WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 17: U.S. President Joe Biden gives an update on his administrationís COVID-19 response and vaccination program in the East Room of the White House on May 17, 2021 in Washington, DC. Biden announced that the U.S. will send 20 million doses of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines abroad on top of the 60 million AstraZeneca doses already planned for export. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by Anna Moneymaker / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)
President Joe Biden on Monday condemned a reported spate of “hateful” attacks and acts of aggression against Jews in the United States in the wake of the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas.
“The recent attacks on the Jewish community are despicable, and they must stop,” Biden tweeted. “I condemn this hateful behavior at home and abroad — it’s up to all of us to give hate no safe harbor.”
New York police said Friday they were conducting a hate crimes investigation after several people shouting anti-Semitic slurs attacked a Jewish man while pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated in Times Square.
Five or six men beat and pepper-sprayed the 29-year-old man late Thursday, a police spokesperson said. One man was arrested.
Jonathan Greenblatt, director of the Anti-Defamation League, said that since the latest outbreak of fighting, there has been a spike in anti-Semitic acts in the United States.
He pointed to a number of incidents in several states, including two incidents this week in Los Angeles, where supporters of the Palestinians attacked Jewish men sitting outside a restaurant, and also threw bottles at homes of Jews that had the traditional mezuzah parchment on their doors.
“We have seen a dangerous and drastic spike in anti-Semitism here at home in just the past week to 10 days,” said Greenblatt.