Who Will Protect New York’s Jews?

The prospect of federal charges against protesters at an anti-Israel rally at Brooklyn’s Flatbush section Monday is welcome news. The assistant attorney general for civil rights, Harmeet Dhillon, declares that the federal authorities are “working with our colleagues in NYC to collect evidence and analyze potential charges.” The mob descended on Young Israel Senior Services of Midwood, which was promoting real estate sales in Israel and the West Bank.The script has become worrisomely familiar. A Jewish institution hosts an event meant to inform the public about the possibility of moving to Israel, which many Jews see as a species of religious obligation. The anti-Israel crowd gets wind of the program, and descends with fury and malice. Repeat. The furor at Flatbush comes after a similar demonstration last week outside Park East Synagogue, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.The chaos at the Borough of Trees, though, appeared to be an escalation. Video footage shows a Jewish woman having her hair yanked and a masked demonstrator flashing a light directly in the eyes of a boy. A Hezbollah flag, the banner of a proscribed terrorist group, was raised aloft. Four people — two protesters, and two counter-protesters — were arrested and charges were filed. The NYPD’s Strategic Response Group was not deployed.The chairman of the DOJ’s taskforce to combat antisemitism, Leo Terrell, tells the Jewish News Syndicate: “Let me be clear, I am sick and tired of Jews being harassed in New York City. Did you see what happened in Brooklyn? Where is the mayor? Where is the district attorney? Where are the hate crime charges?” While the police power generally belongs to the states, the DOJ could add on hate crime charges under federal statute. Our welcoming of federal scrutiny is meant as no disrespect to New York’s Finest; the department is full of heroes of New York. Commissioner Jessica Tisch, for all of her virtues, ultimately reports to Mayor Zohran Mamadani, whose statements on the protests have invariably begun with condemnation of the synagogues as violators of “international law.” He deplored the “antisemitic, anti-Muslim and racist rhetoric” at Brooklyn.The mayor, though, has vetoed a bill that would have established buffer zones around educational institutions. A similar measure passed by a veto-proof majority of the City Council, though Mamdani took credit for allowing it to become law. We have written about how such buffers pass constitutional muster — and have been favored by the left when they are applied to abortion clinics. Now, though, they are taboo around Jewish schools. Ms. Tisch is defending the rights of the anti-Israeli activists who have been leading heated protests at synagogues. “Our responsibility has remained the same: To protect the First Amendment right to free speech,” she avers, even “speech that many people may find offensive or deeply uncomfortable.” Yet the commissioner could be giving too much credit to the agitators, who seem to be motivated by antisemitism.The enforcement of federal civil rights and other laws, civil and criminal, is, in our opinion, needed at New York to the fullest degree. This is not only a First Amendment case. The is concern of physical danger to those under attack. The crowds that have gathered outside of synagogues are there to intimidate, and worse. If the full force of American law enforcement — with the DOJ in the van — is not brought to bear, we fear that there will be blood.

Who Will Protect New York’s Jews?

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