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Despite unrest in Indonesia, a Jewish community finds peace among other faith groups
TAIPEI, Taiwan (JTA) — Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s retaliatory war in Gaza, massive pro-Palestinian demonstrations have taken place in Jakarta and other Indonesian cities.
They have startled Jews like Maryam, who asked to be identified by only her first name to maintain safety and privacy. She said she has heard shouts of “death to Jews” ringing out in the streets.
“Since the war [in] Israel and Gaza, we are really hiding ourselves because there is a big demonstration almost every day,” Maryam, who is in her 70s and lives in Jakarta, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “At Hanukkah, I used to put the menorah in the window. But now I cannot, I have to put it inside.”
Maryam is one of a tiny but unknown total number of practicing Jews in Indonesia, a Muslim-majority country that does not have diplomatic relations with Israel. Besides her small community in Jakarta, where 10 to 20 Jews meet at her house every Shabbat, 50 people from several Indonesian regions gather online regularly for services by Rabbi Benjamin Meijer Verbrugge. Another 30 to 50 Jews attend Rabbi Yaakov Baruch’s congregation in the province of North Sulawesi, a chain of islands northeast of Java.
Today, Baruch’s synagogue, Shaar Hashamayim in the city of Tondano, is the only brick-and-mortar one left standing in Indonesia, which is thought to have been home to about 2,500 Jews in the 1930s.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began, the protests have also frightened Baruch, but he has leaned on his strong relationships with other faith communities in his Christian-majority region to create what he sees as an umbrella of peace. Christians in the area have offered support to his community and a police officer has begun guarding the synagogue during prayer services.
“When I saw what happened in Jakarta and other cities, I felt like I’m not sure that we will still have a good relationship [with other religious communities] after this,” he said. “So I started to contact a lot of religious leaders, talking about positive things, talking about what projects we can do in the future to keep our relations strong.”
Baruch looks at posters with the names and images of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas. (Courtesy of Baruch)
Baruch hung posters of the Israeli hostages on the walls of the synagogue “so the Jews and non-Jews can come to pray there for the safety of all the hostages,” he said. “I brought interfaith Muslim and Christian leaders to pray for the safety of the Israeli and Palestinian people, not Hamas. I just want to show them that we have empathy.”
“When I do interfaith prayer, it’s not only Christian and Muslim leaders, but also Buddhist leaders, Anglicans,” he said. “They’re always asking about me, asking, ‘What are you doing? Are you safe?’”
It’s an example of solidarity in the midst of a conflict that has scared many Jews around the world, including in Indonesia, into hiding.
Across the globe, Jews have expressed what they call an almost unparalleled fear as antisemitic incidents — from vandalism of Jewish sites to shootings, bomb scares and violent attacks — have skyrocketed. Recent antisemitism statistics are not available, but a Pew survey from 2010 found that 74 percent of Indonesians had unfavorable opinions about Jews.
Indonesia has no formal ties with the state of Israel, but it has long called for a two-state solution and maintains some trade, tourism and security links. The country has recognized a Palestinian state since 1988 and has maintained close relations with Palestinian organizations since 1945, when Palestinian leaders expressed support for an independent Indonesia and encouraged other Arab states’ support through the Arab League.
Since the start of the war, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has repeatedly condemned the violence in Gaza and has urged parties to “stop the escalation, to stop the use of violence, to focus on humanitarian issues, and to solve the root of the problem, namely the Israeli occupation of Palestine.” Outside of politics, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), the country’s top Islamic clerical body, on Nov. 13 issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, mandating that Muslims support the Palestinians’ fight for independence and forbidding support for Israeli “aggression.” The fatwa recommended that Muslims avoid buying any products affiliated with Israel.
Last week, Israeli forces closed in on Indonesia Hospital — reportedly the only hospital still operating in northern Gaza — where health authorities said 12 people were killed in an Israeli strike on Nov. 20. The hospital, opened in 2016, was built with Indonesian funds and is staffed by Palestinians as well as some Indonesian volunteers.
