"Happy Hanukah? That's when the Jews killed Jesus!" began the attack of 10 Christians, led by Joseph Jirovec, age 19 (pictured on the MySpace page of girlfriend Kimberly Babajko, also charged in the attack), against a Jewish student, Walter Adler, 23 and Hassan Askari, 20, a good-samaritan Bangladeshi Moslem, who rose to his aid, as the rest of the subway car passengers cowered.
From print article in N.Y. Post
Adler was touched that Hassan Askari jumped to his aid while a group of (white) thugs allegedly pummeled and taunted him and his three friends. So Adler has invited his new friend over to celebrate the Festival of Lights.
The two new pals - Adler, 23, with a broken nose and a fat lip, and Askari, 20, with two black eyes - broke bread together and laughed off the bruises the night after the fisticuffs.
Ten people were arrested in the underground attack on Friday night - including two men who have been arrested for race crimes before.
"I'm bleeding all over the place, there's lots of people, they're fighting with Hassan still, and I'm like, why isn't anyone else doing anything?" victim, Walter Adler, said. He pulled the emergency brake right before entering the DeKalb Avenue station. Police came aboard and arrested 10 people, charging six with assault and four with unlawful assembly. One of those collared straphangers yesterday denied making anti-Semitic taunts and said his mother is Jewish.
Joseph Jirovec, 19 - the son of a city firefighter who is currently serving in Iraq - has pleaded guilty to a 2005 bias crime against blacks.
Jirovec will soon begin serving six months for his role in the attack against four men in Gerritsen Beach. "I'm trying to stay out of trouble," he said. "When I get out, I want to go into the military."
"A random Muslim guy jumped in and helped a Jewish guy on Hanukkah - that's a miracle," said Adler, an honors student at Hunter College.
"He's basically a hero. Hassan jumped in to help us."
But Askari, who is studying to be an accountant, shrugged off the praise.
"I just did what I had to do," he recalled. "My parents raised me that way."
