Drama unfolded in New York City, where a man repeatedly crashed his car into the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters on Wednesday night (January 28, 2026). The incident occurred while people were gathered for prayer at the deeply revered Hasidic Jewish site.
According to NYPD officials, officers assigned to a detail in front of the building at 770 Eastern Parkway heard a commotion around 8:45 PM, as reported by ABC 7 NY. They saw a grey Honda with New Jersey plates strike the rear door, reverse and strike the rear door again. Officers ordered the driver out of the vehicle. He was placed under arrest but no charges against him at the time of filing of this report.
Video of car crash surfaces online
Multiple videos of the crash went viral on social media. In the viral footage, a car with New Jersey license plates was seen moving forward and backward on an icy driveway leading to a building in the complex and ramming its basement-level doors.
The driver, who is wearing shorts, emerges, shouts to bystanders that “It slipped,” and says something to police about trying to park. According to news agency AP, the driver struck a door of a building in the complex before reversing and striking it several more times. Multiple reports claimed that no one sustained injury in the incident.
Cops investigating incident as ‘possible hate crime’
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that while it was too early in the investigation to speculate on the driver's motives, the incident was being investigated as a possible hate crime.
Mamdani calls crash ‘intentional’
“This is deeply alarming, especially given the deep meaning and the history of the institution to so many in New York and around the world,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a post on X. He called the crash “intentional."
Chabad Lubavitch spokesperson reacts
Chabad Lubavitch spokesperson Motti Seligson said some of the doors were damaged in the crash. The Chabad Lubavitch headquarters and synagogue in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood receive thousands of visitors annually. Its Gothic Revival facade is very recognizable to adherents of the Chabad movement and has inspired dozens of replicas across the world.
Commonly referred to as 770, a nod to the Eastern Parkway address of the complex’s original building, the headquarters encompasses multiple adjacent structures.
No weapons were discovered
Neither bombs nor any other weapons were found in the car that hit the building, according to Tisch, as reported by AP. She said it was also too early in the investigation to comment on the driver's mental state.
The incident happened on the 75th anniversary of the date that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson became the leader of the Lubavitch movement. Schneerson died in 1994 but remains a revered figure globally. There has been a near-constant police presence around 770 Eastern Parkway 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.
According to NYPD officials, officers assigned to a detail in front of the building at 770 Eastern Parkway heard a commotion around 8:45 PM, as reported by ABC 7 NY. They saw a grey Honda with New Jersey plates strike the rear door, reverse and strike the rear door again. Officers ordered the driver out of the vehicle. He was placed under arrest but no charges against him at the time of filing of this report.
Video of car crash surfaces online
Multiple videos of the crash went viral on social media. In the viral footage, a car with New Jersey license plates was seen moving forward and backward on an icy driveway leading to a building in the complex and ramming its basement-level doors.
The driver, who is wearing shorts, emerges, shouts to bystanders that “It slipped,” and says something to police about trying to park. According to news agency AP, the driver struck a door of a building in the complex before reversing and striking it several more times. Multiple reports claimed that no one sustained injury in the incident.
Cops investigating incident as ‘possible hate crime’
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that while it was too early in the investigation to speculate on the driver's motives, the incident was being investigated as a possible hate crime.
Mamdani calls crash ‘intentional’
“This is deeply alarming, especially given the deep meaning and the history of the institution to so many in New York and around the world,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a post on X. He called the crash “intentional."
Chabad Lubavitch spokesperson reacts
Chabad Lubavitch spokesperson Motti Seligson said some of the doors were damaged in the crash. The Chabad Lubavitch headquarters and synagogue in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood receive thousands of visitors annually. Its Gothic Revival facade is very recognizable to adherents of the Chabad movement and has inspired dozens of replicas across the world.
Commonly referred to as 770, a nod to the Eastern Parkway address of the complex’s original building, the headquarters encompasses multiple adjacent structures.
No weapons were discovered
Neither bombs nor any other weapons were found in the car that hit the building, according to Tisch, as reported by AP. She said it was also too early in the investigation to comment on the driver's mental state.
The incident happened on the 75th anniversary of the date that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson became the leader of the Lubavitch movement. Schneerson died in 1994 but remains a revered figure globally. There has been a near-constant police presence around 770 Eastern Parkway 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.
