![\"\u05db\u05ea\u05d5\u05d1\u05ea](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/H111DhAM4Zg_0_0_1920_1080_0_x-large.jpg\" "\\"Swastikas")
<\/a><\/p>\nSwastikas and ‘Jew rat’ graffiti in Ireland <\/p>\n
(Photo: from X)<\/p>\n
And it is indeed horrifying. It is horrifying because Jews around the world feel unsafe in their own homes and communities.<\/p>\n
It does not matter that, as the Forward later reported in an investigation, the man had previously expressed support for Israel and opposed the religious movement with which the synagogue is affiliated. A single antisemitic slur is enough to make clear what his views of Jews really are.<\/p>\n
Nor does it matter that he was ultimately removed from the synagogue. Jews in the Diaspora feel unsafe, and that is something Israel, as a country that is supposed to care for the Jewish people as a whole, cannot simply ignore.<\/p>\n
But that was not the only act of violence against a synagogue last weekend.<\/p>\n
In another city \u2014 one whose name means \u201cpeace\u201d and which is ostensibly meant to represent Jewish pluralism in all its glory \u2014 Kehilat Kol HaNeshama synagogue in Jerusalem was also attacked. The vibrant congregation was targeted over the weekend when teenagers broke one of its windows, climbed inside, tore down a Pride flag and damaged a work of art.<\/p>\n
The question, then, is what connects these two incidents?<\/p>\n
On the surface, there is one obvious connection: violent hatred directed at Jewish religious life, culminating in vandalism and harm to others. But there are other connections as well.<\/p>\n
First is the motive. Alongside the clear antisemitism in the New York attack, footage from Manhattan shows the assailant \u2014 apparently an evangelical Christian, based on content he had posted \u2014 calling those inside the synagogue \u201cfake Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\u05e2\u05d5\u05e4\u05e8](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/BkO2Q50q3_164_470_337_449_0_medium.jpg\" "\\"Ofer")
Ofer Chizik<\/p>\n
In other words, the violence was also rooted in hostility toward Reform Jews. That, of course, also appears to have been the backdrop to the attack in Jerusalem. Yes, it seems that hatred of liberal Judaism can run so deep that it leads even Christians to violence.<\/p>\n
And that brings us to another connection: The attack on Kehilat Kol HaNeshama in Jerusalem \u2014 which you probably did not hear about at all \u2014 and the attack on Central Synagogue in Manhattan \u2014 which, regrettably, you probably heard little about as well \u2014 are part of the same struggle.<\/p>\n
It is a struggle over liberalism. A struggle over freedom of thought and belief. A struggle over the right to be Jews who believe in the commandment, \u201cLove your neighbor as yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
When someone enters a synagogue and attacks innocent worshippers because of their beliefs and Judaism, or breaks into a synagogue and smashes, damages and destroys liberal symbols inside, it is all part of the same picture.<\/p>\n
The bright spot is that the Jewish people truly are not afraid of a long road.<\/p>\n
For roughly 200 years \u2014 perhaps more, perhaps less, depending on where one begins counting \u2014 Jews have chosen to express their Jewish identity outside the conservative path prescribed by a closed religious establishment. Some do so through the Reform movement. Others choose entirely secular lives.<\/p>\n
What matters is that we constitute the majority of the Jewish world, an eternal flame that will not stop burning \u2014 and violence will not succeed in extinguishing our light.<\/p>\n
Ofer Chizik is a journalist with Yedioth Ahronoth and a rabbinical student at Kehilat Halev, part of the Daniel Centers for Progressive Judaism in Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We are all horrified \u2014 rightly so \u2014 when antisemitic incidents occur abroad. The hatred directed at Jews…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-327970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}