Hassan Askari

The odds were 10:3. A mob, one of whom had been involved with racist attacks on blacks in the past, attacked three Jews for having the NERVE to wish them "Happy Hanukkah" in response to "Merry Christmas." This occurred on the NYC subway, well within a part of the world considered more or less free of such stupid bigotry. But the ten bigots who mobbed the Jews for wishing them "Happy Hanukkah" included a woman who was the perfect illustration of the stupidity such bigots embrace when she referred to Hanukkah as the day Jews celebrate the killing of Christ.

Hanukkah, of course, pre-dated the birth of Christ by some 200 years, and represented the success of Jewish rebellion against the Syrian Greeks.

When the odds are 10:3, a hero jumps in to defend the 3. That is what Hassan Askari did. Hassan Askari was a gentleman from a Bangladeshi family who jumped in to defend the three Jews against the ten ignorant bigots who attacked them. He received a possible broken nose in the process, but is also being honored by New York City as a genuine good Samaritan.