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By Jordan King
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Swastikas and “anti-Semitic writing” were allegedly spraypainted onto four school buses that serve orthodox Jewish schools in New York.
Photos posted on Monday by the Williamsburg News show the Nazi symbols painted in black on what the outlet reported was four separate buses. Other phrases included “USA First,” “f**k Israel” and “Free Palestine.”
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) told Newsweek that its Hate Crime Task Force is investigating following a 911 call on Monday morning. The alleged “criminal mischief” took place “in the vicinity of Bedford Avenue and Williamsburg Street, within the confines of the 90 Precinct,” the NYPD said. No arrests had been made as of mid-afternoon Tuesday.
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Williamsburg is home to a large Jewish community—an estimated 36,000 Jewish adults and 32,000 children as of 2023, according to a UJA-Federation of New York’s Jewish Community Study.
The buses serve the Satmar, Sanz-Klausenburg and Tiferes Yisrael Jewish communities, according to Williamsburg 365—these are Orthodox Jewish religious sects whose institutions include schools. None of them have spoken out publicly. Newsweek has reached out to offices for the United Talmudical Academy, the Sanz-Klausenburg Congregation in Williamsburg and Talmud Torah Tiferes Yisroel.
Multiple New York City officials have spoken out against the vandalism, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who called it “abhorrent.” Phylisa Wisdom, who leads the mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, told Newsweek that the city would “use every tool at our disposal” to find those responsible.
It comes amid growing concern about a rise in antisemitism in New York and around the U.S. NYPD figures show 245 confirmed anti-Jewish hate crimes in the first nine months of 2026, up from 242 in the same period last year and accounting for approximately 53 percent of all confirmed hate crimes citywide.
Last year was the third-highest year on record for antisemitic incidents recorded by the Jewish advocacy organization Anti-Defamation League (ADL) with 6,274. That was down from a peak of 9,354 in 2024 and 8,873 in 2023, following seven years of the figures fluctuating between 1,000 and 3,000.
The FBI, whose data covers hate crimes reported by law enforcement rather than the ADL’s broader range of incidents, recorded 1,648 anti-Jewish hate-crime incidents across America in 2025 and 1,030 so far this year.
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New York Officials Respond
New York Attorney General Letitia James called the acts “despicable” in a post on X, urging anyone with information to contact law enforcement.
“Antisemitism and hate have no home in New York,” she said.
Governor Kathy Hochul called for those responsible to be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
“As a mother and grandmother, it sickens me to think of children arriving at school to find their buses defaced with swastikas and hateful antisemitic messages,” she wrote on X. “No Jewish child or family should have to endure this kind of fear and intimidation.”
Mamdani, a progressive Democrat who has repeatedly criticized Israel, spoke out about the "antisemitic vandalism" in Williamsburg in a post on X.
“Every New Yorker — especially our children — deserves to live free of such hatred,” he said. “We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to confront antisemitism, hold those responsible accountable and ensure that hatred has no place in our city.”
Newsweek was directed to the post when it contacted Mamdani's office.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously accused Mamdani of endangering Jewish New Yorkers with his rhetoric about Israel during a September speech at the United Nations. It came after Mamdani, who has repeatedly rejected accusations of antisemitism, announced a detailed strategy to fight antisemitism, promising to “build a city where Jewish New Yorkers are not only safe but celebrated.”
He pledged millions in a plan that includes funding for synagogues, an increased focus on folding Jewish history into public school education, and a pledge to highlight important Jewish cultural and religious sites. The plan has since faced criticism from Israeli officials and local groups for not formally defining antisemitism and failing to confront whether anti-Israel rhetoric can have a role in it.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, praised the strategy but called on Mamdani to address "anti-Israel rhetoric that makes Jewish New Yorkers vulnerable as there are clearly times when antisemitic attacks are fueled by anti-Zionism."
Addressing questions about it at the time, Mamdani told reporters: "When it comes to criticism of the Israeli prime minister or the Israeli government, that has no bearing on our responsibility to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe.
"And also, to say very clearly, that the responsibility for the Israeli government's actions lies with the Israeli government. It does not lie with Jewish New Yorkers."
The Backdrop
All three sources for antisemitic incidents in the U.S. reviewed by Newsweek recorded a spike after October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people and abducting 251 to the Gaza Strip. Israel has since killed 74,615 people in the Gaza Strip as of Tuesday, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths.
Many pro-Palestine activists stress that their criticism is directed against Israel as a state, not Jewish people, but there are others who use anger over the war to justify antisemitism.
Debate over the distinction between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, and what constitutes which, has featured prominently in America’s political climate in the last three years, fueling, not exclusively but significantly, major rifts in both parties.
President Donald Trump has faced a huge divide among his supporters over his backing for Israel, usually from conservatives aligned with his "America First" movement. That includes big names who were once seen as loyalists—like podcasters Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, who frequently blast the Trump administration’s foreign policy as being beholden to Israel. Trump has pushed back, calling Carlson, Owens and other former supporters who turned against him "troublemakers" and "nut jobs."
On Tuesday, Trump announced that the U.S. will stop sending funding packages to Israel by the end of this year after making a deal with Netanyahu. The U.S. currently provides Israel with roughly $3.8 billion in military aid each year, but the memorandum of understanding signed under former President Barack Obama outlining this commitment is due to lapse in 2028.
Meanwhile, in the Democratic Party, disagreements over Israel and antisemitism often play out as part of a wider split between the party’s progressives and moderates. In a recent example in Michigan, Democratic Representative Haley Stevens withdrew her support for the party’s Senate candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive she endorsed after he defeated her in the primary, and backed Republican Mike Rogers on Sunday. Stevens, a staunch Israel supporter, cited the issue as a significant reason for her decision to reverse course on El-Sayed, a fierce critic of the U.S. ally.
While the current backdrop for the debate centers on the war in the Middle East, Washington’s relationship with Israel and concerns about free speech and antisemitism predates the modern state of Israel, and the contemporary discussions about what defines it, by centuries.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum says it is “based on old and widespread prejudices” that culminated in the Holocaust, when Nazi Germany murdered 6 million European Jews. But it adds: "Antisemitism did not begin or end with the Holocaust, antisemitism has existed for thousands of years."
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and Dave Siminoff.
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