Pro-Palestinian agitators have found a new venue for their hate-flled protests—our shuls.
By Sandy Eller
I’ll admit it.
One of the frst things that went through my brain as I tried to process the atrocities of October 7 was a sense of relief that my daughter had come back from Jerusalem with her husband and baby for Sukkot, because, somehow, New York just felt safer to me. But the notion that she, or any of us, could have a sense of security in the United States disappeared almost as quickly as my sukkah did, and just a few short weeks later, I was happy
to see her go back home to Jerusalem which, once again, felt like the better place to be.
Tings have gotten ugly in North America since October. Much of the sympathy for the devastating brutality that Israel endured vanished once the IDF began retaliating against Hamas. While the Jewish State certainly has strong supporters in this country, there is a very vocal segment of the population that quickly recast Israel as an aggressor, accusing it of genocide.
Hating on Israel was suddenly in vogue.
Anti-Israel demonstrations led to protesters shutting down roadways and bridges, and eventually social media evolved into a battlefeld of its own. Turning to the next chapter in their playbook, agitators set their sights on new venues for their vitriol-flled protests—our shuls—bathing our communities in hate and bringing the threat of violence directly to the heart of our neighborhoods.
A counter-protest held at the BAYT, a shul in Toronto, this past March. Photo: Getty Images
MONTREAL, CANADA
The problems began before the frst of fve scheduled real estate events for buyers seeking property in Israel even started.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators turned out by the dozen on March 4 at the Federation Combined Jewish Appeal (CJA) building to protest an event featuring three IDF reservists, who were sharing their personal post–October 7 stories of strength, resilience and justice. In addition
to physically blocking people from entering the building where the IDF reservists were speaking, and trapping people inside the building for hours, demonstrators spewed rhetoric that included threats of death and violence against Jews. After butting heads with police, a number of demonstrators were pepper-sprayed and two were arrested.
They were back again the next night at the Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue as the Great Real Estate Event held its frst expo for those interested in buying Israeli property
From Rabbis to Generals
Troughout North America, rabbanim have found themselves navigating uncharted waters. Rabbi Adir Posy, director of the Department of Synagogue Initiatives at the Orthodox Union, noted that nerves have been fraught in Jewish communities nationwide, causing rabbanim to deliver Shabbat Hagadol-level derashot in their shul every week since the start of the war. From hardening their security protocols to inspiring stressedout ba’alei batim, rabbis have found themselves leading the charge on an unfamiliar battlefeld and facing the need to assemble a toolkit of skills to lead their congregations through challenging times.
Tat reality became abundantly clear over the winter when pro-Palestinian groups made plans to demonstrate outside several shuls in New York, New Jersey, Montreal and Toronto, which were hosting the Great Real Estate Event, an annual Israel real estate exhibition aimed at potential buyers. Taking to social media, agitators called upon their followers to join them in
Sandy
Eller is a freelance
writer who writes for numerous websites, newspapers, magazines and private clients.
protesting what they described as the “sale of stolen Palestinian property” to Jews, accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza and calling for its destruction. Although none of the real estate events were shul-sponsored, rabbanim and ofcials at each of the targeted facilities found themselves facing the possibility of a major threat, one that clearly surpassed their existing security protocols.
“If you don’t do anything, it’s dangerous,” explained Rabbi Ya’akov Trump of the Young Israel of LawrenceCedarhurst, whose shul was the site of a March 12 protest. “And if you do something, it’s also dangerous. Tere was no playbook for this, and we had to deal with a lot of issues that were unexpected as we tried to navigate the best way to handle things.”
Many discussions ensued about the planned demonstrations, and multiple approaches were suggested, their pros and cons weighed and debated. Ignoring the protesters had the advantage of not turning a small rally into something larger, which would give the demonstrators credibility and media attention, but it also handed agitators a golden opportunity to broadcast their messages without any opposition. Similarly, staging counterprotests ofered a means of denouncing the pro-Palestinian narrative, but that approach had the potential to
on both sides of the Green Line. Calls for Israel’s destruction came fast and furious outside the shul, as protesters loudly denounced the event for encouraging the potential purchase of “stolen land.” An injunction served during the protest ordered proPalestinian agitators not to come within ffty meters (approximately 164 feet) of certain Jewish community buildings for the next ten days. But the court order did nothing to allay the concerns of the local Jewish community, with police admitting that they lacked the authority to enforce the injunction.
backfre spectacularly if overly zealous members of the Jewish community steered things in unwanted directions. It was clear that these weren’t the kinds of situations that anyone had trained for in rabbinical schools and that no matter what the rabbanim decided to do, they were heading into a signifcant confrontation.
