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Anti-Semitic Crimes Spiked Nearly 300% In NYC Last Month Since Last Year

NYPD data shows a spike in hate crimes against Jewish New Yorkers.

   DailyWire.com
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 05: Hundreds of members of the Orthodox Jewish community attend the funeral for a rabbi who died from the coronavirus in the Borough Park neighborhood which has seen an upsurge of (COVID-19) patients during the pandemic on April 05, 2020 in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City. Hospitals in New York City, which has been especially hard hit by the coronavirus, are facing shortages of beds, ventilators and protective equipment for medical staff. Currently, over 122,000 New Yorkers have tested positive for coronavirus. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
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Hate crimes against Jewish New Yorkers nearly tripled in January compared to the same time a year ago, according to NYPD crime data.

Nearly half of last month’s hate crimes in New York City, 15, were anti-Semitic crimes, according to the NYPD. That’s almost three times the four anti-Semitic crimes that were reported in the city in January 2021.

This trend appeared to continue over the weekend, with police attempting to find someone who drew swastikas on two Yeshiva school buses in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

On Friday evening, an individual reportedly ran up behind a 24-year-old man wearing traditional Hasidic Jewish clothing and punched him in the back of his head in an incident that was caught on surveillance footage. That incident is being investigated as a hate crime.

“The Jewish community is on extreme edge, and this violence has got to stop. It is becoming normalized, and we simply cannot accept that as the state of affairs,” the Anti Defamation League said of that incident.

The group, whose mission is to defend Jewish people against anti-Semitism, is offering a $7,500 reward to anyone with information that leads to the attacker’s arrest and conviction.

“Everybody in that community is now concerned. They’re now worried. Am I next? And they wonder if they’re going to be the next victim? That’s what term terrorism is about, and that’s what hate crimes are about. It doesn’t just affect the victim, it affects everybody who’s part of that group,” said Scott Richman, the Anti-Defamation League’s NY/NJ regional director.

Around the corner and just minutes before the apparent surprise attack on the young Jewish man, police say a 44-year-old Jewish man was punched by an attacker as well.

In a particularly jarring incident last month, a 21-year-old woman was charged with hate crimes after she allegedly “approached an 8-year-old and two other children, made anti-Jewish statements, then spat on the (sic) them,” before fleeing on foot, according to the NYPD.

The woman, a Brooklyn resident, was charged with three counts of acting in a manner injurious to a child under 17 as well as menacing and aggravated harassment.

Other types of hate crimes are up in the city as well.

Last month, the total number of hate crimes in New York City rose 72 percent compared to a year earlier in January 2021, police said. A year ago, there were 18 total hate crimes reported in January. This year, that number spiked to 31 hate crimes.

Anti-Asian hate crimes have been particularly on the rise since 2020. Last year, the number of hate crimes reported against Asian Americans skyrocketed from 30 in 2020 to 133 last year, a 343% spike.

Meanwhile, crime is up overall in New York, as it is in many major cities. Last month, crime was about 39 percent higher than it was in January 2021, according to the NYPD. Murders decreased from 33 to 28 in January compared to last year, but grand larceny, burglary, robbery, shootings, transit crimes, and rape all rose significantly.

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