Saying that funding to protect synagogues and other religious-based nonprofits “has not kept pace to meet the moment,” 41 senators — almost entirely Democrats — wrote to leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee urging members to provide $750 million in funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program in 2027.

That figure amounts to a substantial increase in funding over current levels, as well as over Senate lawmakers’ request from last year.

The program was funded in 2025 at $274.5 million, which has not yet been disbursed, and the still-stalled 2026 Homeland Security funding bill includes $300 million for the program. Yet, in 2024, the program fulfilled just 43% of requests, even with additional funding provided through a national security supplemental bill that year. Jewish and interfaith groups, as well as House lawmakers, have been pushing for up to $1 billion for the program.

Last year, 33 senators requested $500 million for the program, a record-high request at the time. This year’s request represents a new high-water mark, both in terms of the funding requested and the number of lawmakers who signed the bipartisan letter in support.

“The threat of violence is unfortunately increasing at places of worship across our country at alarming rates. In the past few years, there has been an increase in hoax bomb threats and attacks against houses of worship that are intended to interrupt services and intimidate worshippers. In particular, there has been an increase in antisemitic incidents across the country following the October 7th attack on Israel,” the senators wrote. “Nationwide, there have been countless acts of violence against religious communities.”

The lawmakers also urged the Appropriations Committee to “maintain separate line-items for this program,” amid reports that the administration has been pushing to convert Federal Emergency Management Agency grant programs, under which NSGP falls, into a broad state-by-state block grant.

The administration also called for cuts to non-emergency FEMA grants, a category that includes NSGP, without making any specific line-item request for the NSGP.

“[F]unding has not kept pace to meet the moment,” the lawmakers added, highlighting a litany of attacks on religious institutions and the funding shortages in 2024.

The letter was led by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), James Lankford (R-OK), Gary Peters (D-MI) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV). Only two Republicans other than Lankford joined the effort: Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Josh Hawley (R-MO).

“As we continue to work with Congress to secure Jewish communities, the bipartisan consensus in the Senate around $750 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program is a monumental step toward our community’s $1 billion goal,” Eric Fingerhut, the CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, said. “At a time of rising antisemitism and an escalating security crisis facing vulnerable communities across the country, demand continues to far outpace available funding.” 

Fingerhut said that JFNA plans to bring Jewish activists from across the country to lobby Congress on the issue next month “and urge them to act with urgency and resolve to ensure at-risk institutions have the resources they need before the next incident, not after.”

Lauren Wolman, the Anti-Defamation League’s senior director of government relations and strategy, said, “At a time of sustained and evolving threats, this program remains a critical lifeline for houses of worship and nonprofit institutions working to protect their communities. Demand continues to far outpace available resources, and we urge Congress to ensure funding levels reflect the reality on the ground.”

Nathan Diament, the executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, said, “The need for increased NSGP funding remains critical. We are thankful to the large bipartisan group of Senators who signed onto this letter.”

“OU Advocacy will keep pressing on all fronts to deliver the funding our Shuls and schools need to stay safe,” Diament continued.

WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. — Pop. Pop. Pop. Liz Rosenbaum heard the unmistakable sounds of a gun being fired and took a deep breath as the 4-year-old boy next to her looked her way, wide-eyed. Even in the best of times, he was an anxious kid. This was not one of those times. “Was that a gun?” he asked.

Without missing a beat, Rosenbaum reminded the boy that the classroom across the hall in the Temple Israel Early Childhood Center had a bunch of balloons set up earlier for someone’s birthday. They must’ve popped, she suggested. “Remember? You saw the balloons in their class,” she told the child. 

Rosenbaum, a retired Detroit public school teacher, locked eyes with the much younger teacher across the room and whisper-yelled to her: Don’t show any emotion. Just take care of the kids. So they held the babies — to a preschool teacher, any child is a baby — and waited, not knowing anything beyond the fact that someone was shooting a gun and the smell of smoke was getting worse. Rosenbaum’s 5-year-old grandson, Theo, was in a nearby classroom, but she had already gotten word from her daughter, via Theo’s teacher, that he was OK.

Seconds or minutes or hours later — it was hard to know — police officers came to the door. Rosenbaum’s co-teacher was perched at the door’s little window, peeking through a one-way blackout shade that allowed teachers to look out but kept outsiders from seeing in. 

The officers said the code word that the teachers had been trained to know would reveal the person on the other side of the door was, in fact, one of the good guys. The teachers opened the door and grabbed the kids, carrying or pulling or holding or dragging, whatever it took to obey the officers’ command to “get out of here, fast.”

“[The kids] knew something was going on. I said, ‘Remember these officers you studied? You read about them. We talked about them. Those are our helpers,’” Rosenbaum recalled telling the kids. Two days earlier, police and firefighters had visited the preschool, located in the largest Reform congregation in Michigan, as part of a lesson. 

A cadre of preschool teachers carried babies and led toddlers out the back door of the synagogue, first to an ambulance that was too crowded, and ultimately onto a West Bloomfield School District bus that took them across the street to a country club for the Chaldeans, an Iraqi Christian community. Some teachers had to run with their kids to get there. You’re a dinosaur — run as fast as you can! they said, hoping to hurry the kids along without scaring them.

Rosenbaum and the entire world would soon learn that a Lebanese immigrant — later revealed to have ties to the terror group Hezbollah — had driven a truck packed with explosives into Temple Israel around noon that day. Cable news networks showed aerial shots of smoke billowing from the roof of the synagogue and reported in alarming chyrons that an active shooter was inside. The attacker got out of his car and started shooting before he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

Every child in Rosenbaum’s classroom walked out of Temple Israel alive. In fact, every person who was already in the building survived; the only person who was injured was a security guard, hailed as a hero and already on the mend. (He was apparently quite pleased that, in his moment of need, he convinced a Temple Israel rabbi to buy him a sandwich with bacon to bring to his hospital room.) 

The story of Temple Israel is one of miracles. The building’s sprinkler system turned on, soaking everything in the building except for the Torah scrolls. Miracle. The hallway where the attacker rammed his car was set aflame, burning most of the photos that lined the wall showing the synagogue’s annual confirmation classes but sparing the oldest photos, from decades ago, which were not digitized and otherwise would’ve been lost forever. Miracle. Teachers trained in active-shooter protocols acted quickly and meticulously to secure their classrooms, and security guards performed their jobs perfectly. Miracle. No children were in the hallway in the path of the truck. Miracle upon miracle upon miracle. 

“Nes gadol hayah poh,” Noah Arbit, a lifelong member of Temple Israel and a Michigan state representative whose district includes the synagogue, said last week in an interview with Jewish Insider at a bakery a couple of towns over. A great miracle happened here. It was a riff on a Hebrew phrase used on Hanukkah, the holiday that celebrates the Jews’ miraculous victory over the ancient Greeks during the time of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Usually, Jews living in the diaspora say a different version of the phrase that translates to “a great miracle happened there.” This time, the miracle was here in Michigan. 

”I think if it happened anywhere else but Temple Israel, we probably could have had a massacre. Temple Israel benefits from scale and resources in a way that other synagogues around here don’t,” said Arbit, a Democrat. 

But it is not accurate to say that this is only a story of miracles. For people who don’t live in West Bloomfield, once the headlines shifted from “active shooter at a synagogue” to “antisemitic attack thwarted,” many moved on. Jews in Metro Detroit did not. For them, this story of miracles was first a story of terror, of fear, of never being able to un-learn the feeling of dread that comes from not knowing whether your child is alive or dead.

“People are traumatized, and there’s no way around it,” Rabbi Josh Bennett, who has been on the pulpit at Temple Israel for 33 years, told JI last week. “And yet there’s an entirely different world out there, which is the world talking about miracles, and thank God nobody was injured. And that’s actually very dissonant, because the rest of the world has kind of moved on, and they’re just waiting for us to reopen the building.” 

The path toward healing is not as straightforward as just reopening the building, and even that will be complicated and time-intensive. 

“The building will be rebuilt. If you drive by there now, you’ll see there’s construction workers working on it right now, and they’re drying it out, and they’re redoing the drywall and fixing it. It will come back bigger and better,” said Steve Ingber, a Temple Israel member and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. 

There’s also the question of where to have Temple Israel’s preschool meet for the rest of the school year. The ECC students have been holding playdates together as the school remains closed and Temple Israel looks to find an alternate place for the school to meet. 

But first and foremost is the lingering emotional trauma that is only beginning to be unpacked. 

“We don’t want to leave anyone behind. We don’t want anyone to feel like they are isolated and living in a black hole, and after this traumatic moment and after a mass violence experience, that is often the case, is what I’m learning from these professionals,” said Rabbi Arianna Gordon, Temple Israel’s director of education and lifelong learning. “It’s really easy to fall into that black hole and really feel like you’re invisible, feel like you’re isolated. And we are really, really trying to make sure that everyone feels seen and feels helped and feels heard.”

On March 12, the day of the attack, Gordon heard a loud boom that she later learned came from the truck driving into the building. She opened her office door and saw a stroller overturned in a pile of broken glass. A security guard shouted to get back in the room, and she took her staff to shelter in place in a far corner of a new office they had moved into only two days earlier. She sent a message to all the teachers, telling them to implement lockdown procedures. 

Her 2-year-old son was in the building. When Gordon and her colleagues were evacuated, she waited outside the building until her son came out. 

“Rachel, our ECC director who ran out with me, will say that my voice screaming for my child, when we were running out, will forever haunt her,” said Gordon. She doesn’t remember making a sound.

Most of all, as social workers and rabbis work to meet community members’ emotional needs, the biggest unanswered question has to do with security: Is there enough? Even if so — and by all accounts, Temple Israel’s large security operation saved lives — how do community members make sense of the fact that their sense of safety has now been shattered? That a man from a nearby community pledged his allegiance to a foreign terrorist group and sought to bring tremendous harm to Jewish children? 

“It hurts more than I ever thought that it would. I think there’s a lot of people who feel that way. It’s a beautiful building and a sacred space,” said Arbit, the state representative. He blinked back tears. “Sorry. It’s been really hard.” 

The day of the attack, Ingber was getting ready to leave the federation office in nearby Bloomfield Hills for lunch when he heard the security radio crackle to life. The Jewish Federation of Detroit employs 23 security officers throughout the community’s schools and synagogues, and each of them carries a radio. The one in Ingber’s office goes off each morning around 8 a.m., a tech check to make sure it works. It sits quiet the rest of the time. Except on March 12. “SHOTS FIRED,” a voice announced over the radio.

“First, it took me a second, like, Wait, did I just hear that?” Ingber recalled during an interview in his office last week. “From there, we heard that this was real, and then we immediately started working on it, and that entailed sending every other Jewish building in town into lockdown, because we don’t know: Is this a one-off, or is this a coordinated attack?” 

Security is the biggest annual line item expense for the Jewish federation, as it is for many Jewish institutions. The federation has made more than $1 million in security funds available to local organizations since the attack. Jewish activists from Detroit and around the country went to Capitol Hill the week after the attack to lobby Congress to increase the amount of money in the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program. 

But for the 75,000 or so Jews in the Detroit metropolitan area, the need still feels almost impossible to meet. 

“I still feel, despite everything, that Temple Israel is incredibly safe, because what happened was our team protected us. They protected the staff and the children,” said Elyssa Schmier, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Michigan office and a Temple Israel member. Her 5-year-old son goes to another Jewish preschool in the area that is smaller, with less of a security presence. 

”My son’s preschool was — the security was fine. I wouldn’t say it was great, and we’ve kind of known all along it wasn’t super great. So now they’ve had to put in full-day armed security and go with a new company. People weren’t sending their kids to school until that went into place. We’ve had a couple families pull out altogether,” Schmier said in a conversation last week in a coffee shop near West Bloomfield. “The additional cost is astronomical now of what the school’s going to have to take on.”

All of the added security means even more closed doors at a time when the Jewish community longs more than ever for allies. 

“Things that are part of the strength of the Michigan Jewish community are now being looked at with an eye of concern, and the irony of that, for a community that so values community building and institutions is, I think, not lost on anybody,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) told JI last week. 

Jeremy Moss, a Democratic state senator who attends a Conservative synagogue in the area, said over a meal of rye bread, pickles and chicken soup at a West Bloomfield deli last week that the Temple Israel attack warrants a much larger outcry from outside the Jewish community than it is getting. Moss, who is running for Congress this year, is the only Jewish member of the Michigan state Senate. He is also the only LGBTQ member of the Senate. He knows that those two parts of his identity are often treated differently.

“When I talk about LGBTQ rights, I have my Democratic colleagues rushing to be behind me, to stand in solidarity, to allow me to lead on the discussion, to allow me talk about what is homophobic and transphobic, to back me up,” he said. 

“In the past several years, when I talk about antisemitism, it feels like I’m talking alone, or that I’m challenged, or that I’m lectured, not necessarily by my colleagues, but lectured about what is antisemitism from others, rather than allowing my own experience to be accredited, to be valid,” he added. “It’s a very isolating, lonely feeling, and it really makes you realize how small the Jewish community is and how difficult it is to get our lived experience heard and supported.” 

The attack on Temple Israel, and the fact that no one died, offers a “second chance,” Moss said. Not just for the parents and children, he said, but “for all of us.”

“Whether you’re on the left, this is a second chance to speak out if you haven’t spoken out before. Whether you’re on the right, this was a second chance for them,” Moss said, taking aim at his Republican colleagues who did not support a major hate crimes package passed last year. “I think there’s a lot of second chances going on as a result of this incident, where every child went home healthy to their parents that day. The question is, what are we going to do with that?” 

For a lot of people at Temple Israel, it’s too early to think about what all of this means. The pain is too raw. Because here’s what they know: A man was able to park in the Temple Israel parking lot, sit there for two hours listening to Arabic battle anthems while texting his sister and other family members about his plans and drive his truck head-on into the building, while teachers shushed children and sang them songs just feet away.

What could be normal after that? 

“It needs to be driven home over and over again: A person who drives their vehicle with fireworks and gasoline into an early childhood center with the intent of killing children and Jews — that is antisemitism,” said Bennett, the senior rabbi. “It is impossible to be in an event like this without being forever changed. It is an indelible mark on the soul of our congregation.” 

In a strange irony, many of the kids who were at Temple Israel during the attack are unfazed. Some were too young to notice anything out of the ordinary. The slightly older kids experienced the chaos, but they mostly felt lucky to get an unexpected field trip that came with chicken tenders, pizza and games. Parents whose younger children were at the ECC are struggling to describe what happened to their older kids. 