“Te most crucial question was knowing where people were at,” recalled Rabbi Trump. “Everybody was anxious, but there were diferent groups. Tere were those who were angry and wanted a reaction, such as a counter-protest. And there were those who were scared and didn’t want to let such kinds of people come into our neighborhoods. I felt that my role in leadership was to navigate between those two extremes.”
Learning from Experience
Tere is no one-size-fts-all approach to circumstances like these, and the protests that took place in front of North American shuls during the spring all varied. What worked well in one instance might have proved disastrous in another, while approaches that were less than successful at Shul A may have worked well at Shul B. All served as teachable moments, providing lessons that could be and have been
used, as the hate-flled campaigns have continued at other shuls.
“You need to be sensitive to the realities all around you,” noted Rabbi Elliot Schrier of Teaneck’s Congregation Bnai Yeshurun, which held a successful counter-protest on April 1. “Ignoring the protesters might work—and has worked—in some communities, but when we tried that in our community, it sent all the wrong signals and emboldened the other side, while our people felt bullied and harassed. And while we thought a counter-protest would draw more media attention, which we wanted to avoid, it turned out that the media was there anyway.”
A planned protest in front of Baltimore’s Congregation Shomrei Emunah had a very diferent outcome. With the FBI relaying its assurances that the demonstration would be a non-event, arranging a counter-protest
TORONTO, CANADA
Montreal wasn’t the only place to fnd itself in turmoil on March 4. Three hundred miles away in the Toronto suburb of Thornhill, several dozen agitators demonstrated outside the Israel real estate show held at the Aish Thornhill Community Shul. While a spokesperson for the event said it was not marketing any properties over the Green Line, that distinction was meaningless to the pro-Palestinian demonstrators waving signs and chanting anti-Israel slogans. Police arrested just one individual, a pro-Israel counter-protester who was carrying a nail gun.
Having seen what had happened both in Montreal and in his own backyard, Rabbi Daniel Korobkin had no intention of shutting down the Great Real Estate Event expo that was scheduled to be held on March 7 in his shul, Beth Avraham Yosef of Toronto, more commonly known as the BAYT.
“We heard that a protest was being planned right in front of our
would have likely drawn additional agitators. Shomrei Emunah was advised to ignore the upcoming rally, which turned out to be the right course of action, with a relatively small number of pro-Palestinian demonstrators turning out.
Still, it is hard to prepare for anything when you are dealing with groups that don’t play by the rules. A planned demonstration against a June 23 real estate event at Los Angeles’s Adas Torah had shul ofcials meeting with local law enforcement to create a game plan, but it was clear early on that the demonstration was deteriorating into a disaster. Tere were no measures in place to keep protesters apart from show participants, and police in riot gear initially did little to keep the peace as members of the two groups tangled. Te confrontations that ensued outside Adas Torah spilled out onto the streets of the heavily Jewish Pico-
synagogue, and we were not going to lie down and let people accuse us of all manners of atrocity that have no bearing on reality,” said Rabbi Korobkin.
Instead, the BAYT organized a counter-protest, with both Toronto and Vaughan police called in to keep the peace. Several hundred students in two schools—Bais Yaakov of Thornhill, located in the BAYT, and Eitz Chaim, situated less than a block away—were sent home early, and the street in front of the BAYT was closed down, as were several others. The few hundred proPalestinian protesters who showed up at the BAYT found themselves facing a large counter-demonstration, as over 1,000 people came to show their support for Israel over the course of the six-hour event. There were large signs, passionate chants and loud music playing on both sides of the barricades erected by police to separate the two groups, until a member of the proPalestinian contingent cut the cable feeding the amplifer at the BAYT, a situation that was remedied in less than
Robertson neighborhood, with reports emerging of local women and children being attacked by demonstrators and pro-Palestinian protesters spraying Jews with mace and bear spray. Te protest’s antisemitic overtone caught the attention of the White House, with President Joe Biden denouncing it on social media as appalling, dangerous and unconscionable.
