Jewish leaders, terror survivors rally against antisemitism outside UN headquarters during the annual UN General Assembly.
By Rebecca Szlechter and Mike Wagenheim, JNS
In the shadow of the United Nations, major U.S. Jewish organizations held a rally stretching about three quarters of a full city block from Manhattan’s 2nd Avenue at 48th Street to within shouting distance of the U.N. entrance, as international leaders assembled within the global body’s headquarters for the annual U.N. General Assembly.
“We have world leaders gathering down the block, talking about the major issues of the day, and we need to ensure that antisemitism and combating it is top of the pile of issues,” Eric Goldstein, outgoing CEO of the UJA-Federation of New York, told JNS.
The leader of the UJA, which was one of many groups to host the rally that drew about 1,000, said that he is calling for a “serious national action plan to combat antisemitism in every country” and “a special envoy with serious enforcement authority,” standards for social media moderation and more security funding for Jewish institutions.
“There’s so much to do, and world leaders have the authority to move the needle,” Goldstein told JNS. “We need to motivate them.”
Fighting antisemitism extends well beyond Jewish communities, the UJA head said.
“It starts with the Jewish community,” he told JNS. “It never ends with the Jewish community.”
Carol Berne, a New York City resident who attended the rally, urged world leaders to listen to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he addresses the United Nations, rather than walking out.
“You don’t walk out the way you did last year,” she told JNS. “You sit and listen to diverse viewpoints.
With the UJA, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, New York Board of Rabbis, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Israeli American Council, StandWithUs, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Union for Reform Judaism and Yeshiva University were among the rally organizers.
“Right behind us sits the United Nations, which is a cesspool of antisemitism, a cesspool of Jew-hatred, that literally has on its agenda regular items to slam the one and only Jewish state,” William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents, told JNS.
“To be here to speak out with victims of antisemitism from across the world, from Bondi, from Nova, from here in New York, I think speaks to who we are as a people and our demand that world leaders stand up and say no more,” Daroff said.
Jewish leaders have accused New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, of denouncing Israel and responding to antisemitism in a way that puts Jews at risk. Daroff told JNS that local problems tend to spread.
“We see it politically with the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America, and a key component of the DSA agenda is an anti-Israel animus, which in fact is an anti-Jewish animus,” he said. “We see that across the country, and it’s something we need to stamp out and stamp out firmly.”
The event featured remarks from Bondi Beach terror attack survivor and international lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky, Nova music festival attack survivor Shalev Biton and the Israeli Bedouin who saved her and many others, Younes Alkarnawi.
George Zamot, a United Parcel Service driver who helped the New York City Police Department apprehend the suspect in an antisemitic stabbing on Manhattan’s Upper West Side also took to the podium, as did Jewish, interfaith and community leaders.
Rabbi Reuben Poupko has seen that same hate in Montreal, where he leads the Beth Israel Beth Aaron Congregation, an Orthodox congregation targeted in a thwarted plot two years ago on Rosh Hashanah.
“We will not cower in fear. We will not hide. We will not surrender to hate,” the rabbi told attendees. “The Jewish communities of North America continue to stand proud. We know whose children we are. We know what our grandparents and parents fought for.”
Poupko called the current conflict “a fight for the soul of liberal democracies,” which is “a battle we must win.”
Devorah Halberstam, whose son Ari was murdered in the 1994 Brooklyn Bridge terror shooting, also addressed the rally and recounted her years-long efforts to have the attack recognized as antisemitic terror.
“Antisemitism is not one incident. It is a cancer in society today. It spreads when it is tolerated. It grows when people look away,” Halberstam told attendees. “We cannot feed it. We cannot normalize it. We cannot excuse it.”
Halberstam called on leaders gathered at the United Nations to take action against Jew-hatred. “Antisemitism must stop,” she said. “Not tomorrow. Not when it becomes politically expedient. Right now.”
Avi Hauptman, 79, of Queens, told JNS that he attended the rally to show his support for Israel and the Jewish community. He said that he has five children and five grandchildren in Israel and that his mother was a Holocaust survivor.
There is no difference between antisemitism and anti-Zionism. “They both hate Jews,” he said. “Doesn’t make a difference.”
Hauptman also urged Jews who are afraid to attend rallies or show support publicly not to be intimidated. “Don’t be scared,” he told JNS. “Come here.”
Actor and television host Jerry O’Connell told attendees that his Jewish godfather told him and his brother about his time as a prisoner of war in Germany.
“His greatest fear was being discovered as a Jew. I remember hearing that as a child and thinking, ‘How could anyone live with that kind of terror?’” O’Connell said.
He told attendees that he promised to do something about Jew-hatred if he saw it rise to that level again.
“People can disagree about politics. They can debate governments. They can debate policies,” he said. “That’s part of the free society that we live in, but there is no debate whether Jewish people deserve to live openly, safely and proudly.”
“To everyone who is not Jewish, this is our fight too,” he told attendees. “Silence does not protect anyone. Indifference does not make hatred disappear.”
“Antisemitism and anti-Zionism are really the same thing,” she told JNS.
“I would like world leaders to actually understand the facts on the ground, as to what’s really happening,” Beck said.
World leaders should understand that Israel has offered Palestinians “land, country, many times, and they’ve always rejected it,” she told JNS.
“To people afraid to attend rallies or wear Israeli flags,” she added, “in 1939, in Germany, it didn’t matter how assimilated you were. You went into ovens.”
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