ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF

The de Blasio Administration launched a new initiative to fight hate crimes in New York City in partnership with six organizations from the field, including the Jewish Community Relations Council, the administration announced on Thursday night. The initiative, called Partners Against the Hate (PATH) FORWARD, will provide funding to the organizations in an effort to reduce hate crimes and expand hate crime reporting and services for victims.

"The Jewish community, as it confronts an increase in the age-old scourge of antisemitism, will... partner with their fellow New Yorkers to defeat this societal epidemic," said Rabbi Bob Kaplan, Executive Director of the Center for Community Leadership. 

Kaplan went on to thank Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes (OPHC) for the initiative which he called an "important tool in empowering leadership and the communities they serve to step forward to defeat this destructive force of hate that tears at the very fabric of our safety and social compact.”

Some $3 million will be distributed among the six anchor organizations that include the Arab American Association of New York, the Asian American Federation and the Hispanic Federations. Anchor organizations will also serve as judges in awarding OPHC Hate Crime Prevention Innovation Grants that are awarded to entrepreneurs developing projects to reduce hate crimes.

“In New York City, we do not tolerate hate, violence, or bigotry in any form,” said de Blasio. “As we drive a recovery for all of us, we must lift up the community leaders standing up against America’s hate epidemic. We are taking action to make sure the hate in our beloved city is eliminated—once and for all.”

Over the course of the past few weeks, Jewish communities across the country experienced antisemitism during and after the conflict in Gaza and Israel. In New York City, amid dueling pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian rallies on Thursday, multiple Jews were assaulted in the street.

Last week, Jews across New York posted on social media about being threatened, harassed or otherwise attacked for being Jewish. The reports were reminiscent of a string of antisemitic incidents in New York in the months before the pandemic shut down street life globally. Nationwide, the Anti-Defamation League recorded an increase in antisemitic incidents in the first week of the Israel-Hamas fighting.Ben Sales/JTA contributed to this report.