NEW YORK — The New York Police Department on Monday reported 45 antisemitic hate crimes in the city last month, amid fears of rising Jew-hatred across the US.
The tally for November amounts to an antisemitic hate crime in the five boroughs every 16 hours, on average. Jewish security groups have said that many attacks likely go unreported.
Anti-Jewish attacks made up 60 percent of all hate crimes in the city last month.
The figure for November represented a 125% increase over the same period last year. Every month except April and May this year has seen an increase over the same month in 2021.
Overall, crime is up in New York City compared to last year, although murders and shootings have decreased.
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The NYPD has confirmed 195 anti-Jewish hate crimes between January 1 and September 30, far more than against any other group. Jews are consistently targeted more than other minorities in the city in both absolute and per capita terms.
The incidents range from assault to verbal harassment, property damage, and antisemitic graffiti.
In the most high-profile incident last month, two men were arrested after threatening to “shoot up a synagogue.” Police seized weapons and a Nazi armband from the suspects and have increased security at synagogues in response.
In some of the other incidents, a vandal sprayed “Free Palestine” onto the side of a Chabad movement outreach vehicle; a man threw rocks at a Jewish school; four suspects assaulted a Jewish man on a Brooklyn street; and attackers shot a Hasidic woman and her son with a gel pellet gun.
The rise in hate crimes in New York corresponds with nationwide trends. The Anti-Defamation League recorded 2,717 antisemitic incidents across the country last year, a 34% increase from the previous year, and the highest since it began tracking in 1979. Some of the increase is due to different and improved reporting methods.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other New York leaders, including Governor Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Tish James, have close ties to New York’s Jewish communities and have worked to address antisemitism.
Adams attended an international antisemitism summit in Greece this week, and Hochul last month signed legislation aimed at combating hate and bias crimes.
On Saturday, members of the antisemitic Black Hebrew Israelite group were filmed in Brooklyn expressing support for Adolf Hitler, Kanye West, and NBA star Kyrie Irving, who promoted an antisemitic film last month and later apologized.
“We support Hitler because Hitler was killing your people,” the group told a Jewish bystander. “You’re not a Jew, you’re the seed of the devil.”
The Holocaust “did happen and we’re glad that it happened,” they said at a rally outside the Barclays Center, the home court of Irving’s team, the Brooklyn Nets. West praised Hitler and Nazis during an interview days before.
This was in Brooklyn outside Barclays yesterday. These dudes have been doing this since I can remember but now they have some famous spokespeople #kyrie #Kanye pic.twitter.com/3h8MhL9wx4
— MichaelRapaport (@MichaelRapaport) December 4, 2022
On Sunday, attackers shot a 7-year-old Jewish boy with a BB gun in front of a kosher grocery store on Staten Island.
Watch • Hasidic man and 7 year old son hit by BB bullets from passing vehicle in front of Island Kosher Supermarket, at Victory Blvd & Carmel Ave. The Staten Island Shomrim & NYPD 121st Precinct are investigating.
READ MORE https://t.co/CuHEyzy8Z8#StatenIsland #HateCrime #Shot pic.twitter.com/2v40FHZD1K— Island Info (@_IslandInfo) December 5, 2022
Late last month, a pro-Palestinian activist pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes charges for a series of attacks on Jews in 2021 and 2022.