By Ryan Schwach<\/p>\n
Local officials and religious leaders rallied Tuesday outside a Queens synagogue defaced with swastikas earlier this week, where they condemned the incident and called for more efforts to protect New Yorkers. <\/p>\n
Queens officials called for more protections for Jewish and non-Jewish New Yorkers as the investigation continues days after antisemitic graffiti was found in multiple places in Central Queens. <\/p>\n
The morning after the rally, the NYPD released security footage of who they believe to be the four perpetrators responsible for spray-painting swastikas and other antisemitic language on a synagogue, a Jewish center, two homes and a vehicle in Rego Park and Forest Hills. <\/p>\n
\u201cHate has no place in Queens, New York City or this country, and we will continue to work together to fight it at every step,\u201d said local Congressmember Grace Meng in front of Congregation Machane Chodosh on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
The Forest Hills synagogue was vandalized Monday, and had a swastika scribbled over a plaque dedicated to the survivors of Kristallnacht. <\/p>\n
City Councilmember Lynn Schulman said she believes the incident was planned, because of the selection of the locations for the graffiti and that it coincided with a Jewish holiday, Lag BaOmer. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s like a half mile walk to go to all the places that got targeted, so this\u2026was targeted,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Schulman and her elected colleagues called for more to be done to protect synagogues and non-Jewish houses of worship as hate crimes surge in the city. <\/p>\n
In the first three months of 2026, hate crimes were up nearly 12 percent, with the largest increase being in anti-Muslim hate crimes. Antisemitic hate crimes also saw big increases, going up 140 percent. <\/p>\n
Hate crimes in Queens were up 45 percent. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to stand together to say all of us are going to push back against all forms of hate, and that has to include our Jewish brothers and sisters in New York City and across this country,\u201d said Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. \u201cEverybody should have the right to be who they are, worship, who they worship, and walk freely, however they want to express themselves. That is the city that we are supposed to have in New York City, and sadly, at this moment, it doesn’t appear that we have that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meng highlighted funding help for non-profits and religious institutions to obtain security, as well as legislation that would make it easier for houses of worship faith based organizations to access security grants. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe stand together to reaffirm our commitment to fighting antisemitism and all forms of hate,\u201d said the representative. <\/p>\n
The City Council passed a plan to combat antisemitism earlier this year that would increase protections at synagogues. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of work to do ahead,\u201d said Council Speaker Julie Menin. \u201cHatred is now rooting in our city, and we must stamp it out with a loud and clear voice.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ryan Schwach Local officials and religious leaders rallied Tuesday outside a Queens synagogue defaced with swastikas earlier…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-223541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}