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New York Jews, grappling with surging antisemitism, are bolstered by massive pro-Israel rally
(New York Jewish Week) — Congregants lined up in the morning cold outside the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in the Upper West Side as the dawn broke Tuesday. Many of them held signs in support of Israel as well as supplies for the long day ahead as they boarded a large tour bus headed for Washington, D.C..
“This is an important act of unity and solidarity,” Rabbi Dalia Samansky told the passengers as the bus slowly made its way toward the March for Israel rally at the National Mall, as tens of thousands of other Jews from around the country headed toward the event. The Reform synagogue’s cantor, Daniel Singer, then played a rendition of “Tefilat haderech,” or “A prayer for the road,” on an acoustic guitar.
The congregants said they were inspired to make the long, trafficky trip to the rally to support the hostages held by Hamas, publicly back Israel, and take a stand against antisemitism as anti-Jewish discrimination surges in New York and elsewhere amid the fallout from the war. After event organizers announced a historic turnout of nearly 300,000 people at the rally, the participants said the event had bolstered their spirits and made a powerful statement in support of Jewish solidarity and Israel’s cause.
The group of marchers from Stephen Wise included synagogue members, some of their friends and family, and others who occasionally attend services. The contingent ranged in age from high schoolers to the elderly, and included several family groups. The synagogue’s chief rabbi, Ammiel Hirsch, is in Israel on a trip.
“I’m joining because I see the scary rise of antisemitism and I’ve been talking to people, and it’s just heartbreaking,” said Maxine Albert, a Manhattanite who sometimes attends services at the synagogue. “People are telling me that they’re not wearing anything that identifies them as Jewish.”
“It scares me and I want to stand up,” she added.
Samansky said the rally came as many congregants felt increasing pressure over their support for Israel, as many activists clamor for Israel to accept a ceasefire with Hamas and the memory of the terror group’s Oct. 7 atrocities fade from the public discourse. Many of the congregants also felt isolated and abandoned by their former allies on the left due to the lack of a condemnation for antisemitism, Samansky added.
“A lot of our congregants are really struggling with their own place in the world, their own place in the social justice world that they have believed and been a part of for so long, while also dealing with their fear of being Jewish right now,” she said. “More and more congregants are saying, ‘Should I wear my star? Should I have my mezuzah be so prominent?’”
“It’s so important to be at this [rally] to say we have a right to be Jewish, we have a right to be proud to be Jewish, we have a right to support Israel, and Israel has a right to be proud and to defend itself,” she said.
Several congregants said that the defaced and ripped up hostage posters around New York City were a reminder of the hostility around them, and some compared the tense atmosphere in the city to the rising antisemitism in prewar Europe. A number of attendees also cited the hostile atmosphere on college campuses as a worrying harbinger for the future.
“When I was growing up, it was [shortly] after the Holocaust, so antisemitism wasn’t considered to be mainstream. It had to be hidden,” said Joyce Goldwyn-Spencer. Now, she said, “so much time has passed and they have the excuse of using Israel, blaming Israel.”
“I think there is a sense of awakening,” said congregant Debra Warren, saying some U.S. Jews had become aware of “the Jew hatred that’s probably been simmering under the surface that’s now bubbled above the surface.”
The congregants firmly backed Israel’s need to defeat Hamas while mourning the Palestinian victims, and blamed much of the toxic discourse surrounding the conflict on a lack of nuance in the conversation and poor understanding of the complex issues at play in the region.
After the five-hour drive, the synagogue’s bus pulled into a parking lot at FedEx Field in North Englewood, Maryland, some nine miles east of the National Mall. The congregants spilled onto the asphalt to join throngs of other Jews and allies; the Stephen Wise group mostly broke apart as they mixed in with the thousands who made their way to the rally via shuttle, subway, taxi and on foot.
The masses in attendance at the rally included secular Jews and non-Jews, Haredim, school groups in matching shirts and Israelis navigating the crowds in Hebrew. Youths from the Chabad movement manned a tent, putting tefillin on passersby and handing out yellow balloons to high schoolers as young men wearing kippot danced in a circle nearby. Many in the crowd, framed on the lawn between the White House and the Washington Monument, carried U.S. and Israeli flags and photos of hostages. The crowd fell silent as families of the captives spoke, with some in the audience breaking into tears.
The crowd size — likely the largest Jewish gathering in U.S. history — was a powerful message for the congregation. “That’s what we needed, to make it really significant and historic,” Goldwyn-Spencer said.
Several congregants also said the support from public officials and non-Jews inspired confidence.
“It was exciting and beautiful to see Jews coming together,” Warren said, adding that the wide range of groups at the rally was affirming. “I think the hardest part has been the sense of feeling alone. As Jews, we have each other.”
“I never thought that we would need to do this but the time is now so I’m glad to be there,” said congregant Michael Sherman, adding that he was cheered by “Jews putting arms around each other, helping each other — secular, Orthodox.”
