The rescued Israeli hostage cousin targeted a shocking anti-Semitist attack at a restaurant on the Lower East Side on Saturday.
Josh Tepper, whose cousin Louis Herr was released from a Hamas prisoner last year, was at El Cabron Taqueria on Essex Street when another patron suddenly poured a pitcher of water over his head and cried out. He said he was holding a casual business meeting. “Free Palestine.”
“It was a very shocking experience,” Tepper said Sunday. “I lived in New York for 28 years. I came from here. I'm extremely proud to be Jewish and went to Jewish state schools. I did that. , I have never been accused of being Jewish.”
“It was offensive,” he said. “It was jarring, it was upsetting.”
Tepper says he's having a quiet dinner with his business partner Carlos Leon (the former mistress of pop diva Madonna) when he was attacked “out of nowhere.”
The two founded OG Daddy, describing Tepper as “lifestyle brands and cannabis brands.”
He said at some point during the dinner conversation he said he wanted to visit Tel Aviv.
“It's not a political statement. I didn't say I hate groups of people. “Literally, this guy took the pitcher out of nowhere, made a vow to God and poured it on me on the table. The phone was covered, and he said “free Palestine,” and he immediately walked, saying that I was closed something else. ”
He said Leon would get up and confront the anti-Semite suspicions, but the “co-sick” were driven away.
Restaurant staff drank two drinks and told the assailant told the employee that he was thirsty and wanted to refill the glass, and instead grabbed the pitcher by telling Tepper that he had thrown it away.
He said the incident caught him off guard, but the Big Apple anti-Semitism has been seen since the Hamas sneak attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and the retaliatory strike by the Jewish state in Gaza. Amidst the rising sentiment, he admits he had to be more vigilant. strip.
“I'm always on the alert, especially since I'm Jewish now, but this was on a new level,” he said. “It seems like a year and a half, and almost two years have gradually gotten worse and many of my friends have had such subtle experiences.”
His 71-year-old cousin, Har was rescued in February 2024 129 days later as a Hamas prisoner thanks to a bold attack by Israeli forces in southern Gaza.
