Menin Introduces “Five-Point Plan to Combat Antisemitism”

NY City Council Speaker Julie Menin has introduced a package of legislation that she’s deemed a “five-point plan to combat antisemitism,” citing the fact that she’s the first Jewish leader of the City Council in history.

The plan includes legislative measures including: expanding Holocaust education, reimbursing security costs for private schools, providing security training for Jewish organizations, creating a “dedicated hotline to report incidents of antisemitism,” and pushing for the passage of a contentious law that would establish a “protest buffer zone” (possibly of up to 100 ft.) around synagogues.

“As the first Jewish Speaker of the City Council, and as the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, this issue is deeply personal to me,” said Menin, who represents a district on the Upper East Side. “These actions are about protecting New Yorkers, and ensuring that hatred, harassment, and intimidation are never normalized in our city.”

The last item in the plan, the Schools and Houses of Worship Access and Safety Act, was introduced in part in response to an incident during services at Park East Synagogue in Nov. 2025 (and more recently at a synagogue in Queens). Gov. Kathy Hochul said during her state of the state address on Jan. 13 that she plan to introduced her own complementary 25-ft.-buffer proposal around houses of worship.

In the Manhattan incident in November, pro-Palestine protestors showed up outside the synagogue to decry the synagogue’s provision of rental space to an organization called Nefesh B’Nefesh.

As the Times noted after the incident, the group has supported the immigration (or “Aliyah”) of North American Jews to Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank (as well as to Israel proper). Some protestors reportedly chanted slogans including “Death to the IDF” (Israeli Defense Forces) and “Globalize the Intifada.”

Some synagogue attendees and supporters of Israel said that the protests upset them, leading NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch—herself a supporter of Israel—to visit the synagogue, where she apologized that police had not guaranteed the entrance of worshippers into the synagogue.

At a Queens synagogue earlier this month, protestors repeatedly shouted statements praising the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which perpetrated the Oct. 7 attacks that killed over 1,200 Israelis.

Menin’s legislation would essentially push such protestors back 100 ft. from any house of worship.

It’s now currently being reviewed by the Mamdani administration’s legal department, with the mayor not yet taking a concrete position either for or against it, saying that he wants to both ensure freedom of speech and freedom of worship; he reportedly stayed seated when Governor Hochul mentioned her own buffer zone proposal during her annual State of the State address.

Other measures in Menin’s plan, such as the private school security plan, would be “needs-based” and “prioritize institutions with limited resources.” Menin’s office has given the example of installing more security cameras as one possible use of this proposal.

Meanwhile, the separate security training plank would “focus on smaller, community-based institutions that may lack access to professional safety planning and preparedness resources.”

The antisemitism hotline would be housed within the city administration’s Commission on Human Rights, and would “be tasked with tracking incident frequency, geographic patterns, and trends, and reporting findings to inform future policy and enforcement.”

Finally, the Holocaust education plank would provide $1.25 million of funding over two fiscal years towards the Museum of Jewish Heritage, located on Battery Place.

The money will reportedly go towards expanded school outreach and the development of a “new virtual Holocaust education experience,” while the city’s Department of Education would “distribute materials to students” informing them of how “social media use can contribute to antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of hate.”

Other measures in Menin’s plan, such as the private school security plan, would be “needs-based” and “prioritize institutions with limited resources.” Menin’s office has given the example of installing more security cameras as one possible use of this proposal.

Meanwhile, the separate security training plank would “focus on smaller, community-based institutions that may lack access to professional safety planning and preparedness resources.”

The antisemitism hotline would be housed within the city administration’s Commission on Human Rights, and would “be tasked with tracking incident frequency, geographic patterns, and trends, and reporting findings to inform future policy and enforcement.”

Finally, the Holocaust education plank would provide $1.25 million of funding over two fiscal years towards the Museum of Jewish Heritage, located on Battery Place.

The money will reportedly go towards expanded school outreach and the development of a “new virtual Holocaust education experience,” while the city’s Department of Education would “distribute materials to students” informing them of how “social media use can contribute to antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of hate.”