Coming to a park in Manhattan is Joshua Glettner’s way of reclaiming peace.

The 20-year-old said a group of young people followed him in this neighborhood last November, shouting hateful words because he’s openly Jewish.

What You Need To Know

  • A new report by the American Jewish Committee said more than half of all Jewish Americans feel less safe living in the U.S. compared to a year ago

  • Joshua Glettner, 20, said a group of young people followed him in his Manhattan neighborhood last November, shouting hateful words because he’s openly Jewish

  • Mark Lis, 27, and a friend, were going store to store, seeking permission to hang hostage posters, when he was the target of an antisemitic incident
  • The Anti-Defamation League’s Scott Richman said the rise of antisemitism is deeply troubling for society at large, including the act of tearing down hostage posters, which he says dehumanizes Jews

“They kept yelling, ‘What’s your black hat? What’s your black hat?’ And then, after that, they started saying, ‘We love Hitler. Kill all the Jews. Kill all the Jews. Long live Hitler.’”

Glettner said he never reported the incident out of fear. That same fear left him afraid to walk alone: to go home, to go to his college classes, anywhere.

“I was really freaked out after that,” he said. “I really stopped walking at that point, I confined myself directly around campus … and so, that had a pretty poor effect on my mental health.”

Nearly two out of every three Jewish Americans say they feel less safe than they did a year ago. That’s according to a new nationwide survey conducted by the American Jewish Committee.

Mark Lis, 27, said he was putting up hostage posters in his neighborhood two weeks after Hamas’ October 7 attack. He and a friend, going store to store, sought out permission to hang the posters. He saiud they were getting an overwhelmingly positive response until he was the target of an antisemitic incident.

“The store owner in front of about the 25 to 30 people in the store, started just yelling hateful and violent [things] against us, against Jews in general,” said Lis. “He began by saying, ‘Eff the Jews, Hamas should have gotten you all, they will get you all. I’ll kill you, we’ll kill you.’”

Lis said he was shocked and disappointed and hasn’t shopped at the store since. And while the incident hits close to home, it hasn’t deterred his faith.

The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force reported 31 bias incidents targeting Jewish people in December 2023, a big jump from the one reported in December 2022. The Anti-Defamation League’s Scott Richman said the rise of antisemitism is deeply troubling for society at large, including the act of tearing down hostage posters.

“These acts of ripping down the posters, are somehow dehumanizing Jews,” Richman said. “It’s saying that Jewish hostages are not worthy of empathy, and when you dehumanize Jews that will lead to antisemitism for sure and lead to hate.”

Meanwhile, Glettner said his time in the park has helped to release some of his anxiety.

“It certainly has been a very nice experience. I haven’t encountered anything negative, thank God.”