Hiding Behind ‘As a Jew’ Will Not Save You

On Friday evening, August 14, 2026, a man disrupted Shabbat services at Central Synagogue in Manhattan. Police said he struck a 63-year-old congregant, leaving her with a cut lip and an injury to her forearm. He spat at and headbutted a 65-year-old member of the security team and damaged synagogue property while being removed from the building.

An NYPD sergeant assigned to the synagogue arrested Larry Montes, 46, at the scene. Montes was charged with two counts of assault as a hate crime, criminal mischief as a hate crime, disrupting a religious service, and other offenses. The congregation returned for services the following morning under increased police protection. No one suffered serious physical injuries.

Only four days earlier, on August 10, I had published an article titled The “Good Jew” Will Not Be Spared. I wrote about Jews who seek safety by separating themselves from Israel and from the Jews considered less acceptable by progressive society. I argued that the distinction would never protect them because antisemitism eventually treats every Jew as a Jew.

I did not expect the next example to arrive before the week was over. Four days later, worshippers inside one of America’s most prominent liberal synagogues were attacked during Shabbat services.

I have taught self-defense in New York for more than 15years. I am an Israeli, an IDF veteran, a father, and a Jew. When I read about an attack inside a synagogue, I see the practical facts first. A stranger entered during services. A woman was hit. A security officer had to fight with him. A police sergeant stopped him. The congregation needed more armed protection the following morning. That is what Jewish life in New York required that weekend.

The identity of the synagogue makes the lesson harder to ignore. Central Synagogue is one of the largest and most influential Reform congregations in America. It represents the institutional “Good Jew” that progressive society finds acceptable. While Israel fought a war that began with the October 7 massacre, its leadership repeatedly directed public attention toward Gaza, settler violence, Israeli ministers, and the conduct of Israel’s government. It made opposition to Islamophobia and interfaith solidarity major parts of its public identity. In her 2025 Rosh Hashanah sermon, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl placed Israel’s war against Hamas beside Palestinian suffering and criticism of Israel’s government.

Central’s leaders continued saying that they supported Israel. I have heard this formula many times. Support Israel’s right to exist in one sentence, then spend the public argument describing Israel’s failures while Israelis are fighting people who invaded their homes, murdered their families, kidnapped their children, and promised to do it again. That approach allows an institution to keep its Jewish label while proving to the surrounding political class that it is reasonable, compassionate, and different from the Jews who place Jewish survival first.

I do not share that approach. A nation at war needs moral clarity from its people. Israel entered this war after Hamas crossed its border and committed the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Turning the public focus toward Israel’s faults while the attack was still being defended and celebrated around the world helped move attention away from the people who began the war. Formal support for Israel’s existence means little when every moral emphasis weakens Israel’s right to defend that existence.

Central Synagogue followed the rules of the “Good Jew” bargain. Its worshippers were still attacked inside their sanctuary. The attacker did not ask which Israeli ministers the rabbi had condemned, how much sympathy the congregation had expressed for Gaza, or how often its leaders had warned against Islamophobia. He entered a synagogue and saw Jews.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned the attack. He said every New Yorker should be able to practice religion without fear and promised that his administration would protect Jewish New Yorkers. Those words came easily after a Jewish woman had already been struck and armed officers were standing outside the building.

I have no interest in hearing Mamdani separate Jewish safety from the rhetoric he has helped normalize. He has called Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide and rejected the principle of Israel as a Jewish state. He treats Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, as a political stain while claiming that Jews themselves will remain safe under his leadership. Most Jews understand that Israel is part of who we are. A mayor cannot place Zionism outside respectable society and then act surprised when Jews feel that the target has moved from Israel to them.

Less than a month before the attack, Rabbi Buchdahl told Mamdani that his rhetoric was placing a bullseye on Jews. She wrote that Central already had armed guards and metal detectors and accused him of dividing Jews into those whose politics he considered acceptable and Zionists he placed beyond the pale. More police could not repair a climate created by the city’s leaders.

