Jewish leaders call for new NYC mask ban after explosion of antisemitic protests by mobs with hidden faces
It’s time to unmask hate.
An explosion of blatant antisemitism by anti-Israel protesters in New York — nearly all of whom cover their faces to avoid being publicly identified — is leading some Jewish leaders to call for the return of an anti-mask law that was previously used to fight the hoods of the Ku Klux Klan.
In one shocking incident Monday, protesters took over a New York City subway train, all wearing Covid masks, keffiyehs, balaclavas or sunglasses to obscure their faces, and demanded that “Zionists” raise their hands — then warned, “this is your chance to get out.”
Earlier in the day at Union Square, two protesters — faces also covered — unfurled a banner that read “Long Live October 7.”
“A mask law will make a difference,” Scott Richman, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, told The Post on Wednesday.
The group first championed similar laws around the country in the 1950s, and should back them again, Richman said.
“It effectively tanked the Ku Klux Klan. Nobody wanted their face to be seen,” he said.
New York’s law was on the books for nearly 200 years until it was repealed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The call for action comes as protests against Israel this week curdled into overt displays of hate that evoked uncomfortable echoes of Germany in the 1930s to many Jewish New Yorkers.
A mob ghoulishly gathered outside an exhibit memorializing the victims of the Oct. 7 Nova Music Festival and chanted “Long live the Intifada” on Monday, a display that sent survivors of the attack, who happened to be inside, into panic.
Video from the Union Square protest that same day showed one anti-Israel agitator telling Jews that he wished “Hitler was still here” so the Nazi leader would have “wiped all you out.”
And New Yorkers awoke Wednesday to find that vandals tossed red paint at the homes of the Brooklyn Museum’s director and Jewish board members.
“We are experiencing and seeing the Nazi playbook come to life in 2024,” Mark Treyger, head of the Jewish Community Relations Council, told The Post.
“This is a crisis, an emergency. We need a comprehensive plan to stop the rising tide of antisemitism to protect Jewish New Yorkers and all New Yorkers.”
Anti-Jewish hate crimes had been on the rise even before this week, jumping 150% in May from the same month last year, according NYPD crime stats.
Cops so far this year recorded 173 anti-Jewish hate crimes, compared to 101 in the same period in 2023, data shows.
But Brooklyn Republican Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, a Ukrainian-born Jew, said the NYPD needs to step up during this “scary time.”
“We hit a crisis point for antisemitism a long time ago,” she said.
“What’s next? We’re going to see Jews killed in the streets?”
The swirling antisemitism has renewed interest in the state’s anti-mask law. Restoring the law would strip violent protesters’ ability to operate anonymously — and unpunished just as it did for the Klan, a recent Manhattan Institute brief argued.
Assemblyman Michael Reilly (R-Staten Island), already introduced legislation last month to reinstate the mask ban.
He said the bill didn’t get any traction but will revisit it next year, and was pleased to hear Jewish leaders rallying behind the mask ban.
Reilly said antisemites are no different than the KKK.
“They’re a large mob wearing masks to scare and incite people. Doesn’t that sound like the Klu Klux Klan?” he said.
He added: “The ban on masks should have never been repealed.”
Matthew Schweber, a lawyer with the Columbia University Jewish Alumni Association, said two groups in particular — Students for Justice in Palestine and Within Our Lifetime – encourage anti-Israel protesters to wear masks to protect their themselves from accountability for unlawful behavior.
Schweber, whose practice has included free speech cases, added: “These protests are not protected under the First Amendment, because they are engaged in targeted harassment and incitement of violence.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James and the New York Civil Liberties Union both supported the mask ban’s repeal as health officials told people to mask up to protect against Covid.
The state’s ban wasn’t originally enacted to fight the Klan, according to an NYCLU brief. Instead, it was passed in response to rent protests in the 1800s.
New York’s anti-mask law banned gatherings of people covering their faces — and carried a penalty of 15 days in jail.
Richman, of the ADL, said that any new mask ban should have “appropriate exceptions for medical or religious purposes.”
