Antisemitic costumes at Woodstock, NY Halloween parade ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Thursday, November 05, 2026

Antisemitic costumes at Woodstock, NY Halloween parade

The Woodstock Town Board and the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce & Arts condemned reports of teens wearing antisemitic costumes at the town’s popular annual Halloween parade.

Some on social media reported seeing some youths dressed as Hasidic Jews waving large $100 bills at the parade on Saturday.

I could not find pictures of the youths, but a first hand report was published in Facebook by Mike Jacobs:

On Halloween, my family and I were at the parade in Woodstock, NY. It's a family parade. The costume contest has a category for zero to two years old.

Marching in it was a group of young men, maybe twenty years old, dressed as Hasidic Jews. Black hats, black coats, fake sidelocks. On their own, that might have passed for a costume. Then came the giant million-dollar bills, held up for the crowd. The money made it something else: a cartoon older than this country.

They walked the whole route, past thousands of people. Parents, grandparents, teenagers. My neighbors, people who take pride in calling out racism when they see it. If it had been blackface, would anyone have needed it explained? My friend and I were the only people I saw say anything. Two Jews, at a family parade, in Woodstock of all places.
...
We didn't hesitate. We ran after them and told them what they were wearing, while my six-year-old daughter watched. One of them said, "I'm half Jewish," as if that settled it. We told him that made it worse.
Even the costume came with an excuse.

The Woodstock Chamber of Commerce condemned the display in no uncertain terms:

ANTISEMITIC DISPLAYS ARE NOT WELCOME AT WOODSTOCK HALLOWEEN PARADE

It has come to our attention that a group of young men attended the Annual Woodstock Halloween Event, October 31st 2026, in group costume, which displayed antisemitic messaging. There is no place for that here.

The Woodstock Chamber had no knowledge of this occurrence on the day of the event. This is very distressing, as our Jewish Community is integral in Woodstock, presently and in our history.

Being such a branded town, Halloween in Woodstock appears to have become a way for some to make bold statements—in costume. The group costume(s) described to us embodies an obscene and cowardly misuse of the audience provided by the town’s brand and inevitable invitation. We refute the use of Woodstock’s name as platform for such spectacle.

The Woodstock Chamber of Commerce & Arts, The Rock Academy, and all of our sponsors and support team are deeply concerned, and will be looking further into how to educate the community, visitors and participants of our events, on the gross practice of cultural appropriation and the responsibility to acceptance, inclusion and care for our global neighbors.