When Will Antisemitism Be Taken Seriously?

Antisemitic hate crimes in New York City have recently increased by 409%, representing more than half of all hate crimes citywide. Many of these incidents targeted Orthodox people dressed in distinctive clothing, like the Jewish man who was punched in Bed-Stuy on Feb. 7 while walking on Shabbat, for which a 15-year-old was charged with assault and committing a hate crime. Yet it has not led civil rights organizations to act, unless they can connect these attacks to rightwing extremists or white supremacists, even when the evidence does not support such a link.