‘Mamdani Era Has Already Begun’
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists besieged Manhattan’s prestigious Park East Synagogue on Wednesday evening, chanting “Globalize the Intifada,” “Death to the Israeli army” and “Eliminate another settler,” in what critics called “just the beginning” of a climate of radicalization under the leadership of socialist mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
The nighttime protest was aimed at an event on Jewish immigration to Israel held inside the synagogue, which has stood on East 67th Street since 1890 and is also home to a major Jewish day school. Organizers from Pal-Awda New York and New Jersey, Within Our Lifetime, Jewish Voice for Peace New York and allied anti-Israel groups promoted the rally as “No Settlers on Stolen Land” and a “protest to stop the settler recruitment fair”, calling the program a “settler recruitment” event.
Radical pro-Palestinian activists banged drums and unleashed a barrage of incendiary chants, including “Resistance is glorious,” “Intifada Revolution,” “No peace on stolen lands,” “We don’t want two states, we want forty-eight,” and “From New York to Gaza, globalize the Intifada,” while placards declared: “Zionism is a death cult” and “No settlers on stolen lands.” “.
Participants entering and leaving the building were booed at point-blank range, as one protest leader told the crowd: “It’s our job to make them think twice about holding these events, we need to scare them,” prompting activists to repeat the phrase.
The New York Police Department deployed officers and metal barricades to separate the protest from a smaller group of Jewish counterprotesters, who blew shofars and whistles, shone flashlights on the crowd and shouted back, “You are cowards” and “Stop protesting in a synagogue.” Police said the protest was authorized and reported no arrests.
Cantor Benny Rogosnitzky, who is both cantor of Park East Synagogue and director of Rabbi Arthur Schneier Park East Day School, described the scene as “very disturbing,” noting that protesters shouted phrases such as “Kill the Jews,” “Destroy Israel” and “No Jews in America.” He said many community members were “very, very concerned” about the language used and the decision to target a synagogue, according to the New York Post.
The scenes outside Park East sparked a wave of shocked reactions on
Rabbi Elchanan Poupko, who was the first to post video of the protest, wrote that “anti-Semites appeared in front of the Park East Synagogue and are chanting for the Intifada,” noting that the synagogue’s senior rabbi is a Holocaust survivor who remembers Kristallnacht vividly and now sees “the same human material” outside his own synagogue. He insisted that “this is not about Gaza and never has been about Gaza” and that the protest “is an attack on the Jewish people.”
The Rev. Jordan Wells, a New York pastor who shared other images, said, “A crowd of anti-Semites stands outside the Park East synagogue shouting ‘Globalize the Intifada’ and ‘There is only one solution: the Intifada revolution,'” noting that the rabbi inside “was a child when Kristallnacht happened” and is now “forced to hear the same hatred, the same thirst for blood, outside his own synagogue.” Rev. Wells concluded that the crowd represented “the same old virus, now wearing a keffiyeh instead of a brown shirt.”
Conservative radio host Mark Levin responded to footage of the scene by simply saying that it “looks like Germany in the 1930s.”
In an expanse message To the protesters, Rabbi Poupko likened them to Brownshirts who went from being “lonely, economically and socially broken individuals” to feeling powerful in front of Jewish stores in Berlin, warning that “anti-Semitism is a sweet poison pill, you feel good in the moment and the price only comes later.”
THE World Jewish Congress said the protest in front of Park East produced scenes “eerily reminiscent of Kristallnacht,” noting that the synagogue’s longtime rabbi, Kristallnacht witness and former WJC leader, “knows better than anyone where this kind of hatred can lead,” and insisting that such scenes “have no place on the streets of New York.”
The civil rights group EndJewHate called the protest “a blatant violation of the civil right of Jews to attend their place of worship in peace,” arguing that in the current climate “being anti-Zionist means targeting Jews in synagogues” and emphasizing that the “Intifada” is “an open call for violence against Jews around the world.”
House Republican Leadership Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican who recently announced she would challenge Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2026, charged that “this is Kathy Hochul’s New York,” accusing the governor of supporting “a rabid anti-Semite” for New York mayor and thus “putting Jewish families in danger.”
Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York underscored the meaning of the chants, pointing out that protesters outside Park East were invoking “the Intifada,” a term linked to a campaign of terror that killed more than a thousand Israeli civilians and children. Torres said that “the deliberate invocation of the Intifada, especially in the post-October 7 world, is an unmistakable incitement to violence against Jews,” emphasizing that targeting a synagogue “is not criticism, it is extremism, it is discrimination.”
British commentator Melanie Phillips said that “yelling about the death of Jews in front of a synagogue” was something few people believed possible in New York and declared that “the Mamdani era has already begun”, warning that “Islam is on the rise in America”.
New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino wrote that “the Mamdani effect is just beginning and these are tough times for Jews,” adding that “we bought the ticket, now we’re going to take the bus, God help us all.”
Ellie Cohanim, former U.S. deputy special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, pointed out that Park East is a synagogue in New York City, home to America’s largest Jewish population, and said the images outside show “what Jewish life is like under Democrats,” urging voters to “vote accordingly.”
American Jewish Committee Executive Director Ted Deutch called the rally “disgusting,” saying anti-Semites shouting “Death to the IDF” and “globalize the Intifada” are “calling for violence against the Jewish people,” and urged “every leader, including every politician,” to condemn such rhetoric “unequivocally and forcefully.”
Lisa Katz, director of government affairs at Movement to fight anti-Semitismsaid the protest was the latest example of “the increasing normalization of intimidation and incitement of anti-Semitism in American society,” warning that calls to “globalize the Intifada” and praise of “resistance” are “direct violent threats against a New York Jewish community already facing unprecedented levels of anti-Semitic hostility.”
Outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams condemned the protest as “completely unacceptable, regardless of your faith or background.” warning that “when you desecrate one place of worship, you desecrate them all,” and pledged to visit the Park East Synagogue once he returned to the city.
A spokesperson for Mayor-elect Mamdani told reporter Matthew Kassel that the mayor-elect “discouraged the language used at last night’s protest and will continue to do so,” a comment that drew the attention of Jewish leaders who noted that Mamdani repeatedly refused during the campaign to call “globalizing the Intifada” anti-Semitic until he faced sustained backlash.
As Breitbart News reported, Adams recently used a trip to Israel to warn that “if I were a Jewish New Yorker, I would care about my kids,” describing a cultural shift in which “it’s now cool and hip to be anti-Semitic” and recounting how a Brownsville teenager demanded the destruction of Israel despite being unable to locate the country on a map.
Mamdani, a longtime supporter of the BDS campaign and former co-founder of a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine during his college years, pledged not to travel to Israel as mayor and said he would “exhaust all legal options” to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visited New York.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, former Hamas member Mosab Hassan Yousef, widely known as the son of Hamas, warned that Mamdani was functioning as a Trojan horse for a coordinated red-green alliance of radical left-wing and Islamist forces seeking to undermine Western capitalism and transform America’s largest city. Veteran Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf also warned that Mamdani’s victory could mark what he described as “the end of Jewish New York as we know it.”
According to ADL data, anti-Semitic incidents nationwide increased by more than 200% between 2021 and 2023, with New York City recording nearly 1,000 incidents in 2024 – the highest figure ever documented for a U.S. city since systematic tracking began. Jewish leaders say the protests that bring Intifada chants to synagogue doors will be an early test of whether the new Mamdani administration is ready to protect their right to worship safely.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
