World

As High Holidays loom, Jewish leaders say 'little comfort' in 'minor fluctuations' in new NYC data on anti-Jewish hate crimes

17h ago · Source: JNS 84Objectivity score84/100

In response to new crime data, including about anti-Jewish hate crimes, from last month which the New York City Police Department released on Thursday days ahead of the High Holidays, Jewish leaders told JNS that there is little comfort in some numbers dropping slightly.

Jessica Tisch, commissioner of the NYPD, said on Thursday that the city had experienced its safest summer, when it came to murders and to shooting incidents and victims, in recorded history. But Jews, who make up 10% of New Yorkers, continued to be disproportionately targeted in the Big Apple.

Last month, Jews were targeted in 19 (42%) of the 45 “confirmed” hate crimes, a metric that the city has reported since the third month of Zohran Mamdani’s tenure as mayor. The 19 anti-Jewish hate crimes were down 13.6% compared to the 22 in August 2025, according to the NYPD.

Overall, hate crimes increased 15.8% in the first eight months of 2026—425 hate crimes—over the 367 from January to August of last year. Anti-Jewish “confirmed” hate crimes were up 8%—229, from 212—in 2026 compared to 2025, and Jews have been the targets of 53.9% of all “confirmed” hate crimes in the city so far this year, per official city statistics.

“It is deeply alarming that our community continues to be the primary target of hate in this city,” Evan R. Bernstein, CEO of B’nai B’rith International, told JNS. “This persistent targeting, even amidst minor fluctuations in monthly reporting, points to a much darker and more systemic issue: the insidious normalization of antisemitism.”

“We are witnessing a climate where hate has become a recurring, almost expected feature of daily life for Jewish New Yorkers,” he said. “This cannot be ignored, and it certainly cannot be accepted as ‘business as usual.’ We must confront this reality with the urgency it demands before this culture of intolerance becomes permanently entrenched.”

Andrew Gross, director of the American Jewish Committee’s New York office, told JNS that the fact that hate crimes targeting Jews “declined compared to a year ago is of little comfort when Jews remain the victims of the majority of hate crimes in New York City.”

“As we get closer to the High Holydays, the city’s 1 million Jews must be assured their protection will be a top priority at a time when many will be gathering with family or heading to synagogue,” Gross said. “It is essential that all reported hate crimes be aggressively investigated by law enforcement.”

The High Holidays begin on Sept. 11 at night this year.

“I want Jewish New Yorkers to know that I will always be there for them,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul told JNS on Wednesday. “I will do everything I humanly can to protect these communities, our Jewish communities, to secure locations like synagogues where many will be gathering, to protect our yeshivas, directly on the streets.”

Alexia Nizhny, deputy press secretary for the governor, told JNS on Thursday after City Hall released the crime statistics that “no community should live in fear and as antisemitism continues to rise, Gov. Hochul is doubling down on her investments in hate crime prevention and doing everything in her power to protect Jewish New Yorkers.”

“The governor launched America’s first-ever statewide plan to combat antisemitism and continues to make record investments in the safety and security of organizations at risk of hate crimes or terrorism,” she told JNS.

“In addition, the governor expanded the list of crimes that are eligible to be charged as a hate crime and the list of hate crimes that are bail eligible—giving local law enforcement and State Police the ability to crack down on the perpetrators of hate crimes,” Nizhny said.

Eric S. Goldstein, CEO of the UJA-Federation of New York, told JNS that “hate crime data against Jews in New York is deeply concerning, and we and are our elected officials must do all we can to keep our community safe.”

“But antisemitism does not define the experience of Jewish life in New York. As we approach the High Holidays, Jewish New Yorkers will do what we have always done: proudly gather in our synagogues, celebrate our traditions and welcome the new year with a profound sense of community,” Goldstein said. “We are especially grateful for the extraordinary partnership of the NYPD, whose commitment and vigilance help keep New Yorkers safe.”

“Their close coordination with the Jewish community has been invaluable,” he told JNS.

Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, told JNS that “we are in the midst of an anti-Jewish terror crisis, which, as just 2% of the U.S. population, Jewish Americans cannot fight alone.”

“It is the government’s duty to ensure all Americans, regardless of religious background, can live and worship freely,” Fingerhut said.

He told JNS that the bipartisan Jewish American Security Act is “a vital first step towards fulfilling that responsibility” and urged Congress to pass the “important legislation.”

City Hall ‘inspiring, promoting physical attacks on Jews’

After recording a 182% increase in anti-Jewish hate crimes in the Big Apple in January, in Zohran Mamdani’s first month as mayor, the city began publishing only “confirmed” hate crimes and not “reported” ones in February. That suggested a decline, although it was hard to compare 2026 statistics with those from 2025.

In March, the city said that it would publish both “confirmed” and “reported” statistics separately each month. The city provides a comparison between “confirmed” 2026 statistics and the prior year, but not of “reported” hate crimes.

The city says that after an incident is flagged as a possible hate crime, the NYPD hate crime task force “investigates and determines, in consultation with the NYPD legal bureau, whether it constitutes a hate crime under New York state law.” If it meets that threshold, it’s called a “confirmed” hate crime. Disclosing both “confirmed” and “reported” hate crimes “enhances transparency and reflects best practices in hate crime reporting,” the NYPD says.

Last month, Jews were targets of 25 of the 62 “reported” hate crimes in New York City, or about 40%. That means that Jews were targets of about 35% of hate crimes that were reported but didn’t meet the “confirmed” threshold.

Muslims were targets of one “confirmed” hate crime (about 2%) last month, which was a 50% drop from the two in August 2025, the city said. Muslims were targets of about 6% of the “reported” incidents last month that didn’t meet the threshold for “confirmed” hate crimes.

So far this year, Muslims have been targets of 27 hate crimes, or about 6%.

Morton Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, told JNS that “when you have Mamdani, a bigoted, Jew-hating mayor, who refuses to condemn the ‘global intifada’ mantra,” or “physically attacking and killing Jews everywhere including New York City, and who calls the Jewish leader of the Jewish state a ‘war criminal who must be arrested,’ you’re inspiring and promoting physical attacks on Jews.”

“That’s this Jew-hating mayor’s intention and he’s succeeding,” Klein said. “There should be loud demonstrations against him wherever he goes.”

If black of gay people in New York City were attacked at these numbers, “he would be relentless in their protests,” Klein said.