When eggs were allegedly thrown at Hasidic Jews standing in front of a synagogue in the eastern Sullivan County hamlet of Woodbourne and walking along nearby Route 42 in the Town of Fallsburg, the official reaction to the recent incident was as it should have been: swift and unequivocal.
“It is outrageous that in Sullivan County Jews are being attacked at or near their house of worship solely because of their religion,” said lawyer Jacob Billig of the newly formed Sullivan County Coalition Against Antisemitism.
“Clearly antisemitic … inexcusable in every way,” said Sullivan County Legislature Chair Nadia Rajsz.
“I … unequivocally denounce these hateful actions,” said Ramone Wilson, executive director of the Sullivan County Human Rights Commission.
“Antisemitism has no place in our community or anywhere …” said Assembly member Paula Kay. “I urge everyone to speak out with me against antisemitism whenever and wherever it appears.”
Town of Fallsburg police are investigating.
But in normally sleepy Sullivan, where the county’s population of about 79,000 triples in the summer thanks in large part to the influx of Hasidim, the public condemnation wasn’t as widespread as it should have been. In fact, some comments were despicable — focusing on the Hasidim and their behavior in Sullivan rather than the antisemitic acts of egg throwing. Unfortunately, these online comments reflect the sentiments of many Jews and non-Jews in Sullivan, many of whom stress they are not antisemitic.
“Can you blame someone for throwing eggs at a terrible driver? Not saying I condone it, but … ,” wrote one man.
“Everything they do is in the name of religion,” writes another. “Anything happens to them, it’s antisemitic?”
If you live in Sullivan like I do, you know main roads like Routes 17, 17B, 42 and 55 are way more crowded in July and August. So are stores like Walmart, which is why many locals shop on the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday. And because the Hasidim are so noticeable, with long beards and black and white clothes, they stand out — which makes it easier to blame them for just about anything, even if there are plenty of bad drivers and rude shoppers who aren’t Hasidic.
Sullivan native Billig knows that not all anti Hasidic sentiment is antisemitic — and that the issue isn’t always as black and white as those clothes.
“I recognize there are a lot of people who want the county to stay quiet,” he says, specifically referring to those who oppose high density Hasidic building projects. Billig represents Hasidic and non-Hasidic developers.
“But you can’t justify antisemitic behavior because of bad driving … ,” he adds. “That’s how you normalize the antisemitism.”
That’s particularly true during what Billig calls “these very sobering times.”
How sobering?
Antisemitic incidents in this country are at an all-time high, with 9,354 incidents in 2024 — an increase of 893% over the past 10 years, according to the Anti-Defamation League, with a majority of recent incidents related to Israel and Zionism.
Violence against all Jews — Hasidic or not — is so prevalent, the Jewish Federation of Orange County recently issued “recommendations for your personal safety and security…” shortly after Israel attacked Iran.
President Donald Trump just used a centuries-old antisemitic term, “Shylock,” at a rally in Iowa. Then-Vice President Joe Biden also did in 2014, before apologizing.
So today is not a time for equivocating or minimizing acts of violence against anyone.
We must do all we can to combat anti-Jewish acts and speech.
We must speak out against antisemitism whenever and wherever we see it.
We should support the Coalition Against Antisemitism’s efforts to “educate and re-educate” the young and old about antisemitism and its result, the Holocaust, which killed six million Jews only because of their religion. We should make every effort to understand the Hasidim, just as they should make every effort to understand the year-round non-Hasidic population, perhaps through regular town by town meetings or forums, similar to one hosted by the Sullivan Sheriff’s office in June.
And we should look long and hard at ourselves, our families and friends to see if we — unwittingly or not — are contributing to or normalizing hate.
Steve Israel, a longtime editor and columnist at the Times Herald-Record in Orange County, New York, can be reached at steveisrael53@outlook.com.
This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: After Fallsburg egg-throwing incident, we must all stand against antisemitism | Opinion
Reporting by Steve Israel / Times Herald-Record
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