MESSAGE
| DATE | 2025-11-21 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [Hangout - NYLXS] [Jewish] Resisting Mamdani
|
On 11/21/25 12:03 PM, mayer ilovitz wrote:
> I repeatedly said during the primary, and unfortunately the election,
> the choice was between hitler and stalin.
> personally, I would have voted for Sliwa; admittedly as incompetant for
> the office as mamdani, but in either
> case what would have mattered is the people the mayor surrounds himself
> with. the mayor, gives the direction,
> the subordinates work out & implement the details.
>
> Since the election, I've posed 2-3 very unpleasant questions to some
> people, with no response:
> - how much of cuomo's numbers were directly or indirectly ( convincing
> others, funding to attract votes etc )
> came from the Jewish community ( thinking strategically )
> - how much of the vote for mamdani was only because the voters
> absolutely did not want cuomo to win, even if it meant mamdani.
> - and the final really unpleasant part: if cuomo hadn't been supported
> by the Jewish community and instead had
> pushed Sliwa ( which would have been thinking ethically): take the
> numbers of #2 off of mamdani's total, add those
> and the numbers from #1 to Sliwa's numbers ... would we have had a
> vastly different outcome ?
>
> On 11/21/2025 11:13 AM, Ruben Safir wrote:
>> http://www.brooklyn-living.com/#mamdani
>>
>> a margin of 16,181 votes. ANY DECENT CANDIDATE would had beaten Mamdani.
>>
>>
>
‘We need to make them scared’: NYC synagogue protest crosses new red lines
Demonstration outside Park East Synagogue marks an escalation by
anti-Israel protesters in terms of target and rhetoric, underlining new
normal for the city’s Jews despite Gaza ceasefire
Luke Tress
By Luke Tress
Today, 1:43 am
21
Anti-Zionist protesters outside a New York City synagogue, November 19,
2025. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)
Anti-Zionist protesters outside a New York City synagogue, November 19,
2025. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)
NEW YORK — At a protest on Wednesday night at the entrance to a New York
City synagogue, a masked demonstrator stood above the crowd and urged
attendees to intimidate Jews.
“It is our duty to make them think twice before holding these events,”
he said, referring to a gathering held inside the synagogue by Nefesh
B’nefesh, a group that helps Jews immigrate to Israel.
“We need to make them scared! We need to make them scared! We need to
make them scared,” he shouted, with the roughly 200 protesters in the
crowd repeating each sentence in unison, a tactic the activists use to
amplify their speeches without the use of a loudspeaker, which requires
an additional permit.
There have been more than 3,000 protests in New York City since the
October 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel, but the Wednesday night
demonstration at the Park East Synagogue was an escalation, highlighting
the new normal for the city’s Jews, despite the ceasefire in Gaza.
Protests erupted in the city on October 8, 2023, the day after the Hamas
invasion, as activists gathered to celebrate the slaughter, provoking
shock and outrage in the Jewish community. While anti-Zionist protests
were already common, the demonstrations at the start of the war set a
new tenor in their celebration of violence.
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In the following months, the activists kept crossing red lines as the
death toll climbed in Gaza, targeting cancer patients, vandalizing
museums and libraries, disrupting holiday events, and demonstrating
against memorials to the dead. The leading activist groups make clear
that they do not seek coexistence, two states, or a halt to the
conflict, but the annihilation of the Jewish state.
Below: Audio of a protest leader addressing the crowd outside the Park
East Synagogue on November 19, 2025.
-at-static-cdn.toi-media.com
Demonstrations at synagogues have been relatively rare, though. There
were scattered protests at synagogues in New York and nearby towns in
New Jersey after the start of the war to demonstrate against events
marketing real estate in Israel. The synagogues do not organize the
events; organizers rent out space in the buildings. The synagogue
protests tend to be especially vitriolic, as are demonstrations in
heavily Jewish neighborhoods.
The Wednesday night rally marked an escalation in that it was the first
to target such a prominent synagogue, in the heart of Manhattan, that
was not selling real estate, and was marked by more ugly, threatening
and violent rhetoric than usual.
Chants at the protest included:
“Death, death to the IDF”
“From New York to Gaza, globalize the intifada”
“Say it loud, say it clear, we don’t want no Zionists here”
“Resistance, you make us proud, take another settler out”
“We don’t want no two states, we want ’48”
“Resistance is justified”
“No peace on stolen land”
“Settlers, settlers, go back home, Palestine is ours alone”
Demonstrators had not previously chanted “death to the IDF,” or for
death to anyone, at the dozens of protests The Times of Israel has
covered in recent years, but the chant broke out repeatedly on Wednesday
night. The “take another settler out” slogan was also new.
A Jewish man argues with anti-Zionist protesters outside the Park East
Synagogue in New York City, November 19, 2025. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)
The protest was organized and advertised by leading activist groups in
the city, including several student organizations.
“No settlers on stolen land. Protest the settler recruiting fair,” said
the posts advertising the event.
