President Biden on Friday condemned a recent spate of anti-Semitic acts in New York, including vandalism and a demonstration outside an exhibit honoring victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
“This week’s horrific acts of anti-Semitism — including a rally celebrating the 7/10 attack, vandalism against Jewish homes, attacks on Jewish professors on college campuses and harassment of subway riders — are abhorrent,” Biden said. posted in X. “Anti-Semitism doesn’t just threaten American Jews. He threatens all Americans and our fundamental democratic values.”
Instances of anti-Semitism rose sharply after the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, but there have been some high-profile incidents in recent days in the New York City area.
Authorities investigated reports of vandalism at the homes of the director of the Brooklyn Museum, who is Jewish, and some board members after images of the graffiti were posted on social media.
The New York Police Department also said this week that it was working to identify the individual behind a call-and-response chant in a subway car asking Zionists to identify themselves.
The White House earlier this week condemned a protest in front of the Nova exhibition in New York, which honors the victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Protests took place on Monday night; a large crowd gathered outside the exhibition, where they lit flares and chanted “long live the intifada,” CBS reported.
The Anti-Defamation League, a leading anti-hate organization, has found anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. increased 360 percent in the three months following the October 7 attacks, which left more than 1,000 Israelis dead and triggered a wider conflict that left thousands of Palestinians dead in Gaza.
The White House has repeatedly condemned anti-Semitism since the Oct. 7 attacks, with Biden pushing back against protests on college campuses and warning Americans against forgetting the events that took place in Israel.
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