JTA – New York City Police Department (NYPD) recruit Allan Pearlman was running laps in the gym in May during his training to become a police officer when he heard a loud thud behind him.
Pearlman, a modern Orthodox Jew from Staten Island, turned around and saw one of his classmates lying on the ground, immobile.
Pearlman’s training as an emergency medical technician kicked in. He grabbed a police academy medical bag, rushed to his classmate’s side, made sure she had a pulse, and treated her until an ambulance arrived.
The following month, Pearlman saw another recruit for NYPD traffic enforcement lying on the ground on the police academy’s muster deck, an outdoor gathering spot. Pearlman ran outside to treat the recruit, who was having a diabetic episode. Again, he provided urgent care until an ambulance showed up.
“I don’t think I did anything special,” Pearlman told the New York Jewish Week. “I saw somebody that needed help, and I went.”
Pearlman graduated from the police academy on Monday, 15 July, and for his fast response in those two episodes, he received the Police Academy Commanding Officer’s Award for exceptional police duty, one of seven recruits to be honoured from the graduating class of 600. The Police Academy, in College Point, Queens, trains recruits for about six months.
Pearlman joins the force as it grapples with the surge in antisemitism across the city and raucous anti-Israel protests that have disrupted city life on the streets, college campuses, during major events, and at prominent public gathering places. There have been at least 223 antisemitic hate crimes reported to police since 1 January, according to preliminary police data. In one of the most recent incidents that is being investigated as a suspected hate crime, an arsonist lit a Hatzalah emergency services vehicle on fire in the Lower East Side on Saturday, 6 July.
“It’s concerning what’s happening across the city with the Jewish community, but as you see, the police department is actively recruiting members of the Jewish community,” said Deputy Chief Richie Taylor, the NYPD’s highest-ranking Orthodox Jew. The NYPD recruits candidates from communities around New York City, although Pearlman was motivated to join the force from an early age.
“It’s important for the police department to reflect the city that we serve,” Taylor said. “Every community would appreciate seeing someone who reflects them and speaks their language.”
Taylor said the NYPD didn’t track the number of Orthodox Jews on the police force.
Pearlman, 26, who grew up in the modern Orthodox community on Staten Island, was always drawn to the NYPD.
“I always wanted to be a police officer ever since I was a kid,” he said. He worked as an EMT in New Jersey with Hatzalah for eight years, which solidified his desire to join the force.
“I got to see what it really did, and that further drew me to it,” he said.
The NYPD provides officers with cultural sensitivity training, including for Jews. Pearlman said a rabbi recently came to his class to give a presentation on Judaism, such as the significance of Jewish holidays. In addition to training for all recruits, Pearlman believes his Jewish background will be an asset once he’s assigned to duty.
“It’s important to have every culture, every religion. It just gives us a better understanding of how to police and protect our communities,” he said. “If I end up in a precinct that has a predominantly Jewish community, it will definitely be beneficial. I’ll be able to understand why certain things are being done the way that they’re being done.”
Jewish officers can be an asset to their coworkers by explaining nuances about the Jewish community, said Mitch Silber, the former head of intelligence analysis for the NYPD and current director of the Community Security Initiative, which co-ordinates security for Jewish institutions in the New York area.
“They can help explain some of the traditions, rules, and regulations of that community that other police officers may not be familiar with,” Silber said. For example, if someone rode a bicycle to an Orthodox synagogue on a festival day, or yom tov, non-Jewish officers would probably not realise that such behaviour is banned by religious law as a type of work and out of the ordinary.
“In that community, nobody does that, so that would be an anomaly and maybe something suspicious,” Silber said. “Other officers might not be aware that that’s a type of behaviour that’s worth taking a second look at.”
Silber said it was especially important to have Jewish representation on the police force since 7 October and the rise in antisemitism.
“Orthodox Jewish members of the NYPD are rising in the ranks,” he said. “Just as it’s helpful to get their unique insight at the street level, it’s also [helpful] at One Police Plaza and headquarters to have Orthodox high-ranking officials so that the top brass of the NYPD is in tune with and sensitive to some of the unique elements of this community.”
Pearlman doesn’t anticipate any problems due to his religion, noting that he has spoken to other observant Jews on the force who have found the NYPD accommodating.
“They always get Shabbat off. They get off holidays,” he said. “The ones that need a beard, they get a beard.”
“I just want to make sure that wherever I end up, I can hopefully make a difference, bring the community and the police closer together, make sure people do feel safe,” he said.
