Elected officials demanded immediate action on the eve of the holiday Lag B’Omer, as antisemitic hate crimes have surged across New York City and after Nazi symbols were found scrawled across synagogues, a Holocaust memorial and private homes in Queens.
“Let me be clear. Justifying hate, vandalism or violence by pointing to the actions of a foreign government is scapegoating, and it is wrong,” Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) said at a rally, which was organized by Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, outside Congregation Machane Chodosh on Tuesday.
“No community should be targeted because of disagreements with another country,” the congresswoman said at the rally. “I’m grateful to the NYPD and the 112th Precinct for their swift response and to the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force, who has taken over the investigation into this horrible vandalism.”
Donovan Richards Jr., Queens borough president, said at the event that the vandalism is a hate crime. “This appalling act of antisemitism on the eve of a Jewish holiday, including the defacing of a Kristallnacht memorial, must be called out as the hate crime that it is,” he said.
New York City Council speaker Julie Menin, city comptroller Mark Levine, Queens district attorney Melinda Katz, and City Council members Lynn Schulman and Phil Wong also attended the rally, as did Jewish leaders. Schulman is co-chair of the council’s Jewish Caucus,
“The desecration of multiple sites in Queens, including a Jewish community center housing a pre-K where students and staff were subjected to vile hate, is yet another horrifying attack on Jewish New Yorkers amid skyrocketing antisemitism,” Mark Treyger, CEO of the JCRC, said at the rally.
“This is not normal and must not be normalized,” he added.
No arrests have been made in connection with the vandalism, which was discovered early on Monday at Congregation Machane Chodosh, the Rego Park Jewish Center and nearby residences and a vehicle, according to officials.
The incidents occurred the same day that the New York City Police Department released hate crime data from April, during which 59% of all confirmed and reported hate crimes in the city targeted Jews.
