The night before the Consulate General of Israel in Miami was slated to send a delegation of senior U.S. officials to Israel to learn about the reality and complexities on the ground in the Jewish state, two Israeli embassy staffers were gunned down outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., on May 21.
A scheduled participant sent a condolence message to Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, the Israeli consul general in Miami, which was “very, very caring and empathetic,” the diplomat told JNS. In the same message, the official asked if it was safe to go to Israel.
The diplomat didn’t say it in his response to the official, but he told JNS that his reaction was that he hadn’t asked if Miami was a safe place to go. “We are taking the utmost measures, and I think it will be safe, and everything is planned carefully, but we also need to be mindful that terror can strike and is striking anywhere,” he told JNS.
One of the “stranger” parts of his Miami posting has come outside of the office. When there is an antisemitic incident in the United States, parents of other kids at the Jewish day school where he sends his children call him and ask, “Maor, is it safe to send our kids to school?”
“I keep telling them, ‘Listen. I’m not in charge of the security of the school. You are the Americans. You need to speak to your authorities, to your law enforcement, to your elected officials, to your Congress people. I can’t vouch for security,’” Elbaz-Starinsky told JNS. “I have my own security apparatus in place as an Israeli, as an Israeli diplomat, but you want me to be in charge of American Jewish security in the United States? This is not how it works.”
When Naftali Shavelson worked at the Consulate General of Israel in New York, where he served as director of print and online media for two-and-a-half years, the Yeshiva University alumnus often felt like he doubled as a two-way cultural translator.
“I think Israelis often have a hard time understanding American Jewry, and American Jews absolutely have a hard time understanding Israeli society and culture,” Shavelson, now a consultant who recently made aliyah, told JNS.
“Israelis reach out to their American friends when there’s an attack in America and they’re concerned for them, and Americans reach out to their Israeli friends when there’s an attack on Israel,” Shavelson said.
Since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that has meant many occasions for Americans to contact Israeli relatives and friends after attacks from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and directly from Iran. The degree to which American Jews are safe stateside has come into question for Israelis after embassy staffers were gunned down, Jewish marchers were firebombed in Boulder, Colo., antisemitic encampments have spread on college campuses and protests across the country have included direct praise of Hamas.
‘A long time coming’
Ariella Rada, the New York consulate spokeswoman, had been worrying about an attack like the one in Washington. “I have to say that it’s been a long time coming,” she told JNS. “Not just for us, but for anyone living here in New York or across the United States. We’ve all seen the terrifying rise in antisemitism. We’ve been warning about this for years.”
“Everywhere we went—at events, in articles, in conversations—we kept repeating that the numbers are skyrocketing,” she said. “Jewish leaders, the State of Israel, and so many others have been sounding the alarm.”
“What we’re seeing now is the direct result of unprecedented incitement right here in our streets. In New York, in Washington, on college campuses,” she said. “Nearly every few days, there’s another protest. Many of them are violent. Many are led by pro-Palestinian activists chanting slogans like ‘globalize the intifada.’”
That phrase is a clear call for violence against Israel and against Jews, in the United States and globally, according to Rada.
“We’ve seen rising antisemitism in different parts of the world, and we’ve tracked incidents here too, but I don’t think anyone truly believed something this severe could happen on U.S. soil,” she told JNS. “That’s what made it so shocking.”
The current situation in the United States is “frightening,” she said.
“Jews are afraid to walk down the street wearing a yarmulke or a Star of David. It’s unthinkable that we’ve reached a point where Jews in New York, the city with the largest Jewish population in the United States, feel they have to hide who they are,” she said. “Something deeply wrong is happening, and it’s being driven by terrorist-affiliated groups who are spreading hatred, trying to portray Israel and the Jewish people as the enemy.”
“We can’t afford to ignore it any longer,” she added.
‘A bridge’
The Chassidic leader Nachman of Breslov (1772-1811) wrote that in life, a person must cross a “very, very narrow bridge” and that the key is not to be afraid at all. (The popular Hebrew song alters the mystic’s language somewhat.) Israeli consulate staffers see themselves as bridges that, in part, help mitigate fears.
