Congressman and Governor Candidate Lee Zeldin To Visit Crown Heights Friday, Speak Out Against Hate

On Friday, September 2, 2022, at 11:45 a.m., Congressman Lee Zeldin (R, NY-1), co-chair of the House Republican Israel Caucus and one of two Jewish Republicans in Congress, will be joined by local Jewish Community leaders outside the Jewish Children’s Museum to speak out against recent violent antisemitic attacks, the spread of antisemitic hate throughout New York and the lack of serious consequences and punishment for those who commit hate crimes against Jewish New Yorkers.

“A recent report from Americans Against Antisemitism details that of the hundreds of hate crimes committed against Jewish New Yorkers since 2018, only one of the offenders has served even a single day in prison,” Zeldin’s press release regarding the event said. “New York State led the entire nation in antisemitic incidents in 2021, and in the span of less than two weeks in May, there were three antisemitic assaults in Brooklyn alone.”

The event will include a local victim of a bias anti-Semitic hate crime, whose attacker remains on the street and capable of further attacks.

The most gruesome attack came at the corner of Utica Avenue and President Street, where a young Lubavitcher was punched and kicked in the head, had antisemitic slurs shouted at him, and was forced to go to the hospital due to his injuries. Additionally, in July, a leader in the Jewish community was violently attacked in Crown Heights in front of his young son.

The contentious issue of safety and increase in crime remains the #1 factor in the upcoming elections, likely on its own to sway voters to red in a historically blue state.