A raging woman spewing antisemitic hate ripped out a hunk of a Jewish rider’s hair on a Big Apple subway Sunday and screeched “Jews are eating kids,” according to cops and shocking video.
The suspect, identified by police as Bronx resident Diana Smith, shouted an assortment of vicious remarks against Jews on the crowded C train around 2:15 p.m. in lower Manhattan before she assaulted a 23-year-old Upper West Side woman, police said.
“I was a ragdoll and I couldn’t defend myself – there should have been a human barricade around me,” the young Orthodox Jewish victim, who asked her name be withheld, told The Post.
“No one stepped up until it was too late.”
The victim, a nurse and Montreal native, recalled to The Post she entered the transit system at Jay Street and was riding for one stop when the suspect also hopped on and started speaking to a couple “about the dangers of Jews stealing wealth.”
She then turned to another couple and wildly said, “You could always see the reflection of a Jew,” said the Jewish woman.
“And then she turned towards me, like very targeted, stared me down, and smiled with this very eerie smile that I’ll never forget,” the brave nurse said.
“I decided in that moment I really did not want to show fear in the face of that, so I stared at her right back down, and I said, ‘So you see my reflection?’ and she said, ‘Yeah, and I smell it on you too.’”
Part of the encounter was captured on the victim’s phone, which shows Smith’s ugly rhetoric.
“Jews are eating kids,” she shouted.
The tense moment quickly escalated to violence when Smith allegedly placed a hand on the victim’s throat.
A couple of bystanders attempted to defuse the situation with Smith yelling, “It’s OK for Jews to eat kids, but I can’t choke her down.”
Seconds later the victim’s phone was knocked to the ground and Smith allegedly had her hands wrapped around her throat, kicking and shoving her to the ground, the 23-year-old said.
Her hair was pulled so forcefully that a clump of it was ripped out.
Once the subway reached the Canal Street stop, the Jewish woman rushed out of the car to get cops’ attention while another straphanger pushed the emergency button, leading to the arrest of Smith.
“When I had to identify her, a ton of people were like, ‘Oh, we saw what happened, are you OK?’ And, that was extremely triggering for me, because, of course, I’m not OK. I kept just thinking, I’m not in Nazi Germany,” said the woman, who is only 5-foot-3.
“How is this happening, and how is it that you saw what happened, and just were a bystander?”
The victim said she also suffered a concussion from the hateful attack.
Smith is facing charges of hate crime assault, hate crime criminal obstruction of breathing and aggravated harassment, court records show.
“She’s pure evil, but she was lucid enough to know I was Jewish,” the victim said.
The hateful attack came the same time the Israel Day Parade was marching across 5th Avenue in Manhattan – though Mayor Zohran Mamdani was a notable no-show.
“I don’t think New York is protecting Jews. I don’t think Mamdani not going to the Israel Day Parade is helping,” she said.
The 34-year-old lefty mayor has said he didn’t march because he does not agree with the Israeli government, but has vowed to protect Big Apple Jews and celebrate Jewish culture in other ways.
The city has dealt with a spike in antisemitic crimes since the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, sparking the bloody conflict in Gaza.