On the way back to the parking lot, young Israelis and Haredim alighted on the subway together as a group of high schoolers sang. The Stephen Wise delegation boarded the bus back to New York, and the cantor, Singer, played “Oseh Shalom” as two teenagers passed out bags of chocolate chip cookies to the weary congregants.
“This isn’t 1939. We’re not going to stay silent in the face of antisemitism. We are going to stand up, we are going to protect ourselves and be proud of who we are,” Samansky said. “We’re determined to continue speaking out and being present and reminding the world that we are here and we have the right to be here.”
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Conservative Pro-Israel Advocate Charlie Kirk Assassinated at University Event in Utah
Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist credited with amassing youth support for the Republican Party, speaking at the inauguration of Donald Trump in January. Photo: Brian Snyder via Reuters Connect
Conservative activist and staunch pro-Israel advocate Charlie Kirk died on Wednesday after being shot during an event at Utah Valley University, according to a statement by US President Donald Trump posted to the Truth Social media platform. He was 31 years old.
“The great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” Trump wrote. “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family.”
He added, “Charlie we love you!”
Kirk — founder of the Turning Point USA nonprofit, which is credited for drawing masses of young people, typically a reliable voting bloc for Democrats, to the Republican Party — was answering audience questions when a gunman fired off the fatal shot which impacted his neck, causing him to become limp and bleed profusely.
Since the advent of his career, Kirk has been a faithful supporter of Israel, taking on activists of both the far left and far right who promoted rising antisemitism and sought to undermine the US-Israel alliance.
“There’s a dark Jew hate out there, and see it, and I see it,” Kirk told a student during a podcast episode which aired earlier this year. “Don’t get yourself involved in that. I’m telling you it will rot your brain. It’s bad for your soul. It’s bad. It’s evil. I think it’s demonic.”
Born on Oct. 14, 1993, in Arlington Heights, Illinois, Kirk formally entered the political arena in 2012, five months before the reelection of former President Barack Obama, to found Turning Point USA (TPUSA) — which served as a bellwether of declining youth support for the progressive consensus on race, free speech, and economics that took hold in American college campuses in the 1960s.
TPUSA grew rapidly, challenging campus primacy of the College Republicans organization and exuding confidence in conservative ideas at a moment when political scientists and other experts speculated that the Republican Party would decline to the point that the Democratic Party would achieve long-standing majorities in local and federal government.
Following news of Kirk’s death, the Jewish community deluged social media with tributes to Kirk and prayers for his family and friends.
“Please stop what you’re doing and pray for our friend Charlie Kirk. Many in the Jewish community are reciting chapters from the Book of Psalms, and I ask you do the same,” Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Jewish civil rights advocate, tweeted. “Something is deeply broken in America. The political violence must END. GOD HELP AMERICA.”
“We have no words,” StopAntisemitism, a Jewish civil rights advocacy group, tweeted.
Meanwhile, Jewish conservative influencer Emily Austin said, “With deep pain and sorrow, we mourn the passing of Charlie Kirk. May he rest in peace, and may God welcome him into His eternal care. This is a profound loss for the world — Charlie was a truly blessed soul whose impact will never be forgotten.”
Kirk is survived by his wife, Erika, and his two young children.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Lebanon’s Army to Disarm Hezbollah Near Israeli Border Within 3 Months in First Step to Restore State Control
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, and members of the cabinet stand as they attend a cabinet session to discuss the army’s plan to disarm Hezbollah, at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, Lebanon, Sept. 5, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Lebanon’s army plans to fully disarm Hezbollah near the Israeli border within three months, the first step in the Lebanese government’s plan to restore authority and curb the influence of the Iran-backed terror group within the country.
On Tuesday, Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi confirmed to AFP that the government received a five-stage plan last week from the military to enforce a policy placing all weapons under state control.
The move follows Lebanese authorities’ approval last month of a US-backed initiative to disarm Hezbollah in exchange for a halt to Israeli military operations in the country’s south.
Amid mounting international pressure to disarm the terrorist group, Lebanon’s cabinet tasked the army with developing a strategy to establish a state monopoly on arms.
For years, Israel has demanded that Hezbollah be barred from carrying out activities south of the Litani, located roughly 15 miles from the Israeli border.
However, Hezbollah has pushed back against any government efforts, insisting that negotiations to dismantle its arsenal would be a serious misstep while Israel continues airstrikes in the country’s south.
The terrorist group has even threatened protests and civil unrest if the government tries to enforce control over its weapons.
But as Hezbollah emerged weakened from a yearlong conflict with Israel, calls for the Islamist group’s disarmament have gained new momentum, reshaping a power balance it had long controlled in Lebanon.
Last fall, Israel decimated Hezbollah’s leadership and military capabilities with an air and ground offensive, following the group’s attacks on Jerusalem — which they claimed were a show of solidarity with the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas amid the war in Gaza.
