Hate crimes targeting Jewish New Yorkers in the subway system have soared in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack and Israel’s subsequent invasion of the Gaza Strip, new statistics show.
There were nine such crimes reported from October, through Nov. 5 — equal to the tally recorded for the entire preceding nine months, according to the data from the NYPD and MTA.
Those incidents believed to be targeting straphangers of the Jewish faith accounted for almost two-thirds of the 15 overall hate crimes reported for the month, officials said.
Over the same period, there were two reported hate crimes targeting Muslims, bringing the total of religiously motivated offenses since the Israel-Hamas war began to 11.
“Criminals are using the war between Hamas and Israel as an excuse to lash out against innocent Jews,” said David Greenfield, the chief executive of the Met Council on Jewish Poverty, one of the largest Jewish charities in the city.
“We’ve never seen as many hate crimes against Jews as we have in the last few weeks,” he added. “There are many more crimes going unreported because Jewish New Yorkers fear for their safety.”
Recently, police arrested a man wanted for attacking a 29-year-old woman inside the 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue station on Oct. 14 and telling her he slugged her because “you are Jewish.”
Even with the recent surge, the number of overall hate crimes remains below last year’s levels, the stats show.
In the first 10 months of 2023, there have been 60 hate crimes reported in the subway system, compared to 74 for the same timeframe last year.
“Attacks or harassment targeted at New Yorkers because of who they are or what they believe are intolerable,” said Rich Davey, the top boss of the MTA’s subways and city buses. “We are grateful for the consistent efforts of the NYPD, with whom we are cooperating, to quickly bring perpetrators to face justice.”
Officials are often quick to point out that the number of offenses on the trains accounts for just a tiny fraction of the subway system’s ridership, which often tops 4 million a day during the week.
The jump in hate crimes underground mirrors a citywide trend: There were 81 hate crimes reported across the city in October, nearly double the 43 reported for the same month in 2022.
A further breakdown was not immediately available.
The surge in hate against faiths offsets good news from other portions of the subway crime stats report.
It shows there’s been a 44% drop in murders underground so far in 2023 compared to last year, thanks in part to four straight months without a killing on the subway.
There have been five murders clocked on the trains or in stations during the first 10 months of the year — down from the staggering tally of nine recorded over the same period in 2022.
Overall, crime in the subway system is down 3.9% year over year, but assaults remains slightly above last year’s tally.
One of those attacks landed on the front page after a man, Sabir Jones, with a lengthy rap sheet in New Jersey and a history of mental illness shoved a woman into a moving subway train, leaving her badly injured.
Crime in the subways remains above pre-pandemic levels, when the system would often only see one or two murders for the entire year.
The violence became a key issue in the closing weeks of the governor’s race and helped propel Republican Lee Zeldin within striking distance of Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Hochul responded by pledging to help City Hall fund overtime shifts to boost patrols on the subway system.
Since then, the number of arrests has jumped almost 50% and the number of summons issued is up nearly 36% when comparing year to year.
Additional reporting by Tina Moore and Amanda Woods