Mayor Bill de Blasio Meets with Jewish Leaders at the 66th Precinct to Address Jews' Feelings of Despair and Vulnerabilty

By Yehudit Garmaise

     Mayor Bill de Blasio met askanim at the 66th Precinct on 5822 16th Ave. today at 1:30pm to address the multiple vicious and violent attacks on Jews and discuss the city’s strategies and efforts to keep the community safe.

     “I want to be very clear,” Mayor de Blasio said today. “Anti-Semitism will not be tolerated in New York City. We will stomp out anti-Semitism anywhere we find it.

     “It is unacceptable. This is a city that is for everyone, and anyone who perpetrates acts of bias or prejudice, they will be found.

     “The NYPD’s track record is abundantly clear. Anyone who perpetrates an act of hatred will be found.”

     Although multiple commanding officers at an emergency meeting at Misaskim Headquarters in Boro Park on Friday promised Jewish community leaders “a full police presence” over Shabbos, however, few neighborhood residents saw police officers at all. 

    One resident merely said, “No police,” and many others in the community said they felt sacred, vulnerable, and as if elected officers are not prioritizing the basic safety of Jewish New Yorkers.

     In response to an increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes in the city, on Friday at City Hall, NYPD Chief of Department Rodney Harrison reassured Mr. Shlomo Werdiger, chairman of Agudah’s board of trustees and Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwibel, Aguduth Israel’s executive vice president, who had requested an emergency meeting with the mayor.

   Patrol vehicles, Harrison said, would increase in Jewish neighborhoods and auxiliary officers will be stationed at shuls across the city. The extra officers would be reassigned from precincts that do not have Jewish institutions.

     But Boro Parkers did not see any extra police officers until a few rode on horseback on 37th Street today: the morning after several more attacks.

     “We feel like our elected officials and the NYPD are not prioritizing our public safety, but they would for other communities,” said one Boro Parker. “We would like to know why our elected officials are not protecting us.”

     On Shabbos, three perpetrators of anti-Semitic hate crimes yelled pro-Palestinian and hateful slurs, spat on one victim, and threatened to “kill all Jews” outside the Agudah shul on 16th Avenue and 50th Street.

     One of the victims ran back into the shul to avoid an attack, but one of the suspects followed closely behind the Yid, who quickly locked the door to the shul behind him.

     Also last night, more perpetrators punched and assaulted two Jewish teenage boys in Flatbush while forcing them to say, “Free Palestine.” The teens told reporters that they would have been killed if a Muslim Uber driver had not interfered. 

     Last night, when Waseem Awawdeh, who had been arrested after participating in a gang of six who taunted, kicked, beaten with a crutch, and pepper-sprayed 29-year-old Joseph Borgen, had been quickly released, he was recorded on video outside of the New York City police prison, celebrating and being hailed as a hero.”

    “I would do it again,” Awawdeh said.

     This afternoon, Mayor de Blasio again promised, repeating what he told Werdiger and Rabbi Zwiebel on Friday, that “The NYPD will be out in force in Jewish communities to protect the people of these communities.

   “We will not tolerate hate crimes. We will find the perpetrators. We will stop them.

   “This is going to be a very aggressive action today, tonight, and in the days ahead, until we are certain that this is done. For me it is very personal. An attack on the Jewish community is an attack on all New Yorkers. We will not tolerate it, and we will stop it."

    Chief Harrison said, “If you choose to commit a hate crime in this city, my detectives will catch you. We will bring you into custody and hold you accountable.

   “This is what you are going to see: a larger presence of police officers in our communities of concern. We are deploying our critical response command officers to these communities.      

    “We are also reaching out to our mobile field forces to make sure that they are in these communities as well.

    “Our police officers will be driving around with their lights on to make sure there is a deterrent, as well as to make sure that no one commits any type of crime.”

   But as the mayor himself said today, "You don't just stop [hate crimes] with words. You stop them with actions."

Photos by: Dovid Jaroslawicz/ BP24