Excerpt from Yiddish article in Der
Yid’s June 7, 2019 edition
In light of the
increased anti-Semitic attacks to our city, following the law of the City Council
that was passed by Councilman Mark Levine; Councilman Chaim Deutsch, the Chair
of the Jewish Caucus; and Councilman Donovan Richards who all worked to establish such an office, Speaker Corey Johnson
and Councilman Deutsch
and other Council members called two weeks ago for the opening of this office
at a press conference with the UJO.
The special, new
office will be established this summer in New York City to prevent, and combat
hate crimes.
The establishment
of the office was announced this week in a special press conference with city
authorities headed by Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner James O’Neil who
also released statistics about hate crimes in the city these past few months
which underscores the importance of this office. “We are very concerned about
the rise of hate crimes,” de Blasio said. The Mayor said the new office will be
stationed at the Municipal City Building in lower Manhattan. It will cost $307,000 annually to
operate.
Councilman
Deutsch commended the mayor’s announcement for opening this new office. “New
York City has seen a shocking rise in hate crimes during the last several
years,” said Councilman Deutsch, “especially with anti-Semitic crimes. Since
the six months since the City Council passed my law to establish the Office of
Hate Crime Prevention, we have seen a 68% rise in hate crimes in general. The
office is a critical component of the puzzle necessary to solve these issues to
prevent hate crimes by going into communities to help people from all ages and
backgrounds to understand the consequences of baseless hate and animosity.
“I am thankful
to the Speaker Corey Johnson, for his leadership and my colleagues Councilman Mark
Levine and Councilman Donovan Richards for working with me on this law.”
“It has been a
long time,” said Rabbi David Niederman, UJO Executive
Director and President, “that we have called for
more to be done regarding hate crimes. For example, we see that it is often
youths who conduct these attacks. It is important to go into schools to talk to
them and discuss the severe punishment one may face for such attacks and to
convince them that it is not worth it.
“I commend the
Mayor for working to establish this office this summer to, with G-d’s help, end
the serious hate attacks from which we are suffering. I thank Councilman Chaim
Deutsch, Councilman Mark Levine and Councilman Donavan Richards for championing
this law. I also thank Speaker Johnson for standing with us two weeks ago to
condemn the attacks and calling for the funding of this office.”