“When they ask, like, why do people hate Jews, it is really hard to be a parent and to be an educator in this moment and figure out the right things to say to our children,” said Gordon, the education director. Her 2-year-old is, of course, not asking those questions; he was mostly asleep throughout the attack, which occurred during nap time. But her 7- and 9-year-old kids are.

“I say that I don’t have a good explanation. I can’t tell you why people hate Jews. But what I can tell you is that there also are people who are really incredibly helpful and wonderful and supportive of our Jewish community, and we want to focus on that,” said Gordon. 

The day after the attack, Shabbat services were held at Shenandoah County Club, the Chaldean club that had opened its doors a day earlier as a reunification center during the attack. Last Friday, Temple Israel’s members met inside another West Bloomfield synagogue. At least 200 people joined the service, eager to hug each other and sing together and live out the beautiful parts of being Jewish. But they were reminded at every moment that they were living in a world transformed by ugliness. 

Police cars parked out front directed traffic, and anyone coming in had to pass seven or eight security guards as they walked through a metal detector. During the service, security guards slowly walked around the room, monitoring the crowd. One guard stood like a sentry at the sanctuary’s big window, eyes fixed on whatever unknown threats might be lurking outside on the frigid early spring evening.

Indoors, Temple Israel’s rabbis and cantor joyfully ushered in Shabbat with a musical service. They told congregants about webinars being offered by mental health professionals. They shared that the synagogue’s staff were being given the entire week of Passover off so they could relax with their families. 

The rabbis and ECC staff had been allowed back into the synagogue briefly to be able to take items from their offices before cleanup crews disposed of the rest, most of which was waterlogged or burned. One of them grabbed a box of large, colorful plastic bricks. 

As people left the service, they were invited to take one of those bricks home with them to place on their Seder plates. It would be a bitter reminder of what Temple Israel had endured. But more importantly, it would remind people that with the help of its dedicated and loving community, Temple Israel will rebuild. 

For Rosenbaum, the Temple Israel preschool teacher, it’s been a challenging few weeks. She woke a few days after the attack from a nightmare. She stepped outside, breathing in the fresh air. She is in therapy. Babysitting the Temple Israel toddlers who are now out of school helps, too. She will be back teaching at Temple Israel as soon as she is allowed.

“My mother taught me, when you fall off a bicycle, you get back on and you learn to ride it. When you get in an auto accident, you get back in the car and you learn to drive it. I taught my kids that. And Temple Israel is very strong. We are going to go back. We’re going to go back as being strong and supporting and loving one another, like we do,” said Rosenbaum.

“In the grand scheme of things, Hashem was with us.”

Extensive security “preparations, training and practice” that had taken place prior to an attack on a Detroit-area synagogue earlier this month “greatly helped to dramatically mitigate what could have been so much worse in Michigan,” a Trump administration intelligence official said on Tuesday. 

During a security briefing webinar hosted by the Secure Community Network, a leading Jewish security organization, ahead of the Passover holiday, Matthew Kozma, under secretary for intelligence and analysis at the Department of Homeland Security, called for continued vigilance “given the threat that’s stemming from Iran, particularly in the Middle East, but also here at home.” 

He said that Americans should remain cautious of threats from “malicious actors, particularly ones encouraged by or empathetic to Iran,” as two upcoming events in the country — the 2026 FIFA World Cup and America’s 250th anniversary — bring an influx of visitors into the U.S.

The briefing was held during what Michael Masters, CEO of SCN, described as “an elevated threat environment from Iran and its proxies,” ahead of the start of the Passover holiday next week.   

Since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran started nearly one month ago, Jewish institutions have seen a surge in attacks, including the one targeting Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. — one of the country’s largest Reform congregations — and three shootings outside of Toronto synagogues. 

​​Masters said SCN monitored over 8,000 direct calls for violence against the Jewish community in North America over a six-day period this month, marking a 137% increase over the average tracked and “the highest number we’ve ever tallied in that timeframe.”

Oakland County, Mich., Sheriff Michael Bouchard, who was on the scene following the Temple Israel attack, shared with attendees that he himself has been the target of death threats for supporting the Jewish community. 

Still, Bouchard doubled down on his support. “Something that I’ve said before, and I believe, is that if you target our Jewish community, we’re going to stand in front of them to protect them. And we’re coming for you.”  

The briefing concluded with Eric Fingerhut, CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America,  calling for “more resources at this time.”

“Temple Israel was one of the best, most secured buildings, having spent a significant amount of money of their dues budget and of their donors’ budgets on security, and yet we need additional levels of security,” Fingerhut said. “Our federations are committed to generating those additional resources, bringing those resources to our communities. But in addition, I have to mention that it’s the government’s responsibility, first and foremost, to protect its citizens in their places of worship, in their places of communal gathering.” 

Last week, in a letter to the leaders of the House Appropriations Committee, a bipartisan group of 150 House members asked the committee to provide $1 billion in funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program in 2027, a massive expansion of the program that marks the first time lawmakers’ request aligns with the $1 billion that some Jewish groups have been advocating for. The program received $274.5 million in funding in 2025, but that funding has still not been distributed, according to the letter, which cited delays at FEMA, and lawmakers have not been provided customary data about supplemental funding rounds awarded last year.

“We need more resources and support from the government,” continued Fingerhut, who announced that JFNA will hold an advocacy fly-in in Washington in mid-May.

“We will be visiting every member of Congress, asking them for their support. We’ll be visiting the members of the administration, as well … to make sure that [they] know that every one of us has the right in this country to practice our faith and to gather together as a community in safety and security.” 

The vehicle ramming and shooting attack on a Michigan synagogue last Thursday was the latest example of a “direct connection between hatred of Israel and hatred of Jews,” Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, a prominent Reform rabbi who leads Manhattan’s Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, said during a sermon on Friday evening.

From the pulpit, Hirsch urged both the Jewish community and U.S. elected officials — including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — to take seriously the “moral and political blindness” that is “casting a darkening shadow over all that we hold dear.”

“We must grapple seriously with this phenomenon of antisemitism; not only for the sake of the Jews, but for the sake of America,” said Hirsch, one day after the suspect, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, drove a truck full of explosives through the front entrance of Temple Israel, one of the country’s largest Reform congregations, as 140 children were inside the building. 

Armed security stationed at the synagogue engaged with Ghazali who killed himself when his truck caught fire during the gunfight with security officials. One other person —  the synagogue’s director of security, Danny Phillips — was injured.

“It is still the case that decent people see an attack on an American nursery school and are aghast at the brazen immorality, the unfathomable indecency, and the bottomless depravity. They send thoughts and prayers — and these sentiments are sincere. But there is an encroaching moral and political blindness in the West casting a darkening shadow over all that we hold dear,” said Hirsch.

He highlighted a connection between “hateful words and hateful deeds — between bad ideas and bad outcomes.” 

“There is a direct connection between the obsessive and frenzied incitement against Israel, and incitement against American Jews. Everyone knows this. Why is it even controversial to say?” said Hirsch. “If [far-right commentator] Tucker Carlson pulls out of nowhere wild blood libels against Chabad that they pushed America into war — will it surprise anyone if the next Bondi Beach [massacre] is being hatched as we speak? And those on the other end of the political spectrum who shout ‘globalize the intifada’ — they mean Oct. 7 brought to the West, the Midwest and West Bloomfield.”

Hirsch said society “must do the much harder work of eradicating ideologies of hate in our communities. It means facing the problem of extremism and antisemitism head-on. It means acknowledging with honesty that antisemitism today is not only the domain of white supremacists and neo-Nazis.”

Hirsch, a self-described liberal who voiced opposition to Mamdani throughout the mayoral election, called the mayor’s statement on the Michigan attack “half-fine.”

Hirsch said he “welcomed” that Mamdani “expressed his horror, emphasized that his thoughts are with the congregation, called the attack ‘antisemitic violence” and pledged increased NYPD presence at Jewish institutions in New York.  

“But unless you say the second half, the first half is just cover — a distraction — an evasion, a diversion from the source of the problem.”

“What about committing to using the bully pulpit of the mayor to influence greater tolerance for Jews in this city?” continued Hirsch. “What about castigating anti-Israel hate that so influences anti-Jewish hate? Help us understand why the attempted murder of children at Temple Israel is so morally clear while the actual murder and hostage-taking of children in their living rooms in Israel is so morally opaque?”

Hirsch condemned Mamdani’s recent decision to host Mahmoud Khalil, a former leader of Columbia University’s anti-Israel protest movement, at his official residence.  

“The issue is not Mahmoud Khalil’s right to speak, or his immigration status. It is that Mayor Mamdani hosted him for an iftar meal and proudly posted his picture as if he is some kind of heroic freedom fighter. This is the man who said about Oct. 7, ‘we could not avoid such a moment.’ This is the man who called for the ‘collapse of the Zionist project and the ideology that it’s built on.’ Along with upholding his asserted right to free speech, do you have anything to say about the actual content of Mahmoud Khalil’s speech?” 

This past Shabbat marked a gathering of “determination and defiance,” said Hirsch. 

“On some level, to be a Jew is, itself, an act of defiance. We will not cower. We will not cringe. We will not crawl. We have seen it all before, we have survived it all. We are not going anywhere. You can harm us, you can inflict pain upon us, you can kill some of us, but you cannot destroy us.”

Six weeks ago, Danny Phillips, the director of security at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., arranged for the FBI to hold an active-shooter training for the congregation, one of the largest Reform synagogues in the county.

That training potentially saved the lives of 140 children and their teachers on Thursday when an assailant rammed a truck full of explosives and weapons into the building.

The education the staff received, the congregation’s rabbi, Josh Bennett, told Jewish Insider, “included the famous ‘run, hide, fight,’ and that’s exactly what our people did. And it’s only because he brought that to the front of mind that we are ready at the moment,” the rabbi continued, referring to Phillips.

The frightening incident unfolded on Thursday afternoon when Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, the brother of a Hezbollah commander who was born in Lebanon and became a U.S. citizen in 2016, breached the suburban Detroit synagogue, while it was filled with preschoolers.

Armed security stationed at the synagogue engaged with Ghazali inside the vehicle, who killed himself after his truck caught fire during the gunfight with security officials. Phillips was the only other person injured during the attack — he was knocked unconscious and remained hospitalized on Sunday, and is expected to make a full recovery.

“That is the guy who is our hero,” said Bennett. Phillips previously spent 28 years working for the Bloomfield Hills Police Department. 

“Because of him, not just his heroic actions on Thursday, but the way he has treated the hiring of staff and the training of our teachers and staff, that’s what made a difference,” Bennett told JI.  “Yes, he was a hero in the moment and there’s no way to overstate how incredible he was, along with other members of our team who engaged this perpetrator. But it’s bigger than that.” 

Rachel Levine, director of Temple Israel’s early childhood center, said she gives tours to prospective families a few times a week “and everyone’s first question is always about security.”

“Every time I tell them, in my life, I have never felt so safe in a building as I do here,” said Levine, who has previously worked at Jewish day schools and public schools, some of which were in downtown Detroit. 

“The men that are there to take care of us have really made us always feel like they are taking care of us,” she continued. “I knew [in the] moment [of the attack] that they were going to do what they had to do to make sure that none of us were hurt. And literally, they did.” 

Even as community leaders are describing the outcome of the attack as a miracle, Temple Israel, one of the largest Reform congregations in the U.S. with 3,100 families, faces a long road to recovery and rebuilding. 

“Our staff and teachers who were in the building are at various levels of coping,” Bennett told JI. “We are putting together professional programs to support people. At the same time we are trying to figure out the rebuilding phase. The building has already been released by the FBI and we’re starting to have insurance walk through and help us understand rebuilding. It’s a massive project. We’re talking about moving our office staff, religious school and nursery school in the interim.” 

With the assistance of the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, the community has set up recovery spots for families, which includes support for mental and physical health care, as well as a space for retrieving children’s belongings left behind in the building. Bennett described it as an “emotional site as parents walk in.” 

“Everyone is in a tremendous sense of disbelief. I woke up today feeling angry that we are in this position,” added Levine. 

But the Temple Israel leaders also noted an “overwhelming” outpouring of support from near and far, including from political leadership in Michigan, some of whom faced criticism over muted responses as the state saw a spate of antisemitic vandalisms after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.

“There have been really clear messages against antisemitism at the press conferences [from] both Gov. [Gretchen] Whitmer and Sen. [Elissa] Slotkin (D-MI),” said Bennett. “There were pretty strong words that I have not heard before from leadership. I don’t know what that means in terms of legislation but we feel very protected and supported right now.”

The congregation also leaned on its longstanding relationship with the Chaldean community, Iraqi Christians who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1950s to flee persecution. “They have a huge population in our midst and their community center is directly across the street from us, a major country club,” which served as a reunification point for parents and children on Thursday, said Bennett. 

“On Sept. 11 we came together, on Oct. 7 they were in our sanctuary supporting us,” he continued. “They have been unbelievably gracious and gave us their social hall for Shabbat services,” where more than 1,000 people worshipped together on Friday evening, as many more around the world watched via a livestream.

“The outpouring of financial and emotional support from everyone has been at times overwhelming,” said Bennett, who is one of Temple Israel’s seven rabbis.

While the congregation’s adults grapple with trauma from the attack and discuss rebuilding, in a testament to how well security officials, staff and teachers protected the children, Levine recalled a conversation she had with a father who picked up his 4-year-old son from the reunification point. 

The boy described the day to his family not as scary, but exciting; full of “fire drills” and police.      

“We practice all the time so the kids are not afraid,” said Levine.  

The suspect in the attack last week at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., was the brother of a Hezbollah commander, the IDF said on Sunday.

The IDF announced in an X post on Sunday that Ibrahim Muhammad Ghazali, the brother of Ayman Mohammad Ghazali, “was responsible for managing weapons operations within a specialized branch of [Hezbollah’s] Badr Unit. The unit is responsible for launching hundreds of rockets toward Israeli civilians throughout the war.”

“Ibrahim was eliminated in an IAF strike on a Hezbollah military structure last week,” the IDF said.

After Thursday’s attack, in which Ayman Ghazali drove his vehicle through the doors of the synagogue and preschool building and killed himself after his truck caught fire, some media outlets noted that relatives of the attacker had been killed in recent Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon.

