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Nov. 28-Dec. 4, 2025 • Vayetzei • 8 Kislev 5786 • Vol. 24, No. 38
If the mob had targeted a church or mosque, the outrage would have been unconditional. But in Mam’s eyes, it’s OK to intimidate Jews
Big Apple turns rotten DAnIeL MAeL Mael Time
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Boys will be boys By The Jewish Star Friday’s White House press conference was expected to be a wild, bruising affair. The script was simple: President Donald Trump (a 79-years-old ruffian, undisputed champion of take-no-prisoners political theater) would tutor greenhorn Zorhan Mamdani (at 34 two generations his junior, a silver spoon-fed political novice — an immi-
grant!). After reading the riot act, president would put the mayor-elect in his place. But Trump and Mamdani ignored the script and improvised instead. Downplaying but not denying their differences (Trump’s called Mamdani a Communist, Mamdani’s called Trump a fascist), both men surprisingly appeared to relish an ability to get along (if not a genuine affection).
ew York has seen thousands of demonstrations since October 2023, but what happened last Wednesday night marked a moral rupture. A crowd did not gather outside a consulate or a corporate tower. It gathered at the doors of a synagogue. It gathered to frighten Jews. It gathered while the incoming mayor of the largest Jewish community in America searched for language that would allow him to acknowledge hatred without condemning those who delivered it. This was not activism. It was a show of force. A masked protester climbed above the crowd of roughly 200 and shouted the words that defined the night. “We need to make them scared.” His target was a house of worship — the Park East Synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side — a place that stands under the protection of the First Amendment and its guarantees of free exercise, free assembly, and free speech. Those protections are designed to ensure that Americans may enter a sacred space without intimidation. On this night, that constitutional promise was violated in full view of the city. Inside, families attended a routine Nefesh B’Nefesh event about moving to Israel. Outside, the chants became vicious. “Death to the IDF.” “Globalize the intifada.” “Take another settler out.”
When Jews are targeted, the city’s moral confidence dissipates. The condemnation becomes conditional. The clarity evaporates. Some protesters dispensed with politics entirely. “You are part of a death cult.” “You rapist pedophiles.” rotesters did not gather at a distance. They positioned themselves directly at the synagogue entrance. They forced attendees to walk through jeers and raised cameras that labeled them “settlers.” They posted videos online for humiliation. The intention was unmistakable. This was not a political rally. It was a deliberate attempt to make Jewish religious life feel unsafe. It was an effort to convert the entrance of a synagogue into a psychological checkpoint. If this scene had unfolded at a church or a mosque, New York’s elected officials would have raced to microphones to condemn it as an assault on religious freedom. The outrage would have been unified and immediate. Yet when Jews are targeted, the city’s moral confidence dissipates. The condemnation becomes conditional. The clarity evaporates. Then came the mayor-elect. Zohran Mamdani was presented with a test that required no complexity. A mob had surrounded a synagogue. Jews were told exSee With shuls on page 2
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On Amtrak, a rabbi’s call to thanksgiving RABBI DR. TzvI HeRSH weInReB Orthodox Union
H
e may or may not have been an antisemite, but he sure was an abrasive personality. He was my seatmate on an
Amtrak train as I was returning to Baltimore from New York some years ago. As I recall, it was at the end of a particularly long and grueling day for me. I had a series of rabbinical meetings, delivered a talk during lunch which provided me no opportunity to eat, and was involved in an unsuccessful attempt to keep the marriage of a young couple from breaking up. I was looking forward to the respite of some quiet time on the return
trip to my home in Baltimore, but even that luxury was denied to me that evening. I sat down, as I always try to do, in the window seat. This fellow entered the railroad car and walked past me in search of a seat for himself. There were several seats that he could have chosen, but for some reason he returned to where I was sitting, glared at me, and sat down with a gesture of dissatisfaction.
I immediately sensed that I would not experience the peaceful train ride that I had anticipated. I tried burying my head in the book I was reading, but that was not sufficient insulation from my neighbor’s insistence upon conversation. “You are obviously Jewish,” he began. “Your yarmulke, for one thing, is a dead giveaway. Plus, I see that you are reading a HeSee I have cause on page 14 brew book.”