Case Explained:This article breaks down the legal background, charges, and implications of Case Explained: Anti-Jewish crime reporting method changes under Zohran Mamdani, lowers figure: NYPD – Legal Perspective
Collage of blue swastikas painted on a playground slide in Gravesend Park, with an inset of a woman and man looking forward.
Antisemitic crime was soaring in NYC — until Mayor Mamdani’s new math kicked in.
After a startling spike in January, Mamdani’s NYPD changed how it counts antisemitic incidents, virtually shrinking the startling numbers overnight.
Anti-Jewish incidents were up an eye-popping 182% in Mamdani’s first month in office, with 31 reports this January compared to 11 in January 2025.
When asked about the change in reporting, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told City Council, “In my opinion, what we should be reporting on is confirmed instances of hate crimes.” Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com via Reuters Connect
But in February, the NYPD changed the rules and started counting the crimes only after they are investigated by the Hate Crime Task Force and confirmed as hate crimes, the NYPD said.
Only 21 antisemitic crimes were logged in February – 10 fewer than in January, NYPD data show.
And as of March 15, the NYPD tallied 69 anti-Jewish crimes this year compared to 58 in the same period last year — for a more politically palatable 19% increase, the data reveal.
“We’re all watching the manufacturing of propaganda in real time,” said Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side.
“They’ll change the method of counting antisemitic crimes and literally six months later the mayor’s office will claim that antisemitism has dropped. What it will do is it will burnish the mayor’s credentials but unfortunately it will further marginalize Jews.”
Yellow and blue swastikas were found painted on a number of slides and playground equipment in Gravesend Park in Borough Park, Brooklyn, on Jan. 21, 2026. Gregory P. Mango for NY Post
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a budget hearing this month the previous accounting method distorted reality.
“I believe in transparency,” Tisch said. “I also believe that the numbers the NYPD was previously reporting were conflicting, wrong, and confusing. In my opinion, what we should be reporting on is confirmed instances of hate crimes”
Swastikas were seen painted on equipment in a Borough Park, Brooklyn, park. Gregory P. Mango
An NYPD spokeswoman said that if the NYPD had kept the old counting system in place one additional antisemitic crime would have been counted in February 2026.
But one expert called out the NYPD for the accounting change.
“It’s textbook fudging the numbers,” said former NYPD Detective Michael Alcazar, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Gregory P. Mango for NY Post
“It’s going to look like they’re combating hate crimes but they’re not being transparent,” Alcazar said. “If they really want to be transparent then they should show the number of complaints they actually receive and what the investigations yielded.”
One government insider predicted the number of antisemitic crimes would continue increasing but the public will simply be unaware.
“I think the number is going to keep rising and so they’re trying to show this incredible positive trend that’s going to be a false picture,” the source said.
A man purposely crashed his car into a synagogue at 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, in January, and was hit with state and federal hate crimes charges. William C Lopez/New York Post
The staunchly anti-Israel Mamdani has cancelled executive orders enacted by former Mayor Eric Adams to combat antisemitism. His wife Rama Duwaji has liked social media posts cheering Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on innocent Israelis and questioning Israeli rape victims.
Mamdani says his critics attack him because he is Muslim and that he governs people of all faiths equally.
A City Hall spokesman said the change in hate crime accounting wasn’t ordered by Mamdani’s office.
“The NYPD made this decision without City Hall involvement,” the spokesman said.
Dan Sohail, 36, of Carteret, N.J., crashed his car into Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters in Crown Heights. Kevin C Downs for the NY Post
Elisha Wiesel, son of the late Holocaust survivor, author, and political activist Elie Wiesel, said the tone-deaf disconnect has led to a widening “gap of trust” between the socialist mayor and city Jews.
“If that gap of trust didn’t exist, all of these things would probably be viewed with a lot less suspicion,” he said, citing the mayor’s refusal “to condemn, ‘globalize the intifada’ as hate speech.”
Elisha Wiesel, son of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, thinks there’s a trust gap between the mayor and city Jews. AP
“Still to this day hasn’t condemned it,” Wiesel said of the anti-Israel slogan.
“And then, you know, his director of appointments had to resign over antisemitic tweets,” Wiesel said of Catherine Almonte Da Costa, who resigned in December after vile online posts from 2011 and 2012 surfaced.
Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz of the UES’s Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun wants the NYPD to go back to tallying up every reported anti-Jewish crime. Courtesy of Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz
When asked if he thought hate crimes were rising as a result of the divisiveness, Wiesel said, “It sure would be great to have the numbers so we could figure that out.”
Steinmetz said the old accounting method should be reinstated.
“I think there should be a loud outcry telling them to change it back,” he said. “To me, if you are sincere about combatting anti-semnitism you need to measure the complaints.”
Otherwise, he continued: “We have this new administration that is really for their purposes diminishing – backpedaling on antisemitism.”