The New York City Police Department will deploy more officers than in prior years to synagogues, yeshivas and Jewish institutions during the High Holidays, according to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
“Our deployment this year for the High Holy Days at shuls and yeshivas and Jewish cultural institutions” will be larger than in previous years “based on the realities of the world that we live in today,” Tisch told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday about security plans ahead of Rosh Hashanah.
The Jewish High Holidays begin on Friday at night—the same day as the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The NYPD will increase its presence outside synagogues and other Jewish religious and cultural sites across the five boroughs. Additional uniformed foot posts and dedicated house-of-worship patrols will also be deployed, while the department’s intelligence and counterterror bureau monitors threats in New York and abroad.
“There will be assets you see and others that you don’t,” Tisch said.
There are no known specific or credible threats against High Holiday celebrations in New York City, she told reporters.
“But we remain vigilant,” Tisch said. “You have a partner in the NYPD now and throughout the year.”
Tisch pointed to several recent attacks on Jewish New Yorkers, including the Aug. 14 attack at Central Synagogue, where Larry Montes allegedly disrupted Shabbat services, struck a 63-year-old congregant in the face and spat on and headbutted a 65-year-old security guard.
She also cited the July 23 stabbing of Moshe Grunhaus, 50, who was attacked with a screwdriver after leaving afternoon services at the Jewish Center on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Witnesses told JNS that the attacker yelled “Allahu akbar.”
Since Oct. 7, 2023, intelligence officials have also tracked threats and disrupted alleged plots targeting Jewish institutions, including a Manhattan synagogue and a Jewish center in Brooklyn, Tisch said.
Mamdani told Jewish New Yorkers that their safety during the holidays is of “the utmost importance to our administration.”
“Our administration and the NYPD have been preparing for months to ensure the security and well-being of every New Yorker on Sept. 11,” he said.
“At sundown, the High Holidays will begin,” Mamdani said. “Hundreds of thousands of Jewish New Yorkers will dip apples into honey, blow the shofar, reflect on the year that passed and begin 5787 with sweetness.” (Many Jewish congregations won’t blow the shofar on the first day of Rosh Hashanah this year, since it is Saturday.)
The mayor said that “for many Jewish New Yorkers, there have been moments of immense sadness over this past year.”
“Too many of our neighbors have been the victims of antisemitic hate crimes, and too many are understandably afraid to come together and celebrate openly,” he said.
Anti-Jewish hate crimes surged 182% in the first month of Mamdani’s term as mayor compared to January 2025, and leaders of major Jewish organizations have said that the way the mayor talks about Israel and Jews puts Jewish New Yorkers at risk.
Tisch told reporters on Wednesday that precinct commanders and community affairs officers will work directly with clergy and Jewish institutional leaders on security plans tailored to their communities.
“As the 9/11 commemoration concludes Friday, another major security operation will already be underway across the five boroughs,” she said. “At sundown that evening, Rosh Hashanah begins, marking the start of the Jewish High Holidays.”
Recent hate-crime data is “deeply disturbing,” Tisch said.
Jews, who account for about 10% of New York City residents, were the targets of 42% of “confirmed” hate crimes in the city last month. Jews have been the targets of 53.9% of all “confirmed” hate crimes in the city so far this year, according to official city data.
The department describes “confirmed” hate crimes as those that it and its legal bureau determine meet the threshold under state law.
Both Mamdani and Tisch said they have heard from Jewish New Yorkers who fear for their own safety.
Tisch said Jewish New Yorkers have told her they are afraid of “walking around the city openly identifying as being Jewish” or attending synagogue on Shabbat and during the High Holidays.
“There are 35,000 noble members of the New York City Police Department willing to risk their own lives for that of a stranger,” she said. The Jewish community “has a real partner in the New York City Police Department.”
