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Free Speech

No Anti-Stalking Order Against Rabbi Based on His Actions Opposing Anti-Israel Protest

Eugene Volokh | 8.27.2026 5:28 PM

From the long opinion in Rokhvand v. Herzfeld, decided by D.C. Court of Appeals Judge Roy McLeese, joined by Judges Corinne Beckwith and John Howard:

This case arises from three incidents that occurred on three separate days in March and May of 2024 during demonstrations in front of the Israeli embassy….

Ms. Rokhvand and Ms. Barmada were engaged in a multi-month demonstration in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. in protest of Israel's recent military actions in Gaza…. The protesters used a designated area outside the embassy to set up their display of flags, tents, and signs and to engage in "noise demonstrations," during which they spoke into megaphones, played Palestinian music, or used noise machines. They displayed large signs with messages against Israel's military actions in Gaza, as well as a sign offering earplugs to passersby, along the sidewalk.

Rabbi Herzfeld is the rabbi of a Washington, D.C. congregation and the founder and leader of a Jewish school. During his tenure in D.C., Rabbi Herzfeld has been involved in the wider community and worked with other local faith leaders and elected officials. Rabbi Herzfeld has close relationships with family and friends in Israel and was "devastat[ed]" by the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. Rabbi Herzfeld did not know of Ms. Barmada or Ms. Rokhvand before his interactions with them at the Israeli embassy. Likewise, neither Ms. Barmada nor Ms. Rokhvand had heard of or met Rabbi Herzfeld before their interactions with him during the embassy demonstrations.

The first incident occurred in the middle of the day while Ms. Barmada and a few other protesters, not including Ms. Rokhvand, were at the protest site. According to Ms. Barmada, a group of men including Rabbi Herzfeld approached the protest site and began slowly walking through the demonstration and "intensely … looking around." Ms. Barmada heard Rabbi Herzfeld call her a "Hamas supporter" and a "terrorist" who supported "raping women" and "beheading babies." Another man in the group called Ms. Barmada a "Nazi bitch" and said that she should "go to the concentration camp."

Rabbi Herzfeld began speaking about the protesters, pointing at Ms. Barmada and referring to the protesters as the "wicked people" that "we will defeat." The group of men again approached the protesters and walked back and forth in front of them, during which time Ms. Barmada and Rabbi Herzfeld exchanged a couple of remarks and Rabbi Herzfeld took something out of his pocket and stood near Ms. Barmada with his group. Ms. Barmada perceived the interaction to be a threat designed to "intimidate" her. She felt "scared" and "harassed" and that the incident was "violating."

Rabbi Herzfeld testified that the first incident occurred on a Jewish holy day commemorating the biblical story of Esther, a Queen who saved the Jewish people from annihilation. Rabbi Herzfeld went to the embassy to pray for the........

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