During her State of the State address yesterday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul took a moment to show the Jewish community an astonishing level of disrespect. And we should not pretend to stand for it.
Here is the entirety of the section of her speech on combating anti-Semitism:
“In 2026, we’ll take steps to protect our houses of worship against the rising tide of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. New York has already invested $130 million to better secure these sacred spaces. But clearly, much more has to be done.
“Just last week, protesters led pro-Hamas chants outside a synagogue in Kew Gardens Hills. That’s not free expression. That’s harassment. And targeting a Jewish community in this way is anti-Semitism.
“And that’s why I’m proposing a ban on these protests—now I’ll respect people’s right to protest any day of the week, but not within 25 feet of the property line at houses of worship. So those who simply want to pray can do so without fear or harassment. Everybody deserves that, every faith deserves that.”
Notice how easy it was for Hochul to come up with an example of anti-Semitic harassment at synagogues. In fact, Hochul had planned to propose these new regulations before the recent “we support Hamas” demonstration at a shul in Queens. There was a psychotic mob at Park East Synagogue in November, which the new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, justified.
In between then and the Hamas rally, violent incursions of synagogues took place outside New York, too. At a synagogue in Los Angeles, anti-Semitic “protesters” broke in and smashed things up during an event. Then Mississippi’s largest synagogue—the same one firebombed by the Ku Klux Klan during the Civil Rights era—was burned to the ground by a man who claims he was acting against the “synagogue of Satan.” A few days later, the remains of a California shul destroyed in last year’s wildfires was vandalized.
And this is just the past six weeks.
The enemies of the Jews across the political spectrum, though especially the “globalize the intifada” set, have engaged in a campaign of harassment, intimidation, and violence at synagogues around the world, very much now including America. If you cannot say that without saying “and Islamophobia,” as the spineless Gov. Hochul did in her speech, you’d be better off not saying anything at all.
It’s not merely that “and Islamophobia” gives anti-Semitism the “all lives matter” treatment. In promoting a false equivalence between the two, Hochul has slandered the Jews of New York and put them in continued danger. She has also equated the victims and the perpetrators in a moment of moral obtuseness and political recklessness.
It’s not that I don’t understand why other cultures would strain to hitch their wagons to the Jews: We are the world’s eternal people, always standing back up in time to watch our pursuers fall into the ash heap of history.
But the “and Islamophobia” nonsense needs to stop, and Jewish leaders must insist on it. The next time Kathy Hochul, or any other of America’s sponge-willed political mediocrities, considers suggesting that being Jewish is itself “Islamophobic,” they should say nothing at all. If you can’t give us the basic respect we deserve, then just keep our names out of your mouth altogether.
