Elected officials showered praise yesterday on a Muslim college student who leaped to the defense of a group of Jewish students during a Chanukah attack on a subway train.

Mayor Bloomberg invited the student, Hassan Askari, to City Hall yesterday to award him a crystal apple donated by Tiffany’s, while earlier in the day, Rep. Joseph Crowley of Queens made a speech about Mr. Askari’s bravery on the floor of the House.

“He was taught, as we all should be, that we are human beings — first and foremost,” Mr. Crowley said in his speech.

During an informal roundtable discussion with two of the four victims, Walter Adler and Maria Parsheva, Mr. Bloomberg told Mr. Askari, “You’re supposed to do it, that’s what we’re all taught to do,” as he thanked him for stepping forward to help.

Mr. Askari, a slightly built 20-year-old, was apparently the only person on the train to interfere after a fight broke out between two groups of young people when they reportedly exchanged greetings of “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Chanukah.” The Jewish students had been coming home from a Chanukah celebration and were carrying dreidels and a menorah. Mr. Askari, a native of Bangladesh who resides in Brighton Beach, said he was once the victim of an ethnic slur himself: Shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, during a trip to New Orleans, a group of men yelled at him, “Go home, Osama,” an incident he called “very hurtful.”

Last week, Mr. Askari said he was thinking only of helping his “fellow man” when he jumped into the fray on the Q train to protect the Jewish students as they were being beaten.

“You have to do what you can to help,” he said. “This gives a positive message to everyone in the city and the country.”