San Jose police are investigating a possible hate crime after two Israeli Americans were assaulted on Sunday afternoon outside a local restaurant while speaking Hebrew.
The incident comes amid heightened security threats for Jewish communities worldwide stemming from the current Iran war, according to the Secure Community Network, a nonprofit monitoring threats to Jews in North America.
Lior Zeevi, 47, and Daniel Levy, 48, were waiting for a table outside Augustine, an upscale restaurant in Santana Row in San Jose, when three men attacked them, Zeevi and Levy told J. on Tuesday.
Video of the incident circulated widely on social media. It shows three men with dark hair, two of whom repeatedly punch at someone on the ground outside the restaurant under navy-blue patio umbrellas, as a handful of observers look on. A woman is heard saying, “Knock it off!” and a man is heard saying, “Arrest them!” while a dog barks in the background.
J. obtained additional video footage of the incident showing that the victims were punched repeatedly in the face and kicked while on the ground.
Zeevi and Levy were interviewed together on a phone call with J. on Tuesday. The men, both originally from Haifa and longtime friends who met through Chabad of Almaden, said they were speaking in Hebrew to each other while waiting for their table. Levy saw a man approaching them with a “very weird look” and asked the man, “Do we know each other?”
“When I turned around to see who he’s talking to, it was already too late,” Zeevi told J. “They started punching, and it was brutal.”
Zeevi doesn’t recall what the men were shouting at him while he was being beaten, beyond hearing “f***ing Jew” uttered by one of them.
At least two bystanders recorded videos of the incident, which happened around 3:38 p.m., and shared them with San Jose police and with J.
One witness, Melissa Escudero, shared a 23-second video she shot from a wine bar across the street from Augustine. In the video, three men are seen punching Zeevi and Levy to the ground, near the entrance of Augustine. A waiter and several outdoor diners a few feet away watch the violent incident unfold. Passersby stop and stare.
An 18-second video provided by Keanu Kahrobaie, a retail employee on Santana Row, shows a closer view from next door to the restaurant. In the video, Zeevi is on the ground as two men hit him. One man, who is wearing black pants, a black T-shirt and sneakers, is on his knees, punching Zeevi repeatedly in the face. Another man in white pants and a black shirt stands over Zeevi and kicks him. A third man, also wearing black pants and a black T-shirt and sneakers, runs toward Levy, who was already on the ground. Then the three men run off.
“The only logical thing I could think, other than to stop it, because there was way too many people, was to record it, because it could be used as evidence,” Kahrobaie told J.
Kahrobaie, whose parents were born in Iran, said he heard one of the men shout something in Farsi as they fled.
“They actually kind of carried him, then threw him to the ground, and then just continuously hit,” Escudero said of witnessing the attack on Zeevi.
“I had three guys on me, so two guys were punching, one of them kicking me in the head when I was on the floor,” Zeevi said.
Levy told J. that he briefly lost consciousness after a single punch to the head. He believes he was punched more than once. Both men said they had swelling on their heads and faces after the assault. Levy’s lower lip was split and bleeding. Zeevi’s white shirt was torn.
Santana Row security responded shortly after the three men fled and contacted San Jose police, who interviewed Zeevi, Levy and the two witnesses.
Levy said perhaps the worst part was that the onlookers carried on with their meals after the attack. “Nobody cared,” he said, other than Escudero and Kahrobaie. Escudero said she purchased a new shirt for Zeevi while he gave his statement to police.
Zeevi and Levy were treated at a local hospital and then released later that day. Both were given CT scans, according to Zeevi.
This isn’t the first time that Zeevi, who owns HVAC & Insulation Gurus in San Jose, has dealt with hate. In August, several work vehicles parked overnight at his business were damaged and spray-painted with swastikas and “KKK.” San Jose police investigated it as a possible hate crime.
The San Jose Police Department told J. that Sunday’s incident is also being investigated as a possible hate crime.
The Anti-Defamation League said it is working with San Jose police, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan’s office and Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen’s office regarding the incident.
“A horrific attack against members of the local Jewish community took place in broad daylight at San Jose’s Santana Row,” Marc Levine, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s regional office in San Francisco, said in an email to J. “We will continue to provide updates to the community as we are able.”
Marco Sermoneta, Israel’s consul general to the Pacific Northwest, condemned the attack in an X post on Tuesday and called on local and state elected officials and law enforcement to address the incident “swiftly and effectively.”
“The most important thing to me is that they’re going to get arrested, all three of them, and actually going to get the punishment that they deserve. There was no reason to do this kind of thing,” Zeevi told J.
“We want to make sure that something like this does not happen to somebody else,” Levy added.
