In its proposed 2027 budget, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration, which has been accused of antisemitism and of being anti-Israel, says that it has been successful in reducing Jew-hatred in the Windy City.
One of the “key” 2026 results that the budget proposal lists is the city’s Commission on Human Relations having “worked to reduce the disproportionately high level of hate crimes against the Jewish community through community engagement, education and outreach.”
In early 2024, Johnson voted to break a tie at the Chicago City Council to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, when Hamas and other terrorists continued to hold hostages.
Shortly thereafter, the City Council’s only Jewish member said that a meeting that the mayor held was a “hollow offer to try to save face with the Jewish community,” and later in the year, the Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest said that it was “appalling” and “incomprehensible” that Johnson appointed a Board of Education president with “a history of making antisemitic statements.”
Despite all of that criticism, City Hall said in the budget proposal that the mayor’s administration had made strides in curbing Jew-hatred.
A spokesman for Johnson told JNS that anti-Jewish hate crimes in Chicago have declined by 55% this year, and by 73.4% since 2024.
According to official city statistics, there have been 26 hate crimes in Chicago this year that have involved religion, 21 of which have targeted Jews.
That means that 81% of religion-based hate crimes in the Windy City this year have been antisemitic.according to a study sponsored by the Chicago Jewish Federation and conducted with the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center.
By comparison, there have been three anti-Muslim hate crimes in the Windy City so far this year, according to city data.
The anti-Jewish hate crimes so far this year put the city on pace for about 25 by year’s end, which, according to city data, would be well below the 47 in Chicago in 2025, the 79 in 2024 and the 50 in 2023, the year in which the Oct. 7 attacks occurred.
The anti-Jewish hate crimes in years passed represented 90% of the 52 total religion-based hate crimes in 2025, 89% of the 89 in 2024 and 62% of the 81 in 2023, per official city data.
In 2022, 39 of the 41 religion-based hate crimes in Chicago—or 95%—targeted Jews.
A Johnson spokesman told JNS that the mayor launched the Interconnected Chicago Strategy, to strengthen the city’s response to hate incidents, in May 2026. The spokesman said that the strategy takes into account recommendations from a hearing that the Chicago Commission on Human Relations held about Jew-hatred.
In March, Nancy Andrade resigned as chair of the city human rights panel reportedly amid a dispute about an antisemitism report and changes that the mayor’s office proposed. A member of the commission told the Chicago Sun-Times at the time that City Hall tried to broaden the report to focus on more than Jew-hatred. The mayor’s office disputed that.
In May, Johnson announced a Jewish Engagement Council.
