Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

ADL to open satellite office in Brooklyn to counter uptick in antisemitism

The New York City borough “has been burdened with an outsized number of hateful attacks,” said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.

Chassidic Jews in Brooklyn, N.Y. Photo by Mendy Hechtman/Flash90.
Chassidic Jews in Brooklyn, N.Y. Photo by Mendy Hechtman/Flash90.

The Anti-Defamation League announced plans to open a satellite office in Brooklyn, N.Y., which its CEO and national director Jonathan Greenblatt calls one of the “epicenters for antisemitism in this country.”

Of more than 395 antisemitic incidents that the ADL documented in New York City last year, 147 occurred in Brooklyn, home to a number of large Orthodox Jewish communities easily identifiable by their dress. Neighborhoods include Crown Heights, Williamsburg, Flatbush and Borough Park.

“The Brooklyn community has been burdened with an outsized number of hateful attacks,” said Greenblatt. “The new office will be tasked to respond directly to antisemitic incidents in Brooklyn and to work directly with law enforcement and community leaders in responding to acts of hate and tend bridges of understanding and acceptance.”

A division of the New York regional office, the new office is slated to open at the end of April with a dedicated staffer.

“Brooklyn is the most Jewish place in the United States with over 600,000 Jews who call the borough home,” said Scott Richman, ADL regional director for New York and New Jersey. “We look forward to deepening our work in the Jewish community with our allies and partners to counter the rising tide of antisemitism and all forms of hate.”

“These movements don’t stop with a boycott. We know where this is going, and that’s why we are going to get out ahead of it,” an attorney at the center told JNS.
On May 9, vandals spray-painted antisemitic symbols and Bible references on the Waukesha County memorial, which includes a steel beam from the World Trade Center.
“I’m not sure we should make the deal if they don’t sign,” the U.S. president said at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. “I think they owe that to us.”
The protest was “a powerful show of solidarity,” Jayne Zirkle of the Lawfare Project told JNS. “To condemn people for attending such an event is to condemn the very principles of freedom our nation was founded on.”
“If publicly-funded institutions cannot host such events without folding to pressure, serious questions arise about that funding,” a Jewish House of Lords member said.
The attacks followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement on Tuesday that the IDF is deepening its operations in Lebanon.