A New York Times article initially headlined “The Michigan Synagogue Attacker Was a Quiet Restaurant Worker” focused on Ghazali’s response to the deaths of his brother and his brother’s two children. “The auditorium at the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights, Mich.,” the paper reported, “was packed” the night of the family’s memorial.

Hezbollah called Ghazali’s two brothers, Qasim and Ibrahim, “martyrs” after they were killed in an Israeli strike, and noted that Ibrahim “kill[ed] 10 Zionists.”

CBS reported that another of Ghazali’s brothers, Qasim, was also a member of a Hezbollah rocket unit.

According to CNN, Ghazali appeared in federal government databases as having ties to “known or suspected terrorists” associated with Hezbollah. He had been questioned upon his return from his last trip to Lebanon in 2019.

The IDF has been carrying out airstrikes on Hezbollah targets since the beginning of the month, after the Iran-backed terrorist group joined the Islamic Republic in its attacks on Israel, following the launch of Operation Lion’s Roar two weeks ago.

The car ramming and shooting attack at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., on Thursday seems unlikely to break the congressional stalemate over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which has been in a partial shutdown for weeks.

Among other programs, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Nonprofit Security Grant Program fall under the DHS funding bill, which Democrats have sought to renegotiate to implement new restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, following the deadly shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

The bill, as originally drafted, would have provided $300 million for the NSGP, well below the $1 billion many Jewish community groups have said is necessary and the $500 million that many supporters of the program on the Hill have been advocating for.

“The consequences, impacts of not funding DHS are real, and they’re in an unsustainable position. [It’s] now been 14 days [that Democrats have] had the latest offer from the White House and haven’t responded to it,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said on Thursday. 

Thune also said that Republicans have tried to pass a stopgap funding measure, known as a continuing resolution (CR), to restore funding to DHS while negotiations continue, but Democrats rejected it.

“They’re trying to get up here and blame Republicans, and we’ve tried through a continuing resolution to fund the government to allow for the negotiations to continue, but our offer has been out there. They have yet to respond to it,” Thune continued. “We’re trying to fund everything with a CR to allow for those negotiations to continue, and they consistently block it. So it’s, I’m not sure, but it’s a dangerous game, and people are going to get hurt.”

But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pointed blame for the lack of NSGP funding toward Republicans, highlighting that they had blocked passage of legislation by Democrats on Thursday to fund and reopen portions of DHS, including FEMA.

“Leader Schumer is an ardent supporter of NSGP funding, and this week, Republicans rejected Democratic efforts to fund the program through FEMA, along with the TSA, CISA, and the Coast Guard,” a spokesperson for Schumer told Jewish Insider. “Democrats continue pushing for common-sense solutions Americans demand: to rein in ICE and make sure no more Americans are killed by unaccountable and masked individuals.” 

Schumer had called for $500 million in funding for the program this year.

Multiple Jewish community groups urged lawmakers to move the DHS bill forward in light of Thursday’s attack.

“This latest attack shows the security crisis the Jewish community is facing & the need for more resources for our protection,” Nathan Diament, the executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, wrote in a post on X. “The main source of security funding, the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, is bogged down in the DHS funding bill fight[.] Congress needs to act on this now.”

Diament added to JI that lawmakers “need to act — with urgency.  We don’t care if the funding comes through a DHS appropriations agreement, the war supplemental or some other legislation — but it’s urgent and must be done.”

A spokesperson for the Jewish Federations of North America told JI, “Our position remains that there are vitally important programs for Jewish communal safety in the Homeland Security bill and that both sides must work to fund them as quickly as possible.”

Sydney Altfield, CEO of the Teach Coalition, which supports Jewish schools, also highlighted the DHS funding gridlock, and urged Congress to support a significant increase in NSGP funding.

“Right now the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, the main funding source protecting institutions like this one, is caught in the middle of a DHS funding fight in Congress. The government’s first responsibility is to protect its citizens,” Altfield said in a statement. “That is why Congress needs to bring NSGP funding levels to $1 billion before the next attack happens. Jewish families have been forced to pay an antisemitism tax for too long.”

Rabbi A.D. Motzen, the national director of government affairs for Agudath Israel of America, wrote on X, “Hopefully Congress will fund [DHS] soon so we can do more to stop these attacks from happening.”

The Anti-Defamation League also urged Congress to boost NSGP funding to $1 billion, without making direct mention of the stalled DHS funding talks.

“Today’s attack in Michigan is a painful reminder that Jewish communities remain targets of violent hate. At a time when threats are rising, at-risk communities must have the resources they need to protect themselves,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said. “The Nonprofit Security Grant Program has been a lifeline for synagogues, schools, and community centers seeking to strengthen their security.”

“Yet demand for this lifesaving program continues to far outpace available funding. We urge Congress to significantly increase funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $1 billion. The safety of American communities must remain a bipartisan priority,” he continued.

In a longer statement issued publicly, JFNA said that the attack at the suburban Detroit synagogue — and the actions of security guards in preventing deaths — highlights the need for additional government support. 

“We cannot do it alone. Protecting citizens is the primary responsibility of the government. The Jewish community is forced to spend over $765 million a year to simply protect itself, and there is more the government should do to ensure every vulnerable Jewish institution has the resources to keep safe,” JFNA said in the statement.

“Today’s events prove once again that the investments our community have made in security play a critical role in keeping us safe, even in the face of the intolerable antisemitic violence around us,” the statement continued.

The group has been pushing for $1 billion in funding for the NSGP as part of a six-point plan for protecting the Jewish community, which is facing record levels of antisemitism, which have been exacerbated by the war in Iran. 

The Temple Israel attack follows the January firebombing that left a historic Jackson, Miss., synagogue severely damaged. 

An assailant was killed during an active shooter situation at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., law enforcement officials confirmed on Thursday afternoon. One other person, a security guard, was injured.

The attack is being investigated as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community,” Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office, confirmed in a Thursday evening press conference. 

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed to Jewish Insider that the attack was carried out by Ayman Mohamad Ghazali.

Ghazali, 41, was born in Lebanon and entered the U.S. in 2011 on an IR1 immigrant visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen. He was granted U.S. citizenship in 2016, according to DHS. 

Armed security stationed at the synagogue engaged with Ghazali inside a vehicle that “breached the facility by driving into it,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said. Shots were fired and Ghazali was killed inside the vehicle, according to Bouchard, who added that “we can’t say what killed him at this point, but security did engage him with gunfire.”   

Bouchard said that a security guard who was knocked unconscious during the incident and hospitalized “should be OK.” 

The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said the vehicle likely intentionally crashed into the synagogue, causing the building to catch fire. Smoke could be seen billowing from the roof in early live news footage.

Temple Israel, one of the largest Reform congregations in the U.S., runs a preschool, which was in session at the time of the incident. In a message to members, the synagogue said that “all students and staff are safe” and had been evacuated to a nearby location.

Bouchard added that he and other law enforcement leaders had been preparing for a scenario such as this for the last two weeks, around the start of the U.S. and Israeli war in Iran. 

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, as well as the three main Democratic candidates vying for the U.S. Senate seat to represent the state, swiftly issued statements on X addressing the incident. 

“Michigan’s Jewish community should be able to live and practice their faith in peace,” said Whitmer. “Antisemitism and violence have no place in Michigan.” 

“Before our very eyes, a Temple in West Bloomfield is under attack,” said Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), who represents the district where Temple Israel is located. “Like many of you, I am getting reports in real time. To everyone in Michigan’s 11th district, continue to follow the guidance of local law enforcement. To the Jewish American community in Michigan and beyond, we stand with you.”   

“I’m hearing the first reports of an incident at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield,” said state Sen. Mallory McMorrow “Please stay away from the area and listen to direction from first responders as we wait to learn more.” 

“The rise in antisemitism is not abstract. It’s not left or right. It is here. It is in our state, our community, just miles from my own house. It is in our neighborhoods, our schools, our houses of worship. Enough,” she said in a follow-up statement later on Thursday afternoon. 

Far-left Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said that he was “horrified to hear the reports of an active shooter at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield. Please stay safe if you’re in the area. This kind of violence has no place in our communities.” 

State Sen. Jeremy Moss, the front-runner to succeed Stevens in Congress, said in a statement that he has “been in contact with local officials to monitor the active shooting at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield and am praying for everyone inside …  We’re living through an incredibly agonizing time in our Jewish community. We deserve safety in our synagogues, schools, and everywhere else. This rise in targeted hate and violence is untenable.” 

Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday afternoon, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said she “grew up not far from” Temple Israel. 

Slotkin declined to “get ahead of the police” as “law enforcement are still securing the scene.” She urged the public to “listen to the warnings that they’re putting out.”

Amid rising antisemitism in Michigan, Steven Ingber, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Detroit, said during a Thursday evening press conference that he was not “shocked or surprised” by the attack.

A leading Jewish security organization said that there is no known threat to the Jewish community following an active shooter incident Tuesday afternoon near the Agudath Israel of Baltimore synagogue in which a Baltimore Police officer and a suspect were shot.

The Secure Community Network said in a statement, citing a law enforcement source, that the shooting was most likely “domestic in nature.”

“There are no indications that the Jewish community was the target, and there is no known active threat to the community,” SCN said.  

According to WBAL-TV in Baltimore, the suspect fired shots from a window toward an undisclosed location. Authorities were called around 12:30 pm to the 6200 block of Park Heights Avenue, near the Orthodox Agudath Israel of Baltimore synagogue.

Officers asked the public to avoid the area on Tuesday afternoon as they investigated a motive. 

One officer was taken to University of Maryland Shock Trauma. Another officer suffered a non-life threatening injury. The suspect’s condition has not been disclosed and it was not immediately made clear if they are in custody.    

“We are aware of the police involved shooting,” the Baltimore Police union said in a statement. “All involved members are in good spirits.”

Neither Baltimore police nor Agudath Israel of Baltimore immediately responded to requests for comment from Jewish Insider. 

A Toronto synagogue was shot at Monday night, causing damage to the building’s exterior, according to police. 

Toronto Police Service said that there were several bullet holes in the front windows of Temple Emanu-El in North York. No injuries were reported. 

The shooting occurred shortly before 11pm, as some people remained inside the building following a Purim celebration, a source with knowledge of the incident told Jewish Insider. Officers found “multiple shell casings at the front entrance of the synagogue, evidence of gunfire and damage to the building,” Toronto Police Deputy Chief Robert Johnson said during a Tuesday afternoon press conference. No information about the suspect or the type of firearm used has been confirmed, Johnson said.  

“This is being investigated as a targeted incident” by the Integrated Gun & Gang Task Force and Hate Crime Unit, a police spokesperson told JI. 

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow called the shooting “an unacceptable act of antisemitism and intimidation.”

“We will not tolerate antisemitic hate in our city. Toronto Police are investigating and will increase their presence in the area to keep the community and congregants safe,” Chow said. “Toronto’s Jewish community has the right to practice their faith without fear, intimidation or violence.”

“The synagogue I attended as a boy and youth, where I was bar mitzvah’d and received my primary Jewish education, now under gunfire in once-peaceable North York, Ontario,” David Frum, senior editor at The Atlantic, wrote on X. 

In response to the shooting, the Jewish Security Network of Greater Toronto, which is part of Toronto’s Jewish federation, said in a statement that it advises “the community to exercise heightened vigilance and awareness at this time.” 

The shooting came as Jewish communities worldwide are on increased alert amid U.S.-Israeli operations against Iran. Earlier this week, security groups warned of potential risk to Jewish institutions globally by attackers motivated by the events. 

Canada has seen a particularly egregious rise in antisemitism since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel. So far in 2026, 22 antisemitic occurrences have been reported in Toronto, representing approximately 62% of all reported hate crimes, according to police. 

Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism found a 670 percent increase in antisemitic incidents in the country in 2024. 

Beth Israel Congregation President Zach Shemper wrapped up a week on Capitol Hill Thursday feeling “confident” that sharing the story of the recent arson attack on his synagogue with lawmakers would bring increased security funding for houses of worship nationwide — including his own.

“My message to members of Congress was simple — increasing funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program and advancing the Pray Safe Act will make a real difference for houses of worship like ours across the country,” Shemper told Jewish Insider. 

It’s been one month since a fire heavily damaged the historic place of worship — the only synagogue in Jackson and the largest one in the state. The suspected arsonist, Stephen Spencer Pittman, 19, admitted to starting the blaze on Jan. 10 due to “the building’s Jewish ties,” and referred to the institution as the “synagogue of Satan.”

Pittman was charged on Thursday with civil rights and arson offenses, which add to an earlier arson indictment. Two Torah scrolls were destroyed in the fire, and five more were damaged. A Torah that survived the Holocaust, which was kept in a glass case, was unharmed. The congregation’s library and administrative office were also destroyed. Synagogue leaders estimate it will take two or three years to rebuild. The 140 families that belong to Beth Israel are indefinitely holding services in a nearby church.  

Less than two weeks after the attack, ​​Congress put forward a budget of $300 million for NSGP for 2026. While that figure is a small increase from the funding provided in 2024 and 2025, it is lower than the allocations initially proposed by both the House and Senate. That figure is also significantly less than the $500 million to $1 billion for the program requested by congressional advocates and Jewish groups. 

New conditions on the program relating to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs and immigration have also drawn bipartisan condemnation.

Still, Shemper said he is “feeling confident about increased NSGP funding. At the end of the day, it’s just the right thing to do.” 

In meetings facilitated by the Anti-Defamation League, Shemper met with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY); the ranking members of the House and Senate Homeland Security committees, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI); Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA); and the co-chairs of the House Bipartisan Task Force to Counter Antisemitism, Reps. Dan Goldman (D-NY), Marc Veasey (D-TX), Grace Meng (D-NY), Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and George Latimer (D-NY).

“The arson attack on Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi is a stark reminder that Jewish institutions across the country face serious and persistent security threats. ADL was proud to join Beth Israel Congregation President Zach Shemper on Capitol Hill this week to ensure lawmakers could hear directly from a community leader navigating the aftermath of a targeted attack,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “Faith communities deserve to gather and worship without fear, and Congress has a clear opportunity, and responsibility, to help make that possible.”

Shemper told JI that “coming to Washington this week gave me the opportunity to underscore what it takes for synagogues like ours to keep our congregants safe.”

