JERUSALEM: Visiting New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday that a recent rash of anti-Semitic acts in the United States was 鈥渞eprehensible鈥� and his state would have no tolerance for them.
In a visit to Israel, Cuomo made his first comments following the toppling of headstones at a Jewish cemetery this weekend in Brooklyn. It followed a series of vandalism attacks at Jewish cemeteries and more than 120 bomb threats to Jewish organizations in three dozen states since early January. In New York City alone, ant-Semitic hate crimes nearly doubled in the past year.
Speaking at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, Cuomo says the incidents 鈥渧iolated every tenant of the New York State tradition.鈥� He said the state has posted rewards and put together a special police unit to combat the phenomenon.
鈥淣ew York State by its definition is a celebration of diversity, it accepts all, we believe in the spirit of inclusion and we live by discrimination of none. New York鈥檚 principles are built on a rock they will not change and the political wings will not change them,鈥� he said, alongside Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. 鈥淲e have made it clear that there will be no tolerance for these acts of anti-Semitism.鈥�
The New York Police Department鈥檚 hate crimes division is investigating the toppled headstones at Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn. It follows the targeting of a Jewish cemetery in Rochester, New York.
About 100 headstones were recently overturned in a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia. That came about a week after a similar crime in Missouri. In Indiana, an apparent gunshot fired into a synagogue Tuesday has drawn the attention of the FBI.
Cuomo, who returns to New York Monday, will also meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, tour the Western Wall and attend a security briefing at Jerusalem鈥檚 Old City Police Headquarters. He鈥檒l also host a New York State-Israel Economic Development working lunch with the mayor of Jerusalem.
Cuomo calls anti-Semitic attack in New York 鈥榬eprehensible鈥�
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