You are reading

Queens leaders host community forum on hate, antisemitism in Little Neck

Mar. 20, 2023 By Ethan Marshall

Queens elected officials hosted a forum on the impact of antisemitism and hate in the community Sunday, March 19, at the Commonpoint Queens Sam Field Center in Little Neck. Among the elected leaders in attendance were Assemblyman Edward Braunstein, Senator Toby Ann Stavisky and Councilwoman Linda Lee.

forum

Photo by Adrian Childress

The elected leaders held this forum in partnership with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization that researches the Holocaust and hate around the world in a historical and contemporary context. The event was funded by and held in collaboration with the office of New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams.

According to a representative from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the total number of hate crimes across the United States has experienced a large uptick since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The most significant rise in hate crimes across the country in 2021 were anti-Asian hate crimes, which experienced a 167% increase. This was due in large part to many people across the country blaming them for the pandemic reaching the United States, despite there being little to no evidence to support this theory.

forum

Social media platforms with different channels that groups such as Patriots First use to communicate and organize (Photo by Adrian Childress)

One factor that has led to the rise in hate crimes across the country is that many hate groups are able to interact and post their propaganda on social media. These sites have allowed hate groups to organize and spread their harmful rhetoric, both within the groups and across the social media platforms as a whole.

Lee, who is the vice co-chair of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, acknowledged the fact that the spread of hate online is just one of many new fashions in which those in Queens, as well as communities across the country, are facing discrimination.

forum

Councilwoman Lee speaking at the forum (Photo by Adrian Childress)

“One of the reasons why I made it a point to join the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus as one of their executive board members on the council is because we need to work together,” Lee said. “We need to have that voice of representation and work across all different communities and religions.”

Multiple accounts and websites that spread and promote hateful rhetoric and with large followings were highlighted at the presentation. One such group was White Lives Matter. With over 250,000 followers on its website and Twitter account, the group promotes the idea that white genocide is being carried out in the name of diversity. The group is anti-Islamic, anti-immigration and antisemitic. They also promote content from former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, as well as from a Holocaust-denying website.

forum

Photo by Adrian Childress

Another antisemitic website highlighted at the forum was Goyim TV. The video-sharing site was created by Jon Minadeo, the operator of the neo-Nazi group known as the Goyim Defense League. The website is used by white supremacists and neo-Nazis to post and share videos promoting these views. The “About” section of the website states that everyone except Jews and those who support them should be treated as equals.

forum

Photo by Adrian Childress

The elected leaders in attendance at the forum drew upon some of their own experiences with hate. Assemblyman Braunstein brought up a recent incident at Fort Totten, in which the police were called in response to graffiti on a building of a swastika, with the statement “All Jews should burn.”

forum

Assemblyman Edward Braunstein addresses the crowd at the forum (Photo by Adrian Childress)

“It’s important that we speak out [against hate],” Assemblyman Braunstein said. “It’s important that we’re not silent about it and it’s important that we acknowledge this problem.”

Recent News

Disgraced former Queens Council Member Dan Halloran arrested on child porn charges

Former Queens Council Member Dan Halloran, who was convicted in 2014 for his role in two bribery and corruption schemes and served five years in federal prison, is in trouble with the law again.

Halloran was arrested at Miami International Airport on Saturday, March 29, and charged with possessing child pornography and transporting child pornography after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers inspected his Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max and an Apple iPad 6th Generation tablet and discovered several videos of suspected child pornography located in a hidden folder album on the phone’s photos application, according to the criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of Florida.

Southeast Queens man convicted of triple murder in 2022 stabbing rampage that killed girlfriend, her son and cousin: DA

A Jamaica man was convicted at trial Tuesday of murder in the first degree and other crimes for the vicious stabbing deaths of his girlfriend, her son and a visiting cousin during a bloody rampage in June 2022.

Travis Blake, 31, of 155th Street, faces up to life in prison at sentencing following the three-and-a-half-week-long trial. The jury deliberated for just two hours before reaching the guilty verdict in Queens Supreme Court.

Op-ed: The crisis facing immigrant gender-based violence survivors

April 2, 2025 By Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas, Zeinab Eyega and Yasmeen Hamza

As advocates who have dedicated our careers to achieving gender equity and justice, and as the representative of and service providers for some of the most culturally diverse districts in the country, we know firsthand the importance of ensuring that survivors of gender-based violence receive support that speaks to their specific needs. In Queens, where nearly 300 languages and dialects are spoken and we face the third-highest rate of reported domestic violence in New York State, the call for culturally specific services is urgent—and it is time for us to act.