The protesters were allowed to gather right next to the synagogue’s
school entrance, forcing attendees to walk past them to get inside. The
activists later posted videos of Jews entering the synagogue, branding
them “settlers” in the videos, while activists shouted “shame” in the
background.
The NYPD did not address a question about why the protest was allowed so
close to the synagogue entrance, only saying that “The demonstration
concluded and no arrests were made.” There was a heavy police presence
at the scene and officers kept the anti-Zionist protesters apart from
Jewish counter-demonstrators. The Jewish community generally commends
the police for their handling of protests.
The entrance to Park East Synagogue, with dueling protesters on each
side, separated by police, in New York City, November 19, 2025. (Luke
Tress/Times of Israel)
The demonstration was organized with the veneer of political protest in
that it targeted an event, not the synagogue itself, but the activists
repeatedly veered into outright antisemitism that had no relation to the
event and was more extreme than the rhetoric at most protests.
One woman shouted, “Fucking Jewish pricks,” at passersby, while another
yelled, “You’re part of a death cult,” while arguing with a man in a
kippah. Another protester held a sign that said, “Pedophiles & rapists
are running our government to serve ‘Israel,'” the text overlaid on a
photo of US President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. Others shouted
about the Hannibal Directive, referring to a conspiracy theory that says
the IDF was responsible for the Israeli civilian deaths on October 7.
“You fucking rapist cunts. You fucking pedophiles. You fucking Epstein
pieces of shit,” one woman shouted.
The presence of the fringe, anti-Zionist Naturei Karta Jewish sect also
helps the activists head off allegations of antisemitism. Members of the
tiny, extremist group are at the front of nearly every anti-Israel
protest in the city. On Wednesday night, members of the group, which has
been condemned by other non-Zionist Hasidic movements, repeatedly
stomped on an Israeli flag.
The animosity was not one-sided — right-wing Jewish activists had
circulated calls to show up for the counter-demonstration, saying,
“Silence is not an option.” The two sides berated each other, flashed
obscene gestures across the police barricades, beamed bright flashlights
in each other’s faces, and hurled a plastic coffee cup back and forth.
The protest followed other recent incidents of antisemitism in New York
City despite the Gaza ceasefire last month, pointing to a new normal for
the city’s Jews, who are targeted in hate crimes far more than any other
group.
In some of the recent incidents since the ceasefire, a Jewish educator
was assaulted on the street; vandals scrawled swastikas on a Brooklyn
yeshiva; “Fuck Jews” was spray-painted on a sidewalk; and a Muslim
religious leader led a walkout of a college interfaith event while
condemning the Jewish community representative as a “Zionist.”
Jewish counter-demonstrators at a protest outside a New York City
synagogue, November 19, 2025. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)
The incidents come amid trepidation in the mainstream Jewish community
after the far-left Zohran Mamdani, a harsh critic of Israel, won the
election to become the city’s next mayor. Jewish New Yorkers have
repeatedly expressed concern over how Mamdani will respond to protests
at synagogues and in Jewish neighborhoods, which he has pledged to
protect and laid out a plan for combating antisemitism. Mamdani earlier
this year defended the protest slogan “globalize the intifada,” used at
Wednesday’s protest, then later said he would “discourage” its use after
coming under heavy pressure.
A Mamdani spokesperson, Dora Pekec, told The Times of Israel on
Thursday, “The Mayor-elect has discouraged the language used at last
night’s protest and will continue to do so.”
“He believes every New Yorker should be free to enter a house of worship
without intimidation, and that these sacred spaces should not be used to
promote activities in violation of international law,” Pekec said.
The group that held the event, Nefesh B’nefesh, does not direct
immigrants to settlements, which much of the international community
considers a violation of international law, although the group has
information on its website about a few coordinators in the West Bank
blocs who help immigrants.
Anti-Zionist activists often brand all Jewish Israelis as “settlers” to
delegitimize Jewish existence in Israel.
Other New York leaders issued forceful condemnations, including the
mayor, governor, and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who will
serve as the city comptroller in the Mamdani administration.
Mamdani on Wednesday confirmed that he will keep the well-regarded NYPD
Commissioner Jessica Tisch in place, fulfilling a campaign pledge that
had calmed centrists, including Jews, who were fearful about their
safety due to Mamdani’s past criticism of police and issues, including
attributing NYPD violence to Israel.
His keeping Tisch in place provoked a backlash from leading anti-Zionist
activists in the city, though. The activists are from the same camp that
organized the synagogue protest, underlining Mamdani’s tightrope walk
between his far-left base and the city’s moderates.
Inside the synagogue on Wednesday night, the Nefesh B’nefesh event went
on, with staffers greeting attendees at a table inside the synagogue
door, within sight of the protesters. A Nefesh B’nefesh staffer said
around 150 participants attended the “open house” event to discuss
options for immigrating to Israel.
“There was more serious discussion of aliyah as an option than in
previous, similar events,” the staffer said.
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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