{"id":226494,"date":"2026-05-10T20:05:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T20:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/226494\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T20:05:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T20:05:44","slug":"queens-rally-denounces-antisemitism-after-swastikas-scrawled-over-forest-hills-and-rego-park-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/226494\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens rally denounces antisemitism after swastikas scrawled over Forest Hills and Rego Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the Queens Jewish community rallied on Sunday to denounce antisemitism after a group of hateful teenagers scrawled swastikas over synagogues and houses in the Forest Hills and Rego Park areas.<\/p>\n

Gathering in Yellowstone Park and organized by IMPACT and the #EndJewHatred<\/a>, outraged Jewish locals were joined by elected officials to denounce the antisemitic graffiti that they say left them disturbed and feeling unsafe in their own community.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince October 7, hate crimes have increased many fold, and more than 50% of all hate crimes are antisemitism and anti-Jewish hate crimes,\u201d Assembly Member David Weprin said to the crowd. \u201cFor the first time in my life, many Jewish New Yorkers and I don\u2019t feel safe in this city and state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Gathering in Yellowstone Park and organized by IMPACT and the #EndJewHatred, outraged Jewish locals were joined by elected officials to denounce the antisemitic graffiti that they say left them disturbed and feeling unsafe in their own community.Photo by Dean Moses \"\"Gathering in Yellowstone Park and organized by IMPACT and the #EndJewHatred, outraged Jewish locals were joined by elected officials to denounce the antisemitic graffiti that they say left them disturbed and feeling unsafe in their own community.Photo by Ramy Mahmoud \"\"Assembly Member David Weprin.Photo by Ramy Mahmoud<\/p>\n

On May 4, residents of Forest Hills and Rego Park woke up to find a string of Nazi symbols spray-painted<\/a> at five locations across the area, including outside of the Rego Park Jewish Center, located\u00a0at 97-30 Queens Blvd, which serves children and seniors, and the home of a holocaust survivor.<\/p>\n

Police are still searching for the four individuals who were caught on surveillance video during the early hours of the morning, going on the rampage, leaving the prejudiced marks in their wake.<\/p>\n

Nearly a week later, the community says they are not letting the vile act go, and are demanding action be taken. Dubbing the rally \u201cthis shall not stand,\u201d Jewish New Yorkers held signs and waved Israeli flags as speakers took Mayor Zohran Mamdani to task for, in their opinion, failing to take the side of the Jewish people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a person running this city who takes no accountability for the rise of antisemitism that he helped create over his political career. I\u2019m sorry, but it\u2019s the truth. He\u2019s playing both sides of the coin, trying to make everyone happy, condemning what happened, but then basically promoting the protest outside of our own synagogues here in this city this week. Disgusting,\u201d influencer\u00a0 Zach Sage Fox said.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cAntisemitism is on the rise, and we have to make sure that every antisemite knows that we will not back down, that we will stand up to it,\u201d said candidate for governor Bruce Blakeman. Photo by Dean Moses \"\"\u2018No Hate\u2019 Photo by Dean Moses \"\"Members of the Queens Jewish community railed on Sunday to denounce antisemitism after a group of hateful teenagers scrawled swastikas over synagogues and houses in the Forest Hills and Rego Park areas.Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n

In the hours following the incident, the mayor condemned the incident in a post on X.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI am horrified and angered by the swastikas painted on homes and a synagogue in Forest Hills, including on a plaque honoring survivors of Kristallnacht. This is not just vandalism \u2013 it is a deliberate act of antisemitic hatred meant to instill fear. There is no place for antisemitism in Queens or anywhere in our city,\u201d part of his post read. The Mayor did not immediately respond to amNewYork for comment regarding the recorded failure to stand with the Jewish community.<\/p>\n

Among those at the rally, residents held up wanted posters depicting the responsible parties and demanded their arrest.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAntisemitism is on the rise, and we have to make sure that every antisemite knows that we will not back down, that we will stand up to it,\u201d candidate for governor Bruce Blakeman said. \u201cAmerican values is freedom of religion, and we have fought too long to get what we have gotten here in America to have people taken away from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Among those at the rally, residents held up wanted posters depicting the responsible parties and demanded their arrest.Photo by Dean Moses \"\"Gathering in Yellowstone Park and organized by IMPACT and the #EndJewHatred, outraged Jewish locals were joined by elected officials to denounce the antisemitic graffiti that they say left them disturbed and feeling unsafe in their own community.Photo by Ramy Mahmoud \"\"Gathering in Yellowstone Park and organized by IMPACT and the #EndJewHatred, outraged Jewish locals were joined by elected officials to denounce the antisemitic graffiti that they say left them disturbed and feeling unsafe in their own community.Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of the Queens Jewish community rallied on Sunday to denounce antisemitism after a group of hateful teenagers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[303,9,24,63,103,104,122,124,123,7153,18502],"class_list":["post-226494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-crime","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nypd","tag-police","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-rally","tag-swastikas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226494","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=226494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}