MESSAGE
| DATE | 2025-11-21 |
| FROM | mayer ilovitz
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [Hangout - NYLXS] [Jewish] Resisting Mamdani
|
in 40-41 days every night has the ever increasing potential of being a
Crystal Night in NYC.
On 11/21/2025 12:20 PM, Ruben Safir wrote:
> 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.
> Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top
> stories
> Newsletter email address
> By signing up, you agree to the terms
>
> 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.
>
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