As the Sabbath entered the early morning hours on Saturday, about 15 people remained at the Chabad of Bushwick. Rabbi Menachem Heller, seated at the long dinner table, was talking to some of the congregants. His wife was feeding one of their children, as five others played in the storefront synagogue.

Then, around 2 a.m., the jubilant celebration was interrupted by a deafening sound.

Rabbi Heller grabbed his children and hid in a corner, unsure of what caused the noise. Then, he saw two faces peer through the broken storefront and scamper away. The glass window had been smashed, leaving a gaping hole.

The police said they were investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.

Rabbi Heller said he hoped his synagogue was merely a victim of petty crime as opposed to a target. However, the episode comes amid a rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes in New York. In 2018, hate crimes in the city rose by 5 percent, with larger increases in attacks against black and Jewish people.

“We’ve had many incidents in Crown Heights,” Rabbi Heller said about hate crimes. “It’s on our mind all the time.”