Family of victim of anti-Semitic attack criticizes Alvin Bragg for ‘doing nothing’

The family of a Jew who was severely beaten by a group during a pro-Israel rally in Midtown on Thursday criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for offering a lucrative deal to one of those accused of attacking anti-Semites.

“It’s disgusting how Mr. Bragg calls himself a crime fighter, this man does nothing,” Joseph Borgen’s father, Barry Borgen, told The Post in an interview Thursday in front of Manhattan Criminal Court.

“He suggested to the people who tried to kill my son, six months in prison, one guy to leave because he might have hit him once. This is a hate crime.”

Bragg offered a six-month plea deal to 24-year-old Wasim Awadeh, who allegedly joined the May 20, 2021 attack along with several others, and defiantly said “I would do it again” after his arrest.

Joseph Borgen, 30, was wearing a yarmulke as he walked to a pro-Israel rally near Broadway and West 49th Street when he was attacked, beaten and sprayed with pepper spray.

At the time, Borgen, an accountant on the Upper East Side, said the attackers called him a “dirty Jew” and yelled, “To hell with Israel, Hamas is going to kill you all.”

Awade, a Brooklyn resident, and three Staten Island men, Mahmoud Musa, Faisal Elezzi and Mohammed Othman, were charged with assault, including assault as a hate crime and gang assault.

Earlier this month, Bragg’s office defended the lenient sentence, telling The Post that Awadeh did not initiate the attack, but was the sixth person to join and leave before it was over.

But at his arraignment, prosecutors testified that he showed little remorse for the attack.

“If I could do it again, I would do it again,” he allegedly told the jailer after his arrest. “I have no problem doing it again.”

Stephen Hirsh

Stephen Hirsh

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Barry Borgen told The Post that he feared the plea offer would only cheer up would-be attackers.

“[The light sentence] shows that this is open season for anyone, be it Asian, African American, Jew, Muslim,” he said outside the courthouse where Awade showed up for the hearing.

“Basically it’s open house season,” the elder Borgen said. “If you can’t prosecute, put people in jail for a hate crime, I don’t know what else is there besides murder, God forbid. It’s just disgusting, it’s wrong.”

The younger Borgen said he still looks over his shoulder after the attack.

“Sometimes I feel like I have a target on my back, but it just keeps getting better and better,” he said.

“I think at the moment they are doing everything they can,” he said of the prosecutors. “In the end, I hope there will be a trial with some of the accused in this case, no matter how many there are, we will see.

Rob Bertrand via Storyful

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Rob Bertrand via Storyful

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“Hopefully the DA will do his job and bring accountability and justice to all who deserve it,” he added.

Asked what it was like to face Awade in court, Borgen said, “It’s disturbing.”

On the attack filmed on videoBorgen was knocked to the ground by a group of five or six people who beat him with fists, kicks, pepper spray and crutches.

He suffered a concussion and was briefly hospitalized after the attack.

The alleged attackers of Borgen are due back in court on March 9.