Thousands of protesters have gathered to march across New York in a display of solidarity with the Jewish community amid a recent spate of violent anti-Semitic attacks and other incidents in the Tri-State area.
Billed as the ‘No Hate, No Fear Solidarity March’, the event began at 11am in lower Manhattan’s Foley Square this morning, and will continue across the Brooklyn Bridge before concluding in the borough’s Cadman Plaza.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Sunday morning that more than 10,000 people had gathered to take part in the march. US Senator Chuck Schumer also attended the event alongside Cuomo.
The rally comes just one week after the brutal December 28 stabbing attack inside a Rabbi’s home during Hanukkah celebrations, in Monsey, New York, which left five people hospitalized with serious injuries.
Just weeks prior, a targeted shooting spree at a kosher deli in Jersey City also left three civilians and a police officer dead.
Billed as the ‘No Hate, No Fear Solidarity March’, the event began at 11am in lower Manhattan’s Foley Square this morning, and will continue across the Brooklyn Bridge before concluding in the borough’s Cadman Plaza
Organized by UJA-Federation of New York, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Anti Defamation League-New York, AJC-NY, and the New York Board of Rabbis, the aim of the procession is to bring together public figures, civic and nonprofit leaders, as well as a number of faith-based organizations to stand united in against hatred of any kind in New York City.
‘There are certain moments where we are obligated to stand up together,’ said Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the head of the Reform movement. ‘There’s a lot that still divides us. But today we stand as one.’
Evan Bernstein, the ADL’s regional director, echoed: ‘What we are witnessing these weeks is a normalization of anti-Semitism in the New York-New Jersey region not seen in recent history.
‘The fact that we are witnessing almost daily anti-Semitic incidents in our region shows that we are facing a crisis that can only be addressed through solidarity across our communities.
On Monday disturbing footage emerged of an Orthodox Jewish man being assaulted by a group of seven teenagers as he walked down a street in Brooklyn – in what became the 14th documented incident of anti-Semitic violence in New York in less than four weeks.
The incident occurred in Crown Heights on December 24, just four days before 37-year-old Grafton Thomas allegedly stabbed five in Monsey, New York, late Saturday.
In the newly uncovered footage a Jewish man, who has not been identified, is seen walking down Lincoln Place near Albany Avenue when he encounters a large group of black teenagers.
The man is seen attempting to avoid their path, but tries to walk around the group one of the teens throws a folding camping chair at his head and knocks him off balance.
Startled, the man attempts to walk away from the group at speed but is chased by two of the teenagers, who run toward him and then take it in turns to punch him.
Meanwhile, a third member of the group can be seen picking up the folding chair from the ground and running back toward the victim, jumping up into the air and throwing the chair at him once again.
The group of teens then sprint away into in the opposite direction, venturing deeper into the Crown Heights area.
The same group of teenagers were also recorded on surveillance camera carrying out a second brutal attack on a 56-year-old Jewish man on Union Street moments later.
On this occasion, the victim was punched in the back of the head by one member of the group and then thrown to the ground.
Others group members were seen taking out their cell phones and recording the incident. Surveillance video also showed the teenagers laughing and cheering as the attack took place.
As the teens began fleeing down Union Street towards Albany Avenue, volunteers from the Crown Heights Shomrim gave chase to the group as they made their way down Albany to President Street.
A 911 call was made, but in the few minutes it took for the police to arrive, the group made their way across Eastern Parkway and then split up into the Albany Avenue projects.
A police report was filed over the incident, and the case has been referred to the Hate Crimes Task Force.
Shomrim also obtained video footage of the assault and was able to provide it to the NYPD.
Police are searching for the attackers, however no arrests have yet been made.
The NYPD has not yet responded to a DailyMail.com request for comment as to whether the first incident is currently being investigated or being treated as a hate crime.
Emergence of the first incident on December 24 comes as the 14th reported incident of anti-Semitic violence in New York since December 8.
Following Grafton’s alleged attack, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo attributed the alarming rise in anti-Semitic violence in the city to the hate that is spreading ‘like cancer’ across America currently.
‘This is an intolerant time in this country. We see anger, we see hatred exploding,’ Cuomo said. ‘It is an American cancer that is spreading in the body politic.’
It came as the latest in a string of similar assaults targeting Jews in the region, with seven other anti-Semitic incidents occurring over the first seven nights of Hanukkah, which began on December 23.
In response to the recent spate of anti-Semitic attacks, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to increase police presence in affected communities.
Besides making officers more visible in Borough Park, Crown Heights and Williamsburg, police will boost visits to houses of worship and some other places, de Blasio tweeted.
‘Anti-Semitism is an attack on the values of our city – and we will confront it head-on,’ de Blasio, the Democrat, wrote.
At around 12:40am on December 27, a Brooklyn woman screamed ‘F*** you, Jews!’ and then slapped three other women in the face and head after encountering them on a Crown Heights corner.
The victims, who range in age from 22 to 31, suffered minor pain, police said.
Tiffany Harris, 30, was arrested on a hate-crime harassment charge.
Earlier the same day, an unidentified man wearing a hoodie walked into the headquarters of the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch movement on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights and stated he was going to ‘shoot up the place’, according to WABC-TV.
The man then walked away, in the direction of the Utica Avenue subway station.
The Lubavitch movement is one of the largest sects of Hasidic Judiasm. Also known as Chabad, it has made Brooklyn the center of its activities since the leaders of the movement were forced to flee Europe at the start of the Second World War.
Also a day earlier, at 3.20pm, a Brooklyn woman walking out of a Dunkin’ Donuts with her three-year-old son in Gravesend was attacked by a homeless woman who hit her in the head with her bag, according to police.
‘You f***ing Jew! Your end is coming!’ the suspect, Ayana Logan, 42, is alleged to have said to the victim, who immediately alerted authorities and Logan was apprehended moments after.
Then on Wednesday December 25, a Jewish man wearing a skullcap was punched while walking in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn in an unprovoked attack near 13th Avenue and 48th Street at around 1am.
No arrests have yet been made in that incident.
And on December 24, another anti-Semitic incident took place in the Crown Heights area of Brooklyn.
A 25-year-old man was accosted by several people on Kingston Avenue who made anti-Semitic statements.
‘F*** you, Jew!’ one of the people yelled in his direction, before dousing him with a Slurpee drink.
Just 24 hours before, a Miami man was charged with hate-crime assault after police said he made an anti-Semitic remark and attacked a man in midtown Manhattan.
The 65-year-old victim was punched and kicked, suffering cuts, police said.
He had been wearing a yarmulke, according to former state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who has founded a group dedicated to combating anti-Semitism.
Steven Jorge, 28, is being held without bail, and a judge ordered a psychiatric exam for him, court records show.
‘It seems like it’s open season on Jews in New York City,’ said New York City Councilmember Chaim Deutsch in response.