NYPD on High Alert Ahead of Israel Day Parade

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New York City police are reportedly on high alert ahead of Sunday’s Israel Day parade along Fifth Ave. in Manhattan, warning “extremists across the ideological spectrum and other grievance-driven malicious actors” may target the celebration.

The New York Daily News, citing unnamed police sources, reported an NYPD threat assessment has triggered extra security measures to be set in place amid the ongoing war in Gaza, though there’s no specific “credible” threats.

Hate crimes, particularly against Jews, have spiked in New York City since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel.

The Daily News reported the most recent hate crime incident came Wednesday, when a cab driver passing a yeshiva in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, railed at a group of Jewish people, then drove up onto the sidewalk and tried to mow them down.

As of May 21, antisemitic crimes were up 55% compared with the same timeframe last year, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny revealed last week, the outlet reported. Overall, hate crimes were up 31%.

There have been 143 anti-Jewish crimes, 51 more than the same time last year, Kenny added.

New York state GOP Sen. Bill Weber wrote in late March that even in the months before the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Gaza, a state Senate Republican Antisemitism Working Group convened to address an “alarming trend of Jewish hate crimes growing in New York State.”

“What we knew at that time was already unsettling,” he stated. “In 2022 alone, New York City saw 263 antisemitic attacks, more than double the number of previous years and a figure that dramatically underscored what was a nationwide problem.”