Israel has accused Hamas of hiding its network of command centers and tunnels beneath hospitals in Gaza, including under the Indonesian Hospital, claiming that Hamas “systematically built the Indonesian Hospital to disguise its underground terror infrastructure.” Indonesia’s foreign ministry has denied those accusations, stating that the hospital in Gaza is used “entirely for humanitarian purposes and to serve the medical needs of the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
Indonesia’s foreign ministry strongly condemned Israel’s attack, calling it a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law.”
Thousands of people spread a giant Palestinian flag as they gather in a rally in Jakarta, Nov. 5, 2023. (Azwar Ipank/AFP via Getty Images)
Indonesia’s first Jewish communities date back to the 19th century, when Ashkenazi and Baghdadi Jews immigrated in search of economic opportunities offered through the Dutch colonization of the East Indies. The community peaked at an estimated 2,500 across Java and Sumatra before World War II.
Hostilities toward Jews began to rise after the war, during the founding of a modern independent Indonesia beginning in 1945 and especially after the founding of Israel in 1948. Many Jews subsequently left for Australia, Israel and the United States.
Those Jews who remain in Indonesia today are mostly descendants of those colonists, and many hide their Jewish identity in public or have given it up entirely. Meijer Verbrugge, a native Indonesian and coffee trader, has said that many local Muslims see Indonesian Jews as the offspring of colonial occupiers.
A congregation made up partially of those descendants as well as new Jewish converts across eight areas in Indonesia, led by Meijer Verbrugge, has been growing in recent years. He estimates a total membership of 180 people across eight regions.
In 2015, he said a Christian group beat the cantor at a home synagogue in Ambon, a small island in central Indonesia. But he said local authorities stepped in and began helping the community continue their services safely. Similar support has been offered to his communities since Oct. 7.
“We are very proud of our police department and military who protect our country, and even the police department have regular visits to my place to have talks. They are ready to protect us,” he said.
Meijer Verbrugge has been advocating for national recognition of the Jewish religion for nearly a decade. But Judaism is not one of Indonesia’s six recognized religions today — Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism. Although Jewish religious practice is permitted, this has meant that Baruch, Maryam and other members of the Jewish community have been forced to identify as one of those six religions on their official identity cards. Most choose Christianity.
“It’s not nice, but when Indonesia had their independence [in 1945], my grandmother said we are not leaving because we have a chance here. And she is right,” said Maryam. “But we have to change our religion [on official documents]. So we chose Christian because Jesus is a Jew, that’s what she said. And we went to a Catholic school after that.”
“We cannot use our wedding certificate, ketubah, to have a ceremony in Indonesia,” said Meijer Verbrugge. “We are supposed to use any other recognized religion’s wedding certificate. This is not fair.”
In 2009, a synagogue in Surabaya faced protests after it was designated by the Department of City Culture and Tourism as a cultural landmark. Groups demanded its closure several times until 2013, when the synagogue and its adjoining cemetery were destroyed for unknown reasons by landowners. Today, a high-rise hotel stands in its place.
In 2022, Baruch’s North Sulawesi synagogue was targeted by Muslim groups when he set up a small Holocaust exhibit there. Groups protesting the exhibition, including the MUI, pointed to the exhibition’s ties to Yad Vashem and saw it as part of Israel’s attempts to normalize relations with Indonesia and the occupation of Palestinian territories.
“Indonesians do not always distinguish between Jews and Israelis,” Mun’im Sirry, a professor of world religions at the University of Notre Dame, told JTA in 2022. “They also do not distinguish between the foreign policy of the state and the people of Israel. And that is a problem.”
Baruch told JTA that the issue of the Holocaust exhibition has since been resolved through dialogue with opposing parties. He has since adapted it into a permanent museum with the help of donations of artifacts via connections in Europe.
Maryam is less optimistic about the situation in Indonesia compared to Baruch. She describes connections with other religious organizations as a tax that Jews must pay in exchange for safety. Her own community donates money to local Muslim organizations “for our security,” she said.
“We in the Diaspora, we have no choice. You must trust Hashem,” she said, using a Hebrew term for God. “We have nobody. Who else? Hashem must protect us.”
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The post Despite unrest in Indonesia, a Jewish community finds peace among other faith groups appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.