Antisemitic hate crimes rose in New York City last month by a whopping 125 percent compared to the same period in 2021, according to data released Monday by the NYPD.
There were 45 antisemitic attacks reported to police in November, compared to 20 such attacks one year earlier, according to the data.
“We’ve seen the antisemitic rhetoric has increased across the United States, not just online but from local celebrities like Kyrie Irving [and] Ye as well,” former Brooklyn city council member David Greenfield told the Daily News.
“Words have consequences, tweets have consequences,” Greenfield noted. “It gives them the moxie to come out from under the rocks, because ‘If mainstream people are saying this, I guess we can too.’”
This past Sunday, a 32-year-old Jewish father and his 7-year-old son were shot with a BB gun outside a kosher supermarket on Staten Island in what may have been a targeted attack. The attack is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
Last month, two men were arrested in Penn Station after posting their plans to shoot up a synagogue on social media. Police recovered an illegal Glock 17 weapon from the Upper West Side apartment where 22-year-old Matthew Mahrer lived with his parents. His accomplice was 22-year-old Christopher Brown.
Hate crimes in general rose by 70 percent in November as well – but other crimes appear to be slowing down.
“The women and men of the NYPD have continued to reduce shootings, take illegal guns off our streets, increase arrests to bring justice for crime victims, and improve police-community relationships in every New York City neighborhood,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said in a statement.
Alongside the rise in hate crime, however, there was a one percent drop in major crimes (murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny, and car theft) in November. Shootings dropped by nearly 33 percent and crimes in the transit system were reduced by nearly 13 percent as compared to November 2021.
This past February, there were even more antisemitic attacks – 56 incidents reported to police, compared to 11 in February 2021.
New York leads the United States in antisemitic incidents, according to data released earlier this year by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
In 2021, there was a total of 416 antisemitic incidents reported in New York State – a 24 percent increase over 2020 (336 incidents), and a 15 percent chunk of the total antisemitic incidents reported nationwide.
