Jewish Man Lured to His Death in Memphis, Hate Crime Suspected
“He was called to an empty building on a street with no surveillance cameras” where he was brutally murdered.
Late last Thursday night, Aviv Broek, a dual citizen of Israel and the United Kingdom, was shot dead in South Memphis, Tennessee. Broek, 21, had arrived in the U.S. two months earlier.
Fox 13 Memphis reported that his killer remains at large.
Broek, a locksmith, received a call late at night from someone posing as a customer who claimed to have been locked out of their car. According to a Monday morning statement from his family (posted on X by journalist Jake Novak), “he was called to an empty building on a street with no surveillance cameras,” where he was brutally murdered. The Memphis police informed Broek’s family that his British passport had been recovered, but his Israeli passport and cell phone were missing. Other than that, they have received “very little information” from the Memphis police, and they “are concerned.”
The Jewish Chronicle reported on Tuesday that “according to unverified social media posts, Broek … was reportedly offered double payment to travel late at night. … On exiting his vehicle, he was shot and robbed, and after two and a half hours, his Israeli roommate managed to track him and found his body at the scene.”
The motive for Broek’s murder is unknown, but his family suspects he was killed because he was a Jew. Given that he was lured to his death in an abandoned building late at night under false pretenses, they believe this was a hate crime. They wrote:
We are foreigners, Jews in a foreign land & we need answers & require assistance to demand justice for our son. We believe there must be an immediate hate crimes investigation. We are aware of the reality that in 2024, Jews are being hunted worldwide. The enemies of the Jewish people have called to ’globalize the Intifada’ and we are concerned that this may be the case in Memphis.
We request that the FBI investigate this as a hate crime. We request that every decent American, Jew and non-Jew, stand with the Jewish & Israeli community in ensuring a full civil-rights investigation now. Today we demand answers.
STATEMENT FROM FAMILY OF ISRAELI MAN MURDERED IN MEMPHIS
21 year old Israeli Aviv Broek was killed in Memphis Thursday. He was called to an empty building on a street with no surveillance cameras late at niight, His U.K. passport has been recovered, but his israeli passport…— Jake Novak (@jakejakeny) November 25, 2024
On Tuesday morning, the family issued a new statement demanding justice.
It’s been 5 days and we barely have any information from the police.
In Memphis there are daily calls to globalize the intifada and harm Zionists; clear calls for violence which must attract a civil rights investigation. Has anti Semitism seeped so deep into American culture that the murder of a Jewish Israeli-British 21 year old is acceptable? Why is it that in the UAE, a murderer was caught immediately but in America it’s accepted that Jews get killed?”
Novak noted that friends are disappointed that “the Memphis Jewish Federation and local ADL have yet to even issue a statement. Nor has the family heard from the British embassy.” He added, “There have also now been discussions among local city councils about whether to warn Jews against visiting Tennessee.”
NEW STATEMENT FROM THE BROEK FAMILY:
“We demand justice and to know what happened to our angelic Aviv. He was always happy he was always smiling.
It’s been 5 days and we barely have any information from the police.
In Memphis there are daily calls to globalize the intifada…
— Jake Novak (@jakejakeny) November 26, 2024
Local media outlet WREG-Memphis reached out to the Memphis Police Department for a comment on Broek’s murder. A spokesperson said, “This is an active investigation and there is no indication at this time of a hate crime. However, MPD is pursuing all leads.”
WREG also reached out to Betar USA, the North American affiliate of Betar, a Zionist group that speaks out for Jews around the world. The activist group is currently working with the Broek family to urge the FBI to open an investigation into Aviv’s death as a hate crime.
Ross Glick, the executive director of this organization, told WREG, “In this particular case, what’s happening now, we’re helping Jews out in America and throughout the world dealing with antisemitism that’s been permeating all throughout society.” He said, “In this particular case, we’re asking the FBI to step in. We’re not feeling confident about how this is being addressed by the local PD.”
As I see it, there are three possible reasons for the MPD’s reluctance to investigate Broek’s death as a hate crime – or to even investigate it at all. First, while the circumstances of his murder look very suspicious, it’s certainly possible it was “just a crime.”
Second, the officers making the call may harbor antisemitic bias.
Or third, the department may simply not have enough available resources to devote to a thorough investigation at the moment. Memphis is the world’s 10th most dangerous city. Amazing but true. In July, WREG reported that “Memphis was the only city in the U.S. to make the top ten of Numbeo’s Crime Index by City 2024 Mid-Year.”
