Weekly roundup of world briefs

Jews were targeted by the majority of hate crimes in NYC last year

By Ben Sales

(New York Jewish Week) — Jews were the target of the majority of hate crimes in New York City last year, according to statistics reported Monday by the NYPD.

Data compiled by the department showed that there were 345 anti-Jewish hate crimes across the city in 2024, nearly 54% of the 641 total hate crimes tallied. The next-largest category of hate crimes were those related to sexual orientation, at 78.

The number of antisemitic hate crimes in 2024 was slightly larger than in 2023, when police recorded 323 total anti-Jewish crimes. That year’s total was driven by a recorded surge in antisemitism following Hamas’ invasion of Israel and the outbreak of the Gaza war on Oct. 7 of that year. The increase in antisemitism year over year comes as the total number of hate crimes in the city decreased slightly from 2023 to 2024.

High-profile antisemitic incidents occurred last year across New York, which has the largest Jewish population in the country. They ranged from from graffiti on the home of the director of the Brooklyn Museum to a protest outside an exhibit commemorating the Oct. 7 Nova music festival massacre to an anti-Israel protester accused of threatening “Zionists” in a subway car.

On Monday, protesters outside NYU’s Tisch Hospital chanted “We don’t want no Zionists here,” which Borough President Mark Levine called “Clear antisemitism.”

The NYPD data are preliminary figures and are subject to change. Not every recorded hate crime leads to an arrest or prosecution.

Americans divided over Jimmy Carter’s legacy, new poll suggests

(JNS) — Experts told JNS that though the late former President Jimmy Carter might be remembered well, Jews don’t think so fondly of the author of Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. New polling from YouGov and the Economist suggests that many don’t think Carter will have a positive legacy.

Just 9 percent of respondents polled between Dec. 29, the day Carter died, and Dec. 31 said that Carter will go down in history as an “outstanding” president, with 20 percent saying he will be remembered as “above average.”

More than a quarter (27 percent) said Carter will have an “average” legacy, and 9 percent said he would have a “poor” one. Some 15 percent were unsure.

Nearly one in five Democrats (18 percent) said that he had an “outstanding legacy,” compared to 28 percent of Republicans who said that he had a “poor” legacy and 16 percent of Republicans who said he was “below average.”

AHA members pass resolution accusing Israel of ‘scholasticide’

(JNS) — American Historical Association members voted on Sunday to approve a resolution accusing Israel of committing ‘scholasticide’ in Gaza.

The resolution at the annual business meeting of the AHA, which bills itself as ‘the leading professional association for historians in the United States,’ makes no mention of Hamas or hostages in its condemnation of Israel and the United States and its call for an immediate ceasefire.

“The U.S. government has underwritten the Israel Defense Forces campaign in Gaza with over $12.5 billion in military aid between October 2023 and June 2024,” the resolution says. “That campaign, beyond causing massive death and injury to Palestinian civilians and the collapse of basic life structures, has effectively obliterated Gaza’s education system.”

It quotes a group of U.N. experts who said in an April 18 press release that Israel’s actions in Gaza “may constitute an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as scholasticide.”

Since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, critics of Israel’s military campaign against the terrorist groups have accused the Jewish state of novel -cide “crimes.” In September, Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for Palestinian rights and one of the authors of the April U.N. press release, accused Israel of “domicide, urbicide, scholasticide, medicide, cultural genocide and more recently ecocide.”

The AHA resolution, which calls “for a permanent ceasefire to halt the scholasticide,” passed in a vote of members present at the business meeting in New York by 428 to 88.

According to one attendee, speakers who opposed the resolution on the grounds that it failed to mention Hamas were booed and hissed by attendees, and the conclusion of the vote was reportedly met with cheers of “free, free Palestine.”

The resolution will now be taken up by the AHA’s elected council, which can accept, veto or refuse to consider the measure. If the council refuses to concur, the AHA’s more than 10,000 members would vote on the resolution.

‘The Brutalist’ wins award for best motion picture at Golden Globes

(JNS) — “The Brutalist,” a film about a Holocaust survivor striving for his American Dream, won best drama motion picture at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards on Sunday. 

The film stars Adrien Brody as László Tóth, a fictional Jewish architect from Hungary who survives the Holocaust and emigrates to the United States, where he experiences antisemitism as he struggles to achieve personal and professional success. 

Brody also took home best actor in a drama motion picture, and Brady Corbet, who directed, co-wrote and co-produced the film, won the Globe for best director.

In his acceptance speech, Brody said that Tóth’s journey was “reminiscent of my mother’s and my ancestors’ journey of fleeing war and coming to this great country.”

To “the many people who have struggled immigrating to this country, I hope that this work stands to lift you up a bit and to give you a voice,” he continued. 

In addition to the film’s wins, Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce received Golden Globe nominations for their supporting roles in the 215-minute movie, which was also nominated for best original score and best motion picture screenplay. 

“The Brutalist” currently has a 93 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 170 reviews and won awards at the Venice International Film Festival and the New York Film Critics Circle.