Anti-Semitic hate crimes in New York City more than doubled in November compared to the same month last year, according to the latest figures released by the NYPD.
There were 45 hate crimes inspired by anti-Semitism in the five boroughs last month, a 125% increase from 20 in November 2021.
That spike coincided with controversies involving Kanye West, now known as Ye, and Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving. Has spewed anti-Semitic rhetoric on Twitter and in interviews.
“We have normalized hate, and I will continue to say that social media is the biggest distributor of that hate,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference Monday. “What social media is doing to normalize hate, to create a platform for hate, to spread hate, it’s very alarming.”
Since the beginning of the year, anti-Semitic hate crimes have been on the rise in the Big Apple, with the sharpest increase coming in February, when 56 crimes against Jewish residents were reported, up from 11 in the same month in 2021. p.
According to NYPD statistics, there were 278 anti-Semitic attacks in the city in 2022, a 52.7% increase from 182 in the same period last year.
In mid-November, 21-year-old Christopher Brown and 22-year-old Matthew Mahrer were arrested in Penn Station on charges of planning to shoot up a synagogue in New York City.
Police later found that Brown, who is believed to have carried out the botched attack, had tweeted anti-Semitic threats and boasted of a “really cool” collection of Nazi memorabilia, according to a criminal complaint.
On November 9, a man threw two rocks at a Jewish high school on the Upper East Side. Police treated the incident as a hate crime.
Police are investigating another possible hate crime Sunday after a father and son were fatally shot with a BB gun outside a Kosher supermarket in Staten Island.
When asked about the rise in hate crimes, Adams argued that prosecutors should not offer plea deals to defendants charged with hate crimes.
“If you’re found guilty of a hate crime, you should be held fully accountable for that crime,” he said at a city hall press conference on Monday.
“I think there is nothing more terrible for a person than to be attacked because of their gender, lifestyle, religion and nationality,” the mayor added.
Jonathan Greenblatt, national director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said the Jewish community is bracing for the consequences of public figures normalizing anti-Semitism.
A Western status quo to praise the Nazis and Hitler “rises from ugly to kind of inflammatory,” Greenblatt said.
In October, West was temporarily suspended from Twitter after making a “death 3” threat against Jews.
Anti-Semitic vitriol has cost the Gold Digger artist lucrative sponsorship deals with Adidas and Balenciaga.
West, fresh off a dinner at Mar-a-Lago last week with former President Donald Trump and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, revealed his love and admiration for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis during a mid-range conversation. unleashed a firestorm. -right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on the InfoWars show.
West was then banned from Twitter again for sharing an image of a swastika inside a Star of David. Twitter CEO Elon Musk said the “Donda” rapper violated the platform’s policy against inciting violence.
Meanwhile, Nike on Monday suspended all ties with Irving, the longtime Nets associate, over his tweets promoting an anti-Semitic movie.
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