A shocking new poll finds that nearly half of Jewish voters feel unsafe while living in New York because of their religious identity, and more than a third say New York is no longer a safe haven for Jewish people.
Survey conducted among pro-Israel supporters New York Solidarity Network The survey found that 44% of 1,200 Jewish voters in New York City and other counties said they had felt unsafe, as did 67% of those who identify as Orthodox Jews.
More than a third (35%) said they agreed that “New York is no longer a safe haven for Jewish life and Jewish people.”
About 40 percent of those same voters said the United States is no longer a safe haven for Jews.
The figures are disturbing, given that New York state is home to 1.5 million Jews, more than anywhere on Earth except Israel, according to the researchers.
“That more than one-third of New York’s registered Jewish voters believe New York is no longer a safe haven for Jews should raise five alarm levels for state and local elected officials,” Sarah Forman, executive director of the New York Solidarity Network and treasurer of Solidarity PAC, said in a statement to The Washington Post on Wednesday.
This comes as New York has been hit by a wave of anti-Semitic hate crimes since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
Hatred has also spilled over onto college campuses, where anti-Israel protests and anti-Semitic incidents have left some Jewish students fearful: vandals have taken over campus buildings at Cooper Union and Columbia University.
Many masked thugs have avoided prosecution, and there is now a movement calling on Governor Kathy Hockle and the state legislature to reinstate the ban on wearing masks at public protests to prevent harassers and bigots from hiding their identities and getting away with crime.
Half of those surveyed by the New York Solidarity Network said they don’t think New York college campuses will do enough to make Jewish students feel safe in the upcoming fall semester, while 42% said they do.
Meanwhile, 86 percent of respondents said they believe anti-Semitism is a serious problem, and 56 percent have witnessed anti-Semitic hatred on social media or online forums, with 72 percent of them under the age of 30.
Anti-Semitic hate crimes are expected to increase 45% in 2024, many of which are captured on shocking video, according to New York Police Department data obtained by The Washington Post in April.
For example, last month the director of the Brooklyn Museum and several Jewish trustees were targeted by anti-Semitic vandals who threw red paint at their house and scrawled the words “Bloody Hands.”
An upside-down red triangle was spray-painted on the Anne Pasternak-directed apartment building, a symbol used by Hamas in the past to identify Israeli military targets and also seen more recently in the anti-Israel tent camp protests that have plagued college campuses across the country.
An anti-Semitic harasser from Staten Island was recently arrested after allegedly breaking into a New York subway car and demanding that “Zionists” put their hands up.
A Jewish father of five from Brooklyn was attacked outside his home on the first night of Hanukkah last December by an assailant who hurled violent anti-Semitic slurs. Just two days after another Brooklyn man had his traditional Jewish headgear worth $2,500 stolen, the affidavit said.
Violent Jewish hatred erupted during the war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, which began with a surprise attack by terrorist militias on the Jewish state.
“Jews have been warning their leaders for months. Masked, Jew-hating mobs have swarmed outside hospitals and synagogues, desecrated the home of a Jewish museum director, threatened Jews on the subway and other public places, vandalized Jewish-owned businesses and occupied universities to ‘occupy’ campuses — all while far-left politicians praised this as ‘peaceful’ protest,” Forman said.
“If you can’t feel safe here, with the largest Jewish community outside Israel, then where can you feel safe?” Forman added.
“Community leaders, non-Jewish allies, and elected officials at the state and local levels must send a firm message to the public, and to the elected officials who condone this behavior, that anti-Semitic hatred has no place in New York, without exception and without apology.”
The New York Solidarity Network poll, conducted by GQR Insight and Action, was conducted among 1,200 registered Jewish voters from May 9-22 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
Forty-six percent of respondents were interviewed live by telephone, while the remaining 54% were surveyed via text web survey.
Voters from zip codes with high Jewish population densities were interviewed in New York City and Nassau, Suffolk, Albany, Broome, Erie, Monroe, Oneida, Onondaga, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Tompkins, Ulster and Westchester counties.
