That good news might be harder to believe for Jews in New York City and its suburban counties, where 1.4 million are living today.
Antisemitic incidents in the U.S. dropped by 33% in 2025 with 6,274 known incidents, the ADL audit found. It marked the first decline in five years.
But there’s no doubt where the epicenter of antisemitism lies — it’s the state of New York. New York state led the way with 1,150 incidents, well ahead of California’s 817.
New Jersey, Florida and Pennsylvania round out the top five.
Major metropolitan areas with large Jewish populations continued to experience the highest levels of incidents, including New York City (860), Los Angeles County (398), and Bergen County in New Jersey (139).
“New York City certainly leads the way. It is the city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel," Rabbi Yaakov Menken, executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, said on “Washington Watch” Tuesday.
"Unfortunately, now it has become a place where Jews are being openly targeted, especially under this new mayor,” Menken warned.
Zohran Mamdani, a practicing Muslim, became mayor on Jan. 1.
New York City is home to approximately 960,000 Jews, a figure that rises to roughly 1.4 million for the broader area with places like Long Island and Westchester County.
Since the Muslim mayor was sworn in at midnight inside the decommissioned City Hall subway station, antisemitic incidents have surged. His first month alone saw 31 antisemitic hate crimes, according to New York Police Department (NYPD) data, a 182% increase from January of 2025.
First-month incidents included:
- Two teenagers who were charged with painting 73 swastikas at Borough Park on a playground popular with Jewish children and families.
- A rabbi assaulted in Queens on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
- A vehicle ramming into the entrance the Brooklyn headquarters of Chabad, a Jewish outreach organization.
The scenes are becoming all too familiar.
“Especially since the election of Mamdani, an open antisemite,” Menken told show host Jody Hice.
NYC Jews helped elect their tormenter
Sadly, many Jews are reaping what was sown — zriah and katzir in Hebrew — with their election day ballots.
“Look how many Jews traded in their Judaism for progressivism. It really showed in Mamdani's election, where there were entirely too substantial a portion of the Jewish community trading in their values and willing to vote for such a person. It was absolutely shameful, and it has brought about this situation,” Menken said.
Approximately 33% of Jewish voters in New York City supported Zohran Mamdani in the 2025 mayoral election, according to multiple exit polls and news reports. This means that while a majority of Jewish voters (63%) backed former Governor Andrew Cuomo, over one-third of the city’s Jewish electorate voted for Mamdani, contributing to his citywide victory.
Mamdani didn’t waste any time repaying progressive Jews for their support.
In April he vetoed Intro 175-B, a bill that would have required NYPD to create safety lans and buffer zones around schools to protect students — particularly Jewish schoolchildren — from harassment and obstruction during protests.
Mamdani opposed the bill, arguing it posed constitutional concerns by potentially restricting First Amendment rights, including protests related to Palestinian rights.
Major Jewish organizations — including the Anti-Defamation League, UJA-Federation of New York, and Orthodox Union — condemned the decision, calling it a “profound failure” to protect Jewish communities amid rising antisemitism.
“The police department has a great relationship with the Jewish community, but they would like to be able to provide buffer zones to keep these monsters away from Jewish schoolchildren. Think about that. There was a bill to protect Jewish schoolchildren from antisemites marching through, rioting, trying to kill them, and Mamdani vetoed that bill,” Menken said.
Feds are getting it right
Menken praised President Donald Trump, whose administration’s nationwide approach is the opposite of Mamdani’s hostile local approach.
“We just had the Rededication 250. (Trump) called upon Jews to observe the Sabbath from Friday on that at sundown through Saturday nightfall, like somebody really gave him a cheater on the details … wonderful stuff.”
But he questioned the accuracy of the ADL’s audit. It could suffer from underreporting, he said.
“I'm wondering what extent people have just become tired of reporting it, especially verbal things like someone yelling free Palestine at a Jewish person just for being Jewish, which is obviously racist trash. That sort of verbal assault, nobody's going to report that,” Menken said.
