Newsweek in a statement. “The suspects fled the scene prior to police arrival. The victims alleged that the suspects used antisemitic language during the altercation.”
Detectives have yet to locate evidence indicating the assault meets elements of a hate crime, police said.
“However, we are still actively investigating the assault as a hate crime and investigators are continuing to review evidence and are actively conducting follow up,” the department’s statement continued.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan condemned the attack as “deeply disturbing” in a statement on Tuesday.
“Antisemitism and all acts of hatred have no place in San Jose,” Mahan posted on X. “Being able to talk about our differences and celebrate them is what makes us the safest big city in America.”
Mahan has contacted police officials and local Jewish community leaders regarding the incident, he said.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat who represents the district where the attack occurred, also denounced the violence.
“The assault on Israeli Americans in San Jose while speaking Hebrew is horrific,” Khanna said in a statement on X. “This kind of antisemitism has no place in our community. I unequivocally condemn these attacks. The assailants must be held accountable and prosecuted.”
Footage of the assault, which is circulating on social media, is alarming to some members of San Jose’s Jewish community, Bay Area News Group reported.
“It’s extremely disturbing,” Daniel Klein, CEO of Jewish Silicon Valley, told the outlet. “I wish our community was surprised by this incident, but unfortunately, this has been the environment that the Jewish community has had to operate in for several years now.”
Klein said the victims had been speaking Hebrew at the time. Video shows the men in a patio area in front of Augustine — a restaurant along Santana Row — when the attack occurred. The three suspects then fled as horrified witnesses looked on, he said.
“These three individuals came out of nowhere, and one of the victims asked, ‘Do I know you?'” Klein said. “They started beating the two of them, knocking one of them out.”
Melissa Escudero, 20, of Sunnyvale, filmed the attack as she sat outside a nearby wine bar. The two victims were waiting for a table when three suspects approached and “blurted something out loud” before pouncing, she recalled.
“One of them seemed to fall on the first hit,” she told the Bay Area News Group. “They immediately turned to the other individual that was standing and carried him, threw him to the ground and just continued to hit him, ripped his shirt … It just seemed like they were doing it with such anger.”
One of the victims said he was dismayed about the brazenness of the attack.
“This kind of violence [is] not supposed to happen in the middle of the day on a Sunday — with kids and elderly people, and everybody’s walking around,” he told KGO.
Anyone with information about the incident should contact the San Jose Police Department at (408) 277-4161.
