NYPD says hate crimes against Jews have increased since attack on Israel

The NYPD said hate crimes against Jews in New York City increased after Hamas' attack on Israel on Oct. 7. This comes after the NYPD immediately began outreach to Jewish communities to encourage them to report hate crimes when they happen.

According to police, of 51 total hate crimes since the week of Oct. 9, 30 of them have been against Jews. By contrast, police say there were six antisemitic hate crimes during the same week in 2022.

Police said there have been four anti-Palestinian hate crimes since the week of Oct. 9.

Overall, police said hate crimes are down 13% in 2023 compared to last year.

Gothamist reported Monday that 20 antisemitic crimes occurred over a slightly different period, between Oct. 15 and Oct. 22. The statistics released Tuesday date from Oct. 9, two days after the Israel attack.

Joe Kenny, the NYPD’s chief of detectives, said the attacks seem spontaneous.

“They seem to be individual acts being committed,” he said.

“As far as incidents like synagogues being targeted, no,” Kenny said. “We’re not seeing it targeted at specific locations.”

Kenny said the department has extensively reached out to Jewish communities to encourage them to report crimes in the wake of Hamas' attack and Israel's subsequent planned invasion of Gaza.

“I think they're reporting more because we're asking them to, it's obviously getting a lot of attention,” Kenny said.

Kenny said most of the reports since Oct. 9 are assaults, aggravated harassments and vandalism involving swastikas.

The department has not released data about complaints for weeks prior to Oct. 7, making it difficult to draw comparisons.

The Anti Defamation League said that reports of what it calls "hate incidents" — which include reports of antisemitic violence or public statements the caller didn't like — submitted to its New York and New Jersey office have doubled since Oct. 7.

“Our staff is pretty overwhelmed at the moment from all the incidents to which they're responding and sifting through,” said Scott Richman, the ADL's regional director. “Many of these incidents that we encounter end up being within the realm of speech and that somebody is very upset about.”

A hate crime, as opposed to an incident, requires an underlying crime such as assault or robbery, and brings with it the possibility of more punishment on conviction.

Under state law, hate crimes must be motivated by someone’s real or perceived race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, religion, age, disability or sexual orientation.

Richman said he has deep confidence in the NYPD’s training around hate crimes.

“We work closely with them,” he said. “The hate crimes unit is quite steep in the law and trying to figure out if it's something that they need to investigate or if another unit within the NYPD needs to investigate.

This story has been updated with new information.