Brazen, Intensified Antisemitic Incidents in NYC Continue in 2025

The ADL Center on Extremism (COE) has tracked an alarming number of antisemitic incidents, including harassment, vandalism and physical violence in New York City throughout 2025. This development follows ADL’s tracking of a record-breaking 976 antisemitic incidents in New York City in 2024 — the highest count in any U.S. city last year and the highest count in any U.S. city since ADL has been tracking such incidents.

The brazenness and intensity of many of the 2025 incidents and the fact that they have occurred in all five boroughs have been especially troubling.

While official totals of 2025 incidents will not be published until the release of the 2025 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents next spring, ADL is deeply concerned by the events we are seeing this year in New York City. This document provides an overview of the trends that ADL has observed in the hundreds of antisemitic incidents recorded since January 1, 2025.
 

Trends in NYC Antisemitism

Targeting of synagogues and Jewish institutions

This persistent trend of targeting Jewish institutions was stark in 2024, when ADL recorded 157 such incidents across New York City. 

Jewish communities around the country are facing an unprecedented threat environment. The risks felt by individuals who gather in synagogues and other Jewish institutions in New York City are particularly acute. 

In February, for example, a man claiming to be a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler threatened to kill worshippers at a synagogue in Manhattan on Shabbat. In June, a student was extradited from Canada to the United States after threatening to commit an attack at a Jewish center in Brooklyn. He allegedly wrote, “We are going to attack nyc [sic] to slaughter them.” 

Antisemitic vandalism on a park bench in Manhattan in September 2025. (Courtesy)

These and dozens of similar incidents erode the Jewish community’s sense of safety, instilling fear in Jewish New Yorkers while participating in core aspects of their lives as Jews, such as going to synagogue, dropping children off at Hebrew school or volunteering at a Jewish communal institution. 

This has had a measurable impact on Jewish life.

A recent UJA-Federation of New York survey found that nearly half of Jewish adults in the New York area fear for their safety as Jews when attending specific places or events at least some of the time. Among those concerned about safety, 44 percent said this fear keeps them from attending. No New Yorker should feel they need to avoid religious or cultural events because of widespread hate. These trends demand immediate action from city leaders to restore Jewish New Yorkers’ sense of security.
 

Targeting of Orthodox and visibly Jewish New Yorkers

New York City is home to some of the largest Orthodox Jewish communities in the world. Members of these communities are targeted for antisemitic violence disproportionately to non-Orthodox Jewish New Yorkers.

In 2024, more than half of the anti-Jewish physical assaults in New York City targeted Orthodox Jewish victims (36 out of 69 total), though this group makes up only about one-fifth of New York City’s total Jewish population.

Observant Jewish people often wear visible markers of their Judaism, such as yarmulkes, making them vulnerable to random antisemitic attacks in public, which we fear have become increasingly normalized.

In February, at least three antisemitic assaults targeting Orthodox Jews occurred in just two days. In June, a Jewish man was attacked on the street while walking on Shabbat. The assailant yelled comments about Gaza and repeatedly kicked the victim, rendering him unconscious. 

A swastika was drawn in a subway car in March 2025. (Courtesy)

Extreme anti-Zionist activity

Since the Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023, Jews around the world have increasingly faced demonization, discrimination and attacks for their real or perceived connections to Israel. While only five percent of antisemitic incidents in New York City were related to Israel or Zionism in 2022, this rate rose to 37 percent in 2023 and 58 percent in 2024.

In 2025, anti-Israel rhetoric has become the norm in antisemitic activity, rather than the exception. 

Anti-Israel and anti-Zionist elements have appeared in all manner of antisemitic incidents in New York City. One example of antisemitic vandalism occurred in January in Prospect Park, where someone scribbled, "Fuck you Zionists kill yourselves." A bomb threat against a school system in July included the line, “All of you Jews, Israelis will die.” In June, an elderly Jewish man was punched in the face while hanging posters for Israeli hostages by someone who yelled, “Free Palestine.”