“We are learning on the fy,” acknowledged Rabbi Schrier. “I was one of those who had initially been telling people: ignore, ignore, ignore. But realizing to our shock and horror that it wasn’t working fipped the switch for many of us. We will make mistakes along the way, but we will learn from them as we deal with realities on the ground.”
Rabbi Daniel Korobkin of Beth Avraham Yosef of Toronto (the BAYT) was determined to push back against the demonstrators who protested
thirty minutes. All told, police arrested three people—one for carrying a knife, one for threatening to spray someone with coyote repellant, and another for assault.
The fact that police allowed the protest to continue was a major disappointment to Thornhill’s Jewish community.
“Through many of our lawyers, we were able to demonstrate to police that what was taking place was illegal and creating an illegal nuisance to the community,” said Rabbi Korobkin. “Sufcient laws are already in place for our city to clearly indicate that this was something that should have been dispersed by the police.”
TEANECK, NEW JERSEY
While previous protests attracted mostly local attention, the situation was very diferent as the Great Real Estate Event moved on to its next venue—Teaneck’s Congregation Keter Torah. Having seen a caravan of nearly 200 cars of fag-waving Palestinian supporters from nearby Paterson driving down one of its main streets several weeks earlier, members of Teaneck’s large Jewish community were already feeling uneasy. And a march shortly thereafter by a few dozen Teaneck High School students who ditched class to protest what they termed “genocide” in Gaza didn’t help alleviate those fears at all.
When news of the March 10 real estate event surfaced, several groups called for protests outside the expo. The thousands of proPalestinian demonstrators who showed up on the day of the event found the roadway lined with metal police barricades
outside his shul, and he has been taking frm steps to prevent future hate rallies. He has been in close contact with Mayor Steven Del Duca, who, within days of the shul protest, proposed a new bylaw that would prohibit protests within 100 meters (approximately 109 yards) of houses of worship, schools, childcare facilities and hospitals. Violators could face fnes of as much as $100,000.
“Te mayor spoke in our shul about the new law, which would create safety bubbles around vulnerable places, especially those where there are minority ethnicities,” said Rabbi Korobkin. “Te bill passed the city council, but it faces opposition from the pro-Palestinian community and will be legally challenged. Still, our hope is that we never have to do this again.”
intended to keep them on the far side of Roemer Avenue, across from Keter Torah. Thousands of counter-demonstrators were on hand as well, and tempers ran high throughout the day. Multiple law enforcement agencies who were called in to ensure safety did little during what many billed as “a hate march,” the sheer size of the demonstration making headlines in the mainstream media. Visibly Jewish Teaneck residents who weren’t at Keter Torah were also taunted, with some reporting that they were called “Jewish dogs” or assaulted with hate speech that included “We’re still raping October 7 hostages,” “Go back to Germany” and “Go back to Auschwitz!”
Two protesters were arrested for spraying pedestrians with a red liquid, while other participants reported being shot at with paintballs by unknown assailants.
Better Safe than Sorry
Boosting security has become a high priority for shuls, especially those that have been previously targeted.
“We’ve been very vigilant about security,” said Rabbi Schrier. “We have a lot of new volunteers, and our security team has been devoting an extraordinary amount of energy to keeping our shul safe. It is an unpleasant reality, and I’m not going to try to sugarcoat it—this is the new normal for us, and a tiny taste of what our parents, grandparents and greatgrandparents experienced.”
Seeing history repeating itself has been a sobering experience for Orthodox Jews throughout North America. “ Tis is not the frst time this has happened in Jewish history,”
observed Rabbi Trump. “We’ve had a reprieve in America, but we as the Jewish people are resilient and proud. Tis is an important wakeup call to be entering this space in Jewish history again.”
In addition to bringing in extra manpower and taking additional measures to protect their facilities and their congregants, rabbis have been hard at work building strong relationships with law enforcement, a matter of critical importance for them and their shuls.
