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.

Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, distanced himself from a widely criticized demonstration outside a prominent synagogue in Manhattan on Wednesday night, where anti-Israel protesters were heard chanting “Death to the IDF” and “Globalize the intifada,” among other slogans, even as he suggested that the event, which provided information on immigrating to Israel, violated international law.

“The mayor-elect has discouraged the language used at last night’s protest and will continue to do so,” a spokesperson for Mamdani, Dora Pekec, said in a statement to Jewish Insider on Thursday. “He believes every New Yorker should be free to enter a house of worship without intimidation, and that these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.”   

The protest, organized by an anti-Zionist group, took place outside Park East Synagogue, a historic Modern Orthodox congregation, at which an event was being held by Nefesh B’Nefesh, a nonprofit that assists in Jewish immigration to Israel from North America.

Asked to clarify the concluding caveat from Pekec’s statement, Mamdani’s team said it “was specifically in reference to the organization’s promotion of settlement activity beyond the Green Line,” which “violates international law.”

Mamdani’s election has alarmed many Jews in New York City concerned with rising antisemitic activity and how he will respond to such incidents as mayor. He has called for increasing city funding to counter hate crimes as well as boosting police protection at Jewish institutions, vowing to protect Jewish New Yorkers.  

But while he has said he would discourage the slogan “globalize the intifada,” which critics see as a violent provocation against Jews, Mamdani has not condemned the slogan himself, provoking questions about his tolerance for such rhetoric as he prepares to take office. 

The comment from his spokesperson on Thursday was the first instance in which his team responded to unrest related to an anti-Israel protest, many of which he himself attended before he launched his campaign a year ago. A day after he was elected, the mayor-elect condemned vandalism at a Jewish day school that was defaced with swastika graffiti.

For his part, outgoing Mayor Eric Adams, who is now traveling outside of the country on a multiday tour that included a stop in Israel, also weighed in on the demonstration in a social media post, where he denounced the chants as “vile” and the protesters as “sick and warped.”

He said he would be “stopping at Park East to show” his “support” after he returns from his international excursion.

“Pray for our city,” he said. “Today it’s a synagogue. Tomorrow it’s a church or a mosque. They come for me today and you tomorrow. We cannot hand this city over to radicals.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who endorsed Mamdani, also condemned the protest. “No New Yorker should be intimidated or harassed at their house of worship,” she said on social media. “What happened last night at Park East Synagogue was shameful and a blatant attack on the Jewish community. Hate has no place in New York.”

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.”