Anti-Semitic Incidents in New York Skyrocket. Why?
New York is the epicenter for anti-Semitic incidents in America which are skyrocketing.
Orthodox Jews assaulted on busy streets in Midtown Manhattan and in quiet neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Swastikas drawn on a Long Island home and spray painted onto Wall Street’s Charging Bull statue. A bomb threat against a Jewish community center in Albany, and fliers in Dutchess County that warned residents, ‘Jews want to take your guns." – The New York Times, April 26, 2022
In 2021, the ADL recorded 2,717 anti-Semitic attacks in the United States. This marked a 34 percent increase from the previous year. That number represented the largest number of attacks since the organization began keeping tabs in 1979.
New York led the nation by 15 percent in overall anti-Semitic incidents and by far, in terms of physical attacks. Nationwide, 57 percent of physical assaults against Jews took place in the Empire State. Most of the attacks took place in the five boroughs of New York City. In raw numbers, this translated to 51 physical assaults on Jews in New York state in 2021. Forty-six of them occurred in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
“This is the largest total we have ever seen,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, executive director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). “What was remarkable about it was people acted with impunity. These were Jewish people wearing a kipa [skullcap] or who were visibly Orthodox being assaulted for being Jews, and that is brand-new.”
Dramatic Increase in Anti-Semitic Incidents
What spurred such a significant increase in anti-Semitic incidents? The question is particularly relevant since 2020 saw a decrease in the number of incidents recorded in 2019. The Far Left's ascension in America empowered many intersectional alliances, many of which were virulently anti-Israel. And it is clear that the most dramatic increase occurred in May 2021 during the Israel-Hamas conflict. In May alone, anti-Semitic incidents jumped close to 150 percent from the previous year.
In May, Palestinians in Jerusalem began rioting due to incitement by their leaders over standard bogus claims. Akin to a blood libel, Palestinian leaders claimed intended to take over the Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount. Moreover, they falsely accused Israel of making illegal claims on a few houses in Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Hamas then barraged Israel with close to 4,400 rockets. These rockets were indiscriminately fired at Israeli civilian centers by the Hamas terror group in Gaza.
In response, Israel launched “Guardian of the Walls,” a 12-day military operation beginning May 10, 2021. During that time,
"Jews were being attacked in the streets [of America] for no other reason than the fact that they were Jewish, and it seemed as if the working assumption was that if you were Jewish, you were blameworthy for what was happening half a world away," Greenblatt said.
Within Our Lifetime and Anti-Semitic Violence in New York City
Even a casual observer would be struck by the confluence of anti-Semitic incidents that occurred in New York City in May 2021 and the violent rhetoric and street actions taken by the high-profile, radical anti-Israel group Within Our Lifetime (WOL).
WOL wants the complete destruction of Israel, no less. The name refers to the group’s ultimate goal. Namely, the complete takeover of Israel by Palestinians “within the lifetime” of the group’s members.
One of the group’s favorite rallying cries is "Palestinian resistance and liberation by any means necessary.” WOL began staging regular, aggressive protests in Manhattan and Brooklyn at the beginning of 2021.
During the May 2021 conflict in Israel, WOL stepped up its aggression, launching a new campaign in NYC called “Globalize the Intifada.” The name “Intifada” invoked the word used for the violent “uprising” that characterized decades of terror against Israel and resulted in over 1,400 Israeli civilian deaths since 1987.
WOL draws support for their near-weekly street actions from their intersectional and international allies, including the violent, anarchist group Decolonize This Place. Besides their general anti-Israel protests in Midtown Manhattan, WOL has mapped out targets in New York for its activists and supporters to use as “a guide to know who your enemy is.”
One target is NYC’s prominent Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), chosen for the “sin” of having Jewish and pro-Israel individuals on its board of trustees. WOL’s “Strike MoMA” campaign encouraged their followers to “meet them [the trustees] in the streets.”
Within Our Lifetime (WOL) protest highlighting "Globalize the Intifada" Campaign (Screenshot)
Violent Attacks Against Jews by WOL Activists
WOL activists have also been responsible for some of the most coordinated and violent anti-Semitic incidents in New York on individual Jews, including:
The attack on Joseph Borgen, a young Jewish man who was on his way to a pro-Israel rally on May 20, 2021 in Manhattan. Why? He was simply wearing a yarmulke on his head. The menacing group of activists, including Waseem Awawdeh, surrounded Borgen, punching him, kicking him and beating him to the ground.
“I felt a liquid being poured on my face and at first I thought I was getting urinated on, but it turned out I was getting maced and pepper sprayed,” Borgen recounted. “My face was on fire. That pain was worse than the concussion and all this other stuff that followed.”
Awawdeh was arrested for the assault and charged with hate crime assault, gang assault, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon.
The April 20, 2022, attack on Matt Greenman in Midtown Manhattan. Greenman was on his way to a pro-Israel rally in Midtown Manhattan. He was wearing an Israeli flag on his back and supporting himself on a crutch for a sprained foot. Saadah Masoud, a leading WOL activist, began following Greenman.
“He started getting closer, along with his friends who got near me,” Greenman recounted, “and then from behind he attacked me, threw me down, punched and kicked me in the face a bunch, and then he left and said, ‘That’s what you get for being a terrorist.’ I went to the ER, was told I have a mild concussion and a possible fracture above the eye.”
WOL Leader Nerdeen Kiswani
WOL’s leader and founder, Nerdeen Kiswani was named “Antisemite of the Year” by the group StopAntisemitism.org. Kiswani regularly incites violence against Jews, saying at one WOL rally, “We need allies who are gonna help us achieve a victory, not allies who are going to tell us to be non-violent.” At another rally, after fireworks were launched, Kiswani said, “I hope that a pop-pop is the last noise that some Zionists hear in their lifetime!"
Kiswani is at the front and center of WOL’s numerous protests, loudspeaker in hand, leading chants including, “5-6-7-8 smash the settler state" and “There is only one solution, Intifada revolution."
Speaking about Israel, Kiswani declared in a YouTube webinar, “We have to defeat this illegitimate Zionist settler state that has no right to exist." On Instagram, Kiswani posted, “Israel must be annihilated."
Anti-Semitic Incidents in New York Jan-May 2022
WOL has kept up its aggressive protests in 2022. And, violent anti-Semitic incidents against Jews in New York City have continued unabated, including:
In February, a Jewish teen was attacked on the Sabbath in Brooklyn when a man jumped out of a van, punched him in the face and chased him down a street while an accomplice filmed the assault. The attack marked the second Sabbath that an assault had occurred against a visibly-identified Jew.
The next day, a man smashed the window of a school bus with Hebrew writing on the side and a visibly Jewish driver. Children were on the bus at the time of the attack. That same day, an assailant randomly punched a Jewish man in the face in Brooklyn. Hate crimes against Jews in New York that February quadrupled compared to the NYPD's 2020 stats.In March, without provocation, a 21-year-old Hasidic Jewish man in Brooklyn was attacked and beaten by six assailants. In Manhattan, a gang wielding knives and crowbars threatened a group of Jewish 8th and 9th graders.
In May, a man in Brooklyn attacked a rabbi on a Friday afternoon. The rabbi required hospital care. In a separate incident, a man, after saying he was going “to get rid of all your Jews,” tried to punch a Jewish teenager. After he missed, he pushed the youth to the ground.
Also in May, a woman tried setting fire to a synagogue in Manhattan before being caught.
By May 22, the NYPD was investigating 120 anti-Semitic hate crimes in the City compared with 66 at the same time in 2021. To many who live in New York City, it feels like open season on Jews.