Five days before Rosh HaShanah, the halls of One Police Plaza filled with rabbis, officers, and advocates for a meeting about safeguarding Jewish New Yorkers as the Yamim Nora’im approached. The evening’s agenda was procedural – preparations for the High Holidays – but the atmosphere was a reaffirmation that Jewish life in New York will be defended not just in theory, but in practice.
The program reflected the breadth of city leadership led by Mayor Eric Adams and included the presence of Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch, and Deputy Chief of Community Affairs “Yechiel” Richard S. Taylor, among others.
I attended on behalf of Queens Shmira as Community Outreach Coordinator, driven by Community Affairs Officers Kevin McCarthy and Tim Gorman of the 107th Precinct. We were joined by Community Advisor Alan Sherman, Queens Jewish Link Co-Publisher Yaakov Serle, Simon Sebag (Jewish liaison to Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and fellow Queens Shmira member Daniel Winchester. Other Queens attendees included Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov (107th Precinct clergy liaison), Rabbi Daniel Pollack (102nd Precinct clergy liaison), David Steinberg (president of Brooklyn-Queens NORPAC), and Chazaq Executive Board Member Shalom Zirkiev and his wife, Victoria. Captain Pratima Bhullar Maldonado, the highest-ranking South Asian female officer in the NYPD and now commanding officer of Kew Gardens’ 102nd Precinct, marked her first participation in the briefing. Rabbi Mendy Hecht, DOC chaplain and leader of Chabad of Forest Hills North, highlighted the dedicated service of the 112th Precinct’s Community Affairs officers.
Commissioner Jessica Tisch confronted the statistics with candor. Overall crime is at historic lows: Shootings and shooting victims are at record lows, transit robberies have plummeted, and August burglary figures hit record reductions. “This past July and August,” she noted, “were the safest summer months in our subways outside of the pandemic years.”
Yet anti-Semitic crimes surged 80 percent after October 7, despite being down earlier in 2023. Jews – barely ten percent of New York’s population – remain the victims in more than half of all hate crimes. Commissioner Tisch explained that precinct commanders and community affairs officers are working directly with rabbis and yeshivah leaders to tailor security plans. Uniformed patrols will be more visible, as unseen intelligence teams monitor threats in real time.
“As a mother raising a family here, and as a Jewish New Yorker, your concerns are my concerns,” Tisch said.
Deputy Commissioner Rebecca U. Weiner, head of the NYPD Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau, illustrated how the “machinery of prevention” works through rapid response. In mid-February, ominous online postings targeting a Manhattan synagogue led to a suspect, tracked across states, and arrested before reaching the Lincoln Tunnel. In SoHo, a man stockpiling incendiary devices was intercepted before he could act. A Canadian ISIS supporter, en route to attack a Brooklyn synagogue, was stopped mid-transit.
She credited the Community Security Initiative (CSI), led in Queens by Regional Security Director Seth Goodstein, for flagging the February case, praising the “trip wires” that triggered federal, state, and Canadian coordination. “Each attack makes the next more likely. That’s how contagion works,” Weiner warned, noting that more than 70 plots worldwide since October 7 have targeted Jewish or diplomatic institutions. Even attacks not directly aimed at Jews – such as the Boulder massacre, the Park Avenue shooting, and the assassination of Charlie Kirk – were celebrated in extremist spaces for their perceived impact on Jewish life.
Rabbi Dr. Alvin Kass, NYPD’s chief chaplain, praised Commissioner Tisch for declaring her Jewish identity as “the most important ingredient of her DNA.”
Lieutenant Robert Delaney, commander of the Detective Squad in the Hate Crimes Task Force, delivered the final word. Hate crimes overall are down 22% this year, anti-Semitic crimes 16%, yet Jews still account for 56% of victims – more than all other protected groups combined. He contrasted today’s trajectory with May 2022, when anti-Semitic crimes spiked 118%, then shared case studies: a driver in Flatbush mounting the curb while shouting, “I’ll kill all the Jews”; a man in Boro Park swerving his car at a Jewish pedestrian; a white vehicle prowling Williamsburg, firing gel blasters at Jews outside shuls. In each case, arrests were made swiftly, thanks to detectives and to volunteers from Shmira and Chaverim.
He emphasized partnership, crediting ADL, UJA, JCRC, CSI, COJO, Hatzalah, and Chaverim. “We cannot investigate what we do not know,” he stated.
Standing Guard into 5786
For Queens, the covenant is lived daily. Community Affairs Officer Kevin McCarthy spent significant time with me reviewing shuls in the 107th Precinct to identify new locations and areas of growth so houses of worship patrols have the most current information. Captain Mo Tsang likewise makes personal visits to shuls during the High Holidays to ensure elements of security. These efforts show that safeguarding Jewish life is not a seasonal promise but a constant covenant watched over by partners who stand guard.
And the reminder was clear: If you see something, say something. The NYPD Counterterrorism Hotline remains 1-888-NYC-SAFE; Queens Shmira can be reached at 718-329-4444.
By Shabsie Saphirstein
