Antisemitism on the Rise and So Is Condemnation of Israeli Actions in Gaza

Recent events in the Gaza strip have deepened local divides regarding Israel and Palestine even as local leaders protest a rise in antisemitism in New York City.

Speakers at a town hall on July 29 called for increased protections for Jewish New Yorkers and labeled anti-Zionism as antisemitism. Just blocks away on the same day, demonstrators condemned US support for Israel at the UN and called for a ceasefire and for food to be allowed into the region.

“It is an antisemitic statement to say we’re colonialist,” Rabbi Michael Miller said at the town hall on the Upper East Side. He attributed such a statement to an unnamed city “mayoral candidate,” likely Zohran Mamdani, who has faced significant criticism from Jewish groups even as some Jewish elected officials such as comptroller Brad Lander have endorsed him.

“If a candidate does not believe that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state, that is an antisemitic statement,” Miller added. This statement won applause at the town hall, called by Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright, who represents the 76th Assembly District on the UES.

The same afternoon, pro-Palestine groups and individuals protested outside UN headquarters. Around 100 individuals, including Jewish New Yorkers and Orthodox Jews, held signs denouncing Zionism and Israel’s withholding of aid from an increasingly starving population in Gaza.

At the time, diplomats from over 125 countries were gathered at the UN. Co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, the conference about a two-state solution in the Middle East produced the “New York Declaration,” which urged a ceasefire in Gaza, recognition of Palestinian statehood, and a UN-backed map to peace.

The US and Israel boycotted the event, with the US calling it “unproductive and ill-timed.” Many signs outside the UN that day read “OPEN THE RAFAH GATES” and “SAUDI $$$Bs FINANCE GENOCIDE IN GAZA.”

A couple dozen NYPD officers were stationed around the demonstration, whose participants marched up and down First Avenue between East 45th and 46th streets.

Seawright’s town hall, titled “Combating Antisemitism: A Community Town Hall for Action,” was held at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House. The town hall, originally planned for 6 to 7:30pm, extended beyond its planned end time. Close to 100 individuals were present, including Seawright, panelists, and attendees.

“It is unacceptable that across our city and state, antisemitism is surging around us,” Seawright said in the July 25 community newsletter calling for the town hall. “In 2024 alone, New York City saw 345 antisemitic hate crimes—more than half of all hate crimes in the city,” she wrote.

New Yorkers could RSVP to the event itself at the Neighborhood House, or join via Zoom. Other interested individuals could also spontaneously attend as long as they recorded their names on paper. Seawright’s husband, Jay Hershenson, who is the communications vice president at Queens College, moderated the conversation. Eight panelists were featured, including from Jewish advocacy groups, like regional director at the Anti-Defamation League Debra Plafker and Brandon Pinsker, American Jewish Committee associate director.

“The virus [of antisemitism] is ancient, the epidemic is today, the antidote is our subject this evening,” Hershenson said while introducing the speakers and the discussion topics. The panel also included students, interns, and other individuals earlier in their careers, such as Lehigh University’s Julia Yablans and Bella Schneider at pro-Israel group Stand With Us. Gary Marcus, the Commanding Officer of the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force was there as was motivational speaker and Holocaust survivor Sami Steigmann. Among all panelists, prominent topics included antisemitism in local politics, antisemitism in education (and, similarly, campus climates regarding Jewish students and protests), and hate speech on social media.

Plafker was a key figure in discussing antisemitism in education, outlining six key steps for districts hoping to keep their schools safe for Jewish students that included proposals for new oversight committees, curricular programming on Israel, and a universally accepted definition of antisemitism. Plafker’s remarks were echoed by her peers in stating that there was a difference between critiquing Israel as a democratic state with its own government policies and critiquing Israel’s right to exist.

The largely supportive attitudes within the town hall were starkly contrasted just blocks away, where dozens of signs read “END ALL US AID TO ISRAEL” and “JEWS SAY LIFT THE SIEGE.”

Two attendees who preferred to remain anonymous sat with Palestinian flags and pins just outside the UN building, chanting with the marching demonstrators. They said that they wanted to support the fight against Israel’s “extermination of Gaza,” with one attendee adding that they had been showing up almost daily for similar demonstrations in the past couple of months.

College campuses have been among the most active sites for pro-Palestine demonstrations in the past two years. At the panel, Schneider and Yablans elaborated on that, with Schneider arguing that universities did not do enough to highlight the difference between hate speech and free speech using time, place, and manner guidelines. Yablans, when asked about Columbia University’s recent settlement with the Trump administration, said that the settlement move was “just the start.” She said that she was frustrated with “watered-down, both-sides statements” from university administrations, and supported many of Plafker’s proposals, such as stronger oversight committees for antisemitism and increased security for Jewish spaces on campuses. Steigmann similarly encouraged true education and speaking out against injustice, stating that many people are “indoctrinated” early and should be caught beforehand, guided to “critical thinking.”

He said that those currently graduating from many college campuses across the country will get their degree and be “well educated,” but that ultimately they will graduate as “well-educated idiots.”

Steigmann also cautioned against comparing the Holocaust, which he survived, to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel; he noted, however, that there were instances in which Hamas was perhaps more cruel than Nazis.

The divisions are not likely to heal on the home front any time soon. Israel in recent days unveiled its plans for a stepped-up military campaign to “take control” of Gaza City, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted was the “best way” to end the war. It was met with massive protests in Israel and was condemned by many UN ambassadors.