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A version of this piece first ran as part of the New York Jewish Week’s daily newsletter, rounding up the latest on politics, culture, food and what’s new with Jews in the city. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.
What you need to know today
- Ofir Akunis, the consul general of Israel in New York and a former spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, likened Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s anti-Israel rhetoric to the methods used by Nazi Germany, at an event for young Jewish community leaders, Israel National News reports. “The mayor is busy inciting against and promoting a boycott of the Jewish state. His method is the ‘well-known’ antisemitic one: ‘No matter what, blame the Jews.’ This is exactly the same method that was used a century ago by the Third Reich,” Akunis said. “Data released by the New York Police Department points to a sharp increase in antisemitic hate crimes since he took office. This is further proof of his failure to protect the city’s Jewish community. Mamdani continues to incite and fuel his supporters to attack the State of Israel and its Prime Minister. This must stop before it is too late.” During the first seven months of the year, anti-Jewish hate crimes increased by 8.5%, according to the NYPD’s hate crime statistics.
- Harassment in Great Neck: Two teenagers have been arrested for a series of antisemitic harassment incidents in Great Neck, New York. The teenagers, aged 16 and 17, were arrested Wednesday in connection to an incident last week in which juveniles shouted bias-related insults and sprayed a water gun at pedestrians from a moving car. Both were charged with two counts of third-degree menacing and two counts of second-degree aggravated harassment. “Unfortunately, there were many victims of this heinous hate crime,” Great Neck Village Mayor Pedram Bral told the Long Island Press. “These kids created an environment that has shaken the community to its core.”
- Sacred splendor: The Jewish Museum in Manhattan will unveil a new exhibit, running from Sept. 18 to Feb. 7, featuring both medieval Christian treasures and Jewish ritual objects. The exhibit, titled “Sacred Splendor: Jewish Ritual Art and Christian Treasures from St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague,” will display “moments of artistic cross-fertilization, shared iconography, and theological divergence,” a description of the exhibit reads.
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