Mamdani, NYPD vow tight security for synagogues during High Holidays

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch on Wednesday announced increased security for Jewish sites during the High Holidays, as the city continues to grapple with a high rate of antisemitic hate crimes.

Rosh Hashanah, beginning on Friday, coincides this year with the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, an anniversary that has also prompted security preparations from the police.

There are no known, specific threats to Jewish communities, Mamdani and Tisch said.

“Too many of our neighbors have been the victims of antisemitic hate crimes, and too many are understandably afraid to come together and celebrate openly,” Mamdani said at a security briefing. “Your safety during these sacred days is of the utmost importance to our administration, and we will work tirelessly to ensure that you can observe the holiday securely.”

Mamdani vowed an increase in NYPD protection for synagogues and other Jewish religious and cultural sites.

The NYPD will also monitor threats online, Mamdani said.

New York authorities regularly increase security for Jewish sites during holidays, but Tisch, a Jewish moderate, said that police have “amped up” deployments this year, “particularly since the start of hostilities in Iran.”

“Our deployment this year at the World Trade Center for 9/11 will be larger than it has been in previous years, as will be our deployment this year for the High Holy Days at shuls and yeshivas and Jewish cultural institutions, just based on the realities of the world that we live in today,” Tisch said.

Tisch acknowledged that, while violent crime has decreased in the city, “Hate crimes are moving in the wrong direction.”

Overall hate crimes are up 16% since Mamdani took office at the start of the year and antisemitic hate crimes have increased 9%. Jews are targeted far more than any other group in the city.

Jews have been targeted in 229 confirmed hate crimes so far this year, accounting for 54% of the total hate crimes in the city, according to NYPD data, despite Jews making up around 10% of the city’s population.

Tisch said security measures for the holidays will include intelligence monitoring, working with federal, state and international partners, and foot patrols at synagogues, yeshivas and other locations.

The hate crime figures “are deeply disturbing, and we’ve seen these incidents play out across this city,” Tisch said, citing a man who disrupted services at Central Synagogue last month and an attacker who stabbed a Jewish man in July.

The suspect in that stabbing, Raul Morales, 51, was indicted on Tuesday, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. Morales was charged in New York State Supreme Court with attempted murder in the second degree as a hate crime and assault in the first degree as a hate crime, among other charges.

Morales also allegedly stabbed a non-Jewish man minutes before the attack against the Jewish victim. Bragg said the first victim arrived at a hospital with a knife still lodged in his back and that the Jewish man had been stabbed in the chest with a screwdriver.

Morales shouted “Allahu akbar” and “Justice for Islam” around the time of the attack on the Jewish victim outside an Upper West Side synagogue, Bragg said.

Bragg said his office’s investigation had turned up additional evidence of antisemitism by Morales, including antisemitic text messages on his phone. The statement did not include details about the messages.

In addition to hate crimes, law enforcement has thwarted a series of attempted terror attacks against Jewish institutions in New York City in recent years.

A study last week by the Jewish Federations of North America found that security spending for the US Jewish community has surpassed an estimated $1.05 billion per year.

Some of the costs are covered by state and federal grants.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Tuesday announced $70 million in state funds that will be distributed to organizations that are vulnerable to hate crimes, citing the rise in antisemitism.

The funds will be directed to 290 nonprofit communal groups to pay for security upgrades like locks, alarms, fencing and cybersecurity, Hochul’s office said.

The organizations receiving the grants will be notified this week and around half of the funds will go to groups in New York City, Hochul’s office said.

Hochul added that state police will also increase protection of Jewish sites during the holidays.