Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed a bill into law this week that consolidates 20 hate-crimes statutes into the same law to make it easier to prosecute hate crimes and another bill that adds $5 million to the grant program for nonprofit organizations to fund increased security measures.
“I’m seeing an intensity of antisemitic attacks as well as other hate crimes,” Lamont told JNS.
“A lot of it is energized by what’s happening in the Middle East and on social media,” he said of Jew-hatred, when “the community itself feels attacked.”
Lamont signed the bills alongside representatives of several faiths, including Jews, at a ceremony on the bimah at Congregation Beth Israel, a Reform synagogue in West Hartford.
Rabbi Michael Farbman told JNS that his Reform synagogue, Temple Emanuel in Orange, Conn., a bedroom community of New Haven, has an armed guard at the door during services in its white-clad building.
In summertime, synagogue members like to hold services outdoors on the congregation’s lush, greenery-filled property, but this summer, because of rising antisemitism overall and an anti-Jewish incident in nearby New Haven in early June, the congregation is debating whether it is safe to do so in an open area, according to Farbman.
“All of us now have armed security to some degree—something that was unthinkable in our suburban community not long ago,” the rabbi, who is a member of the Connecticut Hate Crimes Advisory Council, told JNS.
People are on edge even though his temple has not been hit with anything antisemitic.
“There’s plenty of stuff to pay attention to,” Farbman said. “It is certainly present in discussions, and I wish it wasn’t.”
Rabbi Shmully Hecht, founder and rabbinical adviser at the Jewish Yale student group, Shabtai, told JNS that for the first time in 30 years, the group “now has armed security at every public event we host.”
“It is abominable that in American history we’ve never experienced anything like this,” he said. “Mosques and churches don’t need security, yet Jewish people do.”
On June 2, a man reportedly called a group of visibly Jewish men talking on the street “baby killers” and told them to “get out of my city.” The attacker knocked the kippah off one man’s head. Another member of the group was a rabbi, who wants to remain anonymous, according to Hecht.
On June 9, Paul Smith was arrested and charged with the crimes of intimidation due to bias in the second degree and disorderly conduct.
The new laws that the governor signed go into effect on Oct. 1. The first charge against Smith is part of the existing and new hate crimes law that Lamont signed.
Intimidation due to bias in the second degree is a Class D felony in Connecticut and comes with a fine of at least $1,000, according to the new law.
The Constitution State has recently seen far fewer antisemitic incidents than its neighbor, New York City, where last month Jews were the target of about 60% of confirmed hate crimes, according to New York City Police Department data.
David Warren, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, told JNS that the state has continued “to see antisemitic incidents and threats across the state, in public spaces, schools, college campuses, Jewish institutions and online.”
In 2025, there were 126 antisemitic hate incidents in Connecticut, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s Audit of Antisemitism. That was down from 154 in 2024, but nearly three times higher than the 34 recorded in 2021.
“In 2025, roughly one-third of the state’s antisemitic incidents occurred in educational settings, including 22 in K-12 schools and 20 on college and university campuses,” Warren told JNS. “We also continue to see swastika vandalism, harassment of Jewish students and families, threats to Jewish institutions and Israel- or Zionism-related antisemitism directed at Jewish individuals and organizations.”
The new hate-crimes law “should make a practical difference,” according to Warren.
“It gives law enforcement and prosecutors a clearer, more coherent framework for charging hate crimes and seeking enhanced penalties when appropriate,” he told JNS. “Strong hate crime laws only work if officers, prosecutors, victims and communities understand when they apply and how to use them.”
“Clarity in the law should help with training, reporting, consistency across jurisdictions and ultimately accountability,” he added. “No law by itself ends hate, but a clearer statute makes enforcement more likely and more effective.”
As far as Farbman, of Temple Emanuel, is concerned, an end to the current attacks against Jews—and fear of more—can’t come soon enough.
“People are yearning for that normalcy,” the rabbi told JNS.
