Disturbing findings: January, the first month in office of New York's new democratic socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani, saw a 182% increase in antisemitic hate crimes in the city, according to official data released Monday by the New York Police Department.
NYPD figures show that the Hate Crime Task Force investigated a total of 58 incidents in January 2026, compared with just 23 in January 2025, an increase of 152%. Of those, antisemitic hate crimes accounted for more than half. Police investigated no fewer than 31 antisemitic incidents last month, an average of one per day, compared with 11 during the same period last year under the previous mayor, Israel-friendly Eric Adams. That said, the January figure marked a decline from December 2025, when 40 antisemitic hate crimes were recorded.
According to police data, 330 antisemitic incidents were recorded across New York City in all of 2025, accounting for 57% of all hate crimes in the city. Jews make up about 10% of the city's population, yet they were targeted more often than any other group.
Just last week, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a rabbi was attacked in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens. In a statement issued by state senators and assembly members, the incident was described as one in which the rabbi "was verbally harassed, physically assaulted and threatened because he is Jewish." Mamdani condemned the attack, writing that he was "horrified" by it. "There is no place for antisemitism in our city. My city is committed to uprooting this hatred at its core," he added.
As previously reported, World Zionist Organization Chairman Yaakov Hagoel sent a sharply worded letter about a week ago to Mamdani. In the letter, titled "Deep concern over the implications of your policies for the Jewish community and the fight against antisemitism in the city," Hagoel pointed to a series of steps taken since Mamdani took office that he said "cannot be ignored," as they "raise deep concern among Jews around the world."
Among the measures cited by Hagoel were the reversal of the city's adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism and the removal of restrictions on threatening demonstrations held near synagogues and Jewish institutions. "Revoking the adoption of the definition is not a technical move," he wrote, "but a clear message of retreat, of blurring boundaries and of weakening the front line in the fight against antisemitism, precisely at a time when hatred toward Jews is once again rearing its head openly and without shame."
