If Jews in New York no longer recognize this city as safe for expressing their identity, the most recent example was on Monday night when Queens-born fashion designer Donna Karan held a fundraiser for the IDF in the West Village. Anti-Israel demonstrations surrounded the building to prevent participants from entering. That evening, they also occupied the Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal in an effort to raise attention to their cause by inconveniencing New Yorkers.
For Mayor Eric Adams, the budget cuts resulting from the migrant crisis define the financial state of the city, but in regard to public safety, it is difficult for voters to see that a former transit cop elected on the promise of a safer city appears powerless to prevent the takeover of bridges and train stations by anti-Israel demonstrations. Does the administration feel that it is pointless to arrest people whose likely punishment for blocking public spaces is a desk appearance ticket? Perhaps he fears that lawsuits against the police would further cripple the city’s coffers?
In balancing public safety with the First Amendment, perhaps it is preferable to give demonstrators a couple of hours on the Brooklyn Bridge rather than to expend resources on the arrests of thousands for nothing more than a brief lockup and a no-bail release. But when the government gives space to a mob while preventing a lone dissenter from speaking up, it is evident that there is no enforcement of the law.
On that night, Elisha Wiesel, son of the Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, confronted an anti-Israel crowd at Penn Station in a peaceful manner. “I put on an Israeli flag I carry with me,” he tweeted. “The cowards hid behind their masks. NYPD insisted I remove the flag as situation was getting dangerous.”
Wiesel’s lone dissent resembled an identical display at the American Museum of Natural History, where a supporter of Israel shouted back at the crowd and was escorted away by the police. When pro-Israel rallies take place, space is provided for the Neturei Karta and other groups expressing hostility to Jewish sovereignty. Participants in the Celebrate Israel Parade quickly walk past the block on 59th Street knowing that it is pointless to engage the protesters. They recognize that their presence at the parade is a testament to the First Amendment. Unfortunately, Elisha Wiesel was not given this courtesy at Penn Station, a public space where the freedom of movement for evening commuters was suspended in favor of the unauthorized rally.
A few blocks south of Penn Station, passersby were accosted by protesters. Alec Baldwin was on his way to teach an acting class, but upon seeing a famous face, they demanded his unconditional support. An outspoken liberal, Baldwin replied, “I support peace in Gaza,” which was not good enough for the crowd.
“You work for Hollywood. Do you condemn Israel?” a protester asked, coming within inches of Baldwin.
“You’ve already made up your mind,” Baldwin replied. “I’m in Hollywood’s pockets, you said? You ask stupid questions. Ask me a smart question! Ask a smart question!” He pushed back the protesters before the police intervened to walk him through the crowd.
It wasn’t clear whether Baldwin recognized the Hollywood reference as anti-Semitic, but he was visibly annoyed with the protesters.
Among those who spoke at Donna Karan’s fundraiser was Ayelet Levy-Shachar, whose daughter Naama Levy, 19, remains in Hamas captivity. A video of her that was circulated shortly after her capture on October 7 showed Levy taken by force from a van by a gunman. Her hands were tied, bloodstains on her pants, and cuts on her ankles. There is widespread speculation that these wounds were the results of abuse and to prevent her escape.
Levy was not among the 110 hostages released during a week-long ceasefire last month. Those who were fortunate to leave Gaza sat in Red Cross vans that slowly drove through hostile crowds chanting for their deaths.
For participants of Donna Karan’s fundraiser, the safest path out of the building was in an NYPD van. Two months of disruptive protests have not resulted in an impact on the city’s public safety policies. The disruption of the Thanksgiving Day Parade and Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree lighting, vandalism costing $75,000 to repair on the facade of the New York Public Library, the burning of a police officer’s hat, and blocking of the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges, have not resulted in any investigation or hearing at the City Council.
Would the sight of an Israeli hostage’s mother in a van surrounded by protesters be the tipping point, or must it come to blows before this city reclaims public spaces from the anti-Israel crowds? It already happened in California on November 5, when Paul Kessler stood in front of a hostile crowd waving the Israeli flag. Struck by a megaphone wielded by a protester, he died the following day.
We fear that those who destroy displays of Judaism and Zionism have no reservations about violence on this side of the ocean. When they chant for globalizing the intifada by “any means necessary,” take them at their word.
By Sergey Kadinsky