“We are making sure there is proactive and constant communication with law enforcement,” said Rabbi Posy. “Have the conversations ofen. And when there are events, reach out as early as possible to let them know who, what, when, where and how many people will be in attendance. You don’t want to just give law enforcement a notifcation; you want to be partnering with them.”
Similarly, the OU has been advocating for tighter security in Jewish communities at the national level, meeting with high-ranking ofcials at the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. Rabbi Posy is confdent that the OU’s advocacy and its eforts to secure additional security funding have been bearing fruit in our communities. [See the sidebar later in this article about the OU’s advocacy eforts.]
Rabbi Schrier was adamant about the importance of Jewish communities demonstrating that they are ready to stand up to bullies instead of handing over their proverbial lunch money and cowering in fear. Te need for communal leaders to remain calm and resolute in the face of threats is also vital, so they can provide their members with much-needed chizuk during difcult times.
“One of the key principles ingrained in rabbanim is to make a spiritual connection with every occurrence,” observed Rabbi Posy. “Immediately afer what happened in Adas Torah, everyone was urged to come to shul and say extra Tehillim, so that the main takeaway was the need to get closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.”
Brooklyn, New York
“We need to give people encouragement and reassure them that they are safe, especially here where there was so much psychological pressure,” added Rabbi Schrier. “Part of chizuk is fending of intimidation and harassment, but part of it also is leaning into it and using it to build Jewish pride. A lot of people are feeling more connected and more engaged, and the protest has made us prouder of who we are, prouder of our heritage, prouder of the State of Israel and prouder of the Jewish people.”
And what do rabbanim do when they themselves are in need of moral support?
“Supporting the rabbis is a term we have heard a lot since October 7,” admitted Rabbi Posy. “Te best tool in the arsenal of rabbanim is other rabbanim, and there has been a lot of networking and supporting going on among them. Te OU and personalities like OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Moshe Hauer are a great resource, and we let rabbanim know that we are there for them and their communities, providing chizuk on the communal level.”
In addition to turning to his family, his rebbeim and his peers when he is in need of a boost, Rabbi Schrier also focuses his attention across the Atlantic.
“Perhaps it’s cliché, but I really derive much strength from our brothers and sisters in Israel,” said Rabbi Schrier. “You look at what they’re facing and the way they’ve risen to the occasion, and it helps contextualize the smaller challenges we deal with and gives me strength to do my part.”
Lessons Learned
Seeing community shuls used as lightning rods for political discontent has been an unsettling phenomenon. Protesters are well aware of that reality and use it to gain the upper hand.
“Tey have two ways to win,” explained Rabbi Trump. “One is when we hide in our basements in fear and are scared to be Americans because of their crazy extremism. Te other is for them to cause a reaction that they can reframe, something they did in Toronto, where they feigned getting attacked or injured, and made it seem like they were conducting a peaceful protest that was disrupted by Jews. Tey are trained to
FIVE TOWNS, NEW YORK
Having seen what transpired at previous legs of the Great Real Estate Event, the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst’s Rabbi Ya’akov Trump found himself in a difcult position. It seemed like the two obvious choices—laying low and waiting for things to blow over, or organizing a counter-protest—both had the ability to backfre, so Rabbi Trump came up with an alternate plan. He reached out to every rabbi in the area and invited them to come with their congregants to the Young Israel’s simchah room to daven Minchah together, completely ignoring the protest that was taking place outside.
Decked out in Israeli fags, American fags and pictures of the hostages, the Young Israel became a center of Jewish pride. Well over 700 people came to daven at the shul and to hear words of chizuk from area rabbanim, while the proPalestinian protesters were relocated by the local police department to a nearby parking lot once their group reached 100 people, because they didn’t have the permits they needed for a public gathering of that size.
“The solution in our community came with siyata d’Shmaya,” said Rabbi Trump. “The failure of these protesters is when we carry on proudly, doing what we are supposed to do.”
I’m not going to try to sugarcoat it—this is the new normal for us, and a tiny taste of what our parents, grandparents and great grandparents experienced.
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK
The ffth and fnal event for the Great Real Estate Event was canceled due to what organizers described as serious threats. The expo was to be held at Congregation Bnei Avrohom Yaakov, located on Avenue N between East 26th and East 27th streets in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn.
