NEW YORK — A rabbi on his way to a Queens synagogue was punched by a stranger yelling antisemitic slurs — as Jews around the world marked Holocaust Remembrance Day, the victim told the Daily News on Wednesday.

“I was shocked!” Rabbi David Shushan, 30, told the Daily News as he recounted the harrowing clash in Forest Hills. “It was a regular day. I was walking along, looking at the street, when this guy in a black hoodie and black pants comes out of nowhere, starts cursing at me and struck me.”

The attack outraged local leaders, including Mayor Mamdani, who called the victim and invited him to City Hall.

Shushan was near Queens Boulevard and 71st Avenue, about three blocks from the center, about 3 p.m. Tuesday when the attacker stormed up to him, screamed “F— Jews” and punched him in the chest, prosecutors say.

Shushan refused to back away and got into a tussle with the attacker.

“We know all about the dark years and what happens if we do nothing,” he said, referring to the Holocaust. “I could not step down and run away from him.”

He looked the stranger in the eye as the two squared off.

“We were fighting for a few minutes, rolling around in the snow,” he said. “At one point he punched me in the face and we both fell into the snow and got dirty.”

As the two men tussled, someone who knew Shushan pulled him away from the 32-year-old brawler, separating the two combatants.

The attacker ran off down Queens Blvd. but not before Shushan managed to get a photo of him with his cellphone.

He reported the incident to police and to the local Shomrim security force who later found the suspect entering a nearby train station.

Cops, the Shomrim and Shushan boarded the train after the suspect, who immediately zeroed in on the rabbi he just fought.

“I went into the (subway car) and the guy saw me. He was shocked at how we found him,” Shushan said.

“Keep away from me! Stay back!” the suspect screamed at the rabbi as cops closed in.

Eric Zafra Grosso was charged with assault and aggravated harassment as hate crimes, officials said.

Zafra Grosso lives in Corona, according to cops, and has no criminal history. He was released without bail after pleading not guilty during his arraignment in Queens Criminal Court Wednesday morning.

“I don’t know if he is unhealthy in his mind or not,” Shushan said. “But he chose me because I was Jewish. I wear Jewish apparel in the streets. He chose me. It was simple. I was his target.”

Mayor Mamdani on Wednesday called Shushan and promised that City Hall will do everything in their power to make sure Zafra Grosso is punished, the rabbi said. The mayor also invited the rabbi to come to City Hall and speak to him.

“New Yorkers were confronted with a painful truth: antisemitism is not a thing of the past — it is a present danger that demands action from all of us,” Mamdani posted on X. “There is no place for antisemitism in our city. I stand in solidarity with Jewish New Yorkers and my administration is committed to rooting out this hatred.”

Tuesday’s attack took place on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which honors the memory of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust as well as the millions of other victims of Nazi persecution. The day marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

“I don’t think he was aware of the day,” the rabbi said of his attacker. “Regardless, this shouldn’t have happened.”

Other elected officials voiced outrage, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Comptroller Mark Levine, who called the attack “yet another sickening reminder of the scale of the hatred we are confronting.”

“We need everyone in this city united in combatting this,” Levine said on X.

Along with his rabbinical duties, Shushman is a youth leader for the Bukharian Jewish Community Center. He was just three blocks from the center when he was attacked.

On Wednesday, his face was still stinging from where he was punched. He also has a persistent headache and a pain in his knee from when he hit the concrete.

“My wish is for everyone to live peacefully,” he said. “But the last thing we should do is step down. We must step up and we should not run away.”

Last Thursday, cops arrested a pair of teen vandals accused of desecrating a Brooklyn playground in a Jewish neighborhood with more than 50 swastikas during a two-day spree, police and city officials said.

The swastikas were drawn with red, yellow and blue paint on slides, playground equipment and the handball court at Gravesend Park at 56th St. and 18th Ave. in Borough Park, officials said.

Last year, hate crimes case citywide decreased by 12%, from 657 incidents in 2024 to 576 last year, officials said.

Antisemitic incidents dropped by 3% but still accounted for 57% of all hate crimes reported in 2025, cops said, adding that Jewish New Yorkers represent about 10% of the city’s population.

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New York Daily News reporters Josephine Stratman and Sheetal Banchariya contributed to this story.

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