City Council Speaker Julie Menin introduced legislation Thursday to create an up to 100-foot buffer zone for protests outside synagogues and other houses of worship.
The new proposed bill from the city’s first Jewish council speaker would allow the NYPD to establish a security perimeter of maximum 100 feet around religious institutions during demonstrations, to be determined on a case-by-case basis.
“Jewish New Yorkers make up roughly 10 percent of our city’s population yet last year they were the victims of more than half of all reported hate crimes. That’s a reality we cannot normalize and we cannot ignore,” Menin said.
The bill is one of several points in the speaker’s recently announced five-point plan to address antisemitism, which also includes reimbursement programs for security cameras at private schools, security training for religious organizations and kicking in $1.25 million in new funding for the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
The legislation comes after anti-Israel protestors targeting synagogues from Queens to the Upper East Side have spewed vile and antisemitic language, going so far as to say “we support Hamas.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul previously suggested state legislation creating a 25-foot protest buffer zone.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani notably did not clap along with other attendees when Hochul made the announcement during her “State of the State” address in Albany earlier this month.
The mayor’s office previously told The Post that Hizzoner was waiting on a review from the city Law Department to determine the legality of such proposals.
Critics of buffer zone bills have claimed that they could encroach on protesters’ First Amendment rights.
“The right to peacefully protest is sacrosanct, it’s what our country was built on. None of these bills penalize protests. That is not what we’re doing,” Menin said at a press conference Thursday, ahead of a City Council meeting.
“What we are doing is really creating the safe perimeters that allow people to really move into their respective house of worship and schools.”
