Despite overall crime declining in New York City in October, hate crimes against the Jewish community jumped by over 200 percent compared to the same period last year.
In the weeks following Hamas’s surprise terror attack on Israel, the NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force registered a 214 percent “spike in anti-Jewish incidents,” compared to the same period last year, according to an NYPD press release.
“Hate has no place in our city. In the last month, I have sat down repeatedly with Jewish leaders and heard them voice fears to wear a yarmulke,” Adams said in a statement in response to the uptick. “And while we’ve seen fewer hate crimes overall across the city this year, our Jewish neighbors are being targeted more and more just on the basis of their faith. That is unacceptable, and it’s why the NYPD is surging resources to synagogues, houses of worship, and key locations in communities across the entire city — to ensure that they are safe and that our city remains a place of peace.”
Jewish New Yorkers have reported being spat on and harassed on the subway, Jewish students at local colleges have been mobbed by pro-Palestinian protesters — and, at least in the case of Cooper Union, forced to seek shelter in a library. And in upstate New York, a Cornell student was arrested for threatening to massacre Jews on campus.
The latest numbers from NYPD’s hate crime bureau underscore FBI director Christopher Wray’s earlier warning on Capitol Hill in late October that the conflict in the Middle East had led to a historic rise in antisemitism. “This is a threat that is reaching, in some way, sort of historic levels,” the director told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Halloween. “The Jewish community is targeted by terrorists really across the spectrum,” Wray said, noting that they comprise 60 percent of religious-based hate crimes despite representing under 2.5 percent of the population.
“This is not a time for panic, but it is a time for vigilance. We shouldn’t stop conducting our daily lives – going to schools, houses of worship, and so forth – but we should be vigilant.”
“The actions of Hamas and its allies will serve as an inspiration the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate years ago.”
Growing concern for antisemitism has prompted New York governor Kathy Hochul to earmark $75 million to help law enforcement patrol and protect religious sites. “You can vigorously oppose Israel’s response following the attack on their people, but still be vigorously opposed to terrorism, Hamas, antisemitism, and hate in all of its forms,” the Democratic leader said in October as a spate of antisemitic attacks made national headlines.
There were 69 reported hate crimes targeting the Jewish community, vastly overshadowing the unit’s tally of eight anti-Muslim incidents during the same time period.