Teaneck, NJ family in anti-Semitic attack helped by Fla. man with gun

A Teaneck family spending the recent Jewish holiday Shavuot in Florida said they were screamed at with anti-Semitic remarks as they walked along a street early Tuesday evening in Florida.

Eric Orgen said on his Facebook page that as he walked on Collins Avenue in Bal Harbour with his daughter Jamie, wife Karen and Mark Schwartz, the deputy mayor of Teaneck, a white SUV with four men in their early 20s pulled up and started screaming "f**k you Jew," "die Jew" and "free Palestine."

They yelled they were going to rape Karen and Jamie and threw garbage and a water bottle at them, Orgen said.

Orgen said a man in a car behind the SUV pulled out a gun and chased them off.

"My first instinct was to put Jamie and my wife and the friend that we were with just behind me in case anything happened, I would take the brunt of whatever it was," Orgen told Miami TV station WSVN, adding he considered the incident a hate crime.

"It's a scary world we live in but the world is big enough for everyone to live peacefully. We all bleed red," Orgen said.

Bal Harbour Mayor Gabriel Groisman acknowledged the incident in a statement and said he is confident the men will be found.

"We have ZERO TOLERANCE for criminal conduct in our municipality, and we will do everything in our power to keep all residents and visitors in Bal Harbour safe," the mayor said.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