In a statement that appeared in the Jewish Press, the Flatbush Jewish Community Council said
that the plug had been pulled on the expo at the advice of the New York Police Department, and that local rabbanim were urging counter-protesters to stay home. The event was to have taken place in the heart of a residential neighborhood, with the many children coming home from school during its scheduled 4:00 to 9:00 PM time frame raising serious security concerns.
A planned demonstration against a June 23 real estate event at Los Angeles’s Adas Torah had shul ofcials meeting with local law enforcement to create a game plan, but it was clear early on that the demonstration was deteriorating. Photo: Getty Images
do this, and this isn’t the frst time Jews have been singled out for things they didn’t actually do.”
Te shul protests have been particularly unsettling for North America’s Jewish communities for multiple reasons. While tragic incidents that impact the community are nothing new, viewing these demonstrations against the backdrop of the ongoing campus protests makes it painfully clear that antisemitic sentiments are spilling out into the community at large, explained Rabbi Yaakov Glasser, managing director for community engagement at the OU.
“Freedom of worship is what attracted Jews to settle and build communities in the United States.
It is highly disconcerting that these freedoms, which provided such a rich context for Jewish communal growth, have themselves become the subject of assault from our fellow citizens,” said Rabbi Glasser.
Rabbis have been hard-pressed to deal with this latest challenge, and the many hours they have focused on demonstrations and security measures have detracted from the time they can devote to other serious matters. Similarly, making fnancial investments in communal safety initiatives means there are fewer funds available for other important needs.
Te lackluster response by law enforcement and government ofcials at several of the shul protests has also
contributed to the climate of concern overshadowing Orthodox Jewish communities.
“Tat has created a real paradigm shif in people’s sense of stability and security in the United States, and it is diferent than what we have seen before,” said Rabbi Glasser. “Even though some of the antisemitic protests that happened in the United States in the past were far more violent in terms of their outcome, I think these protests are shifing people’s mindset in a real way, and that is a real point of transition for the community.”
Further increasing the levels of anxiety on the communal level is the knowledge that the demonstrations are being organized and attended by people
who may be living right next door.
“Tese are our neighbors, the people we shop with, the people we go to the library with, the people we share our community with, and the people we share our local governments with,” noted Rabbi Glasser. “What does it say about our ability to live safely and freely when it is the hamon am that is behind this unsettling new movement?”
As a nation whose instinct is to avoid confrontation and altercation, Orthodox Jews fnd themselves facing a reality that is uniquely theirs, one that weighs heavily on their collective conscience.
“Right now, we are spending millions of dollars on security—is anyone else spending that kind of money on security?” observed Rabbi Glasser. “Is there any demographic anywhere that is wondering about Jews coming to hurt them? I would imagine the answer is no. I do think we are going to have to adjust to a new normal, and people are fnding that very difcult.”
TEANECK, NEW JERSEY
While demonstrators had been insisting they were striking back against what they termed Israel’s illegal occupation, their presence at Teaneck’s Congregation Bnai Yeshurun on April 1 cast doubt on their motivations. The April 1 Zaka event had nothing to do with Israeli real estate, but pro-Palestinian groups still chose to disrupt the gathering.
“Initially, the rabbis had been urging restraint, but this felt like a giant step too far,” said Bnai Yeshurun’s Rabbi Elliot Schreier. “We asked the community to come out, and there was a massive counter-demonstration—thousands of local residents came. It was very much what the community needed. It showed that we are not going to just tolerate this desecration of all that we hold dear.”
Counter-protestors on March 10 in Teaneck, New Jersey.
Photo: Kevin R. Wexler/USA Today Network
A lot of people are feeling more connected and more engaged, and the protest has made us prouder of who we are, prouder of our heritage, prouder of the State of Israel and prouder of the Jewish people.
OU Advocacy is the leading organization behind the Nonproft Security Grant Program (NSGP) that delivers millions in grant money to Jewish schools, community centers, and synagogues to update their security infrastructure. Tanks to its eforts, funding for 2024 is a record $675 million. Every dollar goes towards making sure Jewish organizations have the resources to protect lives.
