December 9, 2025
BACKGROUND – TALKING POINTS – ACTIONS TO CONSIDER – STORIES MAKING NEWS
Jews are being targeted in the very places they gather to feel safest. Recent attacks at synagogues in Los Angeles, New York and Manchester, England, now join the wave of assaults on Jewish community events worldwide. These premeditated acts of hate illustrate how quickly hostility toward Jews is moving beyond protest into harassment, intimidation, violence – and even murder.
Activists Target Another Synagogue: ‘This is what Jews experience?’
Anti-Israel activists targeted a historic LA synagogue in the Koreatown neighborhood that was hosting a community-safety seminar for Korean Americans – not even an event involving Israeli policies. The program – organized jointly by Jewish, Israeli and Korean partners – ironically focused on sharing safety strategies for responding to anti-Asian hate crimes and rhetoric. Stunned Korean attendees told Jewish participants: “So, this is what you experience?”
Protesters blocked the synagogue’s entrances, pounded on the doors, shouted at attendees and attempted to force their way inside. Several infiltrated the event by registering as participants and then staged coordinated disruptions. The shouting outside made it impossible for participants to hear the speakers.
The activists also intimidated and obstructed parents and children on their way to school at the synagogue and caused a school-wide lockdown for the entire day to protect the children. Eliana Jolkovsky – a Korean-American Jew – described how attendees warned the activists who disrupted the event that “there are children downstairs at the nursery and this is a place of worship – but the protesters didn’t care.”
Outside the synagogue, a man with a baby strapped to his chest and pushing a stroller yelled at participants while recording them. Jolkovsky described how “his toddler was scared and crying. It was really cowardly to hide behind his baby.”
The protesters arrived masked in Palestinian keffiyehs and shouted slurs, including “Zionist pigs” and “baby killers.” Inside the synagogue, an infiltrator smashed a large glass vase, sending shards across the room. The LAPD responded to the illegal rioting by arresting two individuals for battery and vandalism – and deployed patrols to Jewish communities. Mayor Karen Bass condemned the “abhorrent attack, calling attendees antisemitic names and damaging property inside the temple.”
Wilshire Boulevard Temple is the oldest synagogue in LA, with the community’s roots dating back to 1851. The synagogue is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Rising Pattern of Attacks: ‘Americans should be able to peacefully pray’
The LA attack is part of a broader pattern of anti-Israel activists intentionally targeting Jews at their houses of worship. A few weeks ago in NYC, hundreds of protesters shouted threats at Jews outside the Park East Synagogue and declared it was their “duty to make them scared.” Last year in LA, a pro-Hamas mob of more than 200 rioters – many armed with weapons – blocked Jews from entering the Adas Torah Synagogue during a violent confrontation.
Recently, the U.S. Justice Dept. filed a civil complaint against organizers for the violent Nov. 2024 protest at Congregation Ohr Torah in Edison, NJ. The defendants include the communist Party for Socialism and Liberation NJ and American Muslims for Palestine NJ. Activists forced their way past police, physically assaulted worshippers Moshe Glick and David Silberberg and chanted threatening anti-Jewish slogans at worshippers.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi: “No American should be harassed, targeted or discriminated against for peacefully practicing their religion.” Speaking in NY at an American Zionist Movement conference, Israeli President Isaac Herzog affirmed the importance of the right to freedom of religion, stating that “no Jew should be harassed anywhere in the world because of his or her faith.”
In Chicago, anti-Jewish hostility escalated into near-fatal violence in Oct. 2024 when foreign national Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi shot Eitan Bleichman in the back while he walked to his synagogue. Bleichman testified: “Anti-Jewish hate is so blinding. He cowardly attacked a defenseless Jewish person from behind just because he was Jewish, and rather than trying to escape, he came back to fire at me again while I was defenseless on a gurney.” A bullet hit the ambulance and narrowly missed first responders.
The murder of an American Jew and an Israeli Chrisitan outside the Capital Jewish Museum – killed after attending a Jewish community event – and the deadly Boulder, CO, firebombing attack against American Jews earlier this year show how quickly confrontations can escalate beyond disruption into physical violence.
Hatred Around the World: ‘We do not drive Jewish people’
Similar incidents abroad show how hostility toward Jews is spreading beyond political protest and into everyday life. Activists have protested outside British synagogues and a terror attack on the holiest Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in Manchester killed two Jewish worshippers this past October. Synagogue members still do not feel safe.
In Canada, a Toronto Uber driver slammed on the brakes after overhearing her passenger mention a trip to Israel in a conversation with her friend on the phone. The driver ordered Jewish model and former Miss Slovakia Miriam Mattova out of the car, declaring, “We do not drive Jewish people.” Uber took four days to respond to the complaint. In another Canadian case, Jewish seniors in a Toronto apartment building were “shocked” to find their mezuzahs pried off their doorways.
In Italy, anti-Israel activists vandalized a synagogue and memorial plaque with “Free Palestine” graffiti. The plaque honors Stefano Gaj Taché. Palestinian terrorists murdered Stefano, a two-year-old Jewish child, in a 1982 terror attack on the Great Synagogue of Rome. Nearly 20% of Italians see anti-Jewish graffiti as legitimate and 15% consider physical attacks on Jews is “entirely or fairly justifiable.”
In Germany, a driver at a red light heard Stefan Hensel and his young daughter listening to a Hebrew song. The driver called him a “baby killer” and challenged him to a fight. Hensel is Hamburg’s antisemitism commissioner and stated that this “act of impulse could have happened to any Jew.”
Reinforcing community safety supports those affected and encourages responsible leadership:
Stories Impacting American Jews
Stories Impacting the U.S. and Israel
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This content is developed by The Focus Project in partnership with MERCAZ USA. The Focus Project distributes weekly news and talking points on timely issues concerning Israel and the Jewish people, including antisemitism, anti-Zionism and the delegitimization of Israel. It represents a consensus view across a spectrum of major American Jewish organizations. MERCAZ USA recognizes and respects the diversity of views on these issues among its readers and the community at large.