New York saw more hate crimes against Jews in 2018 than all other targeted groups combined, according to police figures published Friday by JTA.
Anti-Semitic incidents rose by 22 percent from last year, NYPD figures show, according to a report in Patch. Of the 352 hate crimes this year recorded as of Sunday, 183 were anti-Semitic incidents.
Brooklyn has seen a spate of hate crimes against Jews in recent months, but the report did not break down the figures by boroughs.
Earlier this month, at least three large swastikas were spray-painted in a Brooklyn neighborhood.
The swastikas were painted within a block of each other. Two were accompanied by the letters “WP,” which stands for White Power.
Also this month, a man ran up to a group of Hasidic Jews standing on the sidewalk, punched one of them in the head and ran off. He was later arrested.
A week earlier, an assailant punched a Jewish boy walking in Williamsburg, knocking the boy onto the pavement before running off. Just half an hour later several blocks away, according to the New York Post, a group of men approached a Jewish boy in Williamsburg, shoving him to the pavement and punching him before fleeing the scene.
Overall, the tally of hate crimes in New York is up about 6 percent from 331 in the same time last year.
Evan Bernstein, the Anti-Defamation League’s New York Regional director, told Patch that those holding anti-Semitic beliefs are feeling emboldened. ADL believes that 12 to 14 percent of Americans hold such beliefs.
The October 27 slaying of 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue by a lone gunman unleashed a spate of incidents in New York and “opened up people even more to act out on these feelings,” Bernstein said. “I think for certain people it gave them (a) green light and that’s what is so concerning.”
The ADL has recorded a 60 percent increase in anti-Semitic assaults this year, he added.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)