“After the arson attack on our synagogue, security is not an abstract concern,” he continued. “It is immediate, personal and a daily reality for our community. What happened in Jackson was not an isolated incident, it’s part of a dangerous pattern. No community should have to experience what we have, and no congregation should ever have to rebuild after an attack simply for being Jewish.”

Located in a major hub of the Civil Rights Movement, Beth Israel was also the target of a 1967 bombing by the Ku Klux Klan over the rabbi’s support for racial equality — including providing chaplain services to activists incarcerated for challenging segregated bussing in the state. 

Shemper said that NSGP “helped pay for security cameras that caught the assailant” of the arson attack.

“I was in Washington advocating for increased NSGP funding — because our grant didn’t cover the full cost of security cameras, and there are certainly more houses of worship who need access to this funding,” he continued. 

“Security for houses of worship can’t be optional, and it can’t just come after tragedy.” 

The Mississippi man indicted last month in connection with setting the state’s largest synagogue on fire is facing two additional federal charges. 

Stephen Spencer Pittman, a 19-year-old who admitted to committing arson on Jackson’s Beth Israel Congregation in the early hours of Jan. 10 due to “the building’s Jewish ties,” was indicted by a federal grand jury this week on civil rights and arson offenses. The indictment adds additional counts to an earlier arson charge, making it a three-count indictment. 

“The Department of Justice will not tolerate attacks on houses of worship,” said Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general of civil rights at the Justice Department. “This superseding indictment shows that we will investigate and we will prosecute such vicious attacks that strike at the core of our country’s long tradition of religious liberty.”

According to court documents from his arrest, Pittman is alleged to have used gasoline to set fire to the house of worship. He referred to the institution as the “synagogue of Satan,” a historically antisemitic phrase that has been re-popularized by far-right commentator Candace Owens. 

Two Torah scrolls were destroyed in the fire, and five more were damaged. A Torah that survived the Holocaust, which was kept in a glass case, was unharmed. The congregation’s library and administrative office were also destroyed. The building also houses the offices of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which supports Jewish life in the region. 

Synagogue leaders estimate it will take two or three years to rebuild. The 140 families that belong to Beth Israel — the only synagogue in Jackson, the state’s capital city —  are indefinitely holding services in a nearby church.  

If convicted on all federal counts, Pittman could face up to 50 years in prison and up to $750,000 in fines.

A synagogue in Montgomery County, Md., a suburb of Washington, was defaced with antisemitic graffiti on Tuesday. 

A swastika, the word “genocide” and the phrase “AZAB,” an acronym standing for “All Zionists Are Bastards,” were spray-painted on street signs and banners outside of Shaare Tefila, a Conservative congregation in Olney. The graffiti covered large signs outside of the synagogue that read “Hate Has No Home Here” in several languages below a heart shaped American flag and another that read “We Support Israel.” 

Ron Halber, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, called the act “outrageous.”

“While it is fortunate that no one was physically hurt, it is yet another sad reminder that antisemitic incidents have become common occurrences throughout our region,” said Halber. He added that local officials and police officers responded “immediately.” 

Halber called for increased Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding to applicants in Maryland and specifically to Montgomery County, which has the largest Jewish population in the state. 

“This funding has quickly become an absolute necessity for our community. Policymakers must sustain and build on these investments for our safety,” he said. “Let this incident serve as another reminder: antisemitism always fails. Our Jewish community will never be intimidated into silence, and we will forever be proud to support Israel.”

Police say the 36-year-old who ran his vehicle into the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters in Brooklyn on Wednesday night had previously attended an event at the synagogue, and was again attempting “to connect with the Lubavitch Jewish community” — but will now face multiple hate crimes charges.

At a Thursday press conference, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny disclosed that Dan Sohail of Carteret, N.J., was the driver who plowed his Honda Accord into the Crown Heights synagogue and yeshiva of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Kenny revealed that Sohail had “recently connected with the Lubavitch community” and attended a “social gathering” at the same location 10 days prior. The vehicle ramming occurred on Yud Shevat, the anniversary of the death of Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, a highly significant date for the Lubavitch community that draws large crowds to the Crown Heights area. 

“We believe he was in Brooklyn last night to continue his attempt to connect with the Lubavitch Jewish community,” said Kenny, who added: “There are currently no specific or credible threats to synagogues, Jewish sites or any houses of worship citywide.”

Kenny, however, reiterated NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s promise to add additional uniformed cops, patrol officers and even “counter-terrorism resources where appropriate” to religious institutions citywide, regardless of affiliation.

The police chief revealed the Brooklyn district attorney’s office would charge Sohail with multiple counts of attempted assault, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and aggravated harassment — all with hate crime enhancements, subjecting the accused to further penalties.

Kenny said that Sohail told officers that “his foot slipped” while driving and he “lost control of the car because he was wearing chunky boots.” But this contrasts with security footage the NYPD official said the department recovered from nearby, which he stated showed Sohail parking his vehicle some distance away, approaching the synagogue on foot and removing bollards that blocked the driveway leading to the entrance. Kenny said Sohail then drove his vehicle up to the iconic red-brick building and got out to remove snow obstructing the sidewalk — then repeatedly drove into the entryway through the path he had cleared.

Kenny said that in video footage of Sohail attending an event at the Chabad headquarters earlier this month he “seemed to be very at home with the Jewish community.”

However, Kenny asserted that hate crime charges were appropriate because Sohail targeted the location due to its religious character.

“The hate crime right now is that he basically attacked a Jewish institution. This is a synagogue, it’s clearly marked as a synagogue, he knew it was a synagogue because he attended there previously,” Kenny said. “It’s a hate crime based on his attack of the Jewish synagogue.”

Kenny declined to confirm reports Sohail had visited Chabad houses in New Jersey, and stated he had no criminal record in New York City. In an interview with the New York Times, Sohail’s father denied that his son hated Jewish people, and had told family he planned to convert to Judaism.

With worshippers at Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Miss., still reeling from a Jan. 10 arson attack that severely damaged the historic synagogue, Congress appears poised to provide $300 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program for 2026, a small boost from the funding provided in 2024 and 2025.

But that figure is lower than the allocations initially proposed by both the House and Senate, even as antisemitic events, such as the arson in Jackson, continue to rock the Jewish community. And it is significantly less than the target level of $500 million to $1 billion for the program requested by congressional advocates and Jewish groups.

Lauren Wolman, senior director of government relations and strategy at the Anti-Defamation League, said the allocation “acknowledges the very real threats facing houses of worship and other at-risk nonprofits.”

“But [the $300 million] falls far short of what is needed and represents a step back from the bipartisan funding levels previously secured in both chambers,” Wolman continued. “Demand for NSGP continues to dramatically outpace available resources, and underfunding this program leaves vulnerable communities exposed. We will continue working with Congress to secure increased funding in the next funding cycle to ensure at-risk communities have the protection they need.”

The funding, part of the Homeland Security budget, may also suffer from additional friction amid Democratic opposition to the package, linked to concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations throughout the country. It is not yet guaranteed that the package will actually pass, with key Democrats, including Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Homeland Security Subcommittee, announcing their opposition to the bill. 

The program was funded at $274.5 million in both 2024 and 2025, with an extra infusion of $400 million as part of the 2024 National Security Supplemental bill. In 2024, the $274.5 million allocation funded just 43% of applications, which totaled nearly $1 billion in funding requested. The 2025 funding still has not been distributed amid ongoing delays at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which administers the program.

The House voted last year to approve a 2026 funding bill with $335 million for the program, while Senate Republicans proposed $330 million. The final level of $300 million is just shy of the $305 million provided in 2023, the highest annual funding level ever provided for the program. That $305 million covered 42% of applications — before the post Oct. 7, 2023, global surge in antisemitism.

Jewish groups that advocate for the NSGP praised the allocation while also saying that they would continue to fight in future years for additional funding to meet the community’s full needs. Some noted that the funding boost was particularly significant at a time when DHS is overshooting budget targets and funding for many DHS grant programs is being significantly constrained.

Nathan Diament, the executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, said that the $300 million “is not the overall number we were pushing for, but in the context of the DHS bill being more than $1 billion over their topline number, and lots of other things getting cut … we got an increase for NSGP. It’s a result we can work with.”

Diament also noted that the OU hopes that the funding for the NSGP can “go further” this year with $5 million in Justice Department grant funding earmarked to support local law enforcement in protecting religious facilities, funds he said will relieve expenses that communities have traditionally paid out of pocket to off-duty police to protect their institutions.

He also noted that if the bill fails to pass, there could be opportunities for further negotiations on the NSGP funding.

Eric Fingerhut, the CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, said that the funding boost over 2024 and 2025 “is an important step in the right direction.”

“Still, threats to the Jewish community are more frequent, visible, and normalized than ever before, and while Federations invest heavily in our communal safety, the cost for securing our community alone stands at an estimated $775 million a year. We look forward to working with Congress to use any vehicle possible to further increase funding for this life-saving program,” Fingerhut continued.

Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), co-chairs of the Senate task force on combatting antisemitism, proposed that the Senate advance a package of legislation to protect religious communities, including supplemental funding for the NSGP.

Michael Masters, CEO of the Secure Community Network, said SCN is “pleased to see renewed funding for this program, alongside critical funding for law enforcement and public safety through the State Homeland Security and Urban Areas Security Initiative programs. With recent attacks on Jewish museums, events, and synagogues, these programs are vital to allowing people of faith to gather in peace.”

“Continued investment in the Nonprofit Security Grant Program — which has allowed for life-saving physical security solutions to be installed in houses of worship, schools, and community centers — is critical to the safety of the Jewish community, faith communities, and nonprofits throughout the country,” Masters continued.

Rabbi Avi Schnall, director of federal education affairs for Agudath Israel of America, said that Agudath Israel is “happy that the [NSGP continues] to be funded. We look to the future and feel as if a much greater amount needs to be allocated.”

He continued: “$300 million is an improvement from last year’s $274.5 million, but it falls very short of the $500 million ask that’s been brought up by [Senate] Minority Leader [Chuck] Schumer (D-NY) and others over the last couple of years. And we’re hopeful, as Congress resumes the negotiations for the next budget, that hopefully a significant increase will be included in that one. As hate incidents in general … increase, and particularly in the Jewish community that’s seeing an unprecedented increase in attacks, now’s the time to increase protection and prevention more than ever.”

Schnall said Agudath Israel “look[s] forward to working with Congress to ensure that future budgets [reflect] the needs of the broader community.”

The explanatory report accompanying the Homeland Security funding bill also instructs the administration to release a report within 90 days on how DHS is implementing the Trump administration’s executive order on antisemitism and the U.S. national strategy on antisemitism, formulated under the Biden administration.

The Homeland Security funding package was also paired with the 2026 defense funding package, which includes $500 million for cooperative missile defense programs with Israel, as expected under the U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding, as well as increased funding for other cooperative programs such as $80 million for the counter-tunneling program, $75 million for counter drone and directed energy programs and $47.5 million for developing military applications of emerging technologies like AI and quantum computing.

City College of New York’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter remains a registered campus group following its participation in last week’s pro-Hamas protest in Queens that caused nearby schools and a synagogue to close early.  

The demonstration was planned by a group called the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation [PAL]-Awda, protesting an event held by CapitIL, a Jerusalem-based real estate agency, at a Queens synagogue. The group called the meeting an “illegal event” promoting “blatant land theft and dispossession” in a social media post promoting the protest. 

CCNY SJP reposted PAL-Awda’s fliers promoting the demonstration and shared videos on its Instagram story of its members participating in the protest. A spokesperson for CCNY did not respond to multiple inquiries from Jewish Insider following the protest regarding what, if any, disciplinary action would be taken.   

The protest was also promoted by Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition of student groups that is no longer recognized by Columbia University. Dozens of keffiyeh-clad demonstrators gathered near the synagogue, Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, and chanted, “We support Hamas here,” “There is only one solution, intifada revolution,” “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the IDF” for more than two hours while banging on drums in the residential area in the heavily Jewish neighborhood. One protester held a ripped Israeli flag that was painted red to resemble blood. 

The pro-Hamas language used by demonstrators was condemned by a range of New York politicians, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and former City Comptroller Brad Lander, both of whom have been vocally critical of Israel. 

CCNY was already facing scrutiny following a university-sponsored interfaith event in November during which a Muslim spiritual leader delivered an antisemitic tirade against a CUNY Hillel director. The U.S. Department of Justice opened an ongoing investigation into the interfaith event shortly after it occurred.

The suspect in an arson attack that destroyed Mississippi’s largest synagogue early Saturday morning confessed to targeting the building because of its “Jewish ties,” the FBI announced on Monday. 

In an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Mississippi more than 48 hours after the attack, the FBI said the suspect, Stephen Spencer Pittman, 19, admitted to starting the blaze at Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Miss., due to “the building’s Jewish ties.” In an interview with the Jackson Fire Department, he referred to the institution as the “synagogue of Satan,” a historically antisemitic phrase that has been re-popularized by far-right commentator Candace Owens. 

Pittman appeared in court Monday to face arson charges, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which made no mention of hate crime charges. If convicted, Pittman faces a minimum penalty of 5 years and a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s field office in Jackson told Jewish Insider on Monday that no press conference providing further details is planned. 

According to the affidavit, Pittman told investigators he stopped at a gas station on his way to the synagogue to purchase the gasoline used in the fire. At the station, he removed his license plate. He broke into a window of the synagogue shortly after 3 a.m. on Saturday using an ax, doused the inside in gas and used a torch lighter to start the fire. No congregants were injured in the blaze.

According to the complaint, Pittman also admitted to committing arson in text messages to his father, who told authorities.  

Pittman texted a photo of the synagogue, accompanied by messages that said, “There’s a furnace in the back,” “BTW my plate is off,” “Hoodie is on” and, “And they have the best cameras.”

Pittman posted a link on what appears to be his Instagram account to One Purpose, a website with the description, “Scripture-backed fitness. Brotherhood accountability. Life-expectancy-maxxing.” The top of the site has the Hebrew four-letter name for God and the words “Build Your Temple for His Glory.” 

In one recent Instagram post, Pittman shared a list of foods suggested for a “Christian Diet/Testosterone Optimization” which included the Hebrew words for “butter” and “olive oil” under “only God-made fats.” 

Pittman primarily posted about baseball, but one day before the attack shared a repost of a “Jew in Backyard” cartoon in which a character with horns and a large nose, wearing a Star of David, is holding two moneybags. “A Jew in our backyard. I can’t believe my Jewcrow didn’t work,” a woman says, pointing to a waiter with a sign asking for tips.

