How is NYC’s Jewish population coping with rising Jew-hatred?

For well over a century, Jews were a proud and thriving community in New York City who accomplished unimaginable success in music, medicine, business, technology, literature, art etc. In no short order, we have found our once glorious city mirror Berlin in the 1930s.

Somehow paradoxically the anti-Zionists are giving more reasons for Jews to move to Israel. The louder and more violent the pro-hamas protestors are, the larger the quantity of American Jews that will end up deciding to migrate to Israel. https://t.co/Pu7CHzYwTx

— Moshe 🇮🇱🇺🇸 (@Moshe743) April 28, 2024

New York City’s Jewish Population Under ‘Dark Cloud’ as Tensions Rise

Feelings of fear, insecurity among Jews on Manhattan’s Upper West Side as Middle East conflict rages Wall Street Journal

Q: How is NYC’s Jewish population coping with rising tensions?

Since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, New York City has been home to multiple confrontations between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators, causing feelings of fear and insecurity among the city’s large Jewish population. WSJ reporter Jimmy Vielkind wrote about how Jewish New Yorkers are handling the unease.

A: In interviews, many Jewish people who once felt comfortable in the city said they now wrestle with feelings of insecurity, and in some cases play down their religious identity.

The sense of opportunity Efraim Alkoby found in New York was rocked last month when someone splattered red paint on the kosher cafe he runs on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Alkoby, who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family in Jerusalem, said he learned to be tolerant during his 30 years in New York. Now, someone opposed to Israel’s war in Gaza wrote “form line here to support genocide” on the sidewalk outside Effy’s Cafe.

“There’s a very dark cloud over Jews,” Alkoby, 48 years old, said in an interview.

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“New York is a place where Jews should feel safe and protected. And it’s not always like that now,” said Linda Rosenthal, a lifelong resident of the Upper West Side who has represented it in the state Assembly since 2007.

New York City is home to an estimated 944,000 Jewish residents—more than any place outside of Israel—and has elected three Jewish mayors. But since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the city has also been home to raucous protests and multiple confrontations between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators.

In interviews, many Jewish people who once felt comfortable in the city said they now wrestle with feelings of insecurity, and in some cases play down their religious identity. The start of the Passover holiday, which commemorates the Israelites’ escape from slavery in Egypt, coincided with continuing protests at Columbia University, about 20 blocks north of Effy’s.

“New York is a place where Jews should feel safe and protected. And it’s not always like that now,” said Linda Rosenthal, a lifelong resident of the Upper West Side who has represented it in the state Assembly since 2007.

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