Chabad Lubavitch’s world headquarters in Brooklyn drew security attention after a man who prosecutors say drove into the synagogue and offices repeatedly pleaded guilty in federal court, telling the judge that his goal was to damage the Jewish landmark.
Dan Sohail, 36, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal charge of intentionally damaging religious property, resolving the case without a hate-crime conviction. Federal prosecutors said Sohail plowed an entrance five consecutive times in January, after clearing away stanchions and urging people to move out of the way. The complex at 770 Eastern Parkway includes a synagogue and offices and had about 2,000 people inside at the time, Behrman said; prosecutors and police said no one was injured and no weapons were discovered in Sohail’s car.
In court, Sohail told Judge Eric N. Vitaliano that he drove from New Jersey and “intentionally damaged the building” because it is the Chabad headquarters. Wearing a beige jail suit, Sohail told the judge he carried out the attack “by driving into the door,” according to the account of the plea proceeding. He entered the plea while jailed since his arrest, and prosecutors said he had already served more than three months behind bars.
The case also involved a dispute over how federal law would characterize the conduct. Intentionally damaging religious property is not categorized as a hate crime under federal law, the report said, and Sohail had faced state-level hate crime charges that prosecutors said were dropped while the federal case proceeded. At an earlier hearing in March, his lawyer, Mia Eisner-Grynberg, told the court Sohail was in the process of converting to Judaism and had visited the Chabad Lubavitch site before, and prosecutors acknowledged “very significant mental health concerns” about him.
Both sides described sentencing expectations that were not tied to a hate-crime finding. Prosecutors and Eisner-Grynberg said federal sentencing guidelines call for up to six months in prison, though the maximum penalty for the charge is up to three years. Vitaliano did not set a sentencing date, the report said.
Sohail’s conduct was also described as targeted toward more than damage to a building. Federal prosecutors said Sohail was “intent on damaging the Jewish landmark,” and he told the judge he drove into the entrance because it was the Chabad headquarters. After the plea, Chabad Rabbi Yaacov Behrman, watching from the courtroom gallery, said he was irritated by the prospect of a sentence that could amount to “no consequences,” adding, “The message needs to be sent loud and clear that attacking a synagogue will be met with serious consequences,” Behrman told reporters afterward. “That message was not heard in court today,” he said.
Justice Department officials also framed the guilty plea as a deterrence message. Harmeet Dhillon, chief of the department’s civil rights division, said Sohail’s guilty plea showed federal prosecutors would pursue cases tied to religious institutional harm, saying the plea sends a clear message the Justice Department “will not tolerate acts of hatred and violence against religious institutions,” according to a statement reported in court coverage.
Prosecutors said Sohail caused about $19,000 in damage and that he must repay it. The crash occurred on the 75th anniversary of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson becoming the leader of the Lubavitch movement, and it prompted concern in the city, where near-constant police presence has surrounded the headquarters for years.
The Chabad Lubavitch site sits near a history of violence in the area. The report said the headquarters 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. It also cited a 2014 incident in which a disturbed man entered the synagogue and stabbed a rabbinical student before being shot dead by police.