| Rabbi Joshua Bolton of the University of Pennsylvania's Hillel center surveys damaged headstones at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia in 2017. (Jacqueline Larma for AP) |
The massacre of 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue was the deadliest attack on Jews in the U.S. — but in a nation where anti-Semitic assaults have skyrocketed in the last two years, it was hardly an aberration.
And the picture was no less disturbing in New York, where more and more Jews have found themselves in the cross hairs of hate, law enforcement officials say.
As of Oct. 7, the NYPD counted 116 bias incidents against Jews this year. That’s three fewer than than the same time period in 2017 — but the Anti-Defamation League points out that the 2018 number already includes 12 anti-Semitic assaults, which is up from 11 all of last year.
Two assaults were reported in Brooklyn this month.
On Oct. 14, an Orthodox Jewish man was beaten by a livery cab driver at a traffic intersection in Borough Park.
A day later, a black teenager chased a Jewish man in Crown Heights and hit him in the back and shoulders with a stick.
Across the country, the Anti-Defamation League identified 1,986 anti-Semitic incidents in 2017, up from 1,267 in 2016, and also reported a major increase in anti-Semitic harassment online.
While Jews account for about 2% of the U.S. population, they make up more than half of the Americans targeted by hate crimes committed due to religious bias, according to FBI data.