NYC Council launches antisemitism task force; new bill would limit synagogue protests

NEW YORK — The New York City Council announced the launch of a Task Force to Combat Antisemitism on Thursday, as hate crimes in the city continue to disproportionately target Jews, including in several high-profile recent incidents.

The task force was established amid a broader push by members of the council to rein in antisemitism. Council Speaker Julie Menin also announced legislation to create a buffer zone for protests at sensitive spots, including synagogues.

Inna Vernikov, a Jewish Republican representing part of south Brooklyn, will lead the task force alongside Eric Dinowitz, a Jewish Democrat from the Bronx. Both are second-term members of the council.

Vernikov said the bipartisan group will “hold people accountable” for antisemitism and could serve as a check on City Hall.

Vernikov brought the idea for the task force to Menin, who is Jewish and set up the group. Menin has made combating antisemitism a priority since assuming leadership of the council earlier this month, and could act as a moderate counterweight to the city’s far-left Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a longtime anti-Israel activist.

“It won’t just be a task force that does photo ops and a couple of meetings a year,” Vernikov told The Times of Israel. “It will be a real task force that will strive to bring about meaningful change.”

There will be seven council members on the task force, Jewish and non-Jewish, out of the 51 total members of the legislative body. The group will be run out of the council’s Jewish caucus.

The task force will hold hearings to look into antisemitic hate crimes and probe antisemitism in areas such as protests, schools, higher education and city agencies. The group will also suggest legislation to combat antisemitism, Vernikov said.

The other members of the task force will be the council’s Mercedes Narcisse, Gale Brewer, Harvey Epstein, Virginia Maloney and Kamillah Hanks, Vernikov said. Epstein is Jewish.

Menin confirmed that the Jewish caucus had voted to establish the task force during a council session on Thursday.

The council’s antisemitism task force is not directly related to the mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, a separate body housed in City Hall, but “may be a check to that,” Vernikov said.

“The individuals being interviewed to lead that task force are very questionable and could be problematic,” she said. Mamdani is reportedly interviewing candidates who have been critical of some Orthodox communities, which are disproportionately targeted in hate crimes.

Mamdani has stoked fear among some Jews due to his anti-Zionism, with Jewish leaders repeatedly warning he was a threat to the community during the campaign. Vernikov is a harsh critic of Mamdani.

“We’re an ethnic minority, we’ve been targeted disproportionately, and there needs to be a proper response and there hasn’t been until now,” Vernikov said.

Menin, in a briefing at the council on Thursday, also announced the legislation to control protests at “sensitive locations” such as synagogues, churches, mosques and schools. The legislation would require the police to establish a 100-foot security perimeter around the entrances to places of worship.

The legislation comes after two caustic protests outside New York City synagogues in recent months. Those protests saw anti-Zionist activists harass Jewish passersby, shout antisemitic tropes and chant in support of Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group committed to killing Jews. The pro-Hamas protest also took place outside a Jewish school and a public school.

The “safe access bills” will have the NYPD implement a “safety plan and a safety risk assessment” that will “provide law enforcement and the public with a clear framework to maintain safe entry,” Menin said.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul proposed a similar statewide measure this month that would establish a 25-foot buffer zone around houses of worship.

The legislation has raised concerns about the First Amendment right to freedom of assembly and may face challenges claiming the measure is unconstitutional. Anti-Zionist activists have publicly opposed the proposals, calling them a threat to free speech.

The bill seeks to strike a balance between the right to protest and the right to religious worship.

“This bill will fully protect First Amendment rights to protest,” Menin said at the council on Thursday. “We are not doing anything in the bills to penalize protest and we want to make sure that people have the right to peacefully protest. What we’re trying to do is protect houses of worship and schools.”

Menin compared the legislation to a 2008 city law that created a buffer zone around reproductive health clinics in response to protests, and added that enforcement of the law would not be based on protesters’ “speech or viewpoint.”

Also Thursday, Councilmember Lincoln Restler, who is Jewish, introduced legislation that would establish a hotline for reporting antisemitism and other bias incidents, and Dinowitz introduced a bill that would require officials to report on the status of all hate crime cases.

The bills marked the start of the implementation of Menin’s five-point plan for combating antisemitism that she announced earlier this month.

The proposed legislation will need to pass the City Council before going to Mamdani for approval. If the mayor signs the bill, it becomes a local law; if he vetoes the legislation, the council can override the veto with a two-thirds vote.

Jews are consistently targeted in hate crimes in New York City more than all other groups combined. Last year, the 330 antisemitic incidents reported to police represented 57% of all suspected hate incidents, despite Jews making up an estimated 11% of the city’s population.

There have been several high-profile incidents of antisemitism in the city, in addition to the synagogue protests.

On Tuesday, a rabbi was punched in the face and chest in Queens, an incident that took place on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

On Wednesday, a Jewish man was reportedly shoveling snow in Brooklyn when a suspect who was walking his dogs shouted, “Go eat that Jew.”

Last week, two teenagers were arrested for painting 73 swastikas on a playground in a Jewish area of Brooklyn.

Also last week, a Jewish Columbia University student was targeted with antisemitic slurs next to the campus.

On Wednesday, a driver rammed his car repeatedly into the Chabad Hasidic movement’s world headquarters in Brooklyn, sparking widespread alarm, although the driver’s motives remain unclear.

“These have become almost daily occurrences now and it is intolerable in every way,” Menin said at the council on Thursday.