In a classic episode of The Twilight Zone, written by Rod Serling, a town finds itself shrouded in darkness on the day of a condemned man’s execution. After the deed is done, one of the characters, a minister, sought to explain why everything was going black around the people.
“It’s the hate he felt, the hate you felt, the hate all of us feel, and there’s too much of it. There’s just too much,” the minister said. “And so we had to vomit it out. And now it’s coming up all around us and choking us.”
There is too much hate around us — in this city, this country, this world. The evidence of the hatred is abundant, and in the face of such ignorance, far too little is done to stop it.
Hate crimes are few in New York, yet a majority of those crimes are perpetrated against Jewish New Yorkers. The NYPD’s data has reflected that reality for months; in February alone, there were 38 hate crimes citywide, but 21 of them (55.8%) involved victims who were Jewish.
We’ve seen antisemitic hatred rear its ugly head at protests outside synagogues where demonstrators have changed slogans calling for the eradication of the Jewish State of Israel and her people. The City Council is now working on a bill to set protest boundaries near houses of worship, after Mayor Zohran Mamdani vetoed an executive order from former Mayor Eric Adams establishing them.
Mayor Mamdani himself has faced criticism for being slow to distance himself from, or outright condemning, antisemitic language used at pro-Palestine protests. He took additional criticism this week for his staunch opposition to U.S. military operations in Iran, which he called an “illegal war of aggression.”
The remarks came despite the fact that many New Yorkers are aware of the oppressive Iranian government’s long-held anti-Israel, anti-American beliefs, and applauded the action taken to stop it. It also sowed further doubt as to whether Mamdani could truly protect and represent Jewish New Yorkers as mayor.
But at the same time, Mamdani himself has faced anti-Islamic hatred. On Tuesday, a radio talk show host, Sid Rosenberg, called him on X a “Radical Islam cockroach” and a “Jihadist America hating mayor.” Such vile remarks must be wholly rejected.
We have only two choices as a society: We can either live with the hatred, or work together to stop it. There is no gray area, nor any justification to dehumanize and defame anyone because of who they are.
We have to come together to stand against antisemitism, Islamophobia, and every other form of hate that we confront. We must have a mayor and a government that strongly represents every New Yorker. We must have them work together to do everything possible to protect and celebrate every community and squash every attack.
There is too much hatred around us. If we don’t stand united to stop it now, the darkness will soon consume us all.
