Some 150 public-safety professionals from across New York City gathered at the Police Academy in Flushing, N.Y., for what the mayor’s office called a “high-level” and “first-of-its-kind” training on Jew-hatred on Sept. 8.
The training is “part of our city’s all-of-government approach to combat antisemitism head-on,” stated Moshe Davis, executive director of the New York City Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism.
“We are not only responding to hate but working to understand where it’s coming from, who is fueling it, and how it’s evolving,” Davis stated. “Education is a powerful tool in that fight.”
Training public-safety professionals ensures that “they can confront antisemitism wherever it appears, whether it be in our parks, our schools, our streets and beyond,” Davis said. “This is how we protect the safety and civil rights of every Jewish New Yorker.”
Eric Adams, the New York City mayor, stated that his administration created the office that Davis directs to " lead with clarity, coordination and education.”
“From swastikas and inverted red triangles to threats against Jewish students or synagogues, we will not let hate gain ground,” Adams stated. “In the face of rising global antisemitism, New York is setting a national standard. Here, we fight hate with action. We will fight for the city we love.”
The mayor said that every officer, trainer and city employee needs to know how to identify and fight “antisemitism and all forms of hate.”
“That’s why we brought together New York City’s public safety leadership to confront how antisemitism is evolving,” he said. “How ancient hatred is being repackaged through conspiracy theories, political extremism and propaganda masquerading as activism.”
Participants in the training came from more than a dozen city agencies, including the school safety division, parks enforcement patrol, and the taxi and limousine commission police, according to the mayor’s office.
The retired FBI agent David Collins, a senior research fellow at the George Washington University Program on Extremism, and EJ Kimball, director of interfaith engagement at the Combat Antisemitism Movement, trained participants.
