On November 14th 2023 Alter Goldberger, 75, of Monroe was arrested on fairly minor charges, fourth-degree criminal mischief, petty larceny, and sixth-degree conspiracy. The next day Yehonatan Ovadia 32, was charged with the same crimes. They were accused of removing an Israeli flag put by on the Ramapo Town Hall but the shocking part of the arrest was not the crime but rather the charges that were filed: Mr. Goldberger and Mr. Ovadia’s charges were filed as antisemetic hate crimes.

In what world would Orthodox Jews from Monroe and Monsey be accused of a hate crime for demonstrating their distaste for the state of Israel? This seems to have been a warning for House Resolution 894 which was passed three weeks later on December 5th 2023 and declared (although not directly legally binding) that antizionism is antisemitism. In the debate on the House floor Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) pointed out that being against Zionism does not mean that one is against Jews as we see from the fact that Jews, particularly Orthodox Jews, have opposed Zionism since its inception largely for religious reasons and that under this resolution tens of thousands of Satmar Chasidim in his district would be deemed antisemites. As absurd as it sounds, it already happened in Monsey.

This idea didn’t come out of the blue. For a long time Zionists have claimed that Israel is the Jewish people and opposing it or criticizing it is an attack on the Jews themselves. In a 2019 interview for The Forward, historian Deborah Lipstadt (who has since become the Special U.S. Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, a U.S. government position) said that “the jury is still out” on whether or not Satmar Chassidim are antisemities.

Rally

A small rally was held against the hate-crime filling outside the Ramapo Municipal Building with American flags.

At the end of the rally three people showed up, one with a ski a hat and a Palestinian flag and two taking pictures. The pictures were posted online to try and paint the rally as from Neturei Karta. The people were not affiliated with the organizers.

Speech at the rally by Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro:

Press Release:

January 14th
RAMAPO, NY – A group of 100 ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered today in front of the
Ramapo Town Hall on Rt. 59 to engage in what the speaker called “sensitivity training,” in
response to the arrest of a man who removed an Israeli flag from the Town Hall flagpole. Alter
Goldberger, 75, of Monroe in Orange County, was charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief,
petty larceny, and sixth-degree conspiracy, all as hate crimes.
The protesters objected to the characterization of Goldberger’s act as a hate crime. “We’re not
here today to discuss the merits of the charge of property damage,” said Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro,
the speaker leading the event. “But his motive was not hate. His motive was the rising tide of
anti-Semitism, which is exacerbated, Shapiro said, by associating the Jewish community with the
state of Israel.
Shapiro asserted quoted a report on Anti-Semitism from Israel’s Tel Aviv University. ““Since Jews
and Israelis are often conflated into a single collective … Experience shows that as soon as the
situation between Israel and the Palestinians or some of their Arab neighbor states turns violent,
the number of anti-Semitic incidents increases all over the world, as Jews are forced to serve as
scapegoats within reach for anger and frustration at Israel”.
At the same time, the protesters thanked the Ramapo Township for taking down the offending
flag on their own volition, and for “understanding the sensitivities and feelings of your citizens.”
The protesters waved American flags as they held up signs declaring their resentment at Israel
claiming to the nation-state of all Jews. “Israel is no our country, America is!” and “Israel does
not represent the Jews,” were among the many slogans portrayed as the speaker disavowed
Israel’s claim to the “the Jewish state.”
“We have as much connection to Israel as we do to China,” he said.
Toward the end of the rally, the event was photo-bombed by a man dressed in a ski cap and
hoodie who unfurled for a few seconds a Palestinian flag, when people appearing to have been
with him snapped photographs of him in the crowd, which after wards were used by Zionist
news outlets to falsely portray the rally as a Hamas-supporting event.
“We are used to such harassment by Zionists,” said Zev Jacobowitz, one of the event’s organizers.

From the protest organizers