Family suspects antisemitism in mysterious murder of 75-year-old rabbi in Queens park

A religious 75-year-old grandfather mysteriously gunned down by a Queens lake last month may have been the victim of an antisemitic hate crime, the victim’s shattered family said Thursday as detectives continue to hunt for clues and a clear motive in the killing.

Albert Itzkowtiz was enjoying a warm Spring day by Kissena Lake in Kissena Park on the afternoon of May 18 — a bucolic spot where his family said he spent many afternoons — when someone shot him to death, police said.

With no clear motive or witnesses, family members suspect that Itzkowitz, a retired baker who just recently lost his wife to an illness, was targeted because he was Jewish. Itzkowitz, they said, was easily identifiable by his faith, wearing a yarmulke and having a long beard.

“The circumstances demand answers,” his daughter Leah Livshitz, 44, said as her family and local elected officials returned to the area where he father was murdered. “In a city where anti-Semitic incidents have surged, where Jewish New Yorkers have increasingly been targeted because of who they are, we cannot ignore what happened here.”

“Daddy was visibly Jewish. He was targeted in broad daylight. He was killed in a public park where he should have been safe,” she said. “The city cannot treat this as just another case file.”

Itzkowitz, who had 18 grandchildren, was repeatedly shot in the neck and back, officials said. As they continue to investigate all leads, NYPD detectives do not have a clear motive or suspect in the month-old killing, department officials confirm.

“The NYPD is diligently investigating the case,” a department spokesman said.

As the investigation continues, the city has raised a reward for information to $10,000. Itzkowitz’s family has matched that number, bringing the reward to $20,000.

“We believe it could very well be a hate crime, an antisemitic attack,” Itzkowitz’s son Tzvi Yoni Itzkowitz, 34, said Thursday. “He was a visibly Orthodox man, always with a yarmulke, a beard. And his beard was even longer than usual because we were grieving my mom. It’s customary to grow your facial hair, post a loved one passing.”

Detectives have been hampered by the remote location where Itzkowitz was found, a police source with knowledge of the case said. That section of the park was far from any surveillance cameras and no witnesses have come forward.

Relatives and local elected officials asked anyone in the park that day who may have seen something to reach out to investigators. About 50 members of the community attended Thursday’s press conference.

“We know that investigators have worked tirelessly on this case,”  Assemblywoman Nily Rozic (D-Queens) said at the press conference. “We also know the shooting happened in broad daylight. We know it happened in a heavily used public park, so we know there were individuals in the area who may have seen something, heard something, and possess some information that could help connect the remaining pieces of this investigation.”

Upwards of 300 people may have been in the 235-acre park at the time Itzkowitz was murdered, police told the victim’s family.

“An attack on one of us is an attack on all,” added Leona Chen of Kissena Synergy, a volunteer environmental group that routinely cleans the park. “We see the parkgoers and passersby. If you know something, you see something, we’ll share it if you feel uncomfortable. We just want to find justice for the family.”

By the end of May, the NYPD has investigated 152 confirmed antisemitic hate crimes in the city — nine more than the 143 reported this time last year, cops said. It’s not immediately clear if the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating Itzkowitz’s murder.

Itzkowitz was found dead by the lake at around 5 p.m. It’s believed he was shot around 3:30 p.m., Tzvi said.

“We had been trying to get in touch with him and he wasn’t answering the phone,” he told the Daily News. “Eventually my sister tried to FaceTime him, and someone who identified themselves as a member of the NYPD answered that call.”

During his lunch breaks, Itzkowitz enjoyed coming to Kissena park and sitting by the lake, his son said.

“His house is a mile and a half away from here. He would drive, he would walk, he used to take a bike when he was a little younger,” his son said. “He just liked to bring a chair and sit by the lake and relax on his lunch break.”

Itzkowitz, a longtime Hatzolah volunteer, owned Mendy’s Bakery on Main St. in Kew Gardens Hills, the first kosher bakery in the community. He sold the business more than 15 years ago but kept busy working as a rabbi at a nearby nursing home, where he made sure the meals for Jewish residents were kosher, his son said.

Just three weeks before his death, he lost his wife to cancer. The two would have been married 53 years this September, Tzvi said.

“I think it was maybe the first or second time I’d ever seen my dad cry,” he said about his mother’s death. “When we sat Shiva for my mom, I could see tears rolling down his eyes, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen.”

The morning of his death, Itzkowitz and Tzvi visited a neighbor who had recently lost a parent to pay their respects, he remembered.

“He had actually visited two homes that morning of people who were grieving and that speaks to the kind of person my dad was how loving and caring he was, that he’s still grieving the loss of my mom, his wife, and he’s paying his respects to community members in our area,” his son said.

Seven hours later, Itzkowitz was found murdered.

“It’s just unspeakable, it’s senseless, it’s evil,” he said about the killing. “There’s nothing else to say. For my dad’s sake, for our family’s sake, we want that person brought to justice as quickly as possible.”

His sister Leah agreed.

“It’s so impossible to comprehend that a man who spent his entire life caring for others could be taken from us in such a violent and senseless way,” she said. “Daddy was murdered in broad daylight. He was not involved in the dispute. He was not committing any crime. His wallet was still on him. He was simply sitting there, an Orthodox Jewish man dressed as he was, a rabbi going about his day. And five weeks later, the NYPD has still announced no arrests, no suspects, no leads, and no publicly stated motive. That is unacceptable. This was not some random crime in some random place.”

Anyone with information regarding this incident is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.

With Rocco Parascandola