Moreover, the Anti-Defamation League recently reported that “antisemitic incidents in the U.S. in the year since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel,” topped 10,000, triple the number from the same period in the prior year.
Whatever the circumstances of his death, this family deserves justice and respect. While Broek’s murder may turn out to be “just a crime,” his loved ones need some answers from the MPD rather than the radio silence they are currently receiving.
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
This is not a “hate crime”, since there is no such thing as a “hate crime”. This is just a crime. It’s murder. Which should be good enough to put the murderer to death, whether he hated the victim or who the victim was or not.
Murder is murder. That is the crime and that is enough. Let’s just punish murderers appropriately, which would be the death penalty.
I agree that the designation or classification of a homicide shouldn’t affect the punishment, which should be universally and consistently severe, in all cases. That said, I don’t have an issue with acknowledging the potential motive of the murderer in carrying out a targeted killing of the victim, because of his religion/ethnicity/nationality.
Call it whatever you want, if the phrase “hate crime” isn’t to your taste, but, there at least exists a distinction from a purely motive classification standpoint, with regard to a homicide carried out for pecuniary reasons; murders of opportunity, or what-have-you, and homicides that are carried out exclusively because of the culprit’s racial/religious/whatever animus. I don’t see any issue in classifying the killer’s motive and acknowledging it. Thus, it shouldn’t be deemed inappropriate objectionable to characterize the targeted murder of a Jew explicitly as such.
In theory, I agree with you.
In practice, until they repeal Hate crime laws we should go all Lewenski on their @sses.
If It’s AOK to per/prosecute non liberals using a questionable law, ruling, or precedent, turn that back on The Left. And most modern antisemitism is definitely a child of the rhetoric of The Left.
It reminds me of liberals who will dox and swat the heck out of non liberals, yet cry me a river if they get publicly outed. Not even threatened, just given free publicity of what they themselves post on social media.
It’s an enhancement and when the criteria are met, it’s justified to classify and use it.
My first thought looking at the circumstances is just Robbery. Unless there is some proof that the perpetrator knew or cared about the rest, it’s the simplest motive for calling a service person to an isolated spot late night.
Need more evidence before I’ll sign on to an alternate theory.
Why take his Israeli passport and leave the UK passport?
Do we know he had both on him? Did the perpretrator simply not see one? What use is a stolen passport? Does it have a resale value? Does that value vary by country? Did the perpetrator mistake it for some other kind of document in the heat of the moment?
If a black man gets shot or injured by police, circumstance doesn’t matter, race of the police doesn’t matter, any violent actions of the shootee doesn’t matter, refusal to surrender to the point of Suicide By Cop doesn’t matter, the FIRST and automatic response by the press and the race hustlers is to cry “hate crime”.
Sometimes it is, but they cry wolf so many times I for one no longer give believe them by default.
Seems only fair to apply The Left’s own substandard standards of proof when it’s inconvenient or embarrassing to them.
Everyday criminals don’t elaborately lure their victims to a deserted location to rob and murder; much more likely this particular man was targeted and assassinated.
Why was he targeted? He’d only been in the country a couple months; seems unlikely that he’d made a murderous enemy in that amount of time.
Maybe a rival in love or business? Possible. But Jewhate has grown so exponentially since Oct 7 that this seems as or more likely as any other explanation.
In 2023, there were 342 murders in Memphis (5th-highest murder rate in the country). How many did Memphis PD close? Less than 100 of them, an absolute embarrassment, IMO. The chances of Memphis PD solving a true stone-cold whodunit, which this appears to be if they legit don’t have any leads at all, are slim. Local police don’t have great track records of solving stranger violence, which is why serial killers can stack the bodies before being caught. Police simply don’t have the resources to throw the necessary manpower at this kind of problem.
Memphis should have a travel warning. It’s a dangerous place. High murder and violent crime rate. The Governor should order the State Police in to Memphis to investigate this crime.
Don’t like the Hate Crime term except as motive, but to me that reason should have no difference than a robbery, a hit crime for payment. It’s still murder and the criminal needs to pay for it and to me a death sentence.
This young man was just working no different than I would going to a home to repair something.
This breaks my heart.
If five black Memphis police officers could kill Tyree Nichols, a black man, how much effort do you think they’ll put into finding the killer of some random Jew?
Perhaps Memphis’ allegedly Jewish Rep. Steve Cohen can help get to the bottom of the matter.
(((sestamibi)))
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