{"id":370710,"date":"2026-10-12T02:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T02:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/370710\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T02:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T02:10:07","slug":"nyc-teacher-disrupts-vigil-for-victims-of-october-7-hamas-massacre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/370710\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC teacher disrupts vigil for victims of October 7 Hamas massacre"},"content":{"rendered":"

A New York City public school teacher crashed a Manhattan vigil <\/a>last week honoring victims of the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, alongside other protesters who cheered on Hamas and chanted violent messages such as \u201cglobalize the intifada,\u201d The Post has learned.<\/p>\n

Mia Kurzer, a special education teacher at The Heritage School <\/a>in East Harlem, was among the protesters videotaped at the event in Union Square, where some carried flags of terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, according to a complaint filed with the Department of Education and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels.<\/p>\n

Mia Kurzer, a special education teacher at The Heritage School in East Harlem, disrupts a vigil for victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre. The Heritage School NYC<\/p>\n

A Jewish activist and educator who filed the complaint is demanding Kurzer be investigated for creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and faculty at her school.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast night, pro-Palestinian demonstrators overran an October 7 vigil in Union Square organized by Israelis for Peace, drowned out the reading of the names of people killed, and took over chairs<\/a> reserved for participants, including Comptroller Brad Lander and Mayor Zohran Mamdani,\u201d Moshe Spern wrote in his formal Oct. 8 complaint.<\/p>\n

\u201cVideo from the event shows Ms. Kurzer among those occupying those seats while mourners were being shouted down. Chants reported at the scene included \u2018[globalize] the intifada\u2019 and praise for the attackers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spern said he had video evidence that the teacher was at the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was comfortable sitting among the Hamas flags and Hamas chants,\u201d he told The Post Sunday.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, Kurzer came to school wearing a keffiyeh, Spern\u2019s complaint alleged.<\/p>\n

Counterprotesters supporting the Palestinian people demonstrate during a candlelight vigil for the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. Gregory P. Mango for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cThat choice made staff and students uncomfortable and signaled political activism inside a New York City public school,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Spern also complained that the Department of Education ignored a prior complaint he made about Kurzer attending protests outside the Park East Synagogue<\/a> in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

\u201cA year ago I notified you that Ms. Kurzer participated in both protests outside Park East Synagogue on November 19, 2025, and May 2026, at which demonstrators chanted \u2018intifada revolution,\u2019 \u2018globalize the intifada,\u2019 and \u2018death to the IDF,\u2019 and Jewish congregants were obstructed from entering their house of worship,\u201d Spern told the chancellor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose demonstrations were widely condemned, including by Governor Hochul, as intimidation of Jewish New Yorkers at a synagogue led by a Holocaust survivor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jewish educator argued that the sum of Kurzer\u2019s actions shows a pattern of hostility towards Israel and Jews. <\/p>\n

Mayor Mamdani attends a candlelight vigil for the victims of October 7, 2023, in Union Square in New York on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. Gregory P. Mango for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cTaken together, the synagogue protests at which intifada was chanted, an unanswered OEO [ Office of Equal Opportunity & Diversity Management] referral, disruption of an October 7 vigil, and wearing a keffiyeh in school on 10\/7, this is not an isolated incident,\u201d he wrote in the document. \u201cIt is a continuing course of conduct by a DOE employee that creates a hostile environment for Jewish students and staff and is incompatible with the Department\u2019s obligations under Chancellor\u2019s Regulation A-830, A-421, and Title VI.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spern demanded an investigation be conducted by the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity Management or a referral made to the Special Commissioner on Schools Investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cJewish students and staff are entitled to a school that does not employ someone who joins mobs outside synagogues and then marks October 7 with a political symbol in the building,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The teacher\u2019s anti-Israel protest work dates back to her college years.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Kurzer was interviewed by CNN <\/a>about her participation in anti-Israel protests at the University of Wisconsin, where she was a student at the time. She said she was Jewish and attended Hebrew school as a child, but critics slammed her as \u201cnot a real Jew\u201d for partaking in the protests.<\/p>\n

Kurzer, reached by phone, had no comment.<\/p>\n

Last week, The Post reported on another teacher, Damien Neva, who brazenly posted<\/a>, \u201cLong live Yahya al-Sinwar\u2019\u2019 \u2014 praising the Hamas leader who was the architect of the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre \u2014 in a group chat, according to a lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Neva is now under investigation by city education officials. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New York City public school teacher crashed a Manhattan vigil last week honoring victims of the Oct.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3862,4337,68,60,61,57,9,24,55,54,56,209,6915,58],"class_list":["post-370710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-antisemitism","tag-department-of-education","tag-exclusive","tag-israel","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-public-schools","tag-schools-chancellor","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370710","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=370710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}