Her letter exposed the failure of Central’s own strategy. The synagogue objected when Mamdani separated acceptable Jews from Zionists after years of proving its progressive credentials through public criticism of Israel. Central wanted the distinction to protect its community while remaining safely aimed at Jews considered less enlightened. The attack showed how little control it had over that line.

What “As a Jew” Means to Me

That brings me to the phrase “as a Jew.”

I have never used those words to launch an attack on Israel or to establish moral superiority over other Jews. I have probably used them to explain why I do not eat pork. That is about it.

When celebrities, academics, and influencers begin a statement with “as a Jew,” I usually know what comes next. They use Jewish ancestry as a certificate of permission. The audience is invited to believe that an accusation against Israel cannot be antisemitic because a Jewish person delivered it. The speaker receives applause for condemning Israel, distancing himself from Zionists, and proving that he belongs among the enlightened. The Jews who insist on defending themselves become the problem.

I know what “as a Jew” means in my life.

On November 8, 2023, I was attacked near my Upper West Side school while I was with two of my children. I had to protect them. Afterward, I made a decision to wear a Star of David openly. I did not want my children to learn that danger should make us hide who we are. I wanted them to see their father accept responsibility for his identity and for their safety.

Since then, I have confronted someone removing hostage posters on the Upper West Side. An edited version of that encounter circulated online and brought attacks against me and my business. Someone later ripped the mezuzah from the entrance of my Brooklyn school. Each event carried the same message: lower your voice, remove the symbol, stop making people uncomfortable, and perhaps the pressure will move somewhere else.

Silence does not end a problem. It relocates it. I will not leave my children alone with a danger I had the chance to face.

Hannah Arendt described the older version of this bargain in The Origins of Totalitarianism, published in 1951. She wrote about “exception Jews,” educated and socially useful Jews admitted into European society because they distinguished themselves from the Jewish population around them. Their acceptance depended on proving that they were unlike ordinary Jews. Arendt described the demand placed on each person to show that “although he was a Jew, yet he was not a Jew.” The accepted individual stood beside a Jewish population that remained despised.

Today’s celebrity “as a Jew” performs the same service. He tells the audience that he is one of the acceptable ones. He condemns Israel in the language the cultural class rewards. He speaks about Jewish power while synagogues need armed guards. He directs suspicion toward Israel’s response while giving less attention to the people who began the war.

The reward may be publication, invitations, awards, applause, and acceptance. The cost is paid by the Jews placed outside that approval. The exception creates the rule. The “Good Jew” requires the existence of bad Jews who deserve the hostility directed at them. Those bad Jews are usually Zionists, religious Jews, Israelis, or anyone who refuses to turn Jewish survival into an apology.

The person playing this role does not control the exemption. European Jews learned that through generations of assimilation, military service, academic achievement, wealth, and cultural success. Their standing disappeared when the political climate changed. Antisemitism eventually revoked every personal arrangement because its target was the Jewish people.

As a Jew, I know how important it is to learn how to defend yourself, your identity, and those you love. That is how I use “as a Jew.”

Every Jew who is physically able should learn self-defense. Every synagogue, Jewish school, and community organization should train people to recognize danger, act under pressure, protect vulnerable members, and work with professional security. The goal is to live openly with the ability to respond when someone tries to make Jewish identity dangerous.

The cost of attacking Jews must be high. The legal cost should include serious prosecution and sentences that reflect the hateful purpose of the crime. The economic and professional cost should reach institutions and public figures that excuse antisemitism or reward it. The physical cost should be immediate lawful resistance from the intended victim, trained bystanders when intervention is necessary, security personnel, and police.

We are one people. When many Jews appear easy to harm, every Jew is perceived as an easier target. When Jewish communities become alert, trained, organized, and willing to act, the calculation changes.

For me, “as a Jew” names a set of responsibilities. I must protect my children, stand with my people, defend my identity, and make sure that anyone who tries to harm us understands that Jewish life will be defended.

Do something amazing,
Tsahi Shemesh