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Several synagogues, homes and a Jewish center containing a preschool were vandalized with swastikas overnight on Monday in Forest Hills, a Queens neighborhood with a dense Jewish population.
The graffiti also included the word “Hitler,” spray-painted on the Rego Park Jewish Center, and other antisemitic messages. A swastika sprayed on Congregation Machane Chodosh defaced a plaque dedicated to victims of Kristallnacht, the 1938 riots against Jews that presaged the Holocaust.
Jewish City Council Speaker Julie Menin visited the area with other council members on Monday. “When rabbis and congregants arrived to pray this morning, they expected to be met with their usual loving community,” she said on X. “When a family woke up, they were prepared to begin an otherwise normal week. Instead, they were met with terrifying signals of hatred and threats of violence.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was “horrified and angered” by the graffiti in a statement. “This is not just vandalism — it is a deliberate act of antisemitic hatred meant to instill fear,” he said. “There is no place for antisemitism in Queens or anywhere in our city. I stand in solidarity with our Jewish neighbors.”
The incident was also condemned by Gov. Kathy Hochul, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York CEO Mark Treyger, Consul General of Israel in New York Ofir Akunis, Rep. Grace Meng and other local leaders.
The NYPD is searching for at least four people responsible for the vandalism, which it is investigating as a hate crime. Jews in NYC were targeted in 60% of all confirmed hate crimes last month, according to NYPD data released on Monday.
Officials were planning an emergency press conference outside Congregation Mahane Chodosh on Tuesday evening.
NY-12 candidates Micah Lasher and Alex Bores answered a range of Jewish- and Israel-related questions during a candidates’ forum yesterday at The Jewish Center, a synagogue on the Upper West Side. Our Joseph Strauss was on the scene.
Asked about increasing opposition toward Israel in the Democratic Party, both expressed their support for the Jewish state. Lasher said it would be “part of my primary purpose as a member of Congress to say the safety and security of Israel is very important.” Bores answered, “We should be able to stand up to people in our party and say how important our relationship is with the State of Israel and how important it is to ensure the rights of everyone in the region, including the Palestinians.”
Jack Schlossberg, the candidate who has led in polling in the heavily Jewish district, did not attend the forum.
In an interview after the event, Bores said he’s not concerned about Schlossberg’s lead. “Jack’s lead was driven by name ID,” he said, pointing to his campaign’s internal polling, which showed Bores carrying a significant lead among voters who are familiar with all major candidates. That polling was released a couple of weeks ago. “I don’t have anything more recent — I know that other campaigns have, and the fact that they haven’t released it means they probably didn’t like the results,” Bores said.