The pinnacle rabbi on the historic Park East Synagogue is asking for native and state legislators to outlaw protests close to homes of worship following a tumultuous pro-Palestine protest that lead NYPD Commissioner Tisch James to apologize to the congregation final month.
“This was not just an attack on a synagogue. This was an attack against the Jewish community,” Rabbi Arthur Schneier advised a crowd assembled outdoors the synagogue’s E. 68th St. entrance Thursday evening. “It’s important to ask every legislator in the city council and state to make sure that a law is enacted, whereby it is prohibited to demonstrate before synagogues or any other house of worship.”
A rally outdoors Park East Synagogue in Manhattan is pictured on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (Kerry Burke / New York Every day Information)
Schneier joined New York Metropolis Comptroller Mark Levine on a stage setup outdoors the synagogue close to Third Ave. on the Higher East Aspect, the place some 400 congregants and pro-Israel advocates gathered in solidarity.
“What we saw here was hatred, hatred, hatred of the Jew and hatred of every human and decent being,” Schneier advised the group, which waved Israeli flags and indicators studying “New York Zionist.”
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine is pictured at a rally outdoors Park East Synagogue in Manhattan on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (Kerry Burke / New York Every day Information)
The November conflict occurred when the Palestinian Meeting for Liberation NY/NJ organized protestors to display in opposition to an occasion hosted by Nefesh B’Nefesh, a gaggle that assists Jewish immigration to Israel from the U.S. and Canada — and which the activist group referred to as a “settler recruiting fair.”
“The demonstrators were protesting Jewish New Yorkers interested in learning about immigration to Israel,” town’s comptroller advised the group outdoors the synagogue. “In the case of Israel, one of the most common reasons people are interested in immigrating is to flee anti-Semitism, which is on the rise in New York and in America, a fact perhaps lost on the protesters who were busy trying to make the attendees feel unsafe.”
Individuals are pictured at a rally outdoors Park East Synagogue in Manhattan on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (Kerry Burke / New York Every day Information)
Becoming a member of the Thursday evening rally was Brooklyn resident David Galperin, 33, who protested in opposition to the pro-Palestine activists final month.
“I was there at the entrance to our synagogue when the protestors came. I’ve never seen anything like it,” stated Galperin. “It was a huge Palestine rally. They were there trying to intimidate us. They were trying to take over. We’re here tonight to show our faces in public, that we are united and not afraid.”
As soon as the audio system had been by way of, attendees had been handled to performances by the Synagogue Park East Kids’s Choir and Reggae star Matisyahu, who performed his 2005 hit “King Without a Crown.”
Singer/rapper Matisyahu is pictured at a rally outdoors Park East Synagogue in Manhattan on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (Kerry Burke / New York Every day Information)
The NYPD arrange pens with barricades for either side of the protest however, whereas the pro-Israel aspect went into their pen, the pro-Palestinian protestors confirmed up later and headed for the constructing entrance earlier than in the end pulling again to their pen, a legislation enforcement supply stated.
Professional-Palestinian protesters collect outdoors an occasion held by Nefesh B’nefesh, a company that helps American Jews immigrate to Israel, on the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan on Nov. 19, 2025. (Picture by Selçuk Acar/Anadolu through Getty Pictures)
Tisch, who spoke to congregants within the wake of final month’s protest, stated that as a result of the police didn’t arrange a frozen zone on the entrance, “the space right outside your steps was chaotic.”
“People have the right to protest, including within sight and sound of a house of worship. They have the right to say things that are incredibly painful to hear. I understand that pain, deeply and personally,” Tisch stated in November. “However the proper to say these issues is protected by the First Modification, and the NYPD should uphold that proper.
“You deserved an NYPD posture that recognized the sensitivity of this location, the climate we’re living in, and the heightened fear within our community,” she stated at tat time. “Instead, you had turmoil.”
