New York City's hate crimes jumped nearly 10% this year even as every major crime category fell to historic lows, and Jewish New Yorkers, roughly a tenth of the city's population, were targeted in more than half the attacks.
NYPD statistics released Monday show 360 hate crimes recorded year-to-date, up from 329 over the same period last year, a 9.4% increase. Of those, 205 targeted Jewish New Yorkers, accounting for 56.9% of all hate crimes in a city where Jewish residents make up approximately 10% of the population. Anti-Jewish hate crimes alone rose 8.5%, up from 189 in the same stretch last year.
The numbers land at a volatile moment for Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has faced mounting criticism from Jewish community leaders over what they call a pattern of indifference. Just last month, those leaders urged the mayor to "stop fanning the flames of hatred and division" after a Jewish man was stabbed in a suspected hate crime. Mamdani's office did not immediately respond to the New York Post's request for comment on the latest data.
The contrast in the NYPD's own data is stark. Murders dropped 32.3% in July and 22.8% year-to-date. Shootings fell 21.3% in July alone, declining in every borough. Compared to July 2020, when 243 shooting incidents were recorded in a single month, this July saw just 59, a 75% reduction. Over the first seven months of 2026, the city logged 381 shootings, down from 771 in the same window of 2020.
Burglary, auto theft, robbery, grand larceny, and felony assault all declined year-to-date, with drops ranging from 0.4% to 25.3%. All seven major crime categories fell across all five boroughs.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch credited her department's officers and their methods:
"This summer, the NYPD was called upon to manage an unprecedented series of major and overlapping events, including the NBA Finals, the World Cup, Sail250, and the largest Fourth of July celebration in the country. Through it all, even as the demands on this department reached historic levels, the men and women of the NYPD delivered double-digit declines in major crime and record lows in violent crime across the city."
Tisch pointed to "data-driven precision policing policy and the tireless work of the members of the NYPD" as the engine behind the improvements. But none of that precision policing appears to have bent the hate-crime curve, particularly for Jewish residents.
Moshe Spern, president of United Jewish Teachers, did not mince words. He drew a direct line between the mayor's conduct and the rising threat Jewish New Yorkers face.
"When one community is being attacked at this disproportionate rate while the rest of the city gets safer, that is not random. It is a failure of leadership."
Spern went further, demanding that Mamdani change course:
"Jewish New Yorkers have every right to expect that their safety will be treated as a priority, not an afterthought. The mayor must stop the rhetoric that fuels hostility and start treating antisemitic violence with the urgency it demands."
The criticism follows a pattern. In May, Mamdani skipped New York City's annual Israel Day Parade, choosing instead, the Post reported, to tout his 2029 reelection bid and ride his bicycle. He has been reluctant to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada." And when Jewish leaders demanded he speak up after last month's stabbing, Mamdani offered what the Post characterized as a "canned response."
Asked about the outrage from Jewish leaders, the mayor gave a statement that read more like a form letter than a plan of action:
"You know, first and foremost, I want to make clear that this is a city where we have no tolerance for hatred of any kind, the hatred of someone on the basis of their faith, their background, natural identity."
No specific policy. No named initiative. No acknowledgment that Jewish New Yorkers are absorbing a wildly disproportionate share of the city's hate crimes while overall crime plummets around them. Thirty-three hate crimes were recorded in July alone, and the mayor's answer amounted to a generic pledge of tolerance.
Meanwhile, Mamdani's own staffing choices have drawn scrutiny. His chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem, previously represented an al-Qaeda tanker-bombing pilot, according to the Post's reporting.
The numbers tell a two-track story. For the average New Yorker, the city is measurably safer than it has been in years. Shootings are a fraction of their 2020 peak. Murders are down by nearly a quarter. Property crime is retreating across the board. Commissioner Tisch and the rank-and-file officers who patrol the five boroughs deserve credit for those results.
But for Jewish New Yorkers, who make up one in ten residents yet absorb nearly six in ten hate crimes, the trajectory runs in the opposite direction. Anti-Jewish hate crimes are climbing while every other major crime indicator falls. That gap did not open by accident. It opened under a mayor who has repeatedly signaled, through his absences, his silences, and his staffing, where his sympathies lie.
Leadership is not measured by press releases about tolerance. It is measured by whether the people most at risk in your city are safer today than they were when you took office. By that standard, Mamdani's record speaks for itself, and Jewish New Yorkers are the ones paying the price.
