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May 8-14, 2026 • Behar-Bechukotai • 21 Iyar 5786 • Vol. 25, No. 14
Fresh outrage as vandals hit shuls, homes
By Jessica Russak-Hoffman, JNS Police are searching for four suspects accused of vandalizing Jewish institutions and residences in Queens with Nazi symbols and other antisemitic graffiti early on Monday morning. “Multiple locations had been spraypainted with black and red paint with swastikas,” an NYPD spokesman said. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose spokeswoman has said that synagogues violate international law when they host pro-Israel events, said on Tuesday that he is “horrified and angered by the swastikas painted on homes and synagogues in Queens, including on a plaque honoring survivors of Kristallnacht.” “This is not just vandalism. It is a deliberate act of antisemitic hatred meant to instill fear,” he said. “There is no place for antisemitism in Queens or anywhere in our city. I stand in solidarity with our Jewish neighbors. Their safety, dignity and belonging are non-negotiable.” City Council Speaker Julie Menin visited Congregation Machane Chodosh, an Orthodox shul in Forest Hills, which was one of the targeted sites. “When rabbis and congregants arrived to pray this morning, they ex-
NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin visits Congregation Machane Chodosh in Forest Hills. The shul was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti. Office of NYC Council Speaker
pected to be met with their usual loving community,” Menin said. “When a family woke up, they were prepared to begin an otherwise normal week. Instead, they were met with terrifying signals of hatred and threats of violence.” Menin visited the synagogue with fellow City Council members Phil Wong and Lynn Schulman, vice-chair of the council’s Jewish Caucus. Rep. Grace Meng, whose district includes parts of Queens, also visited the site with Menin. “Once again, hate has reared its ugly head in our community, and I am sickened by this vile act of antisemitism. I’ve said it many times and I will say it again, ‘Hate has no place in Queens or anywhere else in our society’,” Meng said. Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of NY, said “these were not just synagogues, homes and Jewish centers: one of the sites houses a pre-K program, where young children, their families and staff were greeted with swastikas and other hateful vandalism. This is not normal, and we need city leaders to act now.” “As we warned, hateful language always turns into dangerous actions.” said Ofir Akunis, consul general of Israel in New York.
Manhattan Jew-hate mayhem An anti-Israel mob estimated to number more than 100, chanting “Long live the intifada” and “Israel should not exist,” clashed with police near the Park East Synagogue, on East 67th Street on the Upper East Side, on Tuesday evening. The crowd was protesting an Israel real-estate event inside that Mayor Zohran Mamdani earlier in the day had condemned. Sam Raskin, Mamdani’s spokesman, said the mayor was “deeply opposed” to the event because it “includes the promotion of the sale of land in settlements in the Occupied West Bank,” the New York Times reported. Mamdani has repeatedly said he is opposed to the entirety of Israel as a Jewish state, not only to any expansion into Judea and Samaria.
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Of Syrian Jews, Ashkenazim and Hasidim and the reason I won’t wear a black hat I
HAROLD S. STEINBERG
This article was first published 26 years ago in the Long Island Jewish World, where the author penned a column for many years. He is now a resident of Riverdale. The Jewish Star welcomes reader feedback to this piece. Please address you comments to: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
t was a recurring comic tag line in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” “Who are those guys?” Asking myself that same question set in motion a gradual process of discovery, culminating in my resolution never to wear a black hat. Dear reader, allow me to explain. It happened soon after commencing my yeshiva high school education in Brooklyn. I had come from a traditional yeshiva elementary school whose student body was dotted with names like Bernstein, Adelman and Liebow-
Chassidic Jews in Brooklyn.
Mendy Hechtman, Flash90
itz. Suddenly, in high school, I found myself amid people with names like Harary, Gindi, Silvera and Shamah. They were different, and in ways that went beyond the strangeness of their names. They dressed stylishly; the boys favored those black, crepe-like, conical kippot I associated with infrequent attendees at my synagogue; and they were seriously into Motown rhythm-and-blues groups like Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Four Tops and the Temptations. Who were those guys?
I was to learn that they were the “Syrians.” Though some were, in fact, of Egyptian lineage, such distinctions were usually overlooked. Actually, they were the American- born descendants of Syrian and Egyptian Jews. For the most part they resided in an enclave around Ocean Parkway. They regarded Arabic as their mother tongue, not Yiddish; were often named after living ancestors; had a spiritual leader they called the “Haham” (not the Rabbi); and (oddity of oddities) did not regard kreplach and cholent See Steinberg on page 4