An anti-Israel protester shouts “Go back to Auschwitz” outside of a synagogue in Fort Lee, NJ on November 5, 2023. (Source: Youtube screenshot)
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“Go back to Auschwitz, bitch!” This disturbing antisemitic refrain rang out repeatedly at an anti-Israel protest held across the street from a synagogue in Fort Lee, NJ on November 5, 2023. More recently, in March and April 2024, anti-Israel protests outside of synagogues in nearby Teaneck have included protesters explicitly calling for the exclusion of “Zionists” from the community.
These incidents are part of a wave of antisemitic and extreme anti-Zionist activity in northern New Jersey that the ADL Center on Extremism has tracked in the region since early 2023 and in particular after Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack on Israel. This trend continues to impact the local community more than six months later. Northern New Jersey has a significant Jewish population, and recent activities have served to foment tension and fear.
The cities and towns of Teaneck, Englewood, Paterson, Clifton, Montclair, West Orange and South Orange are among those that have seen some of the most concerning antisemitic activity in the region in this period.
These Israel-related antisemitic incidents vary in nature, including physical intimidation, in-person and online harassment, vandalism and antisemitic rhetoric during protests. These incidents have also spanned a number of location types — including synagogues, Jewish and non-Jewish schools, Jewish-owned businesses, city council and school board meetings, public areas and online.
Antisemitism and anti-Israel activism in the region in the immediate aftermath of October 7
Immediately after Hamas’s October 7 attack, individuals targeted synagogues and other Jewish institutions across northern New Jersey with Israel-related antisemitic harassment, both on the ground and virtually. These actions undoubtedly crossed the line from legitimate political criticism of Israel to antisemitism.
For example, on October 7, an individual shouted, “Long live Hamas” at a synagogue in Clifton during Simchat Torah celebrations. On October 11, a Jewish Community Center (JCC) in Teaneck received a phone call from an individual who stated that they wished to donate to Hamas. On October 17, a synagogue in Hoboken received an antisemitic message through their online contact form that read: “Nothing nicer than seeing dead Jews littered on the concert ground like the trash you are. May Christ grant victory to the arabs [sic] to exterminate you Yiddish N-----s from the face of the earth…Die you fucking heeb parasites and may all your children be raped to death.”
Anti-Israel activists also began to organize largescale protests in the region after October 7. In Teaneck, groups of both pro-Israel and anti-Israel demonstrators gathered outside of a Township Council meeting on October 17 at which local officials passed a resolution expressing support for Israel. Some of the anti-Israel protesters harassed Jewish individuals who were leaving the meeting by shouting, “Gas them, you filthy Jews” and, “Go run you dirty Jew bitch, we will get you!” Protestors also blocked and banged on Jewish individuals’ cars as they attempted to leave.
Members of the anti-Zionist group Neturei Karta and other anti-Israel protesters gather outside of the Municipal Court in Englewood, NJ during a City Council meeting on October 24, 2023.
In nearby Englewood, both pro-Israel and anti-Israel demonstrators gathered outside of a City Council meeting on October 24 after the council passed a resolution the previous week condemning Hamas. Among those present on the anti-Israel side were Rabbi Dovid Feldman and other members of Neturei Karta, a radical anti-Zionist Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jewish group based in the greater New York City area.
Protesters burned an Israeli flag and displayed signs with messages such as, “The Zionists ignited the fire both now and in the past.” As Jewish individuals left the meeting, a protester told them, “Sderot [referencing a city in southern Israel that was targeted in the Hamas attack], October the 7, it’s going to happen again, soon.” Five of the anti-Israel protesters were arrested on charges that included rioting, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Inside the meeting, Ricardo “Rick” Whilby — an Englewood resident who has a history of promoting conspiratorial antisemitic content — disrupted the proceedings by shouting profanities at pro-Israel Jewish community members and telling them, “You need to go back to Germany, Europe, Belgium, wherever the fuck you’re from. Fuck outta here! Nobody gave you the land. Nobody! The Jews are in exile. Why do you have a country?”
Continued promotion of Israel-related antisemitism in public areas
Israel-related antisemitic public meeting disruptions continued to be a common occurrence in the region in the subsequent weeks and months.
In West Orange on November 13, 2023 for example, individuals spewed anti-Zionist and antisemitic comments at a Board of Education meeting, heckling a Jewish speaker who shared that he had lost two relatives who had been killed in terror attacks in Israel. The hecklers mockingly interjected, “Just two?” In another instance, on January 16, Rick Whilby returned to the Englewood City Council meeting, saying, “The Zionists are doing exactly what the Nazis did back then.”