Beth Israel is the only synagogue in Jackson, the state’s capital and most populous city. The historic building also houses the offices of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which supports Jewish life in the region.   

Located in a major hub of the Civil Rights Movement, Beth Israel was bombed in 1967 by the Ku Klux Klan over the rabbi’s support for racial justice — including providing chaplain services to activists incarcerated for challenging segregated bussing in the state. 

Two Torah scrolls were destroyed in the fire, and five more were damaged. A Torah that survived the Holocaust, which was kept in a glass case, was unharmed. The congregation’s library and administrative office were ruined, and the congregation has canceled services indefinitely. 

A suspect is under arrest for an act of arson that significantly damaged Mississippi’s largest synagogue early Saturday morning, authorities reported. 

Local law enforcement arrested a suspect whom they believe purposefully set fire to Beth Israel Congregation shortly after 3 a.m. Saturday, Jackson Mayor John Horhn confirmed. The suspect’s name and motive have not been disclosed.

Beth Israel Congregation is the only synagogue in Jackson, the state’s capital and most populous city. The historic building also houses the offices of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which supports Jewish life in the region.   

Located in a major hub of the Civil Rights Movement, Beth Israel was bombed in 1967 by the Ku Klux Klan over the rabbi’s support for racial justice — including providing chaplain services to activists incarcerated for challenging segregated bussing in the state. 

No congregants were injured in Saturday’s blaze. Two Torah scrolls were destroyed in the fire, and five more were damaged. A Torah that survived the Holocaust, which was kept in a glass case, was unharmed. The congregation’s library and administrative office were ruined, and the congregation has canceled services indefinitely. 

“We have already had outreach from other houses of worship in the Jackson area and greatly appreciate their support in this very difficult time,” the synagogue president, Zach Shemper, said in a statement. About 3,000 Jews live in Mississippi, comprising 0.1% of its 3 million residents. The southern state is home to around a dozen synagogues.  

While police and the FBI have not yet determined the suspect’s motive, the arson comes as antisemitic hate crimes in the U.S. reached a record high in 2024 since the FBI started tracking data in 1991. 

The incident drew condemnation from elected officials and Jewish leaders. 

“Acts of antisemitism, racism and religious hatred are attacks on Jackson as a whole and will be treated as threats to our residents’ safety and freedom to worship,” Horhn said in a statement. “Targeting people because of their faith, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation is morally wrong, un-American and incompatible with the values of this city.”

“I would hope that all Mississippians and all Jacksonians would commit themselves toward moving beyond such behavior and activity and find a way where we can all get together and get along,” continued Horhn, who said he remembers the 1967 attack, which occurred when he was 12.  

“Our hearts are with the members of Beth Israel Congregation. We stand together with them as do all the caring people of Mississippi. We denounce violence and find attacks on places of worship especially despicable,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) said in a statement. 

“Regardless of the findings of the investigation, this is what it means to be Jewish in America right now: antisemitic violence and attacks on synagogues and Jews are so common that they barely register beyond local news, and the people most often naming it, mourning it, and sounding the alarm are Jews themselves,” Sheila Katz, chief Jewish life officer at Jewish Federations of North America, wrote on social media. 

“It also means this: the Jewish community in Mississippi will come together. They will support one another and be supported by Jews they don’t know around the country and the world. They will rebuild. They will continue to celebrate Jewish holidays and live Jewish life with joy,” Katz continued.

“Waking to the news of an arson attack on a Mississippi synagogue feels all too familiar. This description is chilling. We stand with the Jackson community,” said Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee.  

“Grateful that law enforcement has apprehended a suspect,” Deutch continued. “Glad the Mayor has spoken out. Now will you touch base with your Jewish friends, neighbors and co-workers?  Let them know that you understand this attack in Jackson is an attack on them as well. Tell them you stand with the Jewish community. It will mean more than you know.” 

“The fact that this historic synagogue … has once again been targeted is particularly painful and disturbing. We will continue to monitor the situation closely,” said Lindsay Baach Friedmann, regional director of Anti-Defamation League South Central.  

Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, called on leaders “to speak out, stand with the Jewish community in meaningful ways, and work to build strong coalitions and advance holistic approaches to counter hate, violence, and extremism wherever it exists. This crisis threatens Jews, all communities, and our democracy — and until it’s treated with the seriousness and urgency it deserves, none of us will be safe,” she said.

“Domestic terrorism against Jews never happens in a vacuum,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), a staunch ally of the Jewish community, said in a statement. “Instead of extinguishing the fires of antisemitism, American politics is often guilty of fanning the flames.”

Deborah Lipstadt, the former State Department special antisemitism envoy, called the arson attack “another step in the globalization of the intifada.”

A radical anti-Israel activist group responsible for the disruptive November protest outside of a historic synagogue in Manhattan announced it will hold a similar demonstration on Thursday, marking the first major test Mayor Zohran Mamdani will face in protecting the city’s Jewish community since he was inaugurated last week. 

The group, called Palestinian Assembly for Liberation [PAL]-Awda, initially announced two demonstrations against Israeli immigration events in New York City this week. “Nefesh B’Nfesh settler recruitment fair on Wednesday at 7 pm in Manhattan and illegal Stolen Palestinian Land sale on Thursday at 6:30 in Queens,” it wrote Tuesday on social media, adding that it would disclose event locations on Wednesday. 

The group, which never posted the location of the Nefesh B’ Nefesh event, wrote on Instagram on Wednesday evening, less than an hour before the event started, that “our planned action tonight to protest the settler recruitment event is being cancelled.”

“Although NBN is still holding their event, their reach and attendance has been diminished,” it wrote. “PAL-Awda NY/NJ and our allies will build on this win to ensure our community will always stand together in vocal opposition to zionist settler colonialism, to all settler recruitment, and genocide.”  

Thursday’s demonstration, which PAL-Awda said it is still planning to hold, is protesting an event held by CapitIL, a Jerusalem-based real estate agency. 

PAL-Awda led a mob of anti-Israel demonstrators in November in a protest outside of Park East synagogue as it was hosting a Nefesh B’Nefesh event providing information on immigration to Israel. Protesters shouted chants including “death to the IDF” and “globalize the intifada.” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch later called the protest “turmoil,” while Mamdani’s office said the event was promoting “activities in violation of international law.” 

The planned protest comes as Mamdani is facing criticism for repealing antisemitism and Israel-related executive orders issued by former Mayor Eric Adams, including one that saw the city adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, just hours after taking office on Jan 1. Coupled with Mamdani’s reaction to the November protest, Democratic state Assemblyman Sam Berger expressed concerns on Tuesday about how the mayor might handle this week’s protests.

“Without IHRA as a guiding standard, the city lacks a reliable framework to recognize when extremist language is being laundered as political discourse, leaving communities vulnerable in moments exactly like this,” Berger wrote on social media calling the mayor’s decision to repeal the executive order “all the more concerning” in light of the threats to the Jewish community. 

Berger, an Orthodox Jew whose district includes the area where Thursday’s Israeli real estate event is being held, said that PAL-Awda also protested a similar event a year and a half ago. That demonstration “quickly descended into vile displays of antisemitism and open support for terrorist organizations whose stated goal is the complete destruction of Israel and the Jewish people. That context matters and it cannot be ignored,” said Berger. 

“During that previous incident, protestors stood across the street, more than one hundred feet away, yet the distance did nothing to prevent a stream of antisemitic chants, tropes and harassment. Criticism of Israel is not the issue. The concern is when those arguments are used as a cover for blatant antisemitism, which is exactly what happened last time,” said Berger, adding that he’s “been in contact with the commanding officer of [NYPD’s] 107th Precinct and with Queens Shmira, and am assured they are taking this very seriously and that the community will be protected and public safety will remain the priority throughout this scheduled protest.” 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Tuesday she plans to implement a policy establishing “safety zones” around houses of worship. 

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who has repeatedly made headlines for his sharpening criticism of Israel’s operations in Gaza while bashing pro-Israel groups, addressed two synagogues in his district this weekend about Israel policy and antisemitism, fielding questions from congregants.

Khanna, considered to be a 2028 presidential contender, addressed Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos after Friday evening Shabbat services, and Congregation Emanu-El in San Jose on Saturday. Khanna’s office shared excerpts of both events with Jewish Insider.

Though Khanna is co-sponsoring a resolution describing the war in Gaza as a genocide, he gave a somewhat equivocal response on the issue at Congregation Beth Am, saying that there is significant disagreement on the use of the term, even within his own family, and acknowledging that its usage is “emotionally charged.”

“I believe that people of good faith can disagree on what to call it. I have said that I would defer to the international bodies and that the United States should follow international law,” Khanna continued. “What I do know is that what happened, in my view, was not right. Even though Israel was attacked and Oct. 7 was a terrorist attack, I think [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s response was disproportionate.”

Asked about former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir’s famous maxim, “If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel,” Khanna said that the “history is so complex.”

He said that both Israelis and Palestinians have strong claims to the land, while acknowledging that Israel had previously agreed to a partition of the state while the Palestinians rejected the existence of Israel.

“Obviously it’s a complex situation,” Khanna said. “All I can say is, now it seems to be the best chance for peace — is for both people to have a state basically under a 1967 framework with some adjustments as the way forward. … I don’t think the cycle of violence can continue. I think we have to try.”

He said that would require backing from regional powers in the Arab League and Palestinian guarantees of Israeli security, as well as the removal of Hamas from power. But he also acknowledged that Israelis “don’t trust the idea, even the left, of giving Palestinians a state because of what happened on Oct. 7.”

He emphasized that he believes that Israel “should exist as a Jewish and democratic state,” emphasizing that others on the left disagree with him on that point.

Khanna argued that he had “initially defended for a few months [after Oct. 7] Israel’s right to self-defense” and faced protests for doing so, “but by December, when Netanyahu had destroyed about eight out of 10 of the Hamas battalions and when President [Joe] Biden had the first deal for hostages, I thought that the military solution to the war was over. I did not think they would achieve more militarily.”

He added that he does not think that it is possible to remove Hamas from power in Gaza by military means, and that the “cost of human life was way too high [in the war]  … that this was not advancing peace and it was not a proportionate response in terms of achieving a better outcome for people in Gaza or Israel.”

He said he did not think the U.S. should have continued providing offensive weapons to Israel while the war was ongoing.

Khanna said he has told Netanyahu that he may have won the battle against Israel’s terrorist enemies but is “losing the war. You’re losing every American under 50 and you need the United States.”

Khanna asserted that there is a significant generational divide among Jewish Americans and Americans on Israel and Gaza — “one of the starkest generational divides that I’ve seen, not just among the Jewish-American community, but in general.”

He suggested that New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s outspoken anti-Israel stance was a major reason the democratic socialist won the mayoral race, and that a “staggering amount” of young Jewish Americans supported Mamdani.

Polling has shown that a majority of Jewish New Yorkers voted against the mayor-elect and that a strong majority of Jews of all ages remain strongly connected to Israel.

Khanna said that he’s also seeing a similar trend among young Republicans, citing a conversation with a Republican friend, whose son told Khanna that Israel is the only issue on which he agrees with the congressman.

Asked about the future of Israelis living beyond the Green Line in the West Bank, Khanna — who has been pushing for the United States to unilaterally recognize Palestinian statehood — said that issue would have to be negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians.

“Some of them, they probably would have to leave, like they did when [former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon vacated Gaza,” Khanna said. “Some, if they stayed, there probably has to be some negotiation or compensation for that.”

Some critics, including fellow Democrats, of Khanna’s statehood recognition proposal say that outstanding issues such as Israeli and Palestinian borders, which must be resolved in negotiations, are one reason not to recognize Palestinian statehood at this point.

Khanna said that there can be “zero tolerance for antisemitism” and that political leaders need to call it out, regardless of which side of the aisle it comes from. “It can’t become a political football,” he added.

The California congressman himself has on multiple occasions faced criticism for associating with known antisemites — including appearing at an anti-Israel conference alongside speakers who defended terrorism and posting on social media a clip that included a prominent antisemitic conspiracy theorist — backpedaling on those associations after the fact.

Khanna said he created a point of contact in his office for individuals facing antisemitic discrimination to report their experiences. Many who have contacted him, he said, have been young people — Jewish clubs unable to bring speakers to campus, students uncomfortable in their classrooms — as well as a Jewish person feeling uncomfortable at their place of employment.

“I have, in a number of instances, reached out and said I don’t think that that’s acceptable,” Khanna said. “We need to make sure that this community is accept[ing] and open to people of all different backgrounds.”

He also said that more education about the Holocaust is critical and that the Department of Justice must have the resources it needs to protect Jewish communities and prosecute antisemitic hate crimes and threats.

Khanna also spoke about what he views as the future of the Democratic Party — notably offering support for two moderate Democratic governors while implicitly distancing himself from his home state’s governor.

“The last thing we need is the pundits for the party picking who the next leader should be,” Khanna said. “We need people to go earn it. … Go campaign, go work hard, share your vision with people, see if it resonates, have a primary of 10, 15 thoughtful people sharing the vision for the country, and don’t anoint who the next leader should be. That will be a colossal mistake.”

He praised Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro — both of whom are more moderate than Khanna — as “offering a vision of how we move forward.”

But he said he “completely reject[s]” those in the party who push for  fighting “fire with fire” — an implicit dig at California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has adopted a Trumpian posture on social media to criticize the president and Republicans.

Khanna said he wants to pursue a “positive vision” to “heal this country” and “move this nation forward,” focusing on a “unifying economic message” — ”I call it economic patriotism as a new national purpose. Americans working together to build up every town so that every family has a chance of success in a modern economy, and so we can be a cohesive, multiracial democracy that leads the world.”

Though he has said he believes that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) should step down from his leadership position and called for “the old guard to make way” and let a “new generation of leadership” take charge, he said that he would support House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) as speaker of the House if the Democrats retake the chamber. 

More than 1,000 New Yorkers braved the frigid temperatures on Thursday night, stretching across Lexington Avenue on the Upper East Side outside of the historic Park East Synagogue, surrounded by heavy police presence and voicing a unifying message: “We are proud New Yorkers, proud Jews and proud Zionists.” 

“The stakes in this moment could not be higher, because how we act will define our community for years to come,” Eric Goldstein, outgoing CEO of UJA-Federation of New York, told the crowd. “We gather outside the sacred space that was targeted weeks ago, standing together to defend our rights as Jews to worship safely and to support Israel’s right to exist as our Jewish homeland.” 

