The violent anti-Israel demonstration in Brooklyn last week took place practically in my own backyard. I live in the Midwood section of the borough, where a 400-plus police presence was necessary to protect Jews at the Young Israel of Midwood from masked antisemitic demonstrators wearing keffiyehs, waving Palestinian and Hezbollah flags, and yelling antisemitic slurs.
The protesters were out in force to scare people away from the synagogue, which hosted an event promoting real estate in Israel.
The front of the synagogue looked like a combat zone that night. Nearby streets were cordoned off, hundreds of police officers milled around metal barricades, police cars and trucks were everywhere, and a helicopter hovered overhead.
All to protect Jews.
The massive police presence in front of the synagogue resulted from New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin’s “buffer-zone” law. That law requires the New York City Police Department to erect temporary fencing around houses of worship to protect congregants during protests.
But in a city with an antisemitic mayor, married to an antisemitic wife, we all know that there is only one house of worship that needs to be protected: a synagogue.
Even then, the buffer zone in Brooklyn didn’t last.
I attended the event in the synagogue that evening—May 11—and had to be ushered in by a long line of police. It was sparsely attended, which was not surprising considering the panic on the outside.
I had arranged afterwards to meet my husband, on his way home from work, near the demonstration. The clamor from the protesters, who were mostly confined to an area down the block from the synagogue, rose in a cacophony as I got closer. The blaring bullhorns, banging drums and raucous chants of “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the IDF!” were as deafening as they were intimidating.
As my husband and I headed home away from the protest, we suddenly realized that the mob was following us. What should have been a protest behind a buffer turned into a roaring march of antisemites marching down tree-lined residential streets, terrorizing Jewish residents.
Who gave permission for a confined protest to turn into a menacing march?
The two of us were huddled on the edge of the sidewalk, along with other Orthodox Jews, hoping that the police at the street corner would intervene if marchers turned on us. I learned afterwards that some neighbors locked themselves in their homes.
As the demonstrators marched in front of us, one of them glared at us in an almost maniacal way. Allahu Akbar, he started screaming. “Allahu Akbar! Do you know what that means?!”
Yes, I know what that means.
The Islamic father-and-son terrorists who murdered 15 people and injured more than 40 others at the Bondi Beach Chanukah celebration shouted Allahu Akbar while gunning down their victims.
The Al-Qaeda terrorists who kidnapped Daniel Pearl, the Jewish-American journalist, in Pakistan in 2002, chanted Allahu Akbar and forced Pearl to declare that he was a Jew before they beheaded him.
The two terrorists who attempted to detonate homemade explosive devices outside Gracie Mansion in March shouted Allahu Akbar.
The ISIS-supporting Afghan national yelled Allahu Akbar as he shot two West Virginia National Guard members this past winter.
This now-oft-heard phrase (meaning “God is great!” in Arabic), linked to death threats and death itself, was slung at us in an out-of-control rally in Brooklyn in the name of free speech.
Leo Terrell, chair of the DOJ’s task force to combat antisemitism, told JNS, “Let me be clear, I am sick and tired of Jews being harassed in New York City. Did you see what happened in Brooklyn? Where is the mayor? Where is the district attorney? Where are the hate-crime charges?”
Where is the mayor? He’s busy releasing vile videos of “Nakba Day,” replete with historical distortions of the founding of the State of Israel, further fanning the flames of antisemitism in the city. New York City is home to the largest Jewish population in America. Since Oct. 7, hate crimes against Jews have exploded in the city. NYPD data from January showed a 182% increase year-over-year of antisemitic incidents compared to January 2025.
It’s gotten so bad that the location of any Israel-related event that takes place in New York City is only posted the day of the event. Jews are the only religious group now being essentially driven underground.
With a socialist wave taking over the city, residents face financial and quality-of-life insecurities. But only Jews face the added burden of religious insecurity.
A realtor at Monday night’s real estate event told me that some British Jews in Golders Green are not able to afford real estate in Israel because the staggering rise in hatred has made it difficult to sell their property.
There is irony in that sobering reality. The very need for a massive police presence to protect Brooklyn Jews attending an Israel real estate event only underscores the need for such an event.
