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Menachem Wecker

Menachem Wecker is the U.S. bureau news editor of JNS.

The bureau’s data suggested that a Jewish person was nearly 225% more likely to be a target of a hate crime than a black person was in the United States last year.
The city released the statistics the day after JNS reported that from Jan. 1, 2023, until the end of this past January, Jews were the targets of 9.1% of all hate crimes in Seattle.
The state’s data “affirms what we already know as members of the Jewish community, that we are in the midst of an ongoing and unprecedented experience of being targeted as Jews,” Jeremy Burton, CEO of the local JCRC, told JNS.
“The numbers are absolutely alarming, but alarm doesn’t help,” Randy Kessler, executive director of StandWithUs Northwest, told JNS.
The percentage of hate crimes in the state so far this year targeting Jews, 5%, appeared to suggest an improvement over 2025, when Jews were targets of 6.8% of hate crimes, and the past year, when the figure was 6.3%.
“I remain deeply concerned and very troubled by the unacceptable spike in hate crimes, particularly driven by those targeting Jewish New Yorkers,” New York City Council speaker Julie Menin told JNS.
“Our concern isn’t simply the number of reported criminal incidents,” Moshe Herman told JNS. “More often, we see growing social hostility, misinformation about Israel and an increase in antisemitic rhetoric online and in public discourse.”
“A person should be forthright and honest,” but Dr. Anthony Fauci “made himself out to be someone with something to hide,” Rabbi Yaakov Menken told JNS.
“There’s not a day that I don’t try to consult with him, and with my father,” the Israeli prime minister said, half a century after the counter-terror operation in Uganda.
“Idaho was one of the first 12 states to pass legislation regarding malicious harassment,” the state says in a newly released report.
“I think that the Israeli defense industry especially is very resilient, and I think they know how to adapt to the new situation,” Col. (Res.) Aviram Hasson told JNS.
Art historian Jacob Wisse told JNS that he is concerned “when museums, which I value for the rigor, depth and richness of their curatorial voice, fall back, lazily, on untruths.”