An unidentified man ran up to a group of Hasidic Jews and punched one of them in the head in New York on Friday evening.

Video footage captured a man running up and punching a 33-year-old Jewish man in the back of the head in Williamsburg. The shocking incident occurred just two days before the beginning of the Jewish Holiday Hanukkah.

The victim was wearing a shtreimel, a fur hat worn by some Hasidic Jewish men. Police said they are now investigating the attack as a hate crime.

An unidentified man ran up to a group of Hasidic Jews and punched one of them in the head

The victim, a 32-year-old man, was standing on Throop Avenue at Wallabout Street at 6.40 pm Friday when he was attacked, police said.

The suspect was seen turning back the way he came and fleeing after striking the man.

Two other men are seen on the video chasing the man, but no arrests have been reported.

Community leader Jude Werzberger told CBS2: 'We start running after him, but, unfortunately, we grabbed him … we got him. … We caught him, but unfortunately no cop was there to get him.

'I felt just like everybody else over here, that you have to be afraid on the streets and nobody cares.'.

'You feel like you’re in a wilted country where people don’t like us'.

The man can be seen slowly walking towards the group of men and then hits one of them

The man screams (left) as he runs towards the jewish men and hits one of them in the head. He then (right) runs away

The NYPD said anti-Semitic crimes are the most common hate crimes, with 168 documented in 2018 so far. The figure was up from almost 25 percent from this time last year.

The Anti-Defamation League is offering up to a $5,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest in any of these cases.

Evan R Bernstein of ADL told ABC7: 'We know that hate is affecting many communities, and we must stand strong and send a unified message to combat it at all levels'.

Last week the office of a Jewish psychology and education professor at Teachers College, Columbia University has been vandalized with swastikas and an anti-Semitic slur.

Professor Elizabeth Midlarksy discovered the disturbing Nazi symbol and slur 'YID' spray-painted in red on her New York City office walls Wednesday afternoon.

She alerted campus security and the incident is now under investigation by the NYPD. There is no known suspect.