Back in 2012, New York City was considered to have the greatest number of Jewish residents in the US (here). New York was said to have more Jews than Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, DC combined (ibid).
While current Jewish census numbers for New York aren't easy to come by, there's a universal feeling among those 'in the know' that New York City still has the largest Jewish population outside Israel (here). By the end of 2019, it seemed perfectly acceptable to call New York City, "the hub of Jewish life in America" (here).
No one questions that assessment.
It's important to mention the size of New York's Jewish population because, in America, size might suggest political strength. If New York City's Jewish community is so large, one might reasonably think that the City's Jews have some kind of political clout. After all, there is--or should be--safety in numbers, right?
That might be a reasonable thought. But for Jews in New York City, that thought would be wrong.
Over the last decade, Jews in New York City have been living in an increasingly dangerous environment. Jews now have to "watch their backs" as they walk in the streets (here). It may no longer be safe to be Jewish in New York City (here).
What makes this safety issue so troubling is that, so far as most Jews seem to be concerned, this growing absence of physical safety doesn't appear to affect the Jewish community's sense of security. This lack of concern could prove dangerous for Jews.
The safety of Jews in New York City declines. Of that, there's no doubt. But the Jews of New York won't make aliyah. They prefer to stay in New York--despite the danger.
Is that wise?
Worse, it isn't just a loss of physical safety that should concern New York's Jews. There's growing evidence that New York's Jews also lose their political safety.
A community's loss of "Political Safety" means the losing of power in the City's halls of power. It means Jews can be ignored when they call for help. It means Jews are no longer treated as someone who counts.
In April, 2020, New York's Jews got a lesson in how it feels to lose political clout. Two incidents stand out.
The first incident happened when a Hasidic funeral violated a standing corona-related social-distancing rule put in place by the Mayor to mitigate against the effects of the corona pandemic. This particular funeral had drawn hundreds (the City said, "thousands", but no one can verify that larger number) into the streets of Brooklyn for a parade to honor the deceased. Angered by the obvious social-distancing violation seen in this gathering, New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio penned a harsh tweet, not simply at at the particular Hasidic group involved in this violation, but at the entire City Jewish community (here). The harshness of his comments contrasted significantly with another DeBlasio tweet just a few days earlier, one aimed at the City's Muslim community.
Here are the two tweets, written just a few days apart:
I don't know how you read DeBlasio's words, but De Blasio stands accused of blatant anti-Semitism (here). New York's major papers slammed him. The wallstreetjournal wrote of DeBlasio's "sympathy" for other ethnic groups (see the tweet to Muslims, above) versus his "message" (suggesting some sinister tone) to Jews (here). The journal suggested that DeBlasio was stereotyping an entire community for the violations of a few, a clear act of discrimination; and when the newyorktimes wrote its own essay on this 'tempest', they ran their headline that said, "DeBlasio finds his scapegoat" (here)--a reference to yet another anti-Jew trope.
Was DeBlasio truly blaming the Jewish community as a whole for the spread of corona? Some thought so (here).
This tweet storm didn't end DeBlasio's self-created Jewish 'problem'. One month later, late May, protests broke out around the USA after the death of one George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1,000 miles outside New York. New York saw its own "George Floyd" protests--and these were massive. In New York's protests, tens of thousands of people came together, often scrunched together as tightly packed as sardines (here, at the 2:38:16-26 point). In these protest marches, there was obvious and strong evidence of a repeated failure to observe social distancing on a far greater scale than the earlier Hasidic funeral procession, discussed above.
With the "Floyd" protests, DeBlasio's anti-Jew sin became clearer: while he had threatened the Jewish community over violating social distancing, he gave the George Floyd protesters a free pass. He joined them. He didn't wear his mask. He walked with them--elbow-to-elbow.
He had told Jews he wasn't going to allow anyone to violate the laws he had passed (ibid). Now, he was doing exactly that--for a non-Jewish gathering.
That happened in the first week of June. In the second week of June, DeBlasio doubled down against his City's Jews, with more harsh words. To stop the spread of the corona pandemic, DeBlasio had ordered neighborhood city playgrounds to be locked--even as he himself had rubbed elbows with Black Lives Matter and transgender protesters (here). During those protests, DeBlasio was asked about Orthodox Jews using lock-cutters to break open their neighborhood playgrounds for their children. In response, he slammed the Jews for "taking the law into their own hands"--even though he had himself ignored that same law during the protests.
In the end (if this is indeed 'the end of the matter'), in late June, 2020, the US Department of Justice looked into the issue of DeBlasio's discriminatory behavior towards the City's Jews. It came to the conclusion that DeBlasio had behaved badly not only towards Jews, but towards others in the City who were religious. Still, the DOJ said that DeBlasio had indeed singled out Jews in particular by enforcing uneven pandemic standards:
The DOJ said, DeBlasio had "enforced uneven social distancing rules that “favor certain secular gatherings and disfavor religious gatherings”...“During the period in which all gatherings were banned, you [DeBlasio] reportedly sent police officers to break up numerous gatherings of the Jewish community in New York, including reported outdoor gatherings for funerals...while being more lenient with the protests" (here).
Some Orthodox Jews were outraged, as well they should have been. But other Orthodox Jews ignored De Blasio's discrimination--to march with 'Floyd' protesters, some of whom were no friends to Jews (here).
As if to put an exclamation point on the collapse of safety for Jews (in New York City and elsewhere), a former Police Commissioner has warned (as reported on July 15, 2020) that America is now in a "dangerous place" for Jews. Jews face increased risk, he suggested, especially since police have begun to back away from proactive crime prevention (here).
At a time when anti-Semitism across America increases, less police protection should put Jews--both in New York and nationwide--on alert. In today's America, as police back away from law enforcement, Jews "are vulnerable to ideological attacks and brutal physical assaults by hate groups" (here). Jews are, simply put, no longer safe.
Is this what Jewish life in America's premier Jewish city has become? If safety for Jews in the US's biggest Jewish community evaporates, what will Jewish life become like in cities with smaller Jewish numbers?
As Jewish life in New York--and in America--becomes increasingly unsafe, why do Jews stay in America? Why do they refuse to make aliyah?
What are these exiled Jews waiting for?
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