Julie Menin, the first Jewish speaker of the New York City Council, allocated $750,000 to the Brooklyn district attorney’s hate crimes bureau on Monday, after the bureau’s top district attorney Eric Gonzalez testified that the unit received a fraction of the funding provided to comparable offices elsewhere in the city.
The funding will bolster hate-crime prosecutions in Brooklyn, where an estimated 462,000 Jews live, according to 2023 data from the UJA-Federation of New York. It comes at a time when Jews, who make up about 10% of the city’s population, were targeted in more than 55% of all confirmed hate crimes in New York City during the first six months of 2026.
Inna Vernikov, a Jewish Republican who represents part of South Brooklyn on the City Council and co-chairs the council’s task force on Jew-hatred, pushed for additional funding after Gonzalez drew attention to the funding disparity at an April 22 task-force hearing.
“Mamdani found $200 million in funding for BHRAGS, an organization under federal indictment, but failed to fund Brooklyn’s hate crimes bureau, despite a 74% citywide rise in hate crimes—more than half of them targeting Jews,” Vernikov told JNS.
“With the news of the stabbing last week of an Asian American and a Jewish American on the Upper West Side, this funding is especially critical and timely,” she said.
Gonzalez told council members in April that his office had received just $50,000 from the previous mayoral administration to address all hate crimes, while district attorney’s offices in other boroughs received more than $1 million.
“I asked for $1.5 million to fund the dedicated hate crimes unit that would be funded like the Manhattan DA’s office or the Queens DA office,” Gonzalez testified. “I think the people of Brooklyn deserve to be funded with a dedicated unit.”
Menin said the new allocation would give prosecutors additional resources to investigate and prosecute hate crimes.
“Every New Yorker deserves to live free from fear and hate,” she stated. “As antisemitic incidents and other hate crimes continue to threaten our communities, it is critical that prosecutors have the resources they need. The City Council is proud to provide this funding.”
Gonzalez said that he was “deeply grateful” to Menin and Vernikov for their leadership.
“This investment will allow us to expand our work, strengthen specialized training and engage more proactively with communities targeted by hate so that we can prevent harm, support victims and hold offenders accountable,” he stated.