In Teaneck, tension in the community increased when, on November 29, students at Teaneck High School staged a walkout to protest Israel’s actions in Gaza. Students marched from the high school to the town’s municipal building, where they gathered outside to listen to speeches. Rabbi Dovid Feldman and Rick Whilby were among the featured speakers.
Student walkout participants and community members gather for an anti-Israel demonstration at the Teaneck Municipal Building in New Jersey on November 29, 2023. (Source: Aristide Economopoulos/Instagram)
Drawing cheers from the crowd of students and community members in attendance, Whilby stated, “It’s not that Palestine will be free from the river to the sea. It will be free from the river to the sea by any means necessary.”
Whilby also suggested that U.S. police brutality and related issues have been imported from Israel: “I want to talk about the Israelization of American police. If you look around you, you see these police officers…Understand that they are here to occupy.”
The student walkout sparked heated debate at subsequent Teaneck Township Council and Board of Education meetings. On December 13, for example, Whilby spoke at a Teaneck Board of Education meeting and used his remarks to reference biblical passages commonly cited by antisemites to denigrate Jewish people: “You are of your father the devil…I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews but are not, but are the Synagogue of Satan.” He also echoed his refrain from the student walkout in November by calling for a free Palestine “from the river to the sea, by any fucking means necessary” and, directing his comments toward the pro-Israel community members gathered in the meeting room, saying, “You guys are wicked!”
Anti-Israel activists have also used nontraditional mediums to promote antisemitism in public areas in the region. For example, the New Jersey-based nonprofits Voice for Humanity Project and Palestinian American Community Center (PACC) have sponsored billboards and digital trucks in recent months that, in many cases, have displayed commentary and imagery that play into classic antisemitic tropes.
A digital billboard truck sponsored by the Voice for Humanity Project displays a conspiratorial antisemitic message about alleged Israeli organ harvesting as part of a car caravan protest in northern New Jersey on December 31, 2023.
These digital billboard truck messages include conspiratorial claims about Israel allegedly “stealing” Palestinian organs — an unfounded conspiracy theory reminiscent of the age-old antisemitic blood libel trope that accuses Jews of murdering non-Jewish children to use their blood to perform religious rituals. Other messages include antisemitic Nazi and Holocaust comparisons, including the message: “Israel is the New Nazi Germany.”
Car caravans are another popular tactic of anti-Israel protesters and regularly feature explicitly antisemitic messages and expressions of support for terrorism. Ongoing weekly car caravans between Paterson and Teaneck, for example, intimidate Jewish community members with their intentionally disruptive routes through both commercial and residential districts and their open support for terrorism.
During car caravans that traversed the two towns on March 31 and April 14, multiple participants wore clothing bearing the image of Abu Obaida, spokesperson for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades — Hamas’s military wing. Car caravan participants have also recorded Jewish residents along the route and shared footage of them on social media without their permission.
Anti-Israel protesters wear sweatshirts featuring an image of Hamas-affiliated Abu Obaida during car caravan demonstrations between Paterson, NJ and Teaneck, NJ on March 31 (left) and April 14 (right), 2024.
Direct targeting of the Jewish community
Many anti-Israel activists claim that their intent is to target and disrupt so-called “Zionist” individuals, organizations, businesses and events, but they fail to recognize or understand how Zionism is intertwined with the Jewish community, and the impact of their actions is undoubtedly antisemitic. As noted above, Jewish individuals, organizations and places of worship have been targeted with anti-Israel harassment and vandalism since the immediate aftermath of October 7, and that activity has continued since then.
The anti-Israel protest in Fort Lee on November 5 had been called in response to a “Rally for Israel” event being held that evening by a coalition of local synagogues that included Young Israel of Fort Lee (which hosted the event), Bet Yosef Sephardic Congregation of Fort Lee, Chabad of Fort Lee, and Congregation Beth Israel of the Palisades. In addition to the “Go back to Auschwitz” comment highlighted above, protesters also shouted, “Go back to Europe!” and chanted the antisemitic Arabic-language slogans “Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews” and “Strike, strike, Tel Aviv” — two chants which celebrate a historic Jewish military defeat and call for further violence against the modern state of Israel, respectively.
Other incidents in November took place on the campus of Ramapo College in Mahwah, where a Jewish student was harassed by an individual who yelled, “Death to Israel!” In Harrington Park, an individual yelled, “Fucking Jews” and urinated on the driveway of a home displaying a pro-Israel sign. Later that month, a synagogue in Closter received a direct message on Facebook that stated, “Fuck u israelll [sic].”
In December, an individual made anti-Israel and anti-Zionist posts on the Facebook page of the Paramus-based Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey. In Montclair, an individual stole an Israeli flag that had been displayed on a Jewish professor’s office at Montclair State University and wrote a note in its place accusing the professor of being a “genocide lover” and stating, “Fuck Zionism and Israel.” Also in December in Maplewood, a vandal spray-painted anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian graffiti on signs on the lawn of a synagogue.