OU WORKING TO KEEP OUR SHULS SAFE
Nearly twenty years ago, OU Advocacy (OUA) spearheaded the creation of the Nonproft Security Grant Program (NSGP), the federal program from which most American shuls and day schools receive fnancial aid for their security costs.
NSGP was initially funded at $25 million per year. Every year, OU Advocacy works to have Congress allocate funds to the NSGP. With the unfortunate rise in antisemitism over the years, NSGP funding reached $305 million for 2023.
In the wake of October 7 and the surge of antisemitism it sparked in the US, OU Advocacy worked to dramatically increase NSGP funding for 2024 through both the regular appropriations legislation and the emergency “supplemental” legislation to aid Israel. Between the two bills, Congress has provided $675 million in funding for NSGP grants this year. About half of that money has already been applied with awards announced in late August. As we went to press, the other half was expected to open for applications imminently.
Joining the Ranks of Jewish History
By JA Staf
in addition to all the pro-Israel signs we were putting up, we should have put up a sign for the protestors saying, “ Tank you for uniting us, thank you for bringing our people together,” because [the protest] has created that sentiment.
And while dealing with all of these issues caused us to postpone an important Torah study initiative we were working on for a long time, the amount that we gained in terms of chesed, and in terms of the people who were not so involved [in the shul previously] who began stepping up to get involved in security or in Israel advocacy, has been incredible. Of course, I’d like people to be more involved in Torah learning and tefllah and other shul initiatives and programs. But very ofen security is the frst step. Once they are invested in securing their shul, because it’s their shul, they might be motivated to get involved in other shul initiatives as well.
Tis is our new normal. Dealing with continued attempts at intimidation and harassment is part and parcel of Jewish history.
In “V’hi she’amdah” in the Haggadah, we recite “b’chol dor vador. . .—in every generation there are those who seek to destroy us and G-d delivers us from their hands.” Many of us developed a kind of illusion that “every generation” has skipped our generation. We fnally have a reminder that that’s not the case.
Tis was most acute for me at our counter-demonstration. We brought along a good sound system, and at one point we started playing “V’hi she’amdah,” and as I was standing by the barricade listening to that song,
Jewish Action: Tese days, instead of strengthening Torah learning and observance, rabbis need to spend much time and efort on security matters. Can we draw any chizuk from the current situation?
RABBI YA’AKOV TRUMP:
Bari Weiss, a journalist and the author of How to Fight Anti-Semitism, recently said, “ Te vacation from Jewish history is over.” Afer a brief reprieve in the last few decades, we are rejoining the Jewish Diaspora history, a minority persecuted for no good reason, spending astronomical amounts of time and energy on survival. It is sobering. Yet two ideas give me strength during this time.
Firstly, I would say I’m prouder to be a Jew now than I was before. I’m proud to be reminded that I am on the moral high ground fghting for good, versus people who support evil and debauchery. I am proud that our community has woken up to fght for something. We did not ask pro-Hamas protesters to create this reality for us. But they did. And now we have something to fght for. It is important for our children, who are the products of a complacent Western society, to remember what it means to value something, to fght for something and to be proud to be Jewish. Tere are many people in the Jewish community for whom coming to a shiur or davening is not their thing, but since we have been under attack in Israel and here in the US, these folks have stepped up. Tey have joined the security committees in shuls, they have led missions, they have collected money for soldiers. . . . Tese are all valuable ways that allow more Jews to connect to the Jewish people. Tese new avenues of proud Jewish engagement are extremely important.
watching the fags and hearing the proHamas chants and the vile rhetoric, I also remembered the end of the song: v’Hakadosh Baruch Hu matzileinu mi’yadam. Our eternal truth maintains that we will always be delivered, and there is always a bright ending in store for our people.
Te second point is that ultimately, Judaism has a happy ending. When the Vizhnitzer Rebbe came to Israel, he was asked by his Chassidim, “What do you think about Israel?” He said, “ Tere is one phrase in Israel that I love, and that is ‘hakol b’seder.’ It doesn’t just mean ‘everything will be alright.’ It means that ‘everything in Judaism is in the Seder,’” that is, the Passover Seder Sometimes there are detours and it’s complicated, but the Jewish people trend upward.We are still in the middle of the story, but I know from our faith that the terminus is one of hope and redemption.
