STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Despite seeing a 19% decline, New York still led the country overall in antisemitic incidents in 2025, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s recent annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents.

According to the audit, antisemitic incidents in the state dropped to 1,160, but there was a 10% increase in physical assaults to 90 cases, which is three times more than California, the state that recorded the second-highest number with 30 assaults.

“While it is encouraging that reported antisemitic incidents in New York fell by nearly 20% in 2025, the 1,160 cases which we tracked and responded to remains double the number before the massive spike post 10/7, and I know firsthand that too many New Yorkers lived in fear in 2025 of being the victim of antisemitism,” said Scott Richman, the ADL New York/New Jersey regional director. “This decline does mark the first reversal of an upward trend that has persisted every year since 2021, but the numbers make clear that much work remains.”

Public areas across the state saw the highest number of incidents with 410 cases, while Jewish institutions recorded 227 incidents. K-12 schools experienced 141 incidents, colleges and universities had 105, and businesses reported 137.

The five boroughs accounted for 860 incidents, representing nearly three-quarters of all cases statewide, according to the audit.

Manhattan remained the primary hotspot with 465 incidents, followed by Brooklyn with 278 incidents. Brooklyn also bore the brunt of violent attacks, with 50. Sixty percent of these assaults targeted Orthodox Jews.

Staten Island, according to the NYPD Hate Crimes Dashboard, had 13 confirmed antisemitic crimes in 2025.

According to previous reporting by the Advance/SILive.com, in October 2025, at least three signs along the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Boardwalk in South Beach were vandalized with swastikas and antisemitic messages.

The defaced signs, which displayed maps of the East Shore waterfront and lifeguard notices, were marked with Nazi symbols and hateful messages written in what appeared to be marker ink.

Additional signs featured drawings of Nazi flags and hateful messages. Some signs bore the number “271.” The Anti-Defamation League identifies this as code for Holocaust denial, referencing a false conspiracy theory that claims only 271,000 Jews were killed during the Holocaust rather than the widely accepted figure of 6 million.

Also in October 2025, campaign signs on the North Shore were vandalized with red handprints, which the head of Staten Island’s Republican Party described as antisemitism targeting two Jewish candidates.

In April 2025, a 55-year-old man reported that three males approached him in Tompkinsville, said “hey, Jew,” then punched him repeatedly and displayed a firearm before fleeing.

So far in 2026

According to the NYPD, there have been 80 antisemitic incidents and 19 arrests across the city this year as of May 6.

The dashboard lists that there have been four incidents on Staten Island: two in the confines of the 123 Precinct on the South Shore, one in the 122 Precinct on the East Shore and one in the 121 Precinct on the West Shore.

On April 12, the Advance/SILive.com reported that antisemitic graffiti had been documented at Bloomingdale Park playground.

“As our borough’s chief law enforcement officer, I am committed to ensuring the safety of our Jewish neighbors and all Staten Islanders. Amid heightened threats and rising acts of hate both here at home and abroad, the data provided by the Anti-Defamation League should concern all New Yorkers. No one in our borough or in our State should feel unsafe because of who they are or how they worship,” said Staten Island District Attorney Michael E. McMahon in a statement. “An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us and the men and women of my office will continue to do all we can to prevent these shameful crimes from occurring while holding perpetrators of hate-based incidents accountable in the courtroom.”