RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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The man who repeatedly rammed a car into the Chabad Hasidic movement's world headquarters in New York City earlier this year was sentenced on Wednesday to time served.
Dan Sohail, 36, pleaded guilty to damaging religious property in May.
Sohail slammed his car into the revered religious site in January, causing widespread alarm.
He was initially charged with a hate crime, but later told investigators that he was seeking to connect with his "Jewish heritage."
An investigation found that Sohail had made outreach to Jewish groups ahead of the incident and had mental health problems.
The judge overseeing the case at Brooklyn federal court said Sohail needed mental health treatment and did not exhibit any hatred toward Jews.
Sohail was sentenced to time served. He has been incarcerated for six months and will be released next week.
The judge in the case, Eric Vitaliano, ordered Sohail to pay $19,000 in restitution.
Vitaliano criticized the Department of Justice for seeking a harsher sentence, which prosecutors hoped could serve as a wider warning to those who might attack Jewish interests amid a dramatic rise in hate crimes against the Jewish population.
Defense attorney Mia Eisner-Grynberg told the judge in court papers prior to the sentencing that Sohail was battling depression and post-traumatic stress disorder after a traumatizing childhood when he carried out the attack even as he “desperately sought belonging and understanding through his exploration of Judaism.”
She said Sohail attended the Chabad he eventually attacked and “found the rabbinical students there warm and welcoming.”
Eisner Grynberg said Sohail “danced with them” and followed their instructions to visit Israel, but he became erratic and extremely anxious after he returned to the United States and was “begging” members of the Chabad to assist him.
Sohail did not speak at sentencing, but he thanked the judge at the end of the proceeding.
The crash occurred on the 75th anniversary of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson becoming the leader of the Lubavitch movement and prompted immediate concern in the city. Schneerson died in 1994, but remains a revered figure globally. There has been a near-constant police presence around the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters for years.
The site was at the epicenter of the Crown Heights riots in 1991, when Black residents of the neighborhood attacked Jews after a child was killed by a car traveling in Schneerson’s motorcade. In 2014, a disturbed man entered the synagogue and stabbed a rabbinical student, wounding him, before being shot dead by police.
The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
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