Dan Sohail, 36, of Carteret, New Jersey, admitted in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday that he drove from his home and intentionally rammed his car five times into the entrance of the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters, a packed synagogue and office complex, because the building is the center of the worldwide Lubavitch movement. Sohail, appearing in a beige jail suit, calmly told Judge Eric N. Vitaliano he carried out the attack “by driving into the door.” No one was injured in the January incident, but prosecutors said he caused about $19,000 in damage after clearing away stanchions and urging people to move out of the way.
Sohail resolved the case without a hate crime conviction, pleading guilty to a single count of intentionally damaging religious property. The charge carries a maximum of three years in prison, but federal sentencing guidelines call for a sentence of up to six months, according to prosecutors and Sohail’s defense lawyer, Mia Eisner-Grynberg. Sohail has been jailed since his arrest and has already served more than three months. Judge Vitaliano did not set a sentencing date.
Chabad spokesperson Rabbi Yaacov Behrman, who watched the plea from the courtroom gallery, said he was troubled by the prospect of a short sentence. “The message needs to be sent loud and clear that attacking a synagogue will be met with serious consequences,” Behrman told reporters. “That message was not heard in court today.” About 2,000 people were inside the synagogue and offices at 770 Eastern Parkway at the time of the attack, according to Behrman.
The attack occurred on the 75th anniversary of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson’s assumption of leadership of the Lubavitch movement. Schneerson, who died in 1994, remains a revered figure, and the headquarters has had a near-constant police presence for years. The site was also at the center of the 1991 Crown Heights riots, when Black residents attacked Jews after a child was killed by a car in Schneerson’s motorcade. In 2014, a disturbed man entered the synagogue and stabbed a rabbinical student, wounding him, before police shot and killed the attacker.
Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said in a statement that Sohail’s “dangerous conduct was a targeted attack on the religious liberty and peace of worship to which every American is entitled.” She added that the guilty plea sends a clear message that the department “will not tolerate acts of hatred and violence against religious institutions.”
At earlier court hearings, Sohail’s legal team and people close to him, including family members and Chabad rabbis, said he did not appear to harbor anti-Semitic hatred but struggled with significant mental health issues. Prosecutor Eric Silverberg acknowledged “very significant mental health concerns” at a March hearing. The state-level hate crime charges initially filed against Sohail were dropped while the federal case proceeded, and the federal crime of damaging religious property is not classified as a hate crime under U.S. law. Sohail initially told police he had lost control of the vehicle and pressed the gas pedal with heavy boots, but in court Wednesday he acknowledged the act was deliberate and motivated by the building’s religious identity.