Gov. Kathy Hochul delivered a speech to the American Jewish Committee Board of Governors meeting on Sunday, where she denounced rising antisemitism around the Empire State.
“The fear that has been unleashed on an entire community is beyond reprehensible to me as the governor of this state,” Hochul said on Nov. 12. “And I will call it out every chance I get, but not with just idle threats. I can stand here and tell you that I’ll leave no stone unturned to make sure that you feel protected when you’re worshiping, dropping children off at yeshiva, walking down the street, or taking a subway here in New York. Every single citizen of this state is entitled to have that sense of security. We owe that to them.”
In the wake of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, sparked in the wake of Hamas’ deadly attacks in Israel on Oct. 7 that killed over a thousand innocent Jews and led to the capture of several more as hostages, tensions have risen around the globe — with the melting pot of New York City seeing an uptick in hate crimes and threats.
This October, the NYPD recorded 101 hate crimes on the streets of the five boroughs, compared with just 45 incidents in October of 22 — with 69 anti-Jewish incidents last month accounting for a large portion of that rise, according to the most recent NYPD statistics.
Since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began, New York has seen Swastikas sprayed on public buildings, assaults on Jewish men and women, and bomb threats made against Jewish houses of worship.
In the wake of those incidents, Hochul used her Sunday speech to New York Jewish community leaders to pledge $75 million in spending directed to ensuring safety and security at possible targets of antisemitic crimes.
“My number one job is to protect public safety, full stop. And whatever I can do, including adding $75 million more for public safety initiatives, security and individuals to protect yeshivas and synagogues and other places of worship,” she said. “Money for local law enforcement to beef up their efforts, not just here in New York City, but all across the State of New York.”
Hochul said that her “sense of urgency” on the matter stems from her recent trip to Israel in the wake of the attacks on Oct. 7, and the devastation she saw at an Israeli kibbutz.
“I heard the sounds. I smelled the smell of death permeating that community, a place that I described to others as being a place where the most peace-loving people would live, in a kibbutz. You just want a good life, take care of each other,” she said. “This one building I walked into, a former home, it was basically flattened. But you could see on the remaining walls, stained with blood, the mattress is stained with blood.”
Hochul also spoke to the audience about college campuses, and the perceived antisemitism sweeping over the study body — saying that, while she supported “anyone’s right to peacefully protest,” some incidents on state campuses have gone too far, including threats made against Jewish organizations.
“I will support anyone’s right to peacefully protest on any issue, anytime, but once you cross that line and become destructive and violent, there must be repercussions,” the governor said. “What’s going on our campuses, shocking in its scale. I’ve never seen the intentional infliction of threats and intimidation from one student to another that I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Just two weeks ago, Hochul had tapped Judge Jonathan Lippman, who served as Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals until 2015, to conduct a review of CUNY policies and procedures for dealing with discrimination.
Lippman, will produce recommendations for improving anti-discrimination policies, and produce a report on the full scope of the situation on campuses.
“As a Judge and lawyer, my focus has always been first and foremost on fairness and equal justice,” Lippman said in a statement on Oct. 31. “That same sense of fairness, and freedom from intimidation, for Jewish students and all others in CUNY’s academic community, will be at the center of my review. Antisemitism and discrimination in all its forms are unacceptable.”
