Columnist Calls for Tougher Hate Crime Laws

There are more Jews in New York City than anywhere outside Israel. As long as we’ve all lived here, the Upper West Side has been a safe haven for Jews.

Not anymore.

Hating Israel is no excuse for acting violently upon that hate. Hate is hate, whether it targets Blacks, Jews, Asians, Hispanics, Gays or any other oppressed race, religion, ethnicity or gender.

Racism and anti-Semitism can no longer be excused as ignorance, passed down from one unenlightened generation to the next. We cannot allow hate crime to become normalized.

It’s high time for action, not words.

I implore local, state and federal legislators to toughen hate crime laws, police to aggressively investigate and enforce those laws, and prosecutors to prosecute them.

The esteemed Black intellectual Thomas Sowell once said that anti-Semitism won’t end until Jews fail. He was right then and he’s still right. We didn’t lose six million Jews in the Holocaust—including three of my four grandparents—only to fail eighty years later. We won’t give Jew haters the satisfaction. Success is the best revenge.

But we can’t fight and succeed alone.

We need strength in numbers.

Unity requires closing ranks against hate and bigotry, as Blacks and Jews did during the civil rights marches of the 1960s. Prominent Jews stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Black civil rights leaders. Blacks and Jews must rekindle that alliance and invite other victims of violent hate crime to join.

Here’s what we can individually do to combat hate violence:

If you see something, don’t just say something. Scream something.

Form neighborhood watch committees.

Pressure City Hall and police precinct commanders to investigate and solve hate crimes.

Lobby elected representatives to pass legislation increasing penalties for city, state and federal hate crimes and hold prosecutors accountable for prosecuting those crimes.

And never, ever forget.

Ken Frydman is CEO of Source Communications LLC, a Manhattan communications firm.