Antisemitism is continuing to rise in New York State with at least three incidents reported just last week, including two in New York City alone.
New York State Governor Kathy Hochul ordered the State Police Hate Crimes Task Force and the state’s Division of Human Rights to investigate reports of antisemitic verbal abuse last week at a town planning meeting in Rockland County.
The incident took place last Wednesday during a discussion about a request to convert a single-family residence into a neighborhood synagogue for Congregation Khal Bnei Torah of Mount Ivy in the Thiells section of Haverstraw.
Horrific antisemitism at a Haverstraw (Rockland County), NY meeting – town resident Nick Colella states he would run over Jews with his car and then back over them again. pic.twitter.com/n3Ejx8hqYd
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites)
Self-identified local resident Nick Colella began ranting about “a certain sect of people,” threatening that if they were walking in the road at night and not wearing reflectors, and if he “runs one of them over, of course I’m going to back over them again.”
Colella is registered as a home owner on the same street as the residence that may become a synagogue, according to the Iohud news outlet.
https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/rockland/2021/11/11/haverstraw-anti-semitic-man-comments-kathy-hochul-condemn/6398310001/
He was immediately shut down by Planning Board Chair Salvatore Corallo, who said, “you’re finished!”
Haverstraw Town Supervisor Howard Phillips said in a statement posted to Twitter that the town “has always been a true melting pot of multiple cultures. We have never tolerate hate speech, nor will we.”
Police Chief Peter Murphy met with the District Attorney’s Office Friday to determine whether any laws were broken – but even if they weren’t, “we are determined to keep him away from any future meetings based on his hate speech,” Phillips said.
On Friday, the state’s governor said in a tweet that “Antisemitism, like all forms of hate, is horrifying and unacceptable. Everyone has the right to walk down the street without fear. New York, we are better than this.”
She later wrote in a separate tweet that she had directed the state police Hate Crimes Task Force and the state’s Human Rights Division to “assist local leaders responding to this incident.
“Hateful, antisemitic speech will not be tolerated,” Hochul wrote. “We will do everything we can to protect our communities from this abuse.”
The next day, a 25-year-old Orthodox Jewish man was attacked by a group of five men in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. He was punched in the face and called a “dirty Jew, according to multiple reports. The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident.
Also on Thursday, a man who said he was “Palestinian” allegedly made bomb threats against a kosher restaurant in Queens, New York.
BREAKING: Man claiming to be Palestinian reportedly made bomb threats earlier today against Bagels & Co, a kosher eatery in Queens, N.Y.
Assemblyman is a regular there & is monitoring situation, as is Inspector Kevin Chan, commanding officer of pic.twitter.com/eD4T3MYxnc
— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov)
The man threatened to bomb Bagels & Co. in the name of Palestinians because it displays an Israeli flag on its roof.
According to NYPD statistics, hate crimes in the city are up 93 percent compared to the same period a year ago.