Planning to fly for the holidays? The alarming data on antisemitism in the USA
While for many Israelis the summer months are the peak of the tourist season, the New York Police Department (NYPD) has published data presenting a worrying trend. Despite reports of the safest summer on record in the city, antisemitic incidents have risen by 8% since the start of the year, now accounting for over half of all hate crimes in New York.
While for many Israelis the summer months are the peak of the tourist and flight season, the New York Police Department (NYPD) recently published official data presenting a particularly alarming picture in the USA. Despite police statements about the safest summer ever recorded in the city, the data reveals that antisemitic incidents have risen by 8% since the beginning of the year, and they now constitute more than half of all hate crime incidents in New York.
According to statistics published last Thursday, hate crimes in the city rose by just over 15%, with 425 cases this year compared to 367 last year, with antisemitic incidents accounting for 53.9% of all these cases. According to reports, this increase comes at a time when senior police officials claim that the city experienced the safest summer ever recorded, with a 9.6% decrease in shooting incidents, a 13.9% decrease in burglaries, and a 24.1% drop in murder cases.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch stated that these historically low figures were achieved while managing an unprecedented series of high-profile events in the city, including the NBA Finals, the World Cup, and the major July 4th celebrations in the USA. However, the past summer included several particularly serious antisemitic incidents.
In August, a 46-year-old man was arrested after bursting into a synagogue in Manhattan, disrupting the Sabbath prayer, shouting antisemitic remarks, attacking a woman, and hurling racist insults at one of the security guards. Federal prosecutors filed an indictment against him for federal hate crimes. A month earlier, in July, two men — including a Jewish man wearing a kippah who had left a synagogue — were stabbed on the Upper West Side in two separate incidents.
Eyewitnesses reported hearing the attacker shout "Allahu Akbar" before stabbing the victims. Despite the rise in antisemitic violence, the statistics show a slight decrease when comparing only the month of August this year to August last year, with 19 antisemitic incidents compared to 22 last year. New York State law defines a hate crime as an offense committed when the victim is selected as a target due to a perception or belief regarding their religion, origin, race, or sexual orientation.
