Antisemitic hate crimes on the rise in NYC this year while NYPD touts the safest summer on record

By Mark Morales, CNN

(CNN) — Antisemitic hate crimes are up 8% so far this year and make up more than half of the incidents in New York City, even as officials tout record low numbers for shootings and murders, according to statistics released by the New York Police Department on Thursday.

Overall hate crimes in New York City are up just over 15%, with 425 incidents this year compared to 367 last year, and antisemitic crimes account for 53.9% of those incidents, the data show.

That rise comes as police officials say the city had the safest summer on record.

“These historic lows all happened while managing an unprecedented series of high-profile events, including the NBA Finals, the World Cup, Sail 250, and the largest Fourth of July celebration in the nation,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said in a news release.

For major crimes so far this year, shooting incidents declined 9.6%, burglaries declined 13.9% and murders declined 24.1%, the data show.

The summer saw a pair of high-profile antisemitic incidents.

In August, a 46-year-old man was arrested after authorities said he barged into a synagogue in Manhattan and disrupted Shabbat services before yelling antisemitic remarks, attacking a woman and hurling a racial slur at one of the security guards. Federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York charged the man — who authorities believed to be emotionally disturbed — with federal hate crimes.

In July, two men — an Asian man and Jewish man wearing a kippah who had just left a synagogue — were stabbed on the Upper West Side in separate incidents. Witnesses said they heard the attacker, a 51-year-old man, shouting “Allahu Akbar” before stabbing both victims, according to court records.

Despite the increase in antisemitic violence, the statistics also show a slight decrease when solely comparing the month of August this year to last.

There were 19 antisemitic hate crime incidents this year, while August 2025 had 22, the statistics show.

New York State law defines a hate crime as occurring “when one of a specified set of crimes is committed targeting a victim because of a perception or belief about their race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, religion, religious practice, age, disability or sexual orientation.”

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