Anti-Semitic Crime Spike Brings No-Hate Class To More BK Schools

BROOKLYN, NY — A dramatic spike in anti-Semitic incidents in Brooklyn has led advocates and local officials to put $250,000 toward doubling a program that teaches the borough's students to fight against bias.

The Anti-Defamation League and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams announced Tuesday that the ADL's "No Place for Hate" program will expand to nearly 20 more schools across the borough this school year.

The program — which teaches students kindergarten through 12th grade about combating hate — will focus on Crown Heights and Williamsburg schools where there are large Jewish populations, the organization said.

The announcement comes as the borough deals with more than 100 anti-Semitic incidents this year, including six that happened just in the first two weeks of November, according to the ADL's data. The incidents are a dramatic increase from other years, including back in 2017, when there were 200 total anti-Semitic incidents for the whole city all year, the group said.

“The repeated violence and harassment of Orthodox Jews in this borough is unacceptable and must stop now,” ADL CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt said at a press conference Tuesday. “Since most hate crimes are born of ignorance for the 'other,' we believe that education, especially in the early years, can go a long way to building a foundation for understanding and a respect for diversity.”

The ADL, which performs an audit of anti-Semitic incidents across the country, said there have been 111 incidents between January 1 and October 31 in Brooklyn, including 21 cases of harassment, 75 cases of vandalism and 16 cases of assault.

The NYPD's own count of hate crimes found that anti-Semitic incidents accounted for more than half of the 323 total hate crimes counted citywide as of last month.

And the spike doesn't to be slowing down. Another six incidents were recorded by the ADL — two of vandalism, three of harassment and one of assault — in the first 11 days of November.

The most recent incidents include the egging of a Borough Park synagogue, which police believe was done by the same suspects who harassed two women with anti-Semitic slurs in front of the neighborhood's Jewish Community Council. A Crown Heights synagogue was also vandalized over the weekend, according to reports.

The officials said expanding the No Place for Hate program will hopefully counteract the intolerance by teaching inclusion.

"This unacceptable behavior is increasingly becoming the norm for some. And our children become indoctrinated and tainted in the process,” Adams said. “We must stand in support of any efforts or curriculums designed to promote tolerance and inclusion, in all of its facets. Our youth are our society’s most capable change agents, and they are never too young to learn that hate speech or any other forms of intolerant expression are wrong, and must always be denounced when it is encountered.”

No Place for Hate teaches students to take a stand against bias and bullying and "sends a clear, unified message that all students have a place where they belong."

The program reached 8,203 Brooklyn students in the 2018-2019 school year at 22 schools. That number will grow to as many as 10,000 students across 40 schools with the extra funding, ADL officials said. A list of the specific schools was not immediately available.

“At ADL, we fundamentally believe education of our young people is the first step in putting an end to anti-Semitism and all forms of hate,” the ADL's New York Regional Director Evan Bernstein said. “Through our expanded outreach, ADL will now have the potential to reach over 10,000 students in the borough -- with hopes of one day ensuring that Brooklyn will be No Place for Hate.”