A sign equating Zionism with Naziism (video snippet)

Surge in Anti Jewish Attacks Sparks Calls To Reinstate NYC Mask Law

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The Judean Staff
International

The increase in blatant anti-Jewish hatred across America is alarming, but to see it in New York—a place imbued with Jewish culture and home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel—has many, Jew and non-Jew alike, absolutely terrified. Now, voices are rising, demanding stronger action from the government to stem the vocal harassment and violence against Jews.

Until now, most incidents of hatred have come from masked individuals, concealing their identities. But a new proposal aims to change that. This call to action intensified after a pro-Palestinian mob brazenly challenged passengers aboard a crowded New York City subway car to identify themselves as Zionists on Monday, as captured in videos that have gone viral on social media.

The demonstrators can be heard chanting, “Raise your hand if you’re a Zionist. This is your chance to get out.”  When nobody responded, a man shouted, “Okay, no Zionists here. We’re good.”

The disturbing incident occurred at the 14th Street-Union Square station, American media sources reported. This sickening moment followed a protest rally in Union Square Park in Manhattan, where demonstrators held up a banner that read, “Long live October 7.”

One antisemitic demonstrator at the event yelled that he wished “Hitler was still here” to “wipe out” the Jews.

Later, the mob of protesters escalated their aggression by lighting flares and waving flags associated with Hezbollah and Hamas in front of the Nova Music Festival Exhibition on Wall Street during an organized “citywide day of rage for Gaza.” Earlier in the day at Union Square, two protesters—faces also covered—unfurled a banner that read “Long Live October 7.”

Zionism is defined by the Anti-Defamation League as “the self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people” in Israel. Some 80% of US Jews said in a 2021 survey that caring about Israel is a key part of being Jewish.

In another chilling incident, on Wednesday morning, hateful vandals splattered red paint on the home of the Brooklyn Museum director and Jewish board members. At least two homes were also defaced with a red triangle symbol that Hamas uses to denote targets marked for death. Director of the Brooklyn Museum, Anne Pasternak’s coop apartment building in Brooklyn Heights, was among those targeted by the vile mob when they strung up a sign that screamed, “Anne Pasternak Brooklyn Museum White Supremacist Zionist.” An inverted red triangle was also sprayed on her door—a symbol used in the past by Hamas to identify Israeli military targets and recently spotted at anti-Israel tent encampment protests plaguing university campuses across the country.

“You let people spray paint the homes of residents because they sit on the board of the Brooklyn Museum. What does it lead to? This is what the Nazis did in the 1930s,” said Michael Nussbaum, former president of the Queens Jewish Community Council.

On the same day as the subway incident, masked pro-Palestinian protesters rallied on Wall Street outside the Nova Music Festival exhibit, commemorating those killed or taken hostage by Hamas terrorists at the music festival on Oct. 7. One of the protest's organizers, from the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime (WOL), said the Nova exhibit was “nothing more than Zionist propaganda,” The Jerusalem Post previously reported. The protest was part of a “citywide day of rage for Gaza” organized by WOL, and some demonstrators held a banner that read “Long Live October 7th.”

The explosion of blatant antisemitism by anti-Israel protesters in New York—nearly all of whom cover their faces to avoid being publicly identified—is leading some Jewish leaders to call for the return of an anti-mask law that was previously used to combat the hoods of the Ku Klux Klan.

“A mask law will make a difference,” Scott Richman, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, told The Post on Wednesday. The group first championed similar laws around the country in the 1950s, and should back them again, Richman said. “It effectively tanked the Ku Klux Klan. Nobody wanted their face to be seen,” he added.

New York’s anti-mask law was on the books for nearly 200 years until it was repealed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. spearheaded by the obsessively anti-President Trump, controversial District Attorney of New York City, Tish James. Anti-Jewish hate crimes had been on the rise even before this week, jumping 150% in May from the same month last year, according to NYPD crime stats. Cops so far this year recorded 173 anti-Jewish hate crimes, compared to 101 in the same period in 2023, data shows.

But Brooklyn Republican Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, a Ukrainian-born Jew, said the NYPD needs to step up during this “scary time.”

“We hit a crisis point for antisemitism a long time ago,” she said.

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