by Debra Nussbaum Cohen
“We’re not going anywhere so fast. We can’t be erased,” one attendee told JNS. “People aren’t surrendering.”
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Rabbi Arthur Schneier, of Park East Synagogue,
speaks at a UJA-Federation of New York rally against Jew-hatred outside
Park East Synagogue that drew about 1,100 Jewish New Yorkers, who braved
bitter cold on Dec. 4, 2025. Credit: Rod Morata/Michael Priest
Photography. |
On a bitterly cold Thursday night last week, some 1,100 Jewish New Yorkers braved the freezing temperatures to participate in a solidarity rally outside the Orthodox synagogue which was targeted by anti-Israel protesters two weeks earlier.
At the Dec. 4 rally, the mood was one of pride and determination.
“This felt like ‘We are Jewish New Yorkers. Don’t you dare f*** with us.’ It was the necessary response to those crazy hoodlums trying to intimidate Jews. Because we’re not going to allow it,” said Shira Dicker, a writer and publicist from the Upper West Side.
On Nov. 19, Nefesh b’Nefesh held an event at Park East Synagogue promoting aliyah when demonstrators outside chanted “death to the IDF” and “globalize the intifada,” as well as “we don’t want no Zionists here.” One organizer from the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation reportedly told the 200-person crowd, “We need to make them scared.”
“I was glad to see the Jewish community organize this rally,” said participant Daniel Treiman, an attorney who lives on the Upper East Side. “It’s really important to stand up against this abominable, genuinely hateful trend of protests outside Jewish institutions in which they chant unambiguously murderous slogans.”
The rally was organized by UJA-Federation of New York and had a long list of co-sponsors, including synagogues of every denomination and Jewish day schools.
The Federation began planning it the day after the anti-Israel protest outside Park East, said Hindy Poupko, the agency’s senior vice president for community organizing and external relations, by email.
“We held this rally to stand up for our community, our core values and our unwavering support for Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish homeland,” she said. “With nearly 100 partners for the rally, we showed we are united, strong and proud Jews, News Yorkers and Zionists.”
Speakers included Rabbi Arthur Schneier, the longtime spiritual leader of Park East Synagogue and a Holocaust survivor; incoming New York City comptroller and current Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine; Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, who is the executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis; Rabbi Joanna Samuels, CEO of the Marlene Meyerson JCC of Manhattan; and Rabbi David Ingber, who is founder of the congregation Romemu and senior director for Jewish life at 92Y.
Matisyahu sang, as did the children’s choir of Park East Day School, which sang “Am Yisrael Chai,” with many rally attendees singing along.
Anti-Israel, anti-Zionist protests are taking place worldwide. One this week picketed a donut shop in London for being Israeli-owned.
Israeli- and Jewish-owned businesses all over New York City have been damaged by graffiti and broken windows by anti-Israel protesters.
“It’s a very fraught time for Jews. Here in New York City, we never expected this. It’s been shocking in many ways,” said rally attendee Beth Mann, who works as chief development officer at the Manhattan JCC.
Speakers’ focus at the rally was on community and the centrality of Jewish presence in New York City. With 1.4 million people in the metro New York City area, it is the largest Jewish population of any city in the world after the Tel Aviv metro area.
Unlike at the anti-Israel protest outside Park East last month, police presence at the unity rally was strong, with rally-goers contained by barricades to one long block, which they mostly filled, with surrounding streets closed. Every speaker thanked the police.
New York City Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch—who is Jewish—apologized for the police not being better prepared the night of the anti-Zionist event outside Park East. This week, she apologized to incoming mayor Zohran Mamdani after her brother Benjamin Tisch, CEO of the Loews Corporation, referred to him as an “enemy” of the Jewish people at a Jewish charity benefit.
Mamdani has said that he will keep Tisch on as police commissioner and that he will appoint an antisemitism senior adviser once he takes office.
Mamdani, who responded to November’s anti-Israel protest at Park East Synagogue with what many Jewish New Yorkers considered a problematic statement, was not mentioned by name at the rally. The mayor-elect’s press secretary said after the Park East protest that all New Yorkers have the right to enter their places of worship unimpeded by intimidation, but also that “sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.”
Concern about the influence and impact of his staunch anti-Zionism and anti-Israel views wasn’t far from many rally attendees’ thoughts even though his name wasn’t mentioned.
Naomi Mark, a psychologist who lives on the Upper West Side and participated in the rally, said that she thought the strategy of not citing Mamdani’s name “was wise.”
“They have to work for the better good. That is the message that our leaders have to promote,” said Mann, the Manhattan JCC official who lives in Stuyvesant Town. “We need leaders who inspire us to be better.”
Dicker said “one of the conversations around every Shabbat dinner table is what people’s Plan B is,” or where they will go if things get even worse for Jews in New York City.
But, said Mark, “We are trying to hold on to our vision of New York, loving America and loving Israel. We’re not going anywhere so fast. We can’t be erased. People aren’t surrendering.”
Debra Nussbaum Cohen
Source: https://www.jns.org/1100-jewish-new-yorkers-brave-bitter-cold-to-rally-against-jew-hatred-outside-targeted-synagogue/
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