Man arrested in antisemitic attack on Orthodox Jewish man in Brooklyn

A young man was arrested Monday for the anti-Semitic attack on an Orthodox Jew in Brooklyn less than a week ago.

Armani Charles, 23, was charged with assault as a hate crime, attempted assault as a hate crime and threats as a hate crime for the Dec. 16 attack on Elias Rosner, 35, cops said.

Charles launched into an anti-Semitic tirade after encountering Rosner, who was leaving a Crown Heights synagogue at Kingston Ave. and Lincoln Place alongside a group of other worshipers around 4 p.m., police said.

“We were just crossing the street when he started ranting at all of us,” Rosner told the Daily News. “He said that if the Holocaust had succeeded we wouldn’t be here today and that he wanted to kill a Jew today and couldn’t wait to do it. I looked at him like he had two heads sticking out of his shoulders and he started picking on me.”

The suspect focused on Rosner because “I was the only one looking him in the eye,” the victim said.

Video of the confrontation shared on social media shows Rosner wearing a beige shirt and lime green hat as he fights the stranger who takes off down the street. For a few moments, Rosner follows the suspect, the video shows. During a second exchange between the two men moments later, the attacker pulled out a knife and stabbed Rosner in the chest just above the heart.

“I did a really good job of defending myself,” Rosner said.

Cops collected footage of the suspect from surveillance cameras and released images Wednesday of the suspect, who was wearing braids and a black and white jacket with the word “Real” on the back.

Charles awaited his arraignment Monday evening.