The shaken Holocaust-survivor rabbi of the historic city synagogue targeted by a menacing anti-Israel protest this week says he’s worried what could have happened to the Jews there without the police.
“I’m a Holocaust survivor. I saw my synagogue burn on Kristallnacht with the police standing by and not intervening,” Rabbi Arthur Schneier of the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan told The Post, referencing the Nazis burning more than 1,000 synagogues and businesses during an antisemitic riot in 1938.
“Thank God in the United States, the police are protecting us against the hate mongers,” Schneier said.
Schneier decried the Wednesday night hate-fueled protest in which about 200 demonstrators chanted, “Globalize the intifada!” and “Death to the IDF!” at attendees of an event by an organization that helps Jews immigrate to Israel.
Authorities needed to set up barricades to keep the anti-Israel agitators and counter-protesters away from each other.
Schneier stressed the violent scene should serve as a “warning not to be silent.
“No house of worship should be subjected to this type of demonstration,” the religious leader said.
Pal-Awda NY/NJ, the anti-Israel activist group leading the protest, said it was demonstrating against an effort to “recruit American settlers to illegally occupy stolen Palestinian land.”
The Jewish organization that held the event at the synagogue, Nefesh B’nefesh, promotes immigration from North America to the Jewish state but doesn’t have official links to settlements in the West Bank, Haaretz reported.
Lawmakers across the metro region condemned the protest, including Democratic US Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“I condemn the hateful and antisemitic slogans chanted in the protests outside Park East Synagogue last night,” he said in a statement to The Post.
“As I’ve long said, we must condemn these actions whenever and wherever it occurs. Intimidation outside houses of worship and hate like this must have no places in America.”
Schneier said he was “very, very touched” by the outpouring of support, including from Gov. Kathy Hochul and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, for the Jewish community.
“I’m touched by the solidarity of good people outraged by what has taken place. And also, by the way, I’ve received calls from clergy from many denominations,” he said.
“Because to attack a house of worship or try to disrupt services, whether it’s a synagogue or church or mosque, is like trying to hit the jugular vein of a faith community.”
The synagogue has served Big Apple Jews since 1890.
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