As major New York City crimes fall, Jews still feel unsafe

Bus stops in Canarsie have been defaced with Nazi swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti right before Shabbos, and there have been objects thrown at synagogues and bomb scares recently at a Modern Orthodox school in Flatbush and a Satmar school in Williamsburg, according to Rabbi Avrohom Hecht, executive director of the Jewish Community Council of Canarsie.

The rabbi has been “accosted verbally,” typically “on Friday night, coming back from shul,” he said.

That’s why he thinks it is possible that the NYPD is right when it says that major crimes — like murder and rape — are down 6.6% in the first three quarters of the year, while antisemitic hate crimes have surged, including 182% in Zohran Mamdani’s first month as mayor.

Jewish New Yorkers were the targets of 245 of 463 confirmed hate crimes in the city during the first nine months of 2026, or 53%, according to NYPD data released on Oct. 6. That was up 1.2% from the 242 confirmed anti-Jewish hate crimes during the same period last year. 

Meanwhile, major crime in the Big Apple, including murders and robberies, fell 9.4% in the third quarter of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025. Through September, major crime was down 6.6% from the first nine months of 2025, according to the NYPD.

Jew-hatred “is very focused … and it’s mainly focused on visibly Jewish people that have tzitzit out or a yarmulke or a hat or a beard,” Rabbi Hecht said.

“Especially Holocaust survivors and frail elderly are very concerned about the situation. They’re fearful to walk outside, and children, I think, also are affected by it,” he said.

“It’s not anti-Zionism. It’s pure antisemitism, because they don’t ask you if you’re from Israel or you’re a Zionist. They’re focusing purely on the appearance of the people and making quick judgments.

“The people who are doing this feel that they are in the right, that they want to address the so-called alleged genocide.

“They feel that it’s all right to scream at young children. It’s a right to deface things and to throw things on shuls. They view it as a moral obligation to address a so-called genocide, which really does not exist.”

Experts told JNS that Jews are feeling unsafe despite the NYPD’s reported progress on major crimes.

“The disproportionate number of anti-Jewish incidents continues to be a critical concern for the Jewish community,” said Scott Richman, New York and New Jersey regional director at the Anti-Defamation League.

The NYPD, under Commissioner Jessica Tisch, “deserves enormous credit for the significant reductions in murders, shootings and other serious crimes across New York City,” according to Mitchell Silber, CEO of the Community Security Initiative, a partnership of the UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.

The department’s success in reducing major crime offers a model that should be used to address hate crimes and help Jews feel safer, Silber said.

“Those improvements benefit every New Yorker, including the Jewish community,” and the NYPD has done an extraordinary job managing protests, protecting Jewish institutions and maintaining public order under extremely challenging circumstances,” he said. “But there is an important distinction between a city becoming safer overall and Jewish New Yorkers feeling safer as Jews.”

“When Jews, who represent approximately 11 to 12% of New York City’s population, continue to be targeted in more than 50% of all reported hate crimes, it creates a very different perception of personal security,” Silber added.

“A Jewish New Yorker may be statistically less likely to become the victim of a violent crime generally, while still feeling increasingly vulnerable because of their Jewish identity,” he said.

Hate crimes, especially anti-Jewish ones, fall into a separate category from overall crimes, according to Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, senior rabbi of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, a Modern Orthodox synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

“These statistics highlight how different antisemitic crimes are,” he told JNS. “What people don’t get about antisemitic crimes is that the perpetrators imagine themselves as ‘idealists.’”

“Most crimes are driven by desperation, opportunity or rivalry. Antisemitic crimes are driven by ideology,” Steinmetz said. “The perpetrators believe that by attacking Jews, they are making the world a better place.”

“The constant propaganda against Israel has created a permission structure for every antisemite. People murder Jews and justify it with the bizarre belief that it will help Palestinian children,” Rabbi Steinmetz said. “If the city wants to be serious about antisemitism, it needs to recognize how anti-Zionism enables much of this violence.” —JNS