New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, faces an opponent who has vowed to declare a state of emergency over antisemitism on her first day in office if elected.

“When I am attorney general, I will declare a state of emergency on antisemitism on day one,” Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor, told reporters, speaking at the site of the syringe stabbing Wednesday of a rabbi in New York City’s Diamond District.

“Every Jewish New Yorker is feeling the rise of hate in our city and in our state,” she said, pointing to the New York Police Department’s hate crime statistics that show that although Jews make up only about 11 percent of New York City, more than half of hate crimes target Jews.

Yousef Krish, the victim of one of the latest anti-Jewish attacks, was harassed by a Russian-speaking woman. He tried to evade her, but she followed him, stabbing him in the back with something sharp that later turned out to be a syringe. Krish was taken to the hospital and is in stable condition.

The Brooklyn resident was recently ordained as a rabbi and commutes from Crown Heights to Manhattan every day to impart religious instruction.

“I’m still shaken,” Krish told Chabad.org in an interview. “I never imagined I’d be stabbed simply for being Jewish, right here in New York City.”

“As I try to make sense of what happened, I keep thinking about my grandparents,” he added. “They survived the Holocaust, experienced the worst of hatred, and still went on to build a proud Jewish family. I know what they’d tell me now, don’t back down.”

Jews who are visibly Jewish are often confronted, sometimes violently, with a stabbing taking place in July that ignited a firestorm of protest against NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose anti-Israel rhetoric is seen as stoking the flames of antisemitic hatred.

“Even when we have the best police force in the world, and we do, they can arrest someone, but if there’s not follow-up through charging, prosecution, conviction, and sentencing, then it won’t work,” Komatireddy said.

“The stakes couldn’t be higher. Crime instills fear in communities. Crime intimidates. Crime makes people feel unwelcome.”

She also noted that the AG’s Hate Crimes Unit was currently “not staffed,” a circumstance she found “unacceptable” and which she also promised to change.

“I will staff the Hate Crimes Unit, and I will ensure that we prosecute hate crimes and all crime in New York,” Komatireddy added. “I’ll do it myself if I have to.”