NEW YORK — A Jew-hating mob ready for blood gathered at the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan Nov. 19 and threatened violence against Jews going into a meeting there. This provocative action merits the condemnation of all working people, but the office of New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani instead provided political cover for the antisemitic gang.
Some 200 people pushed right up to the door of the synagogue, chanting, “Resistance you make us proud, take another settler out” and “From New York to Gaza, globalize the intifada.” Both chants celebrate Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, pogrom that killed 1,200 Jews and others in Israel. “We need to make them scared,” one of the Jew-haters repeatedly exhorted the crowd. Inside, Nefesh B’Nefesh, a group that provides assistance to Jews who want to emigrate to Israel, was holding a meeting.
Mamdani’s press secretary, Dora Pekec, issued a statement the following day saying the mayor-elect “believes every New Yorker should be free to enter a house of worship,” without mentioning it was Jews who were being threatened. Mamdani’s office said it “discouraged the language used” at what it called “last night’s protest,” but did not condemn the action itself.
Pekec went on to say, “These sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law,” a code word for an attack on the right of Jews to meet and discuss emigrating to Israel. The pro-Hamas group PAL-Awda promoted the provocation with a flyer titled, “No Settlers On Stolen Land.” It repeated the slander that Israel’s defensive war against Hamas is “genocide.”
The Socialist Workers Party in New York delivered a letter to the synagogue and its rabbi, Arthur Schneier, protesting the Jew-hating action. “The Socialist Workers Party stands with you and will continue to tell the truth: that fighting Jew-hatred is an essential part of working people fighting for our own class interests.” The party offered its assistance if further threats arise.