Swastikas painted on four Midtown businesses Sunday are only the latest incidents in a spate of anti-Semitic attacks throughout the city, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said yesterday.
Overall, the number of hate crimes was down 26 percent last year compared to 2010, according to the NYPD, with 246 hate crimes in 2011 compared to 332 in 2010.
But eight other alleged anti-Semitic events in four months have officials like Stringer worried.
“This appalling incident is not isolated,” Stringer said of the swastikas. “Anti-Semitic crimes are spreading like cancer throughout the five boroughs.”
The Anti-Defamation League’s New York director Ron Meier told Metro he is concerned about what he called an “unusual level” of anti-Semitic incidents recently.
“If the end of year and beginning of year are any indication, we might expect to see those numbers unfold at a higher level than 2009, 2010,” he said.
Incidents of hate
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer lists nine reported anti-Semitic crimes in four months. These are some of the most serious attacks:
Three Orthodox Jews, including a rabbi, were attacked in Midwood earlier this month.
Anti-Semitic graffiti was painted on a windshield of a car in Marine Park, Brooklyn, on Nov. 27.
A man was stabbed on a subway platform on Nov. 21 in Park Slope after two men cursed him with anti-Semitic slurs.
In Midwood, Brooklyn, on Nov. 10, three cars were set on fire, and “KKK” was painted on the side of a van, alongside swastikas scrawled on benches, as well as other anti-Semitic graffiti. This happened on the 73rd anniversary of Kristallnacht.
In November, an Avenue J subway sign in Brooklyn was changed to say “Avenue Jew.”
On Nov. 4, the word “Nazi” was spraypainted onto sidewalks in a heavily Jewish part of Williamsburg.
Follow Alison Bowen on Twitter @AlisonatMetro
