Screenshot of surveillance footage showing suspect in harassment and vandalism incidents that targeted synagogues and a Jewish ambulance service. Photo: NYPD Crime Stoppers/Twitter

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is searching for a man suspected of vandalizing multiple Jewish targets and attempting to force his way into a synagogue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

An individual believed to be a Black male on Monday defaced with graffiti and attempted to forcibly enter Temple Shaaray Tefila. According to sources familiar with the situation, the same man also went to an ambulance zone of Hatzalah, a Jewish volunteer emergency medical service, located near another synagogue, Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, and confronted a worker there. Multiple vehicles were also defaced with graffiti, including one with the words “Drop Dead.”

The incident occurred two days after an individual scrawled antisemitic graffiti on an electronic message sign on the property of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun. It’s unclear if the same man was behind this incident as well, although descriptions of the suspect appear to match in each case.

The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is looking into what appears to be a string of antisemitic incidents in Manhattan.

According to the executive director of the Community Security Initiative (CSI), a nonprofit that provides security to synagogues and Jewish organizations across New York City, these latest incidents are part of a broader nationwide surge in antisemitism.

“Right now, we don’t know necessarily if there is any threat associated with this individual, but his actions reflect the rising tide of antisemitic incidents nationwide,” Mitchell Silber told The Algemeiner. “It’s tough to figure out what this is connected to. Is this a one-off individual with some grievances? We don’t really know enough to say. Conclusions will come when we know more, but it is certainly unnerving to people in the community.”

Silber added that CSI is working with the local 19th NYPD precinct, within which all the incidents occurred, to bring the suspect to justice.

The latest incidents are part of an ongoing wave of crimes targeting the Jewish community. Over 100 antisemitic hate crimes have taken place in New York City this year alone, according to an analysis of NYPD crime statistics conducted by The Algemeiner.

The number of incidents peaked in March, when there were 31 such hate crimes — a 52 percent increase from the previous year.

In 2022, antisemitic hate crimes throughout New York City increased by 42 percent, with notable attacks including the shooting of a Jewish man and his seven-year-old son with a BB gun outside a kosher market in Staten Island, an attack on three yeshiva students who were walking home in Brooklyn, and a spree of shootings with gel guns on Orthodox Jews in Williamsburg.

New York State led the nation last year with 508 antisemitic incidents, according to an annual audit issued in March by the Anti-Defamation League, which is currently partnering with CSI and six other nonprofit organizations to share intelligence on threats to the Jewish community in New York and New Jersey. Both states combined for nearly 1,000 antisemitic incidents last year, tallying the first and third most of all 50 states.

Other data compiled by Americans Against Antisemitism, a US-based group founded in 2019, has shown that Hasidic and Orthodox Jews in New York City are disproportionately represented in the area’s hate crime statistics, being targeted in 94 percent of all reported incidents.

The Algemeiner has reached out to the NYPD for comment for this story.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.