Anti-Zionist groups announce protest outside Manhattan synagogue

Anti-Zionist groups announce a protest for tomorrow at New York City’s Park East Synagogue.

The protesters are demonstrating against an event at the synagogue hosted by Nefesh B’nefesh, an organization that helps Jews immigrate to Israel.

“No settlers on stolen land,” say advertisements for the protest on social media, branding the event a “settler recruiting fair.”

Nefesh B’nefesh does not direct immigrants to settlements; anti-Zionist activists often brand all Jewish Israelis as “settlers.”

The protest is led by the Pal-Awda activist group and is shared by other anti-Zionist organizations such as the city’s branch of Jewish Voice for Peace, Writers Against the War on Gaza, student groups from around the city and individual activists with large followings.

The National Lawyers Guild, a nonprofit, sent an email to its members asking for volunteer legal observers to attend the event. The observers serve to provide legal defense for protesters against police. The guild is anti-Israel and put out a statement in support of the October 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel, the day after it happened.

There have been thousands of anti-Israel protests in New York City since the Hamas attack, the NYPD has said.

Demonstrations outside synagogues and in heavily Jewish neighborhoods are rare, but tend to be especially vitriolic. Park East is a prominent synagogue in an area with a large Jewish population.

Some right-wing Jewish activists have circulated calls to show up to counter-protest.

Several protests in the region have targeted other Israel-related events at synagogues in the past several years.

Protests at synagogues in the US have also sparked several lawsuits against the protesters alleging infringement on the right to freedom of worship.

Jewish New Yorkers have repeatedly expressed concern over how mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will respond to protests at synagogues and in Jewish neighborhoods.