Mob Targets Synagogue As LAPD Stands By

Anti-Israel protesters obstructed, beat and bear-sprayed Jews who were simply trying to enter

By Alexandra Orbuch. 

"A friend texted on Sunday afternoon: “Just checking in to make sure your family is okay after everything in LA today.” I hadn’t been online and had no clue what he was talking about. It could have been anything—an earthquake or a wildfire—but something told me it was antisemitism. Unfortunately, I was right.

Protesters waving Palestinian flags and shouting anti-Israel slogans gathered outside Adas Torah synagogue in Los Angeles’s Pico-Robertson neighborhood on Sunday. They tried to block the entrance and were soon met by counterprotesters waving Israeli flags. The groups clashed. Adas Torah officials said the anti-Israel demonstrators maced and bear-sprayed Jews trying to enter the synagogue, which was holding an Israeli real-estate fair. Talia Regev, 43, said she was sprayed and saw violent altercations between the two groups.

“There was nowhere to turn where you could be safe,” said Naftoli Sherman, 25, who had planned to attend the synagogue’s fair. He was attacked and ended up in the hospital. “There was a whole gang of protesters on top of me. They broke my nose and kicked me in the head a couple of times.”

Israeli-born journalist Daniel Greenfield reported that an anti-Israel protester had threatened, “Billions of us will come and kill you.”

President Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom took to social media to condemn Sunday’s act of hate. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass promised that the police would “provide additional patrols in the Pico-Robertson community as well as outside of houses of worship throughout the city.” It’s good they spoke up, but tweeting isn’t enough.

Nor is standing by and watching. Members of the Los Angeles Police Department observed the melee unfold rather than protecting those targeted by the mob. It took volunteers from nonprofit Jewish security organizations, including LA Shmira Public Safety and Magen Am, to break up the scuffles. “Without them, it would have been a lot worse,” Mr. Sherman said.

“If not for Magen Am, I don’t know what would have happened,” said David Kramer, 37. “People were running, screaming, a little bit delirious,” and begging uniformed officers to intercede. Despite many pleas, he said, “they were slow to move, and it appeared to me like they had orders to stand down.”

As the fighting moved east of Adas Torah toward other synagogues in the Jewish neighborhood, the police remained about a quarter-block away from the action, Ms. Regev said. She urged officers to get involved. “I said, ‘You need to stop this,’ and they essentially said, ‘We can’t do anything without a higher authority.’ ” Mr. Greenfield said the police “did little to interfere with the terrorist supporters.” By failing to disperse the protesters, they made it difficult for Jews to enter their own synagogue. The LAPD declined to comment.

Ms. Bass and the LAPD should be better prepared to handle violent incidents, especially given the surge in antisemitic activity in the Los Angeles area since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. A month after Oct. 7, Paul Kessler, 69, died of a head injury in Thousand Oaks following an altercation with an anti-Israel protester. Weeks later, Raphael Nissel, 75, needed staples to close a wound in his forehead after being assaulted by a man wielding a belt buckle in Beverly Hills. Mr. Nissel was on his way to synagogue. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said the attack took place amid a “disturbing trend of antisemitic hate crimes” in the area.

Would the police have been as passive as they were on Sunday if those being targeted had been any minority other than Jews? Would they have stood by and let protesters block the entrance to a church or mosque? This blatant double standard is precisely why the first place my mind went when my friend reached out was antisemitism. I long for the day when an earthquake is more plausible.

Ms. Orbuch is a Robert L. Bartley Fellow at the Journal."