Rideshare driver punches passenger in face because he thought they were Jewish, feds say
A man who no longer works as a rideshare driver was arrested over an antisemitic attack on a passenger he was supposed to drive home from the San Francisco International Airport, the Justice Department said.
Csaba John Csukás, a 39-year-old Daly City resident, is charged with a federal hate crime, according to a March 13 news release from the Justice Department.
Information regarding his legal representation wasn’t immediately available.
Csukás is accused of punching a customer he was hired to transport because he believed they were Jewish or Israeli on Oct. 26, 2023, according to an indictment unsealed March 13, prosecutors said.
When Csukás arrived to pick up the rider at the airport while working for an app-based rideshare platform, he asked whether they were Jewish or Israeli, the Justice Department said. The rideshare company he worked for wasn’t specified.
Csukás told the passenger “he would not transport a Jewish or Israeli person,” and then punched the individual in the face, according to prosecutors.
“When taking public transportation — whether a taxi, bus, or rideshare — customers should be able to ride without being profiled, or worse yet attacked, because of their nationality or religion by drivers,” U.S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey, of the Northern District of California, said in a statement.
Csukás was arrested March 13, when he had his first appearance in federal court, prosecutors said.
The Oct. 26 assault at the San Francisco airport occurred about two weeks after Hamas surprised Israel with a brutal attack on Oct. 7 —leading to Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas, The Associated Press reported.
University of Miami criminology professor Alexis Piquero told NPR in an interview published Nov. 28 that crimes against Jewish and Palestinian U.S. residents increased since the war between Israel and Hamas began, based on a review of non-federal data.
A crime is considered a federal hate crime when an offense is committed against another person based on their “perceived or actual race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability,” according to the Justice Department.
The FBI investigated the case against Csukás, who could be sentenced to up to 10 years in federal prison and fined up to $250,000 if he’s convicted of a hate crime, prosecutors said.
“No one in this country should live in fear because of how they worship or where they come from,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement.
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