The Empire State of Jew Hate

Anti-Jewish hate crimes in New York City are multiplying. That’s the takeaway from last week’s release of the NYPD’s end-of-year crime report, showing that of the 641 hate crimes documented by the police in 2024, 54 percent targeted Jews. 

That Jews comprise nearly 12 percent of New York City’s population, yet account for over half of the region’s hate crimes, suggests a failure on the part of politicians, including Governor Kathy Hochul (D) and New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D), to address anti-Jewish animus with the urgency and immediacy it warrants. 

The report’s findings are attributed to a confluence of factors, which include weak leaders who are more inclined to defend criminals than protect Jews, and demographic shifts caused by a migration of students and citizens from countries that are hostile to Judeo-Christian interests.  

As such, the statistics in the NYPD report should surprise no one — especially Jewish New Yorkers, whose encounters with antisemitism can occur at any time and on any avenue.

Whether it’s coming across a poster with a swastika scrawled across a Jewish hostage, or walking past a cohort of keffiyeh-clad agitators who threaten and shout vile hate at anyone perceived as Jewish or pro-Israel, it’s clear that antisemitism is going unchallenged in New York City.

Once thought to be minor conflagrations confined to the Orthodox enclaves of Crown Heights and Borough Park, a resistance to confronting antisemitism with meaningful action has activated a generation of dangerous and emboldened pro-terror supporters.

And no Jew is off-limits.

Over the past year, older Jews have been spit on while walking the streets, and other innocents have been harassed while riding the subway.

In October, the co-chair of the Democratic Majority for Israel, Todd Richman, was assaulted by an antisemitic mob, leaving him bloodied and bruised. Over the last year, up to thousands of morally bankrupt disruptors have found it perfectly acceptable to block NYC streets, shut down bridges, and hurl their genocidal screeds outside of hospitals treating cancer patients grappling with significant illnesses. 

Mayor Adams has repeatedly condemned antisemitism and expressed concern over the violent tenor of the pro-terror rallies. He has joined Jewish New Yorkers to advocate for Israel, and has met with some of New York’s Jewish university students to discuss their experiences with campus Jew hate — something that the state’s Jewish senior Senator, Chuck Schumer, has yet to do. 

But performative displays of outrage are no substitute for a strong police response, something that the Mayor remains reluctant to deploy. At a roundtable for Jewish reporters last month, The New York Post noted that Mayor Adams told one attendee that there’s a need “for real balance to allow peaceful protests and violent protests.” 

When asked about what steps the city can take to tackle anti-Jewish hate, the Mayor responded, “we’re not going to be able to police our way out of this,” and that “you’re still going to have that hate after being arrested.” 

This statement lies at the crux of why antisemitic incidents are rising in NYC, as well as in other Blue state bastions that resist using the law to deter antisemitic criminals. 

Liberal lawmakers like Adams, who may retain genuine affection for his Jewish constituents, are wedded to upholding weak-kneed policies that demonstrate fealty to a progressive dogma rather than a commitment to protecting Jews. 

Like Mayor Adams, Governor Kathy Hochul has talked tough before Jewish audiences at synagogues and ceremonies, yet takes next to no prescriptive measures to combat the Jew hatred in her state. (Although one should ask how allowing hate crimes against Jews to be tolerated is actually “progressive.”)

For months, Governor Hochul has distanced herself from her previous half-hearted support for reinstating an anti-masking law, a move implemented in Republican-led Nassau County over the summer. This law is important, because removing an attacker’s anonymity would be the first step in helping reduce anti-Jewish hate crimes. 

The statistics cited in the NYPD’s report also raise an issue that discomfits the liberal disposition of many New Yorkers — who remark that the rise in antisemitic attacks would have been unthinkable 10 or 20 years ago. And they’re correct.

A combination of a marked surge in foreign student enrollment in the city’s universities, coupled with “asylum seekers” manipulating America’s loosening refugee asylum laws to gain entry into the country, is part of what’s driving the political and cultural transformation of NYC. 

New York City is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States, and Mayor Adams has intimated that his administration has worked to divert antisemitic protests away from Jewish neighborhoods. Still, when NYC’s antisemitic violence is being stoked by influential agitators who are foreign born, it must be acknowledged that the changing demographics of the city have also contributed to the altering social order of NYC. 

And while there are many American Muslims who are patriotic and upstanding contributors to our country, there still exists a notable number of Muslim Americans rooted in an anti-Jewish belief system. A Pew poll in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre in Israel revealed that 49% of American Muslims agreed that “Hamas’s reasons for fighting Israel are valid.” 

Jewish Americans must adapt to the evolving political and societal realities by lobbying our elected officials to do more to combat NYC’s disturbing spike in antisemitic assaults. 

Jewish New Yorkers must cease behaving like unwanted stepchildren who are grateful and satiated with the slightest words of support from politicians whose policies simultaneously create conditions that render the city hostile for Jews. Democratic leaders in the state must stop their second-class treatment of Jewish Americans, whose many contributions to this country began in a city that is slowly turning its back on them. 

Irit Tratt is a pro-Israel and American advocate residing in New York. Follow her on X @Irit_Tratt

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