Jewish areas in NYC to get 100 new security cameras

Brooklyn neighborhoods of Williamsburg, Crown Heights, Borough Park to receive further surveillance tools, police presence in wake of anti-Semitic attacks

New York City will install 100 new security cameras in ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in an effort to prevent anti-Semitic attacks, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday.

Fear has gripped the city’s Jewish community since the fatal December 10 attack at a kosher grocery store across the Hudson River in Jersey City and the December 29 stabbings at a Hanukkah celebration in suburban Monsey, New York.

The new cameras will be installed in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Williamsburg, Crown Heights and Borough Park, where ultra-Orthodox Jewish residents have reported attacks ranging from someone pulling off a wig or hat to more violent assaults.

“An attack on the Jewish community is an attack on all New Yorkers,” de Blasio, a Democrat, said in a statement. “These new security cameras will increase the NYPD’s visibility into these neighborhoods, and help our officers on the ground keep New Yorkers safe.”

In this December 11, 2019 file photo, Orthodox Jewish men pass New York City police guarding a Brooklyn synagogue prior to a funeral for a rabbinical student from Brooklyn, who was killed in a shooting inside a Jersey City, New Jersey market. New York City is increasing its police presence in some Brooklyn neighborhoods with large Jewish populations after a number of anti-Semitic attacks during the Hanukkah holiday. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

Police officials say anti-Semitic crimes in New York City jumped 21 percent in 2019 compared with 2018.

The announcement about the new security cameras comes a week after city officials announced they would implement “hate crime awareness programming” at middle and high schools in the same three Brooklyn neighborhoods that are getting the cameras.

Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said the cameras “will support our increased patrols and the targeted deployment of counterterrorism officers at key locations to ensure that everyone is safe.”