The scene was a sharp contrast from the one two weeks ago on that same street when a mob of anti-Israel demonstrators protested outside of the Modern Orthodox synagogue, which was hosting a Nefesh B’Nefesh event providing information on immigration to Israel, shouting chants including “death to the IDF” and “globalize the Intifada.” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch later called the protest “turmoil.”

The solidarity gathering, organized by UJA-Federation as a response to the Nov. 19 protest, drew a diverse coalition of participating Jewish groups, including more than 70 synagogues, schools and Jewish institutions, representing a wide range of denominations and political leanings. Other major Jewish groups acted as cosponsors, including the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the New York Board of Rabbis. 

Members of B’nai Jeshurun, a non-denominational and progressive Upper West Side synagogue stood side by side with congregants of The Altneu, an Orthodox congregation on the Upper East Side, to condemn antisemitism; Columbia University Hillel student leaders, who have witnessed some of New York City’s worst antisemitic protests on campus, came out in solidarity, as did Yeshiva University students and high schoolers from the Modern Orthodox SAR Academy in Riverdale and Manhattan’s Modern Orthodox Ramaz School and pluralistic Heschel School. Brooklynites representing the Park Slope Jewish Center and Prospect Heights Shul crossed the river to participate, as did members of Long Island and Westchester Jewish communities.

The rally marked the first major gathering of diverse Jewish groups since the release of the remaining living hostages kidnapped during the Oct, 7, 2023, attacks and a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in October. Throughout the war, such gatherings had become common across the U.S., with a unifying focus on bringing home the hostages. 

Speakers at the hourlong event, in addition to Goldstein, were Rabbi Arthur Schneier, who leads Park East Synagogue; Hindy Poupko, UJA-Federation senior vice president of community organizing and external relations; Rabbi Joe Potasnik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis; Rabba Sara Hurwitz, spiritual leader of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale; Rabbi Joanna Samuels, CEO of the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan; Rabbi David Ingber, founding rabbi of the non-denominational Romemu synagogue and senior director for Jewish Life at the 92nd Street Y; NYC Comptroller-elect Mark Levine; and Mark Treyger, CEO of JCRC-NY. The gathering also featured live performances by rapper Matisyahu and the Park East Day School choir. 

“We’re not going back — we’re only going forward,” said Treyger. “We’re going to work and fight to make sure that we see a day where every Jewish New Yorker, every member of our community, is safe, not just in our houses of worship but in every corner of our great city.” 

Schneier, who has served as senior rabbi of Park East Synagogue for more than 50 years, told Jewish Insider that the recent protest was “meant to incite fear and intimidation.”

“Chants of antisemitism, demonizing the State of Israel and its right to exist, and calling for a global intifada. Silence and indifference are not an option. No faith community should ever be met with threats, or fear risking their life to gather and pray. This gathering sends a powerful message,” he said

Schneier called for “safety and security and immediate legislation from the city and state to ban demonstrations in front of synagogues and all houses of worship,” which has been introduced by New York state legislators in recent days.  

“Let our voices be heard in solidarity — and together, we stand united against a surge of antisemitism that threatens peaceful coexistence in our city. What starts with the Jews doesn’t end with the Jews,” Schneier said, remembering his experience as an 8-year-old child in Vienna in 1938.   

“I witnessed my cherished synagogue smoldering to the ground during Kristallnacht — an organized, calculated assault on the Jewish community that was meant to terrorize and intimidate. It was just the precursor of what I lived through during the Holocaust.”

As anti-Israel demonstrators increasingly target synagogues in protests that have turned violent and used antisemitic rhetoric, some Jewish leaders and state lawmakers are now calling for more expansive legislative safeguards to help bolster protections for houses of worship.

The new efforts have come in the wake of threatening behavior outside synagogues in New York City and Los Angeles that drew forceful condemnation from elected officials and raised concerns among Jewish leaders who fear that such incidents will normalize antisemitic harassment disguised as anti-Zionism.

In New York, state lawmakers this week introduced a new bill to ban protests directly outside houses of worship. The legislation seeks to amend the existing state penal law by establishing a 25-foot buffer zone around religious sanctuaries to insulate congregants from facing intimidation and potential clashes with demonstrators that have occurred more regularly in recent years.

The bill, which would also apply to abortion clinics, was advanced in response to a controversial protest last month outside Park East Synagogue, a Modern Orthodox congregation in Manhattan, where about 200 activists disrupted an event educating attendees about immigration to Israel while chanting slogans including “death to the IDF” and “globalize the intifada,” interpreted as calls to violence against Jews.

“We’re in a very troubled time, and that’s going to mean we need to adapt, including with legislation,” Micah Lasher, an assemblyman in Manhattan who introduced the legislation with a fellow Jewish state senator, Sam Sutton, told Jewish Insider on Thursday.

He said that he had weighed free speech concerns while drafting the bill to protect “the right of people to speak out, even when that speech is hateful, with the right of people to express their religion freely.”

“We’re going to see more and more of this until we can more broadly curb antisemitism,” he cautioned, calling the protest in Los Angeles this week, which ended in the arrests of two demonstrators, “a harbinger of things to come” in the absence of further legislative action.

Nily Rozic, a Democratic assemblywoman from Queens who is co-sponsoring the bill, echoed that view. “Houses of worship should serve as peaceful sanctuaries, not punching bags for protesters,” she explained. “Following incidents in NYC and LA, it’s becoming apparent that creating no-protest zones outside houses of worship is absolutely necessary.”

In contrast with the incident in New York City, the protest that erupted in Los Angeles on Wednesday was more intrusive, with video showing anti-Israel demonstrators shouting inside the historic Wilshire Boulevard Temple — where one activist shattered a vase during a public safety event held with Korean community members.

Jewish community activists in California said they viewed the incident, coupled with the recent protest in New York City, as an impetus to take a closer look at state law relating to such demonstrations.

Julia Mates, the director of policy and government affairs at Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area, said that the state already has an existing law that protects access to houses of worship as well as abortion clinics — similar to the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which has been used by the Justice Department under President Donald Trump to target protesters charged with disrupting Jewish spaces.

Mates said that her organization last year had “started to reexamine the act” with an eye toward potentially expanding what she called the “bubble zone” protecting congregants, but tabled that effort in favor of focusing exclusively on legislation aimed at countering antisemitism in public schools.

But now, in light of recent events, “it might be a good time to reexamine a fixed distance rule and gaps in enforcement,” she told JI on Thursday.

“The environment is such that we need to take another look at this,” Tyler Gregory, CEO of the Bay Area JCRC, vowed. “This is getting a lot of chatter in the community. I think that Jewish legislators and organizations haven’t figured out where we want to land yet,” he continued. “But it’s certainly the topic du jour.”

Noah Farkas, who leads the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles, said that his organization, for its part, has “been pushing for” legislation to more forcefully regulate such demonstrations “for a long while.”

“While we recognize the right of anyone to assemble lawfully to express themselves,” he explained to JI Thursday, “it should not endanger the lives or limit the liberty of anyone else. And while this is a matter on a legal and political level of balancing one set of rights next to another, there is yet a deeper strain of values that needs to be addressed.”

Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA), a Jewish Democrat from Los Angeles, said the Wilshire demonstration was “deeply personal,” noting that she had attended services at the synagogue during the High Holidays. 

“At a time of surging antisemitism, no one should have to choose between their safety and their right to worship,” she said in a statement shared with JI. “I’ll always protect free speech, but when protests cross into criminal intimidation, threats or blocking access, authorities must step in to uphold the law and protect Americans’ right to gather and worship without intimidation.”

Julie Fishman Rayman, senior vice president of policy and political affairs at the American Jewish Committee, called the Los Angeles protest “horrific and beyond unacceptable,” while citing legal “tools that already exist and should be used to maximum impact” in order to hold anti-Israel demonstrators accountable.

As Jewish community activists are now considering efforts to strengthen such laws, Lasher said his new legislation “strikes the right balance” on free speech and safety issues, and “could potentially be a model for other states.”

“For as long as we’re dealing with these sorts of hateful events,” he said, “we should make sure we are giving appropriate tools that are constitutional to enable people to enter synagogues without fear of intimidation.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, voiced interest in supporting the bill on Thursday, saying that she was “willing to look seriously at a buffer to protect that fundamental right we have, which is to express ourselves and practice the faith we choose to without fear and intimidation.”

“I don’t say whether or not I’ll support bills,” she told reporters, “but if it shows up in another place, I’m taking that very seriously. I think it’s time. I will be supportive of that.”

Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City and a democratic socialist long vocally critical of Israel, has also expressed interest in learning more about such legislation, after he had faced backlash for accusing the Park East Synagogue of promoting activities “in violation of international law,” even as he sought to distance himself from the protesters.

Mamdani’s team did not respond to a request for comment from JI about the newly proposed bill.

LONDON — Since the terrorist attack on a Manchester, England, synagogue on Yom Kippur that left two congregants dead, British politicians have redoubled their efforts to reassure the country’s Jewish community, which has been increasingly concerned about security issues amid widespread anti-Israel sentiment that has grown in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks and ensuing war in Gaza. 

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised to do “everything” in his power to protect the Jewish community, including the recent approval of £10 million ($13 million) in emergency funds to provide greater security.

But while the added financial resources for more guards and extra security has been welcomed by the U.K.’s Jewish community, there remains considerable unease and hostility toward the government, something that became starkly apparent the day after Yom Kippur.

When David Lammy, the country’s deputy prime minister, attended a vigil close to Heaton Park synagogue the day after the attack, he was booed and heckled with cries of “Shame on you” and “Blood on your hands.” 

Lammy was foreign secretary when Britain said it intended to recognize a Palestinian state earlier this year. The move was formally announced by Starmer last month, alongside similar action taken by countries including France, Australia and Canada. 

In his previous role, Lammy imposed restrictions on British arms sales to Israel and twice summoned Israel’s ambassador to the U.K. to criticize him over Israel’s handling of the Gaza war. Lammy and his parliamentary colleagues have also been criticized by the Jewish community for not doing enough to protect them by allowing hostile anti-Israel marches to proceed week after week in British cities. 

“What David Lammy and his government have done has allowed this to happen,” Melanie, who asked only to be identified by her first name, told Jewish Insider. The 42-year-old nurse, who was among those who booed Lammy, attended the vigil with her husband and three children, all of whom attend a Jewish school close to the targeted synagogue.  

The angry outburst included cries of “Go to Palestine, leave us alone,” and “You have allowed Jew hatred in Manchester.” 

“What right did that man have to be there? That was probably the worst person they [the government] could have sent,” said Melanie. “I don’t know who made that decision but it was the wrong decision.”

As in many Western European countries, incidents of antisemitism in the U.K. have skyrocketed over the last two years. In its latest report, the Community Security Trust (CST), a charity that works towards Britain’s Jewish communal safety and monitors antisemitism, revealed that 1,521 antisemitic incidents were reported in the first half of 2025. This was the second highest level ever recorded for that period, just behind the same timeframe in 2024.

Among the incidents in recent months have been synagogues desecrated with excrement, the vandalism of a rabbi’s home with a swastika and an incident in which visibly Jewish teenagers were shot at with an air rifle. 

Meanwhile last week, soccer club Aston Villa announced that it was banning fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv from attending a match at their stadium next month. The decision came after police in Birmingham, Britain’s second-largest city and home to a substantial Muslim population, warned it could not guarantee fans’ safety, leading the Israeli football club to announce on Monday that it would decline any tickets offered to its fans out of concern for their wellbeing and safety. The U.K. government said it was “deeply saddened” by Maccabi Tel Aviv’s decision.

Writing in The Guardian in the wake of the Manchester attack, Dave Rich, director of policy at CST, said, “Antisemitism has been allowed to rise in an unacceptable way for far too long. Last year’s official hate-crime statistics showed that a Jewish person in Britain was 12 times more likely to be the victim of a religious hate crime than someone from any other faith background. Calls for violence against Jews, or Israelis, or Zionists, online and on our streets, have become normalised in parts of our politics.”

The U.K.’s recognition of a Palestinian state was also met with concern over the message the move conveyed about the country’s priorities around the war in Gaza. 

A survey of over 4,800 British Jews conducted prior to the Manchester attack by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, a U.K.-based Jewish research organization, found that Jews’ sense of “ambient antisemitism” in society, including hostile media coverage, online commentary and microaggressions, had increased substantially — 45% of respondents said they experienced it “frequently” or “regularly” in 2025, as opposed to only 8% of British Jews before the Oct. 7 attacks. 

In a statement released after the Manchester, attack CST described what happened on Yom Kippur as “the kind of terrorist attack that we have prepared for over many years.” 

That is cold comfort for many in the community. “If somebody decided to ram a car along the pavement as the kids were heading into school, they would be hitting lots of kids and lots of parents,” Melanie, the nurse who attended the vigil, said.

“We don’t have any thoughts that the government is going to protect us because they haven’t done so far,” she said. “It’s terrifying for the kids to know this is the world they’re growing up in.

Is there any place for Jews in this country anymore? If things carry on the way they’re going, I don’t think so because we’re just targeted all the time.”

Lord Katz, a government frontbencher in the House of Lords, told JI that the government has been “acutely aware of the increasing fear and anxiety of the community over the past two years.” 

“Whatever your views on the Israeli government, it’s always been clear that that shouldn’t impact on the way that British Jews live their lives and the government’s commitment to working with the CST and other communal bodies to ensure they have enough funding and the right legal measures in place to tackle antisemitism is very very clear and is underlined by lots of recent activity,” he said. 

“In the long term, though, it has to be about tackling the cause and not just the symptoms. It has to be done through education and building community cohesion and there’s no easy route to that.”

Katz added: “This isn’t a party political issue — whether it’s attending football matches, wearing Jewish insignia, using the NHS [National Health Service] or feeling safe on our streets and campuses, the Government knows British Jews are fearful and will protect our rights, liberties and way of life.”

Journalist Nicole Lampert, who has been outspoken about antisemitism in the U.K., said that antisemitism began to flourish under the previous Conservative government. The marches have been taking place since the start of the war when Rishi Sunak and his Conservative government was still in power. 

She said: “There are many people to blame, but of course, the people that are in control of things are the government,” she said, adding that Labour “came with a history of antisemitism,” referring to the party’s previous leadership under Jeremy Corbyn, who had a long record of anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric.

