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A 19-year-old Jewish man suffered an eye laceration after he was beaten while walking near Rabbi Jacob Joseph Yeshiva in Edison on Saturday during the second night of Rosh Hashanah, Edison Police Chief Thomas Bryan told The Jewish State.

The initial investigation did not reveal evidence of a bias incident, but subsequent information obtained by members of the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office and the Edison Police Department resulted in the filing of a bias incident report, the Prosecutor's Office said in a press release.

"The timing of this attack is particularly galling," Etzion Neuer, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League's New Jersey Region, told The Jewish State. "The Jewish New Year is a ordinarily marked by solemnity and festivity, and it shakes us that one of our own could be attacked in the middle of the Days of Awe."

A group of males were walking down Woodbridge Ave. near the yeshiva when they encountered a group of boys, Bryan said. A boy who was part of the second group punched a man from the first group in the head at 7:25 p.m. near Route 1, he said.

The assaulted man initially declined medical attention at the scene, Edison Lt. Joseph Shannon said, but was eventually taken to the hospital and released in stable condition.

Bryan said the boy that made the assault, who was arrested by Edison police and subsequently released, has anger management problems. After re-interviewing the victim and the witnesses, the Police Department initially received no indication that the assault was a bias incident, Bryan said. However, officials later found evidence of a bias-related event and filed the bias incident report, according to the Prosecutor's Office.

The boy who committed the assault is a 16-year-old resident of Edison, Shannon said.

Bryan said the Police Department has stepped up its patrols in the area as a response to the incident, but always increases patrols during the High Holidays to begin with.

"Our department has a very close relationship with the Jewish community within the township," Bryan said.

Neuer said, "It's a violent crime. Even though the perpetrator was juvenile, we would hold him accountable for his actions."

The assaulted man's group went to the firehouse near RJJ to seek shelter after the incident, Bryan said. After police arrived on the scene, he said, the assaulted man's descriptions helped the officers find the other group of boys and the individual who committed the assault.

Mark Wang, the vice president of Edison First Aid & Rescue Squad #1, said that on Saturday night, the assaulted boy didn't want to go to the hospital because it was Rosh Hashanah (against the first aid squad's recommendation) and didn't even want to sign a release to receive treatment. But a few hours later, Wang said, the first aid squad came to RJJ to treat the boy's headache, and then transported him to Robert Wood Johnson hospital in New Brunswick.

Wang, a member of Congregation Beth-El in Edison who was not present on Saturday night but was briefed by his colleagues about the situation, said he has lived in Edison for about 50 years and hasn't encountered any similar incidents involving the Jewish community.

If it's true that the boy initially refused to go to the hospital on Rosh Hashanah, that detail demonstrates the vulnerability of some members of the observant Jewish community on Shabbat and holidays, Neuer said.

Jewish law places human life ahead of the laws of Shabbat and holidays, but it's not unusual for observant individuals to wait too long to report incidents which they don't consider life-threatening, Neuer said.

"Because of the restrictions of Jewish law, there are occasional tensions in dealing with emergencies," he said.

Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg, of Congregation Beth-El in Edison, heard about the incident from Wang and said he immediately tried to put the word out about what happened. Taking action was Rosenberg's obligation to the boy as a rabbi, as a longtime police chaplain in Edison, and as a fellow Jew, he said.

"The community cannot allow itself to bury incidents where our children are accosted," Rosenberg said. "Too often, reports are not made, or the community is not notified, or the rabbis don't speak out for the fear that it will draw attention to the community."

At RJJ in July 2008, vandals drew swastikas, the word "Jesus," and graphic sexual pictures on two interior walls.