“Stay and fight.” That’s the message that Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, senior rabbi of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan, plans to deliver to congregants on Yom Kippur, which begins on Sunday night.
Congregants have been asking him if they should leave New York City, or even the United States, amid escalating Jew-hatred. “My message is to stay,” Hirsch told JNS.
“This is unprecedented talk,” he said. “I don’t remember ever in the 40-plus years that I’ve been in New York and 22 years that I’ve been senior rabbi of this community, which is in the heart of New York City, people ever talking about this.”
About 1,500 people are expected to attend Hirsch’s sermon on Monday. The synagogue, which has about 750 seats, will hold two back-to-back services.
Hirsch told JNS that Jews have played an essential role in the history of the city. “New York as we know it would not be New York as we know it without the Jews,” he said. “We are a critical component of the melting pot of New York City.”
Hirsch also said that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s relationship with the mainstream Jewish community has worsened since he took office.
“He said what he said,” Hirsch said. “He believes what he believes, and he meant it.”
Mamdani has accused Israel of “genocide,” and he campaigned on having the Israeli prime minister arrested in the Big Apple. He more recently admitted that he lacks the authority to do so but called on federal agencies to arrest the premier. The mayor’s spokeswoman has also said that synagogues that host pro-Israel events violate international law.
Hirsch, who is president of the New York Board of Rabbis, told JNS that Jews should not be loyal to one party or another. Instead, they “need to demand that the political parties earn our vote,” he said.
In his prepared sermon, Hirsch warns that “unhinged and obsessive loathing of Israel is corrupting American values. If allowed to spread, it is not only Jews who will pay the price. America will too.”
Ultimately, his message will be to “stay.”
“We are Americans. We have contributed mightily to our city,” Hirsch told JNS. “We have often been victimized in our past, but we have never seen ourselves as victims. We believe in the power of change.”
“We know how to operate,” he said. “We need to do that.”