In November, Lebanon and Israel reached a US-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended a year of fighting between the Jewish state and Hezbollah.
Under the agreement, Israel was given 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon, allowing the Lebanese army and UN forces to take over security as Hezbollah disarms and moves away from Israel’s northern border.
However, Israel maintained troops at several posts in southern Lebanon beyond the ceasefire deadline, as its leaders aimed to reassure northern residents that it was safe to return home.
Jerusalem has continued carrying out strikes targeting remaining Hezbollah activity, with Israeli leaders accusing the group of maintaining combat infrastructure, including rocket launchers — calling this “blatant violations of understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
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Israeli Military Expert: Doha Strike Was Backed by US and Qatar Coup, Will Bring Hostage Deal Closer
A damaged building, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders, according to an Israeli official, in Doha, Qatar, Sept. 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
Israel’s unprecedented strike on Hamas leaders in Doha this week was not a rogue act of military aggression, but rather the outcome of quiet coordination between Qatar and the US that could bring a hostage deal closer, Israeli intelligence expert Eyal Pinko said on Wednesday.
The strike, which officials have said was planned months ago, came a day after 10 Israelis were killed by Hamas in Gaza and Jerusalem. Four were soldiers who died in an attack on an Israeli tank in northern Gaza. The separate shooting attack in Jerusalem, in which six Israelis were killed and several more wounded, was the “straw that broke the camel’s back,” Pinko, a national security expert who served in Israeli intelligence for more than three decades, said in a press briefing.
Pinko contended that while Qatar publicly condemned the attacks, it also enabled them. “I am sure they were involved and the attack was coordinated with the [Qataris],” Pinko later told The Algemeiner.
The most recent round of negotiations to secure a Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal were nothing more than a “deception” by the US and Israel designed to gather Hamas leaders in one place “in order to set the timing to eliminate them,” he said.
Pinko said the strike should also be seen in light of US President Donald Trump’s impatience with the stalled hostage talks, arguing it showed Trump was on board with assassinations of Hamas leaders despite public declarations that he was “very unhappy” with the attack. He also pointed to Trump’s comments from last month, in which the US president predicted the Gaza conflict would reach a “conclusive ending” within two or three weeks.
Qatar, which has long hosted Hamas’s exiled leadership, benefits strategically from replacing the terrorist group’s leaders loyal to Iran with figures it can trust, Pinko maintained. Doha holds billions of dollars belonging to Hamas officials and has no interest in letting Ankara or Tehran displace it as the group’s patron. The timing of the attack is also significant, Pinko said, coming in the wake of Israel’s strikes against Iran’s nuclear program over the summer. “Iran is in a very bad situation. Qatar can easily overcome Iran,” he said.
Pinko further argued that the strike may serve to bring forward the release of the Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza since Hamas itself was no longer a coherent negotiating partner. The terrorist group operating in Gaza had become fragmented, “divided into five families that are fighting each other” and sometimes giving the impression that “they hate each other more than they hate Israel,” Pinko said. Recent talks proved “there was no longer a decisionmaker in Hamas,” and this disarray had allowed Hamas leaders to drag out the process with unrealistic demands. Removing those figures, he argued, would leave room for Qatar to install leaders who could cut a deal. “This will make the negotiation process much faster,” he said.
Pinko’s assessment stands in stark contrast to the fears of some of the families of the remaining 48 hostages held in Gaza, who said in a statement they had “grave fear” the Doha strike could sabotage the chances of bringing their loved ones home.
He placed the operation in a wider context, linking it to the revival of the Abraham Accords and US efforts to build a trade corridor from India through the Gulf to Israel and Europe as a counterweight to China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative, ending with Gaza as a key trade hub. “Trump is very serious in making the northern part of the Gaza Strip as [having] US autonomy. That will be the end of the American belt and road initiative to compete with the Chinese,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday called on Qatar, which “gives safe haven [and] harbors terrorists,” to expel them or bring them to justice, adding that if they don’t, “we will.”
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, for his part said his country would retaliate over the strike, and accused Netanyahu of “wasting” Qatar’s time in negotiations and “leading the Middle East to chaos.”
Pinko called out Doha for its “duplicity” in pretending to be a peacemaker on the one hand, while “fueling Hamas and hatred” in the US and Europe, on the other.
“They are against Israel in their DNA. They don’t want Israel to exist,” he said. “So Gaza and Hamas are a very important asset for them.”
Some critics have denounced the Doha strike as a violation of international law, but international law experts note that Article 51 of the UN Charter recognizes a state’s inherent right to self-defense and that this right is not confined by geography if attacks are directed from outside its borders. The so-called “unwilling or unable” doctrine holds that if a host country does not act against militants on its soil, the victim state may use proportionate force.
The US relied on this doctrine when it killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in a 2011 operation that was widely hailed by Western governments and the UN, whose then secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said at the time that he was “very much relieved by news that justice has been done” and called it “a watershed moment in our common global fight against terrorism.”