NYC Jewish school buses vandalized with swastikas, anti-Israel graffiti

Mayor Mamdani and Governor Hochul condemn Nazi and anti-Israel graffiti on school buses serving Jewish religious schools in Brooklyn.

By World Israel News Staff

Four school buses serving Jewish religious schools in Brooklyn were vandalized with swastikas and antisemitic graffiti on Monday morning, prompting a hate crime investigation and condemnation from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul.

Police were called to the intersection of Bedford Avenue and Williamsburg Street West in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Williamsburg shortly before 10 a.m., after the vandalism was discovered on four yellow school buses.

Photographs from the scene showed the vehicles, which bore Hebrew lettering identifying Jewish educational institutions, defaced with Nazi symbols and slogans including “F— Israel,” “Free Palestine,” and “USA First.”

According to local reports, the buses served schools affiliated with the Satmar and Klausenburg Hasidic communities, as well as Tiferes Yisroel.

The New York Police Department’s Hate Crime Task Force opened an investigation, working alongside officers from the 90th Precinct and the Williamsburg Shomrim community patrol. No arrests had been announced as of Monday evening.

“The antisemitic vandalism targeting school buses in South Williamsburg is abhorrent,” Mamdani said, adding that his administration was working with police and Jewish community leaders to identify those responsible.

Governor Kathy Hochul also condemned the attack, declaring that “No Jewish child or family should have to endure this kind of fear and intimidation.”

She called for the perpetrators to be identified, arrested and prosecuted.

New York Attorney General Letitia James described the vandalism as “despicable,” declaring that antisemitism and hatred have no place in the state.

City Council member Lincoln Restler, whose district includes the site of the incident, called the graffiti “truly obscene.”

“The decade-long rise in anti-Semitic incidents must be stopped,” Restler said.

Moshe Spern, president of United Jewish Teachers, described the incident as a deliberate act of antisemitism and criticized the city’s response to growing hostility against Jews.

“Jewish children should never have to board buses covered in Nazi symbols and anti-Israel hatred,” Spern told JNS.

The vandalism came less than a month after the United Talmudical Academy in Williamsburg received a bomb threat on October 9, one of two Brooklyn Jewish schools evacuated that day. Police subsequently determined that both threats were unfounded.

The latest incident also comes amid persistently high levels of antisemitic crime in New York City.

According to NYPD figures released in October, Jewish New Yorkers were targeted in 245 of the city’s 463 confirmed hate crimes during the first nine months of 2026, accounting for nearly 53% of all incidents despite Jews representing approximately 10% of the population.

The figure marked a slight increase from the 242 anti-Jewish hate crimes recorded during the corresponding period in 2025, underscoring continuing security concerns within the city’s Jewish community.

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