‘It wasn’t just anti-Israel, anti-occupation. It was anti-Jewish,’ Park East Synagogue cantor Benny Rogosnitzky says
Columbia University student groups promoted a protest at which an anti-Semitic mob threw bottles and sticks at a Jewish group, which included at least two Holocaust survivors, outside a historic Manhattan synagogue.
Roughly 200 keffiyeh-clad agitators gathered outside the Park East Synagogue on Wednesday to protest an event hosted by Nefesh B’Nefesh, a nonprofit group that facilitates Jewish immigration to Israel, the synagogue’s cantor, Benny Rogosnitzky, told the Washington Free Beacon. The sticks and bottles they threw at a group of Jewish counter-protesters of about the same size injured at least one member of the synagogue, he said.
The agitators called the counter-protesters “rapists,” “racists,” and “pedophiles,” the Times of Israel reported. One yelled, “Fucking Jewish pricks,” while another said, “You’re part of a death cult.” They also chanted “resistance is glorious,” “intifada revolution,” “death to the IDF,” and “we don’t want no Zionists here” while banging on drums and blowing whistles.
Protesters chant ‘death to the IDF,” ‘resistance is glorious,” and ‘intifada revolution” at New York City synagogue pic.twitter.com/P6DgtHvifM
— Luke Tress (@luketress) November 20, 2025
Hamas protesters heckle Jews and chant for an intifada outside Park East Synagogue in Manhattan to protest an event by Nefesh B’nefesh, an organization that helps Jews immigrate to Israel.
The protesters chant, ‘There is only one solution, intifada revolution,” ‘No peace on… pic.twitter.com/fe5V1fhgAC
— Moshe Schwartz (@YWNReporter) November 20, 2025
The protest was organized by PAL-Awda NY/NJ, which has honored Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar as a “hero” and a “legend.” Columbia University Apartheid Divest and the Columbia chapter of Students for a Democratic Society promoted the event on social media, sharing a flyer that read “NO SETTLERS ON STOLEN LAND.” It also accused Nefesh B’Nefesh of holding a “settler recruiting fair” and listed the address of Park East Synagogue, which is led by Rabbi Arthur Schneier, a 95-year-old Holocaust survivor.
A Columbia spokesman told the Free Beacon that those groups have no ties to the school and don’t receive university funding. “Any organization that promotes violence or encourages disruption of our academic mission is not welcome on our campuses,” he said.
Columbia’s student radicals seem to have pivoted away from protesting on campus as the university, under pressure from the Trump administration, cracks down on illegal demonstrations. Wednesday’s protest does, however, seem to play into New York Jews’ fears that anti-Semites will be empowered by Zohran Mamdani’s (D.) election as mayor.
In response to Wednesday night’s protest, Mamdani, through a spokeswoman, suggested that Nefesh B’Nefesh’s mission of bringing Jews to Israel violates international law.
“The Mayor-elect has discouraged the language used at last night’s protest and will continue to do so,” Mamdani spokeswoman Dora Pekec said in a statement. “He believes every New Yorker should be free to enter a house of worship, and that these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.”
His response appears to align with PAL-Awda NY/NJ, which said Nefesh B’Nefesh is “responsible for the recruitment of settlers to Palestine from North America.”
But Rogosnitzky, who stood outside the temple doors for the nearly four-hour protest, said the agitators weren’t merely protesting Israel.
“I could only describe it as a hateful mob,” Rogosnitzky told the Free Beacon. “It wasn’t just anti-Israel, anti-occupation. It was anti-Jewish.”
“They were just there to express unmitigated hatred,” he added. “We obviously support the freedom of speech, but we cannot condone the expressions of just pure anti-Semitism and hatred that were expressed against Jews and the synagogue last night.”
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