A boisterous pro-Palestinian protest that took place in November outside the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan with protesters chanting “Globalize the intifada,” “We don’t want Zionists here” and “Death to the IDF” has resulted in legislation in New York involving demonstrations at places of religious worship.

One measure, in Suffolk County on eastern Long Island, could be voted on by the Suffolk Legislature this month. Similar bills have been introduced before governmental bodies in neighboring Nassau County on western Long Island and in New York City. And, a comparable measure has been introduced in the New York State Legislature.

The Suffolk County measure is titled “A Local Law to Prohibit Demonstrations Within Ten Feet of Another Person Entering or Leaving a Place of Religious Worship and Not Within Thirty-five Feet of an Entrance.”

Its sponsors are Legislator Stephanie Bontempi, a Republican from Centerport, and Nick Caracappa, a Conservative Party member from Selden who runs with Republican endorsement. He is the legislature’s majority caucus leader. Bontempi is an immigrant to the United States from Sweden, a naturalized US citizen. A Huntington Town resident for 30 years, she won election to the Suffolk County Legislature in 2021 and took office in January 2022. Previously, she was an elementary school teacher. Caracappa, formerly a union leader, has been a legislator since 2020.

The Suffolk Legislature could vote on the measure when it next meets on April 21. Last month, at what was set as a public hearing on the bill, no one spoke for or against.

The measure begins: “This Legislature hereby finds and determines that individuals have a constitutional right to practice their religion and to safely travel to and from religious institutions without physical obstruction, interference, intimidation or risk of injury.”

“This Legislature also finds and determines that public safety and the right to religious freedom are threatened when demonstrators enter or remain in close proximity to those that are attempting to enter or leave places of worship,” it says.

“Therefore, the purpose of this local law is to protect public safety and the right to religious freedom by ensuring that demonstrators exercising their right to free speech be prohibited from demonstrating within thirty-five feet of the entrance area or driveway of a place of religious worship and from approaching within a ten foot distance of persons entering or leaving a place of religious worship before, during and after services.”

It defines a “place of worship” as including “any church, synagogue, mosque, temple.”

“It shall be unlawful,” it says, “for any person to knowingly approach within ten feet of an individual, without such individual’s express consent, for the purpose of demonstrating, picketing, protesting, distributing literature, displaying signs, engaging in oral advocacy.”

And “it shall be unlawful for any person to demonstrate, picket, protest, distribute literature, display signs, engage in oral advocacy or other forms of expression or symbolic conduct, whether conducted individually or in groups, within thirty-five feet of the entrance area or driveway of a place of religious worship beginning one hour before the scheduled start of any religious services, community meeting or ceremony or other congregational, educational or organized meeting or event and ending one hour after the conclusion of any religious service, community meeting, ceremony or other congregational, educational or organizational meeting or event.”

Violating the law would be a misdemeanor. Penalties are “a fine of not more than two hundred and fifty dollars or imprisonment of not more than one year, or both.”

The protest on November 19 at the Park East Synagogue, founded in 1890 and located on East 67th Street, was organized by the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation NY/NJ. It took place while Nefesh B’Nefesh was holding a workshop inside the synagogue about immigration to Israel.

The synagogue’s senior rabbi, Arthur Schneier, said in the New York Post, “I’m a Holocaust survivor. I saw my synagogue burn on Kristallnacht with the police standing by and not intervening,” referencing the burning of more than a thousand synagogues and businesses by the Nazis in 1938. “Thank God in the United States, the police are protecting us against the hate-mongers.”

There was substantial New York Police Department presence at the protest.

Interestingly, Schneier, who has been at the Park East Synagogue for more than 60 years, is known for working internationally for interfaith dialogue. He is the founder of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, which describes itself as an “interfaith coalition of business and religious leaders” dedicated to promoting “peace, tolerance and ethnic conflict resolution.”

He also has a Long Island connection—his son, Rabbi Marc Schneier, founded The Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach in Suffolk County in 1990.

The Hampton Synagogue’s website includes information about how Marc Schneier, too, “trailblazed the field of Muslim-Jewish relations globally. Throughout his work in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Palestine, Singapore, throughout Europe, South America and the Southern Hemisphere, Rabbi Schneier has pioneered dynamic programing and discussion among Jews and Muslims to remind them that they have more that united them than what divides them.”

The New York Times in an article on the November protest, reported that shortly afterwards, Zohran Mamdani, last year the first Muslim elected New York City’s mayor, “called Rabbi Marc Schneier…who suggested that the mayor-elect back legislation barring demonstrations directly outside of houses or worship.” Schneier was quoted as saying “He [Mamdani] told me, ‘Rabbi, I love the idea…’”

In Nassau County in December a “Religious Safety Act” was unanimously passed by the Nassau Legislature. Nearly identical to the Suffolk County measure, it was introduced by Republican Legislator Mazi Melesa Pilip of Great Neck. A Jew from Ethiopia, she immigrated to Israel with her family in Operation Solomon in 1991 when she was 12. At 18, she began serving as a gunsmith in the Israel Defense Force’s 35th Paratrooper Brigade. At the University of Haifa, she met her future husband, Adalbert Pilip, born in Ukraine, and from a family of Holocaust survivors who moved to the US. She and her husband moved to the US in 2005. She has been vice president of Kol Yisrael Achim synagogue in Great Neck and active in pro-Israel advocacy.

Her measure was signed into law by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman who, in 2021, became the first Jew elected to that position. He is now the Republican candidate for New York State governor. He has described himself as “the highest elected Jewish Republican in America and a dedicated Zionist.”

A similar bill, the Schools and Houses of Worship Access and Safety Act, was passed last month by the New York City Council by a 44-to-5 vote. It was introduced by Democrat Julie Menin of Manhattan, elected this year as the first Jewish speaker of the City Council. She is a daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors.

A spokesperson for the Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine has said Romaine would sign the Bontempi-Caracappa measure.

Meanwhile, on a state level, New York State Senator Sam Sutton of Brooklyn and Assembly member Micah Lasher of Manhattan, both Democrats, have introduced legislation to create “a 25-foot buffer zone around places of worship”—and also “health care facilities”—“to protect New Yorkers from harassment and intimidation.”

A statement they issued said their “legislation balances the critical constitutional protections of speech and religion, and gives law enforcement important new tools to protect the rights of all New Yorkers entering a house of worship receive the protection of law without an inquiry into the purpose of their entry.”

The UJA-Federation of New York has announced its support of the measure. Eric Goldstein, its CEO, said: “The ability to worship freely and without fear is fundamental to who we are as a nation. UJA strongly supports this bill, which takes meaningful steps to ensure that every faith community can gather in safety. No one should ever face intimidation or see their synagogue—or any house of worship—targeted by protests meant to disrupt or instill fear. We are deeply grateful to Senator Sutton and Assembly Member Lasher for their leadership and commitment to protecting all those who come together in sacred communal spaces.”

Senator Sutton commented: “When people walk into a synagogue, church, mosque, or temple, they deserve to feel safe. When families trying to enter their houses of worship are instead forced to push past hostile crowds, gathered just feet from the door, it’s not peaceful expression – it’s blatant intimidation. New Yorkers deserve better. We cannot and will not allow it.”

Lasher, now seeking a seat in the US House of Representatives, said: “New York must always be a place where people can both exercise free speech and express their religious identity without fear or intimidation, and that balance broke down outside Park East Synagogue. This bill will help our city government and other localities across the state ensure that New Yorkers are able to enter houses of worship without having to run a gauntlet of hate speech. Simple decency and mutual respect demand nothing less.”

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)