Anti-Zionist messages were painted on a store in Manhattan in June 2025. (Courtesy)

Extreme anti-Israel groups have played a significant role in creating a hostile environment for the Jewish community. In August, Al-Awda, an extreme anti-Zionist organization with a long history of espousing antisemitic and pro-terror rhetoric, created a map of “Zionist networks,” naming several synagogues in New York and encouraging followers to disrupt events at the venues.

On dozens of occasions between January and September 2025, Al-Awda and other anti-Israel groups in New York City, such as the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), Within Our Lifetime (WOL) and the Bronx Anti-War Coalition, organized rallies that often included antisemitic messaging. In June, anti-Israel protesters in Times Square chanted, “Burn Tel Aviv to the ground” and “Strike, strike Tel Aviv,” glorified antisemitic terrorists and displayed messages equating Zionism with Nazism. 

A protester holds an antisemitic sign at an anti-Israel rally in June 2025. (Courtesy)

The extreme rhetoric at anti-Israel protests also regularly includes the slogan “Globalize the Intifada” or other messages that glorify and express implicit or explicit support for violence against Jews. “Intifada” refers to two Palestinian uprisings against Israel that included suicide bombings, shootings and other attacks targeting civilians. The slogan has become a rallying cry for some since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack against Israel, and the term is widely interpreted as a call to expand such violence beyond Israel to Jewish communities worldwide.

The Bronx Anti-War Coalition held several rallies throughout the year during which protesters openly glorified terror groups and figures. In at least three events organized by the group, protesters carried a banner reading: “Glory to the Axis of Resistance,” with the logos of antisemitic U.S.-designated terror groups Hamas, Hezbollah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Houthis, and images of some of their leaders.

A Bronx Anti-War Coalition event in May 2025 in Manhattan. (Telegram)

Beyond promoting such rhetoric, some local anti-Israel groups have also actively supported those who commit antisemitic violence in New York. For example, the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at City College and NYC Palestinian Youth Movement both posted in support and fundraised for Tarek Bazrouk, a man charged with committing three antisemitic hate crime assaults in New York in 2024 and 2025.

Antisemitism on college campuses

College and university campuses in New York City have become epicenters of antisemitic activity since October 7, 2023, threatening Jewish college students, faculty and members of surrounding communities. An alarming 191 antisemitic incidents were recorded by ADL on NYC campuses in 2024 — one-fifth of all incidents citywide. This high volume was concentrated at institutions like Columbia University (53 incidents — the most in the country), New York University, The New School, and the City University of New York (CUNY) system.

This disturbing trend continued into 2025. At the beginning of the spring semester at Columbia University, a group of protesters disrupted a class on Israeli history and distributed antisemitic fliers that depicted a boot stomping on the Star of David and read: "Crush Zionism" and "Burn Zionism to the ground.” At an anti-Israel protest at Washington Square Park in February, someone called Jewish New York University students "Stupid fucking Zionists, inbred fucking idiots" and “Jewish Nazis.” In March, a fence at Fordham University’s law school was vandalized with: “Kill Jews.” 

Antisemitic incidents on college campuses have persisted into the 2025-2026 academic year, including the vandalism in September of a New York University freshman’s dorm room with the words: “Free Palestine, Jew.”

Conclusion

The trends outlined in this article indicate more than a passing surge. They provide evidence of a sustained pattern of harassment, intimidation and violence that threatens Jewish New Yorkers’ sense of safety and belonging. Synagogues and communal institutions have been vandalized, and Orthodox and visibly Jewish New Yorkers are being attacked. 

Extreme anti-Zionist activity — too often laced with explicit antisemitism — has normalized dehumanizing rhetoric and endorsed violence. And our campuses have become flashpoints where Jewish students and faculty are targeted.

These trends demand a comprehensive, coordinated response from city leaders. This response must not only unequivocally condemn these attacks, but also discourage elected officials from elevating these voices, implement robust policies that prioritize protecting people of all faiths and backgrounds in schools, on the streets, and in the workplace, and hold perpetrators of anti-Jewish hate crimes fully accountable.