While a tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Gaza seems to be holding despite tit-for-tat violence last Wednesday, American Jews are still reeling from a reported surge in antisemitism following the conflict in the Middle East. Incidents include a window at a kosher pizzeria in Manhattan shattered with a brick, a synagogue door in Utah vandalized…
George Floyd’s murder and police officer Derek Chauvin’s conviction for the crime have sparked conversations all over the United States and the world about whether police are biased against Black and brown Americans and perpetuate white supremacy. Caught in the middle are some white Jewish police officers, a minority within the force both committed to…
Some New York police officers, even those who respond to cases of antisemitic graffiti in Orthodox swaths of Brooklyn, don’t seem to know how to spell “swastika” or “yarmulke.” Surveillance cameras, even those in the subway, cannot always be relied upon to capture vandals who paint or carve hateful messages. And police officers frequently either…
The New York City Council has scrapped a $1 million initiative to prevent hate crimes from its upcoming annual budget. The budget cuts, originally reported by Next City, targeted funding for the Hate Crimes Prevention Initiative in the year-old Office of Hate Crimes Prevention. Last year, the $1 million had been divided up among 15…
The president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, one of New York City’s largest police unions, appeared twice last week on Fox News with a “QAnon” coffee mug in the background. The mug, which appeared behind Ed Mullins during his television appearances, was stamped with a red, white and blue “Q,” the word “QAnon” and an…
New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced on Wednesday that she is looking into reports of unequal enforcement by the New York Police Department of social-distancing requirements due to coronavirus. In a May 8 letter to the police commissioner, James requested department policies and directives for enforcing the social-distancing rules, as well as the…
A letter signed by prominent Jewish politicians and organizations condemned a controversial tweet from New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, which scolded “the Jewish community” in the wake of a Hasidic funeral that violated social distancing guidelines on Tuesday. “With thousands of New Yorkers dead, and many more sick, we all understand the danger of…
Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York on Wednesday defended his actions the night before in personally venturing to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to disperse a crowd at a funeral for a Hasidic rabbi and then sending a Tweet about it that outraged many in the Orthodox and broader Jewish community because it seemed to blame all…
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