QUEENS, NY—Justice has yet again been delayed for a Jew. On March 18, 2026, defendant Eric Zafra Grosso failed to show up again in court in the hate-crime case regarding his broad daylight attack of Rabbi David Shushan. While this is not surprising, there are a few insights – and calls to action – that can be gleaned by engaging in a sober-eyed review of events leading up to this moment.
Rabbi David Shushan’s attacker is still at large, and there are not many attempts via the New York City Criminal Court system to locate and bring him to justice. The fact that his case was initially heard by a political hack of a Judge (Sharifa Nasser-Cuellar) with highly questionable ideological fixations is already moot. The fact that the defendant’s legal team appears to have no interest with ensuring compliance of their “client” in court is to be – pathetically–expected.
I now also believe that the good-hearted and well-intentioned efforts of the Queens Assistant District Attorney’s office on this case will not amount to much. The NYC court system has dramatically failed to protect Jewish victims of crime, and nobody seems to have the spirit to go past (“re-imagine”) bureaucratic walls of litigation – which only serve to enable, and embolden criminals over their victims. The criminals know this. The perpetrators of violent attacks know this. Deranged Jew-hating lunatics now also know this. What should have been a landmark case against unprovoked hate and violent bigotry in New York City has gone by the way of red tape around legal briefs, relegated to sitting in dusty boxes within lawyers offices.
Although a bench warrant for the arrest of Zafra Grosso was issued at his last court hearing on March 18, 2026, where he again failed to appear, it does not amount to much as his case status has not even been updated within the court system. This is the least of our concerns in the Jewish community, but the tell-tale signs of a corrupt and indifferent court system are everywhere. Had the victim in this case been of any other ethnic minority group or religious status, there is no doubt the court and presiding judge would have acted in a much more responsible and responsive manner.
This is the outcome of living in a city and larger environment polluted with Jew hatred.
This is the outcome of having woke ideologues working within the “criminal justice” system.
This is also the outcome of living under a Mamdani administration that has only accelerated the vitriol and public agitation against Jews, and the nation-state of Israel.
So, what are we left with? What are we, the concerned yet resilient Jews of New York, tasked with? For we have seen in glaring daylight that the courts, public institutions, and even well-meaning functionaries within the legal system just simply do not understand the threats we are constantly living with. They do not understand it on a cellular level, or on a soul level—the level of a Neshama. Are we expecting too much of our public officials and public bureaucracies? In certain cases, absolutely. In other cases, they often still disappoint us with their lack of awareness of the all-too-real threats that we endure on a daily basis in New York City. There is not much exigency to their “advocacy”.
In Pirkei Avot (“Ethics of Our Fathers”) it has been written: “All who occupy themselves with the affairs of the community shall be engaged with them for the sake of Heaven, for the merit of their fathers assists them and their righteousness endures forever (Chapter 2: 2)”
I think a lot about the Jewish community as a whole. I attend many events within Jewish communities and witness other communities where one would logically expect to have certain bonds of affiliation. There is one major issue the Jewish community should address, and it would only be to our benefit. It is not about holding more “educational” conferences and panels for our Jewish brethren and allied friends. We are excelling in that domain, and yet with not much to show in terms of actually reducing the occurrence of antisemitism and open Jew hatred in our midst.
I am calling for the establishment of local and truly community-centered communication channels between the Jewish community and other surrounding communities.
In former Soviet Central Asia, this was a well-known and highly revered form of social patrolling and community policing—the original community policing, not the ridiculous farce portrayed by the Mamdani administration. The Jewish community truly does have a growing base of supporters and allies, BH. We need to be able to recognize all those points of access and authentically develop relations of trust and cooperation between other communities to highlight our shared values and not let the forces of moral degeneracy common amongst the progressive left and woke drive unnatural wedges between us and our neighbor communities. It is those man-made attempts to divide our communities that make us all less safe, and especially for the Jewish people.
He’s Still Out There: The Jewish Community Must Find Eric Zafra Grosso
Eric Zafra Grosso has been said to reside in Corona, Queens. Where the court system and law enforcement are not able to locate his whereabouts, the people can. If the aftermath and lessons of 9/11 still teach New Yorkers anything—and they absolutely should—then “see something, say something” still carries a tremendous amount of personal responsibility on all law-abiding citizens.
Had the Jewish community established points of connection with local citizen groups in Corona and surrounding neighborhoods, there is a good possibility that the attacker (now fugitive of justice) could have been located quicker and more effectively than a hoped-for random traffic stop.
The Jewish people do not ask, “Why?”. We are more effective in asking, “How?” We can collectively wring our hands at the outright desecration of justice in the case of Rabbi David Shushan. We will let G-d Almighty focus on the outright perversion of justice enabled by judge Sharifa Nasser-Cuellar. In the meantime, we need to get working on how to prevent further repetitions of these vile attacks, how to contain them from the outset, and how to most effectively ensure accountability within a system that rarely takes Jews into account.
The Jewish people are not interested in taking up the victim status – that is not the way of the Jew. The victim parading and masquerading is for others – it is yet another false idol found within the multitudes of “popular culture” and “social-justice” classes. However, we will organize and co-ordinate with all communities where there is an overlap of values, and commitment to public security. The time has come.
By Dmitri Oster LCSW