New York Jewish leaders are expected to gather outside the New York Supreme Court on Thursday morning to demand action for the Jewish community, which continues to be the target of a growing number of hate crimes.
The gathering is set to take place while the alleged attackers of Joey Borgen will be in court for a hearing. Borgen was brutally attacked in a gang assault by antisemites near Times Square in May 2021. One of the attackers was already offered a plea deal by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Former New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind, New York Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, influencer and activist Elizabeth Savetsky and members of the international grassroots movement #EndJewHatred are among the expected speakers demanding justice for Borgen at Thursday's rally.
“The shameful and unacceptable leniency shown towards the individuals who assaulted Joey Borgen only encourages more violence against Jews,” said Brooke Goldstein, co-founder of the End Jew Hatred movement. “We demand justice for Joey and for the entire Jewish community, not ridiculous plea deals. We need to impose consequences to end Jew-hatred, not sentences that are fresh trauma to the Jewish people.”
“The shameful and unacceptable leniency shown towards the individuals who assaulted Joey Borgen only encourages more violence against Jews."
Brooke Goldstein
Demanding justice for Jewish hate crime victims
The rally in Manhattan is scheduled one week after a similar demonstration took place outside the Brooklyn Criminal Courthouse during Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez’s prosecution of Suleiman Othman. Othman, a Staten Island resident, violently assaulted Blake Zavadsky, a Jewish man wearing an IDF sweatshirt, in Brooklyn in December 2021.
"Today there are no consequences for those who commit acts of hate against the Jewish people," Hikind told The Jerusalem Post ahead of the Brooklyn rally. "The numbers are skyrocketing to a level never seen before. We are demanding that district attorneys and judges dispense justice for the victims."
In November 2022 alone, antisemitic hate crimes across New York City's five boroughs more than doubled from a year prior, New York Police Department data revealed, resulting in a 125% increase.
Haley Cohen contributed to this report.