An Orthodox Jewish man was assaulted outside a Brooklyn synagogue as Shabbat was ending in the third suspected antisemitic attack in the New York borough in less than a week.

Police said the victim, who was 45,  was on his way home when he saw two people drinking outside the shul in the Midwood neighbourhood.

After a verbal dispute, one of the men shoved the victim to the ground, took his belt and hit him in the face with it repeatedly.

The victim received treatment for facial and head injuries after the attack.

In a tweet, New York state assemblyman Dov Hikind wrote: “A young Jewish man was called a ‘F***ing Jew’ and then belted over the head with a metal belt buckle.”

Mr Hikind, who represents the area where the attack took place, called on New York Mayor Bill de Blasio to take action following the spate of attacks.

The assault came just days after a Jewish man was attacked with a stone in Crown Heights.

Police said a group of men threw the rock at a delivery driver, an Orthodox Jew, and the rock smashed the driver’s side window, struck him in the eye and cut his face. He refused medical attention after the incident last Thursday.

Two days earlier a rabbi was injured after having a paving stone thrown at him in what is being investigated by police as a hate crime.

Figures show there have been 150 antisemitic attacks in New York this year – which is double the amount that have taken place over the same period in 2018.