New Yorkers Rally on Fifth Avenue Against Anti-Semitism and for a Stronger Community Response
“We are not running from New York.”
That was the message Yaakov Serle delivered Sunday afternoon from the steps of the New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, where Jews and supporters gathered Sunday, August 9, for the “Securing Our Future” rally.
“This is our city, and we will never be intimidated,” said Serle, co-publisher of this publication and one of the rally’s presenters.
The gathering brought dozens of people to Fifth Avenue under the banner of #Jewnity. Attendees carried American and Israeli flags and signs denouncing anti-Semitism and extremism. The crowd included Jews and Christians, Republicans, disillusioned Democrats, and New Yorkers who did not identify with a political party. IMPACT, the Republican Jewish Coalition and Turning Point USA Communities were recognized as partners in the event.
There were also hecklers.
When several attempted to interrupt the speakers, emcee De’Vante M. Montgomery kept the program moving and thanked the NYPD officers stationed nearby. At several points, the crowd responded with chants of “NYPD.”
A Muslim couple and their family arrived on the library steps during the rally to take wedding photos. Police set up barricades as a precaution, but the family was left alone to celebrate and take their pictures.
Serle told the crowd that he had recently returned from Israel, where people repeatedly asked him when he planned to leave New York and move there.
At first, he said, he laughed off the question. But with anti-Semitic incidents, pro-Hamas rhetoric and growing concern among American Jews, he said the question became more difficult to dismiss.
His answer was to remain and be visible.
Serle urged Jews to wear their yarmulkes and Stars of David openly and to stand publicly with Israel.
“For too much of our history, people told us to keep our heads down,” he said. “We do not bend.”
He summed up his message in six words: “Be Jewish. Be proud. Be loud.”
The crowd responded with chants of Am Yisrael Chai.
Republican state comptroller candidate Joseph Hernandez was the first political candidate to address the rally. Hernandez spoke about coming to the United States from Cuba at age seven and watching his parents work to support their family, his father washing dishes and his mother cleaning homes.
Hernandez said he later studied at Yale and Oxford and built 12 companies, taking two to Nasdaq and one to the New York Stock Exchange.
“Only in America does that happen,” he said.
Hernandez praised the Jewish community’s contributions to New York and told the crowd, “The Jewish community is going nowhere.”
Other speakers also focused on elections and political involvement. Tammy Cohen endorsed Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman. Congressional candidate Caroline Shinkle said she would work to identify financial networks she believes are funding anti-Semitic protests and violence.
Moshe Spern focused his remarks on Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
In a call-and-response with the crowd, Spern asked who he believed had helped normalize hostility toward Israel and Jewish New Yorkers. Each time, the crowd answered, “Mamdani.”
Spern argued that rhetoric from elected officials can influence what becomes acceptable in public.
“We need to keep holding him accountable,” he said. “Never again is now.”
Carin Bail of Jamaica Estates, a mother, educator and representative of IMPACT, turned the discussion to social media and its influence on children.
“Words that once shocked us have become normal,” Bail said. “Bullying has become entertainment, and hate is content.”
She warned parents not to “outsource the education of our children to an algorithm” and urged them to teach children to question propaganda and recognize prejudice when it is presented as activism.
Bail, whose grandparents survived the Holocaust, said persecution does not begin with mass violence. It begins when lies, hateful rhetoric and the isolation of a particular group become accepted.
“You cannot respond to what you refuse to see,” she said.
Maskit Matityahu, fiancée of musician Eli Schwebel, performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” and HaTikvah. Matityahu was born in Israel, raised in Australia and now lives in New York.
She spoke about times when fear had caused her to remain alone at home and said being able to stand publicly as a Jew on Fifth Avenue showed the importance of communal support.
Several non-Jewish speakers also addressed the rally.
Daniel Saynt, who told attendees he is seeking a congressional seat in New York’s 13th District, offered a Christian prayer for the safety of the Jewish people.
Another speaker, Sia, spoke about Vivian Silver, the Israeli peace activist who helped transport sick Palestinian children to Israeli hospitals before she was murdered by Hamas on October 7.
“Jew hatred is not a problem just for Jews,” Sia said. “It is a problem for humanity.”
The political speeches stopped for a candle-lighting ceremony led by Stephanie Benshimol in memory of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Carmel Gat, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Eden Yerushalmi.
The six hostages were murdered by Hamas after 328 days in captivity. Their second yahrzeit fell over the weekend.
Benshimol recited Shir LaMaalos, Psalm 121, as attendees stood with candles on the library steps.
Holocaust survivor Sami Steigmann then addressed the crowd.
Born in 1939, Steigmann survived the Mogilev-Podolsky labor camp, where he was subjected to Nazi medical experimentation as a young child. He later moved to Israel and served in the Israeli Air Force.
“I never thought that I would ever live in a time when right is wrong and wrong is right,” Steigmann said.
Still, his message was one of perseverance.
“Never lose hope,” he said. “We survived many things. We are still here.”
Akiva Mandel, the rally’s final speaker, spoke about the connection between anti-Semitism and opposition to Israel.
“Anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are the exact same thing,” Mandel said. “There is no difference.”
He questioned why dozens of Arab and Muslim countries are accepted while the existence of a single Jewish state continues to be challenged.
Mandel also stressed that American Jews should not see themselves as temporary guests in the United States. Generations of Jewish families have built lives in this country, he said, and Jews, religious or not, have a right to live safely and openly here.
Deirdre Levy, who described herself as an Asian Jew, compared current anti-Semitism with the anti-Asian hostility that members of her family experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic.
She said inflammatory language can create stigma and eventually contribute to violence.
Scott Piro urged Jewish New Yorkers to become more involved in everyday civic life, including school-board meetings, workplaces, and neighborhood organizations, and not to hide their Jewish identity.
For Serle, the answer to those asking whether Jews still have a future in New York had already been given at the beginning of the rally.
“We are not running from New York,” he said.
By Shabsie Saphirstein
