New York prides itself on tolerance and multiculturalism, but Jews are not feeling the love. So give City Council Speaker Julie Menin two cheers — maybe even 2½ — for her solid plan to tackle antisemitism.
In 2025, antisemitic incidents accounted for 57% of all reported hate crimes in New York City — even though Jews make up barely 10% of the population.
This January, antisemitic attacks soared 182% compared with a year ago.
Jewish New Yorkers are targeted more than every other group combined.
So, with Zohran Mamdani as mayor — and his winking and nodding at Jew-haters — many Jews are mulling moves to warmer, friendlier environments.
Add the heightened risks to New Yorkers’ safety from supporters of Iran’s deposed regime, and Menin’s Five-Point Action Plan comes at just the right time.
Four of its points are genuinely excellent. If the plan follows through on its promises, it could protect Jews for real — or more accurately, allow them to protect themselves.
Start with Point 2: a pair of bills to establish buffer zones around the entrances and exits of schools and houses of worship.
This is basic, common-sense legislation: Federal law already prohibits harassment of people trying to access houses of worship, but it does not establish a buffer.
No New Yorker should have to run a gauntlet of harassment and obstruction to get into synagogue, even if some of their neighbors don’t like it.
Establishing a safe buffer around religious institutions respects First Amendment rights to protest and to worship freely, while preventing interference with religious practice, rather than leaving state officials to prosecute — or, more likely, not to — after that right is violated.
Jewish life revolves around education, but New Yorkers who want their kids to receive a serious Jewish education lament an ongoing cost crisis. Security is a major expense driving up tuition.
Point 3 addresses that by helping private schools pay for security cameras.
For years, local leaders let schools’ security needs languish amid bureaucratic delays and hand-wringing about the optics of supporting religious institutions with public money.
Jewish schools most in need were left without help.
A needs-based reimbursement program for security cameras helps correct that injustice.
Point 4, a program to “fund security training for Jewish organizations and institutions,” deserves serious applause.
Rather than waiting until Jews become victims to spring to action, it lets Jews defend themselves and deter would-be attackers.
Smaller synagogues and Jews in poor areas often lack the staff, expertise and funding to develop serious security protocols.
Rather than sending NYPD officers to stand in the synagogue door, let Jews learn real self-defense.
Jews are not victims to be pitied. They are Americans who have every right to defend themselves.
Point 5 establishes a dedicated hotline to report antisemitic incidents and a mandate to track patterns in antisemitic violence.
If Jews are being targeted in certain neighborhoods, at certain times, by certain perpetrators, local leaders need to know that to mount a response. Data-driven policymaking is never a bad thing.
There’s just one proposal that isn’t likely to do much good: setting aside a few bucks for Holocaust education.
Point 1 allocates $1.25 million for that at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. It also directs city bureaucrats to gives students primers on how social media can amplify “all forms of hate.”
The intention is good; the Museum of Jewish Heritage is great — but Holocaust education is a false messiah.
No one in politics wants to say this out loud, but you’re not likely to educate your way out of Jew-hatred.
People don’t pick on Jews because they think Jews haven’t suffered. They pick on Jews because they think Jews can be picked on.
That’s why the self-defense and security grants are so excellent.
And Holocaust education can cut in the other direction: The effect of Holocaust education in making people more sympathetic to Jews is mixed at best.
People who hate Jews today aren’t always ignorant.
Many of them know plenty about the Holocaust and have simply decided it doesn’t matter, that it’s fabricated or that the main lesson is that we should be searching for new Nazis in our midst — maybe those who just so happen to be Zionists.
More fundamentally: Sympathy is not what Jews need.
Sympathy is what you offer the weak when it’s too late. What really protects a minority group is the perception — and the reality — of strength.
Strength means hardened targets and real consequences for harassers and attackers.
Speaker Menin and the City Council deserve real credit for this plan. It shows a better understanding of the issues than other proposals of its kind.
Less sympathy, more security — that’s the New York way.
Tal Fortgang is a legal policy fellow at the Manhattan Institute.