A 21-year-old Jewish man was beaten by six male attackers on the streets of New York Friday night, continuing the alarming rise in anti-semitic crimes seen in the city this year.
The young man, wearing Hasidic orthodox clothing, was approached shortly after 8 pm by unprovoked attackers who began kicking and punching him on a Brooklyn street.
One 16-year-old boy has been charged while police continue to search for the other five attackers.
This attack, driven by anti-semitism, was far from an isolated incident. Anti-semitic hate crimes have quadrupled in the city this year. Eighty-one incidents were reported to police, as opposed to the 20 reported last year in the same time frame, marking a 300% increase.
NYPD statistics showed that 38 percent of all confirmed hate crimes in New York City consist of attacks against Jews.
Similarly disturbing is the lack of accountability for those who commit these crimes. According to the Times of Israel, in 2021, of the 198 anti-jewish crimes that occurred, only 58 arrests were made.
The most recent attack comes after several hundred Pro-Palestinian activists took to the streets of Manhattan, stopping at multiple Jewish businesses chanting “Globalize the intifada” and “Zionism is terrorism,” which many Israelis and Jews saw as a threat of violence.
It is worth noting that the demonstration came amid waves of Palestinian terror hitting the streets of Israel, resulting in the deaths of 11 people last week. Many, including Behold Israel Founder Amir Tsarfati, have attributed the rise in Palestinian attacks to a popular Muslim cleric who claims to have predicted Israel’s destruction on July 8th, 2022, from passages in the Koran.
Another factor to consider when looking at the increase in anti-semitic incidents in the staunchly liberal city of New York surrounds the school curriculum.
A number of the attackers have been made up of young people. Unfortunately, many students today are being taught things about Israel that are simply untrue. For example, Israel’s rights to the land are often questioned despite international law resoundingly confirming their legal ownership. Additionally, Israel has often been falsely accused of human rights abuses against Palestinians despite its exemplary record of going above and beyond its obligation to protect civilians while combatting relentless terrorism.
This bias against the Jewish State and revisionist history taught in public schools and universities, and further espoused by politicians, predictably has reared its head in the form of increasing anti-semitism. And like many other controversial progressive narratives, the issue stems from a rejection of God.
Through Scripture, Christians understand that anti-semitism is a problem that is spiritually rooted.
The Bible states that through the Jewish people, God brought the law, giving His creation an understanding of sin, and subsequently, through the Jewish people, God provided humanity a Savior from that sin, Jesus Christ (Romans 9:4-5, 7:7, 10:4, 3:1-2, Matt. 5:17).
The Jewish people and the nation of Israel are interwoven within God’s plan for all mankind, beginning to end. They are, by God’s mercy, the chosen people used to bring about His perfect will and salvation (Luke 2:25-32). It is for this reason that a battle, which is spiritual in nature, is constantly being waged against Israel and the Jews (Eph. 6:12). Satan detests the people through whom God provided His Son, Jesus Christ, who will ultimately defeat him and his followers (Revelation 20:10).