Jewish-owned businesses have been targeted on multiple occasions. In November, a Jewish-owned Teaneck restaurant received harassing phone calls accusing them of “supporting lies in the Middle East” and “putting genocide and apartheid in the food.” The restaurant also received a wave of antisemitic Google reviews claiming customers found blood in the food. Also in November, posters raising awareness about Israeli hostages were torn down from a Judaica store in West Orange.
Similarly, in January, vandals targeted a Teaneck kosher restaurant by covering up the Israeli hostage posters in its windows with signs reading, “Murdered by Israel.” In Tenafly, vandals targeted a Jewish community center — the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades — by defacing a sign in front of the building advertising a February 10 event titled, “Stand-Up for the Arts,” featuring Jewish comedian Michael Rapaport.
On February 27, a wine tasting event in Passaic that was hosted by the Jewish Link and exhibited various Israeli and kosher wineries was targeted by protesters who chanted slogans that included: “Say it loud, say it clear: we don’t want no Zionists here,” “There is only one solution; Intifada, revolution” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
In January and February, a “We Stand with Israel” lawn sign in a Ridgefield Park resident’s yard was repeatedly vandalized, including with red spray paint. In at least one instance, the perpetrator placed multiple baby dolls next to the sign and covered the dolls and the sign in ketchup, seemingly to simulate blood.
The targeting of Jewish institutions further escalated in March and April, when anti-Israel protesters held multiple demonstrations directly outside of synagogues in Teaneck. On March 10, hundreds of anti-Israel protesters gathered outside Teaneck’s Keter Torah synagogue to protest an informational Israeli real estate event. The planned protest had received significant attention in the days leading up to it, after a video went viral online showing Teaneck resident Rich Siegel criticizing the real estate event during a Township Council meeting in late February.
Siegel is a longtime anti-Zionist activist and self-described “ex-Jew” whose activities include frequently demonizing Judaism and Jewish people, calling for anti-Zionist protesters to increase their efforts to target synagogues, and maintaining relationships with Holocaust deniers and other notable antisemites like Gilad Atzmon and Henry Herskovitz. Siegel’s remarks at the February council meeting drew international attention and sparked allegations that Keter Torah and the town of Teaneck were potentially violating domestic and international laws by allowing the real estate event to take place.
Anti-Israel protesters march through Teaneck, NJ on their way to Keter Torah synagogue on March 10, 2024.
To protest the event, anti-Israel activists met in town and marched through a largely Jewish residential neighborhood before arriving in front of the synagogue, where they continued to chant and hold signs that included extreme anti-Zionist rhetoric and support for terror. Protesters called for the exclusion of Zionists, chanting, “Say it loud, say it clear: we don’t want no Zionists here” and holding signs with messages that included, “Zionist greed will never be satisfied” and “Zionism = terrorism.”
Protesters also displayed a photograph of Leila Khaled, a longtime active leader of the US-designated terror group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who is known for her role in the terrorist hijacking of two civilian airliners in 1969 and 1970.
On April 1, another large anti-Israel protest took place in Teaneck outside Congregation Bnai Yeshurun. The synagogue was hosting an event in recognition of ZAKA, an Israeli organization of volunteer emergency rescue workers who were involved in recovering, cleaning and identifying the bodies of those killed in the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack.
The anti-Israel protesters repeatedly shared antisemitic and extreme anti-Zionist rhetoric, including chanting, “Go back to Europe!” at Jewish individuals. Protesters held signs with messages that included such statements as, “Zionist: are the prophet killers; Zionist: are the (real) terrorists in this world; Zionist: should be destroy [sic]!”
Multiple known antisemitic and anti-Zionist agitators were present, including Rick Whilby, Rich Siegel, and Nerdeen Kiswani, the leader of the New York-based anti-Zionist group Within Our Lifetime-United for Palestine (WOL).
Whilby used an anti-LGBTQ+ slur and shouted at pro-Israel individuals that they were “fucking Nazis” and “dog food,” while Kiswani wore a button bearing an image of Abu Obaida. Protesters also displayed a banner bearing the name and image of Ahmad Sa’adat, the imprisoned Secretary General of the PFLP.
Anti-Zionist activist and organizer Nerdeen Kiswani wearing a button depicting Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson Abu Obaida at a protest outside Congregation Bnai Yeshurun in Teaneck, NJ on April 1, 2024.
ADL continues to track incidents in the region. Visit the ADL H.E.A.T. Map (Hate, Extremism, Antisemitism, Terrorism) for more information.