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<\/a><\/p>\nPro-Palestinian protesters gather at a “No Settlers on Stolen Land” rally against a Nefesh B’Nefesh event at Park East Synagogue in Manhattan, Nov. 19, 2025. (Sel\u00e7uk Acar\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The protest on Wednesday night, organized by a group called Palestinian Assembly for Liberation, has drawn allegations of antisemitism from Jewish leaders in the city. During it, participants shouted phrases including \u201cglobalize the intifada\u201d and \u201cdeath to the IDF\u201d as well as insults toward pro-Israel counter-protesters like \u201cf\u2014king Jewish pricks,\u201d according to reports from the scene. Police separated the protesters and counter-protesters but did not halt the demonstration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mayor-elect has discouraged the language used at last night\u2019s protest and will continue to do so,\u201d Mamdani\u2019s press secretary, Dora Pekec, said in a statement Thursday afternoon. <\/p>\n
She went on, \u201cHe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pekec did not offer further comments about whether or why Mamdani believed the event at Park East Synagogue, a prominent Orthodox congregation, promoted violations of international law.<\/p>\n
The event was organized by Nefesh B\u2019Nefesh, the nonprofit that facilitates immigration to Israel for North American Jews. The organization bills its open house events as a chance to \u201cget your questions answered, learn about the process, and discover what life in Israel could look like for you and your family.\u201d <\/p>\n
The group is considered a quasi-governmental agency in Israel, receiving funding from the Israeli government and works closely with its ministries. It does not assign immigrants to particular communities, but has showcased West Bank settlements \u2014 which most of the world, though not Israel or the United States, considers illegal under international law \u2014 in events and on its website as possible destinations for new immigrants. (Previous protests in New York and beyond have targeted events at synagogues advertising real estate for sale in the West Bank.)<\/p>\n
The organizing group suggested that all of the Jews who have moved to Israel with Nefesh B\u2019Nefesh\u2019s support are \u201csettlers,\u201d a term that some pro-Palestinian activists apply to all Israelis, not just those living in the West Bank.<\/p>\n
\u201cNefesh b Nefesh is an affiliate of the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency for Israel, mainly responsible for the recruitment of settlers to Palestine from North America. Since 2003, they have recruited over 80,000 settlers of which over 13,000 served in the IOF,\u201d Palestinian Assembly for Liberation said in an Instagram post advertising its demonstration, using an acronym by which anti-Israel activists refer to the Israeli army as the \u201cIsrael Occupation Forces.\u201d It also called El Al \u201cGenocide Settler Airlines.\u201d<\/p>\n
The demonstration is providing an early window into how Mamdani\u2019s long- and deeply held pro-Palestinian views might influence his leadership of the city.<\/p>\n
As a state Assemblyman, he sponsored legislation aimed at blocking nonprofits from funding Israeli settlements in the West Bank that some, including critics of the settlement movement, decried as casting an overly broad net.<\/p>\n
During the campaign, he initially declined to condemn the protest phrase \u201cglobalize the intifada,\u201d drawing allegations of antisemitism. He later shifted to say that he would \u201cdiscourage\u201d the phrase\u2019s use in New York City, saying that he had learned from a rabbi that many Jews interpret it as a call to violence against them. <\/p>\n
Now, Mamdani\u2019s response to the Park East demonstration offers a stark contrast to two robust condemnations of antisemitism he has offered up since being elected, after a swastika was painted on a Brooklyn yeshiva and after the words \u201cF\u2013k Jews\u201d were painted on a Brooklyn sidewalk. Both times, he quickly offered a full-throated denunciation on social media.<\/p>\n
This time, even as prominent Jewish voices in the city alleged antisemitism on the part of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators, Mamdani did not make a public comment himself. His office\u2019s statement did not address allegations of antisemitism.<\/p>\n
Mayor Eric Adams, who is in Uzbekistan after a visit to Israel this week, said in a statement that he planned to visit Park East upon his return to the city. Calling the rhetoric shouted there \u201cdesecration,\u201d he suggested that the protest augured a grim future for the city under Mamdani.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday it\u2019s a synagogue. Tomorrow it\u2019s a church or a mosque. They come for me today and you tomorrow,\u201d Adams tweeted. \u201cWe cannot hand this city over to radicals.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event came the same day that Mamdani announced that Adams\u2019 police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, would stay on once he becomes mayor. Tisch, who is Jewish, has previously criticized the conduct of pro-Palestinian protesters in the city.<\/p>\n
Rabbi Marc Schneier, who has been staunchly critical of Mamdani and whose father is the longtime senior rabbi at Park East Synagogue, said he was distressed by how the police allowed the confrontation to unfold.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I find most disturbing is that the police, who knew about this protest a day in advance, did not arrange for the protesters to be moved to either Third or Lexington Avenues,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead, they allowed the protesters to be right in front of the synagogue, which put members of the community at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the demonstrators repeatedly shouted about the Nefesh B\u2019Nefesh event attendees, \u201cWe need to make them scared,\u201d according to video from the scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis kind of intimidation of Jewish New Yorkers is reprehensible and unacceptable,\u201d tweeted Mark Levine, the Jewish comptroller-elect. \u201cNo house of worship, of any faith, should be subjected to this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, decried the demonstration as \u201creprehensible.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not a violation of any law, international or otherwise, for Jews to gather in a synagogue or immigrate to Israel,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cUsing violent rhetoric and hurling antisemitic insults in front of a crowded synagogue was a direct threat to our community\u2019s safety,\u201d he added. \u201cJCRC-NY reached out to city officials and we have confidence that the NYPD will thoroughly investigate this serious matter. No one should ever have to fear entering or leaving their house of worship and that includes our Jewish neighbors. We stand with the Park East community and with all New Yorkers who reject hate.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement from a spokesperson, UJA-Federation New York said they were \u201coutraged by the demonstration outside Park East Synagogue.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been in contact with our partners at the NYPD, and they are taking this matter very seriously,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cCalls to \u2018globalize the intifada\u2019 and \u2018death to the IDF\u2019 are not political statements\u2014they are incitements to violence against Jewish people. Every leader must denounce this heinous language, and the choice to target a house of worship makes it especially vile.\u201d<\/p>\n