The New York City Human Rights Commission announced Wednesday that it is launching an ad campaign to combat anti-Semitism in New York.
The campaign is part of the city’s response to an increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes, with more than 515 incidents reported since the New York Police Department started collecting information in 2017. Anti-Semitism is the most-reported hate crime in the city, with the highest occurrence among Orthodox and Hasidic communities.
“We are committed to eradicating this bigotry wherever it exists,” said Carmelyn Malalis, the commission’s spokesperson. “New York City is a city for all of us. Its strength lies in its diversity, in how we come together to celebrate and look out for one another.”
The commission promised to act by placing full-page ads in the Jewish publications Hamodia, Jewish Press, and Mishpacha, emphasizing civil unity over anti-Semitism. It will also post messages on social media, reminding New Yorkers that discrimination is illegal “in housing, the workplace, and in all public places.”
“We will never tolerate a climate where wearing a yarmulke in public makes anyone a target,” Human Rights Commissioner Jonathan Greenspun said.
In June 2019, Mayor Bill de Blasio blamed the rise of anti-Semitic attacks in New York on “the right-wing movement,” saying at a press conference, “I want to be very, very clear, the violent threat, the threat that is ideological is very much from the right.”
At the same press conference, New York Police Department Chief Dermot Shea attributed the attacks to a more diverse group of offenders: teens, people with mental illness, and career criminals, according to the New York Post.
Violent anti-Semitism has become a larger issue, with an increase nationwide. A 2018 attack on Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, in which a gunman killed 11 church members, was the deadliest recorded anti-Semitic attack in the United States.
President Trump signed an executive order in December 2019 that makes it easier for federal agencies to prosecute anti-Semitism, particularly on college campuses. The order came after the administration noted an “alarming” rise in anti-Semitism.
