Overview

• The Chicago Commission on Human Relations convened a six-hour hearing at City Council Chambers with rabbis, victims, Chicago police, the Anti-Defamation League, the Chicago Urban League, and the Inner-City Muslim Action Network testifying.
• Police data presented showed reported anti-Jewish hate crimes rose 58% from 2023 to 2024 as most other hate-crime categories fell, and a CPD deputy chief said improved reporting processes account for part of the increase.
• Witnesses cited a summer cluster of threats and graffiti in Hyde Park, including messages on a mailbox near KAM Isaiah Israel and at least seven antisemitic graffiti incidents in less than a month.
• The proceedings exposed divisions over how to define antisemitism, with disputes about conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Jewish hate and a CPD statement that anti-Israel incidents are not classified as anti-Jewish hate crimes without qualifying elements.
• Ald. Debra Silverstein and 14 other council members criticized the speaker lineup as excluding mainstream Jewish voices, with at least eight signatories not attending, and the commission said it will issue recommendations within 60 days.