In her role, Rada often finds herself “navigating conversations that reflect the different perspectives and realities between the U.S. and Israel” with relatives, friends and colleagues back home in Israel. (The Ethiopian native grew up in southern Israel.)
“There’s a natural curiosity, and at times concern, about developments here, especially during moments of heightened tension like the recent embassy incident or the troubling rise in antisemitism,” she told JNS. “There are certainly moments where I help provide context or clarify misconceptions.”
The conversations are two-way for her, and she also shares “the complexities of Israeli society and the emotional weight events can carry for people back home” with colleagues and friends in New York.
“Serving as that bridge is both a responsibility and a privilege,” Rada told JNS. “It’s a powerful reminder of how critical our work is as Israeli diplomats in the United States, Israel’s closest ally. Especially in times like these, when antisemitism is on the rise, it reaffirms not only the importance of strengthening the U.S.-Israel partnership, but also the enduring necessity of a strong, secure Jewish state.”
Shavelson told JNS that working at the consulate “felt like a bridge between Israelis and Americans to kind of decipher things that were happening on the ground, for one group or the other.”
The consulate in New York focuses much more on outreach than do the embassy in Washington or the mission to the United Nations, both of which have more expressed political and diplomatic goals, according to Shavelson.
He found himself helping Israelis understand better what Jewish life looks like in America and aiding Americans in painting a better picture for themselves about what Jewish life is like in Israel.
Part of that was telling both that the experience is richer and vaster than the tragic attacks that make the news.
“By and large, the attacks, however tragic, don’t necessarily define at least so far the broader Jewish community in either place,” he told JNS. He thinks Israel is trending toward more security while Jews are feeling increasingly unsafe in America.
“By and large, I think when you’re not in a place, it becomes much easier to consider it and think about it and assimilate it in terms of headlines,” he said. “But headlines are not real life.”
‘Heightened sensitivity’
Delphine Gamburg, deputy consul general at the Israeli Consulate in Chicago, told JNS that the attack in Washington affected staff deeply.
“There’s a new sense of solidarity and resilience among us,” she said. “Especially among our American employees, who now realize they, too, can be targeted. That tragedy was a big shock, but it also brought a stronger sense of purpose to our mission.”
Day-to-day operations haven’t changed at the Chicago consulate after the Washington attack, but there is “now a heightened sensitivity around the work we do, especially from those who haven’t experienced this kind of threat before,” Gamburg told JNS.
“We’re here to represent and explain Israel, even when that becomes more difficult,” she said. “Since Oct. 7, that role has become far more challenging, especially in progressive spaces like Chicago. Some of our friends and partners are now hesitant to speak up or attend our events. I understand their fear, but that’s why we have to keep going.”
Gamburg, who grew up in France, was familiar with this sort of Jew-hatred. “I never expected to see it here in the United States. Not like this. It’s heartbreaking,” she told JNS.
“When I first came to America nearly 20 years ago, it felt like a refuge—a place where Jews could live openly and proudly,” she said. “Now, I’m seeing a fear among American Jews that reminds me of what my parents warned me about growing up in France.”
Jonathan Harounoff, spokesman for the Israeli mission to the United Nations in New York, told JNS that even 21 months after Oct. 7, “it can be jarring for observers to see the streets of New York and other major U.S. cities be lined by people pledging support for Hamas and in favor of globalizing the intifada.”
“The ignorant and appalling expressions of support for terror groups remain a very disconcerting result of this conflict,” Harounoff said.
“I do not have fears of working at an Israeli institution, only pride,” he said. “But as we’ve been saying since the aftermath of Oct. 7 terror attacks, when genocidal chants were being bellowed on our streets and college campuses, dangerous words can lead to dangerous, violent outcomes.”
“As these attacks on American soil show, these deranged terrorists are not just being critical of the Israeli government; these are abhorrent houndings of Jewish people and Jewish spaces,” he added.
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