In 2020, an investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that under Corbyn the party had a culture “which, at best, did not do enough to prevent antisemitism and, at worst, could be seen to accept it”.

Lampert said, “Many of the people that were in the cabinet, including Keir Starmer, had been in the cabinet with Jeremy Corbyn and had told us to vote for Jeremy Corbyn and had refused to really speak out against antisemitism.”

“Although Keir Starmer said ‘I’m going to clear this party of antisemitism’ [in his leadership campaign], in some ways he used antisemitism as a blunt tool to just get rid of the far left in his party,” she added.

“They didn’t use it as an opportunity for a teachable moment as to what antisemitism actually is and what they’d done wrong,” Lampert said. “That was really frustrating because antisemitism is complex. If you had explained ‘this is why you’re antisemitic’ or ‘this was what was wrong,’ that would’ve been better.” 

Alex Hearn, co-director of the campaign group Labour Against Antisemitism, agreed.

“Time after time we’ve seen that it’s easier to remove Jews rather than to challenge racism,” he said. “It’s easier to erase the people who cooperate rather than challenge the vocal and unlawful minority. 

“The places we’re allowed to go safely are getting narrower and narrower. Don’t go to central London during marches, don’t walk down the streets looking visibly Jewish, don’t go on social media. And it’s just growing and growing, whether it be comedy clubs or now football matches — our world is getting smaller,” Hearn said. “Then what we’re hearing from our government is that they say the right things when they have to and we find ourselves applauding the sentiments, but wondering where the meaningful action is.”

Hearn added: “Keir Starmer has announced increased security funding to the Jewish community, but other things show why that’s necessary: because the authorities consistently allow racists to run riot on our streets. So we’re building higher and higher fences but we’re not addressing the issue. The most high fences can’t keep everyone out, as we’ve learned from Manchester.”

Dovid Lewis, the rabbi of Bowdon synagogue in south Manchester, said that, like many others, he had been “shaken and shocked” but “not surprised” by the Yom Kippur attack. “Antisemitism is insidious throughout society at the moment,” he said. 

“There’s a reason why we have guards outside shul,” he said. “It’s not because we’re paranoid. It’s because there’s a credible threat.”

One of the worshippers at Lewis’ synagogue told him that following the attack she felt most insulted by an interview in which Starmer said that Jews “should feel comfortable in my country.”

The rabbi responded, “We don’t need to feel comfortable in the prime minister’s country — this is our country. I was born here, my parents were born here, my grandparents were born here.”

“You can’t declare [support for] a Palestinian state on Erev Rosh Hashanah and declare at the Labour Party conference, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, that Israel is committing genocide, then scratch your head and wonder why somebody named Jihad Al-Shamie did what he did several days later,” he said. “There is a cause and an effect.”

Several key Minnesota political leaders across the ideological spectrum condemned the vandalism of a synagogue in Minneapolis on Wednesday as an act of antisemitism.

Temple Israel, which had been vandalized previously, was spray-painted with the message “watch out Zionists” as well as red triangles — a symbol used by Hamas to mark Israeli targets.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) told Jewish Insider, “This is an unacceptable act of antisemitism that must be unequivocally condemned. After a summer marked by political violence in our state, we must all stand up, speak out, and act to combat hate.”

Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) told JI that the vandalism “was a horrific thing for the congregants of Temple Israel and the Jewish community in Minneapolis to have to experience.” 

“We need to call out these brazen acts of antisemitism and come together to make sure our friends and neighbors know they are safe and supported,” she continued.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, running in a competitive race for reelection, said, “This morning, Temple Israel woke up to anti-Semitic threats — a reminder that hate still tries to find a foothold. It won’t find one here. Minneapolis stands with our Jewish neighbors. Hiding behind hate to spread fear against any religion is cowardly and unacceptable in our city.”

Frey’s primary challenger, state Sen. Omar Fateh, said in a statement to JI, “Anti-Semitism has no place in our city, and the hate speech found at Temple Israel this morning is unacceptable. Minneapolis cannot and will not tolerate violence against our communities, and we stand with our Jewish neighbors.”

Fateh has staked out anti-Israel positions, and some of his associates have endorsed the Oct. 7 attack.

Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN), who is running for Senate, said that the incident was “alarming and unacceptable. And it’s a sobering reminder that antisemitism is on the rise.”

“This is not who we are as Minnesotans. We must stand with our Jewish neighbors in the face of this blatant antisemitism and reject all hatred in our communities,” Craig continued.

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who is also running for Senate, described the vandalism as “anti-Semitic hate.”

“My heart is with the congregants of Temple Israel and our entire Jewish community. Hate has no home in Minnesota, and every house of worship should be a safe place to pray,” she continued. “Hate attacks against all faith communities have reached historic highs, and Minnesota is not an exception.”

She went on to highlight the recent shooting at Minneapolis’ Annunciation Catholic Church, a fire and break-in at an Islamic center and attacks on the Somali community.

“Threats, hate, and destruction don’t put us on a path to peace — they make us all less safe. In this moment, it is up to us to stand up against hate, lead with kindness, and find a way to draw all our communities closer,” Flanagan concluded.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who represents the district in which Temple Israel is located, did not respond to a request for comment and does not appear to have addressed the vandalism publicly.

The Department of Justice filed a civil suit on Monday against several protesters and anti-Israel groups for their involvement in a demonstration at a New Jersey synagogue, Congregation Ohr Torah, last November.

The DOJ complaint alleges that the Party for Socialism and Liberation-New Jersey, American Muslims for Palestine-New Jersey and six individuals engaged in physical assaults and antisemitic and threatening chants, as well as defying police orders.

The complaint alleges that the defendants broke through a police line, marched onto synagogue property and attempted to physically block Jewish worshippers from entering the synagogue.

Two are accused of using vuvuzelas — large plastic horns typically used at sporting events —  as a “weapon reasonably known to lead to permanent noise-induced hearing loss,” blowing them inches from one attendee’s ear with the intention of causing “serious bodily harm.” One of the same defendants allegedly physically tackled another attendee, grabbed his throat and put him in a chokehold. Another also reportedly “deployed a stink bomb” to obstruct access to the synagogue.

According to the complaint, the event was originally set to take place in a private home, but was relocated to the synagogue “due to credible threats of violence from certain Defendants.” One of the defendants was recorded on camera delivering a threatening letter to that private home, and the home address was posted online.

The complaint alleges that these actions were intended to intimidate Jewish worshipers and prevent their participation in religious observance, in violation of federal law, and that comments captured on video indicate they were motivated by antisemitic animus.

The complaint states that the vuvuzela sounds overpowered the memorial service and Torah sermon.

The suit was brought under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, traditionally used against those who block access to abortion clinics, but which also includes provisions barring the use of force, threats, intimidation or physical obstruction to interfere with the right to worship.

The event in question was an Israel real estate fair and spiritual event, which the complaint describes as “a religious event centered on the Jewish obligation to live in the Land of Israel, a tenet of Jewish faith.” 

According to the complaint, it “was to include prayer, a religious memorial service for the late Rabbi Avi Goldberg, a Torah sermon, religious songs with biblical verses, prayerful dancing, educational activities about the religious obligation to live in Israel, a real estate fair, and a festive barbecue in the synagogue’s parking lot — all part of the religious observance.”

“This Justice Department will vigorously enforce the right of every American to worship in peace and without fear,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who leads the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. “Those who target houses of worship and violate our federal laws protecting people of faith are on notice that they will face the consequences.”

Nathan Diament, the executive director of public policy for the Orthodox Union, praised the DOJ for filing the lawsuit, and said that he had pressed the Biden administration to file similar cases, but was rebuffed.

“We applaud Attorney General Bondi and Assistant Attorney General Dhillon for bringing this suit to protect the Jewish community and all  people of faith who have the constitutional right to worship without fear of harassment,” Diament told Jewish Insider. “OU Advocacy urged the Biden administration to bring FACE Act lawsuits to no avail. Hopefully, violent protestors will now be held accountable, and this lawsuit will send a strong message to anyone who targets houses of worship.”

The complaint further notes that PSL and AMP have histories of organizing violent protests and other incidents targeting Jewish institutions and pro-Israel events, and that “unless restrained, Defendants are likely to continue violating the FACE Act, given their history of targeting Jewish religious events with violence and intimidation.”

The lawsuit requests a permanent injunction against such activity by the defendants, an order that they be banned from coming within 50 feet of the private home or synagogue and that they pay compensatory damages to victims and a fine to the government.

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, attended his first Rosh Hashanah service on Monday night at a Brooklyn synagogue well-known for its anti-Zionist activism.

The visit to Kolot Chayeinu, a nondenominational synagogue in Park Slope that has drawn controversy over its anti-Zionist orientation, comes as Mamdani is seeking to engage in increased outreach to Jewish voters ahead of the November election.

But the venue choice also underscores his polarizing position in the broader Jewish community — where many Jewish leaders have continued to raise alarms over his anti-Israel policies and refusal to condemn calls to “globalize the intifada,” among other issues.

Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israel who has identified as anti-Zionist, was warmly received at the Monday service, where he sat in the front row in a mask and a yarmulke beside Brad Lander, the city comptroller who is a member of Kolot Chayeinu.

Lander, a close ally of Mamdani, recently described the congregation, which was one of the first to call for an early ceasefire in October 2023, as a meeting point for anti-Zionist Jews and progressive Zionists like himself.

The synagogue, which maintains an “open tent” policy on Israel and Palestine, has faced criticism for promoting anti-Israel views in its Hebrew school curriculum in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. 

In one particularly controversial  lesson, students were instructed to write a letter of apology rebuking their Jewish “ancestors” for taking Palestinian land, fueling concerns among parents who objected to the politicized assignment.

A rabbi at Kolot Chayeinu, Abby Stein, who is a member of the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace, also drew scrutiny for attending a meeting in New York City last year with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, days before the Islamic Republic launched a missile attack against Israel.

Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist and assemblyman from Queens, did not deliver remarks at the Monday evening service. During his sermon, the rabbi accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, a claim that Mamdani has frequently made.

Mamdani is now expected to appear at other Jewish institutions during the High Holidays, including a mainstream congregation on Manhattan’s Upper West Side — where he could face a less welcoming audience skeptical of his hostile views toward Israel.

A spokesperson for Mamdani did not respond to a request for comment about his planned outreach to the Jewish community.

Australia expelled the Iranian ambassador in Canberra as well as three other embassy staffers on Tuesday, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accusing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of orchestrating attacks on a synagogue in Melbourne and a kosher restaurant in Sydney.

Albanese, speaking at a press conference alongside the country’s top intelligence official, foreign minister and home affairs minister, called the plots “extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil.” The expulsion of Ahmad Sadeghi marks the first time Australia has expelled a foreign ambassador since World War II.

Canberra also withdrew its diplomatic staff from Iran and has encouraged Australian citizens to leave the country if they are able.

Australian intelligence indicates that Tehran was behind additional antisemitic attacks in the country since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks. The country has seen an explosion of antisemitism, with a 316% year-over-year increase in antisemitic incidents in the year following the attacks.

Mike Burgess, the director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, said that the plots were carried out “through a series of overseas cut-out facilitators to coordinators that found their way to tasking Australians,” describing the scheme as a “layer cake” of middlemen originating with the IRGC.

The expulsion of the Iranian diplomats comes shortly after the arrests of two individuals in connection with the December 2024 Melbourne synagogue attack, in which a synagogue was firebombed while nearly two dozen people were inside. 

The arson at Sydney’s Lewis’ Continental Kitchen, which took place in October 2024, caused $1 million in damage to the kosher restaurant. Court documents released earlier this month indicate that a middleman, Sayed Moosawi, who was directing the Sydney attack, was to receive $12,000 for his work. Prior to the fire at Lewis’ Continental Kitchen, two men directed by Moosawi mistakenly set fire to a brewery with a similar name to the restaurant.

When Aimee Greenfield, a real estate agent in Sparta, N.C., posted in a Facebook group for Orthodox Jews last year with information about plots of land for sale in an undeveloped gated community in her town, she had two goals. 

The first was to convince enough Orthodox Jews to uproot their lives and move to a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains in order to start a new, close-knit rural Jewish community there, which might eventually sustain a synagogue and a kosher supermarket — all in the hopes that Greenfield’s kids, who are religiously observant, would move there and live close to her. 

The second goal was downstream of the first, but still important to Greenfield, herself an observant Jew who has lived in Sparta for 13 years: get enough Jewish women in this town of fewer than 2,000 people near the Virginia border for Greenfield to be able to sustain a weekly mahjong game. “I’m not worried,” she said when speaking with Jewish Insider last Thursday, while braiding and decorating six challahs for Shabbat. “I’m going to accomplish both goals before I die.”

Her enthusiastic Facebook posts found their way early last year to Yudi Gross, a financial planner in Florida who, after reaching Greenfield on the phone, flew to North Carolina to meet her. Gross thought he might buy a plot of land to develop a vacation home for his family. Instead, he spotted a business opportunity, and a spiritual one. With other private investors, Gross bought the entire gated community, with plans to build 350 homes. He called the project Shefa Living, “shefa” being Hebrew for “abundance.” 

“If we were to build a Jewish Orthodox community from scratch, how can we do it differently, and how can we do it in a way that creates healthy environments for the children to learn and grow, and healthy environments for adults to continue to learn and grow?” Gross said in a recent interview with JI. 

He knows his pitch is somewhat unorthodox: Move to the mountains. In North Carolina. To a tiny town with no synagogue and few other Jews for miles. But what he’s pitching is a radical vision of what observant Judaism could look like if not bound to the geographical constraints that have kept Orthodox communities from rural living. 

“This is not just 25-30 people who want to have a nice place in the summer. This is a dream for so many people,” said Gross. “I hope this transforms the way Orthodox families can choose to live geographically.”

He chose Sparta out of what some in the Jewish community might deem bashert, a Yiddish word for “destiny” or “soul mate.” After seeing Greenfield’s post, he didn’t consider whether other areas might be better suited for a new Jewish community; he felt there was something magical about Sparta. 

Still, Gross, who founded a wealth management firm, knows recruiting people to the neighborhood is a heavy lift. The nearest cities, Winston-Salem and Greensboro, are over an hour away, and Charlotte is nearly two hours away. People who buy homes in Mountain View, as the neighborhood will be called, must also buy into the vision of building a tight-knit community from the ground up (literally — the homes won’t be ready for at least a year).  

Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Twerski, a rabbi from Monsey, N.Y., is on board to oversee religious matters in the community. Plans are underway to build a mikveh, a kosher supermarket, an Orthodox school system and a yeshiva — a second location of Yeshivas Lev Simcha, a religious school in Boca Raton, Fla. A synagogue has already been constructed. 

All has not gone perfectly to plan; a group of yeshiva students were set to move to Sparta this fall, but zoning issues delayed the first batch of residents from coming to Mountain View until September 2026. But local officials in Sparta are excited about the community, according to Gross, a contrast to the antisemitic resistance put up in some New Jersey municipalities where Orthodox populations have increased in recent years. 

“It’s almost unheard of, from my experience, to see such a community being so open-armed about Orthodox Jews moving in,” Gross said. “I remember going to town, people stopped us to say shalom.” Greenfield noted that Sparta is a conservative Bible Belt town: “They love Jewish people,” she said simply. 

Glossy marketing materials on Shefa Living’s website call it a “new Torah-centric community in the Blue Ridge Mountains.” A frequently asked questions section touts North Carolina’s low state income tax and property tax rates, an educational voucher program and a lower cost of living. 

Mountain View is described as a place “where Yiddishkeit, spacious living and nature are seamlessly intertwined for mountain living without compromise.” A brochure shows three-bedroom, 2,200-square-foot homes starting at $549,000, and five-bedroom, 4,200-square-foot homes starting at just over $1 million. 

Buyers have put down deposits on 60 homes, Gross said. Starting in September, they’ll choose their lots, and work with developers on selecting upgrades and finishes in the new homes. More than 150 people have visited North Carolina to tour the site. 

One of the first Mountain View homeowners is Blimy, a mother of four from South Florida who asked that only her first name be used to protect her family’s privacy. She and her husband decided to jump in at the beginning to help build the community because they were true believers in its mission — the slow pace of life in a quieter community with fresh air and proximity to hiking, rivers and more. 

“I always wanted to be a hermit in the mountains, but then you’re missing community. I love the idea of having quiet around you, being able to feel yourself and feel your inner alignment and feeling connection to Hashem, to spirituality from within,” Blimy told JI. 

Most of the visitors to Sparta have come from New York, Florida and California, according to Gross. The earliest buyers know that going first means they’ll be arriving next year to help build Mountain View, when some of the proposed amenities, like a fully stocked kosher supermarket, may not yet be open. It may require commuting back to their old communities for work, or seeking remote opportunities.

“I think that the people who are going to be drawn here first are the pioneer types, the ones who are not needing the support that other people might need right away. They’re interested in leadership,” said Blimy. “I’m looking forward to the kind of community that this will be at the outset, because I think it will be really special, and what it will evolve into.”

It’s Friday evening in Manhattan’s fashionable West Village. A couple dozen of New York’s elite — business executives, a television producer, a fashion designer, a journalist and a few politicos — pack a charming brownstone, a spot that’s been frequented by a range of influential people, from former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides to reality TV personality Andy Cohen. Wine flows around a long candlelit table. A three-course meal and deep discussion follow late into the night. 

This isn’t dinner in one of the neighborhood’s Michelin-starred restaurants — although some weeks the waitlist here can be just as long. It’s Shabbat at Chabad West Village. 

There are more than 3,000 Chabad Houses around the world aimed at Jewish outreach, inspired by the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson. New York City alone is home to some 40 Chabad centers. Each Chabad caters to the characteristics of the community it serves.

But in the West Village — one of Manhattan’s most unlikely neighborhoods for the spread of Torah — synagogue-goers, a diverse group of mostly secular Jews, say something unique is happening at this Chabad in particular. The growing, vibrant community is a stark contrast with the shul just across the street, the Charles Street Synagogue that sits defunct. 

“When we moved here, we did not know one person,” Rabbi Berel Gurevitch, who launched Chabad West Village six years ago with his wife, Chana, told Jewish Insider. “Now our list consists of around 5,000 Jewish people,” said Gurevitch, who is in his early 30s but declines to disclose his exact age so as not to inhibit older members from connecting.  

The Gurevitches decamped from the comfort of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where they both grew up, for the West Village, a neighborhood known for its trendy arts and nightlife scene. The synagogue initially ran out of a small apartment on Grove Street — with New Yorker staff writer Calvin Trillin, who still attends frequently — as its landlord. 

Now in a townhouse on Charles Street, where such real estate can run into the tens of millions of dollars, the center, which is also the personal home of the Gurevitches and their three children, has become synonymous with several innovative programs: letting attendees be “Rabbi for a Day”; a “TGIF” program where participants learn how to host Friday night dinners with their friends; explanatory “Shabbat Matinée” services for people who would otherwise be at brunch and are giving prayer a chance; and a speaker series called “Hineni: Here I Am,” which has featured Trillin, Nides, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and comedian Alex Edelman. 

“[Rabbi Gurevitch’s] energy and drive was infectious instantaneously,” Marc Calcano, the West Village Chabad’s security director, told JI. “You can easily tell how everyone in the congregation lives based on this energy. It’s not just the synagogue where you go to worship, but it’s where you meet great people and there’s incredible conversation. After services no one ever wants to leave. This place is incredibly special. The lingering continues for hours.” 

Unlike some Chabad centers, which cater specifically to young professionals, families or senior citizens, the West Village Chabad has drawn a diverse crowd that spans different age groups and income levels. The community has recently celebrated several simchas and full-circle moments, where children and their parents pray together.

“It started for my kids. [The rabbi] brought in a real beehive to teach about [honey for] Rosh Hashanah and I just thought ‘what an amazing thing to encounter in the middle of the West Village,’” said Steeven Mallet, 42, who stumbled upon the Chabad four years ago while walking his dog and has sent his children to its preschool since. “Then we started going for Shabbos and events.” 

“My wife is Conservative, I’m Orthodox and there’s just a crowd of everyone,” said Mallet, who was born and raised in France and works in finance. “It’s a very tolerant community.” 

Marc Calcano, the West Village Chabad’s security director, was hired in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel — as antisemitism skyrocketed around the U.S. and Jewish institutions remained on high alert. “[Rabbi Gurevitch’s] energy and drive was infectious instantaneously,” Calcano, a former NYPD officer, reflected. “You can easily tell how everyone in the congregation lives based on this energy. It’s not just the synagogue where you go to worship, but it’s where you meet great people and there’s incredible conversation. After services no one ever wants to leave. This place is incredibly special. The lingering continues for hours,” he told JI.   

In January, Calcano celebrated the bar mitzvah of his son, Carter, at the synagogue. Calcano — who is not Jewish but whose children have a Jewish mother — never expected that Carter, who has Down syndrome, would be able to lead a bar mitzvah service. But with the help of Gurevitch, he did it. “Every minute that I spend thinking about it is an emotional minute for me,” Calcano said.   

In April, a Grammy-nominated musician and a Trump White House staffer, who got married in 2022 after meeting at Chabad West Village, celebrated their second child’s bris at the synagogue.

Among the qualities that set the synagogue apart is its fast-growing demographic of singles and young professionals — at a time when polls from recent years show that synagogue attendance is declining for the majority of American Jewish young adults — especially those unmarried and without children. According to Gurevitch, every young professional event he’s held since Oct. 7 has sold out. Last month, the center hosted its first wine tasting Shabbat dinner geared towards those in their 20s and 30s. 

“I was extremely lonely when I first moved to New York,” Scarlett Tucker, a 30-year-old CPA who lives in the neighborhood, told JI. Tucker, who met her best friend after first attending a Shabbat dinner at the center in 2022, describes her Jewish upbringing in California as “eating lobster at the Passover Seder.” 

“I feel very close to Chana [Gurevitch] and I don’t have any family here so it’s been a warm place,” Tucker said. “For a long time, I didn’t really understand being Jewish.”

“I have not gotten more religious at all, I’ve just gotten more comfortable with it,” she continued. “The one thing that has changed for me, most significantly, is that it’s now very important to me that I marry someone Jewish.” 

“They have created, and allowed me to help build with them, a vibrant Jewish base for me and so many others in downtown New York City, where Jews from all walks of life can find an entry point into our tradition,” Neil Goldman, segment producer at the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, told JI. “They have established a beautiful Jewish community where none existed, have brought so many Jews in touch with their Jewish heritage for the first time, and are fulfilling the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s call to make our world a brighter, more spiritual place.” 

Ezra Feig, the 33-year-old founder of Nice Jewish Runners, a running club started in the aftermath of Oct. 7, told JI that his attendance at Chabad West Village for the past three years has felt “unique” due to “how they have managed to attract so many amazing people which has created a feeling where everyone is welcome and feels included.” 

Feig reflected that as he was going through El Al security on the way to Israel for Passover, he was asked what community he belonged to. When he said “Chabad West Village,” the security agent responded, “Oh I’ve heard what a great community that is. I’m going to come check it out.” 

Neil Goldman, segment producer at the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, told JI that he was drawn to Chabad West Village five years ago by the Gurevitches’ “soulfulness, their elegance, and of course their food.” 

“They have created, and allowed me to help build with them, a vibrant Jewish base for me and so many others in downtown New York City, where Jews from all walks of life can find an entry point into our tradition,” said Goldman, who is 39. “They have established a beautiful Jewish community where none existed, have brought so many Jews in touch with their Jewish heritage for the first time, and are fulfilling the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s call to make our world a brighter, more spiritual place.” 

Jonathan Harounoff, Israel’s international spokesperson to the United Nations, described a similar setting where “regulars are highly impressive and the food is incredible.”  

“What makes the place even more appealing, though, is its total lack of pretension,” Harounoff, 29, told JI. 

While congregants echo that the people — and food — are what make the synagogue special, the 5,000- square-foot, multistory West Village townhome is distinctive in itself — and holds a metaphor, according to Gurevitch. 

Etched into the walls of the sanctuary is a line from the Book of Genesis, “Behold, God was in this place and I didn’t know it.” 

“Our dreams are big,” Gurevitch said. “On a fundamental level, I would like to see a thriving Jewish community here. Until every Jewish person in this area has that connection and access, our job isn’t finished and we’re far from there. We’ve only scratched the surface.”

“I like people to have their own interpretations of it,” Gurevitch told JI. “But I think the most obvious one is that this Chabad, like an expression of life itself, is a place where you can find God in the most unexpected way. You’re walking down the street in the West Village and suddenly you walk inside and there’s 140 people praying. Wake up and realize that God is in here, you don’t have to travel the world or climb mountains or turn your life upside down to find God. I think this Chabad physically and spiritually represents that.” 

Amid hosting events and meals for a variety of movers and shakers, Chana stressed the importance of “striking a balance.”

“We hold on to that homey, warm, intimate feeling even though there are thousands of members and very well-attended events,” she said.

The Gurevitches’ vision for Jewish life in the West Village is only just beginning. “Our dreams are big,” the rabbi said. “On a fundamental level, I would like to see a thriving Jewish community here. Until every Jewish person in this area has that connection and access, our job isn’t finished and we’re far from there. We’ve only scratched the surface.”

“Five, 10 years from now,” he continued, “I would love to walk down the street on Shabbat and see kippahs, people walking with their tallits, moms pushing strollers, Jewish people living publicly and proudly and us being able to provide the support base and epicenter for all of them.” 

A synagogue in Montreal was targeted with arson early Wednesday morning for the second time since the Oct. 7 attacks. The incident marks the seventh instance in the last 14 months where a Jewish institution in Montreal, Canada’s second largest city, has been attacked. 

As a result, Jewish leaders criticized elected officials on Wednesday for what they say has been a muted response in the face of rising antisemitism and warn that Canada is becoming increasingly unsafe for Jews, spiraling into “total chaos.”  

Police were called to Beth Tikvah, a Modern Orthodox synagogue, in the city’s Dollard-des-Ormeaux suburb around 3 a.m. after receiving reports of fire, according to the Montreal Gazette.  Police also discovered two smashed windows at the nearby Jewish community center that houses offices of the Federation CJA and the Hebrew Foundation School.

Upon arriving at the scene, police reportedly found remnants of a crude firebomb and smashed glass. Smoke caused minor damage to the building. No injuries were reported. A spokesperson for the Montreal police told Jewish Insider that the investigation is ongoing and no arrests have been made. 

Henry Topas, Beth Tikvah’s cantor and B’nai Brith Canada’s regional director for Quebec and Atlantic Canada, told JI that the attack comes as the government of Canada has “allowed unbridled immigration to come.”

“The people who have been coming have not been adapting to the fabric of Canadian society,” Topas said. “Montreal Mayor [Valérie Plante] has virtually handcuffed the police. She doesn’t let the police do their job and she has allowed threatening — verging on violent — [anti-Israel] demonstrations to go on and people feel free to do whatever the hell they want,” Topas said. “It’s total chaos.” Plante did not immediately respond to a request for comment from JI about her handling of anti-Israel protests. 

In a statement Wednesday, Federation CJA echoed that the fire is a “brutal reminder of what happens when politicians don’t denounce antisemitism and the escalation of violence in our streets.”

Pierre Poilievre, Canada’s Conservative party opposition leader, condemned “these cowardly acts” in a statement. 

He called on “this Liberal government to finally show a backbone and do something to protect our people.”

“Another brazen act of antisemitic hate and violence overnight,” Poilievre wrote on X. “After 9 years of [Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau, Canada has become a more dangerous place for people of the Jewish faith.” 

Both Trudeau and Plante denounced the attacks in statements. On X, Plante wrote, “Antisemitic actions are criminal actions. The SPVM will investigate and will find those responsible. It is not acceptable that Montrealers live feeling unsafe because of their religion.”

Trudeau described it as a “cowardly, criminal” and a “vile antisemitic attack.”

Jewish leaders worldwide also condemned the attacks and called for a stronger response from Canada’s lawmakers.

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said on X that the “lack of global outrage” to attacks on Montreal’s Jewish community “is inexplicable and inexcusable.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the local government should “take the strongest possible stance against antisemitism” following the attacks.

The recent spate of antisemitic incidents in Montreal has also included a Jewish day school being fired upon and the vandalism of a billboard announcing a new Montreal Holocaust Museum.

Beth Tikvah was also the target of a Molotov cocktail in November 2023, which caused burn marks on the front door. Topas said that despite the attacks, he expects “above normal attendance this [Shabbat] to show solidarity, [including] people from other societies and faiths.”