This post is first in a series that will explore what it is like to be a Zionist in an antizionist small town in upstate New York.

Welcome to Ithaca, NY, the town that CNN ranked as number one among America’s “Best Towns to Visit in 2025.” CNN touted the place’s natural beauty, heathy environment, vibrant arts scene, and ready access to lakes, waterfalls, and parks. The weekend Farmers Market at the base of Cayuga Lake teems with tourists and residents who buy organic produce and prepared foods. Ithaca is home to Cornell University, one of the eight universities that constitute the Ivy League, and Ithaca College. It is home as well to an educated citizenry, and what used to be called the counterculture. From Ithaca it is a short drive to the outstanding wineries of the Finger Lakes. It has always been a great place to live, but since October 7, 2023, it has turned an undercurrent of antizionism into an environment openly hostile to Israel and to Jews.

This town of roughly 32,000 permanent residents prides itself on its hospitality to like-minded folks, though there’s the rub. Ithaca is a “sanctuary city,” a stance that shields those who entered this country illegally from deportation. Signs on front lawns throughout the city signal their residents’ virtue: “Ithaca welcomes immigrant families” and “Black Lives Matter.”  Rainbow flags welcome the LGBTQ+. “Ithaca is Gorges” appears on souvenir t-shirts and bumper stickers. If you attend a lecture at Cornell, you first sit through a rote recitation of a “land use acknowledgement” that recognizes that “Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ (the Cayuga Nation).” Ithaca Mayor Robert Cantelmo declared in a recent interview that he “sees everything through a DEI lens.” A lens with an aperture that isn’t wide enough to include Jews.

Ithaca is Diverse! Ithaca loves you! Ithaca celebrates you! That is, unless you are . . . a Zionist.

In the aftermath of 10/7/2023 Cornell history professor Russell Rickford exclaimed to a cheering crowd that he was “exhilarated” by the Hamas attack on Israelis. Zealots tore down hostage posters as soon as they appeared. Keffiyeh-wearing Palestinian flag-wavers dominate “No Kings” protests and anti-war gatherings. Hostile attacks on Jews—including homicidal threats–come from the same people who only a short while ago were whining about “micro-aggressions” and “safe spaces.”

On March 6, 2024, the Common Council, Ithaca’s governing body, passed a resolution calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, but only after the members voted to remove the adjective “terrorist” in reference to Hamas.

The most recent manifestation of antizionism is the official support for a large slogan painted in block letters on a major public thoroughfare that reads “Free Gaza,” propaganda that unambiguously supports Hamas and calls for the elimination of Israel and murder of Jews.

Here is the back story: Last year the city approved a proposal for a mural depicting aspects of the Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes and safe houses that that operated during the early-to-mid 19th century to help enslaved people escape to freedom. The Underground Railroad had several stops in the Finger Lakes. The mural was intended to honor Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, key abolitionists of the time, flanked by images of coded quilts that pointed the way north. This mural design was endorsed unanimously by the Common Council, and the city attorney inked a contract with Ithaca Murals, a not-for-profit outfit that is partially funded by the State of New York.

However, instead of honoring the approved design, the mural team replaced part of it with “Free Gaza.” Members of the Jewish community, myself among them, argued first to Mayor Cantelmo and later to the entire council that the addition introduced political propaganda unrelated to the focus of the project. Since it hadn’t been approved, we argued, “Free Gaza” should be considered graffiti and removed.

Graffiti on public property is a violation of local laws, but instead of removing “Free Gaza” at the request of the Jewish community, the Common Council pulled a fast one and voted to retroactively make the slogan part of the Underground Railroad mural.

The Common Council comprises eleven members. All are Democrats, most have endorsements from more than one party including Working Families, Ithacans for Progress, Solidarity, and Democratic Socialist. Hanna Shvetz, a Cornell undergraduate, is a Democratic Socialist and a member of the Communist Party, USA. Six of the eleven members have either a past or current affiliation with Cornell University.

Cornell University law professor William A. Jacobson told Campus Reform that Shvetz’s win “is not surprising, Ithaca is a far-left community. I’m surprised there aren’t even more communists on the council.

“Far-left ideologies already dominate the faculty on campus. It’s a monoculture of leftism and intolerance for dissenting viewpoints both on and off campus. The radicalization of campus is a concern, but now it’s just more out in the open.”

Common Council meetings typically include a one-hour period during which the public can address the elected members. When it came time for the Council to consider the measure to retroactively support  “Free Gaza” Mayor Cantelmo ignored the formal request of the Jewish community to remove the slogan; he excluded us from discussions with the mural team to “cure” the mural; he withheld the text of his proposal until the Monday afternoon before the Wednesday evening meeting, counter to established procedure to post proposals on the Friday before; and he included on the meeting agenda an unrelated measure that he knew would draw a large crowd, thereby allowing him to enforce a two-minute limit for each public speaker instead of the usual three. By these means, the mayor rigged the outcome from the start.

On the evening of March 4, 2026, as the temperature hovered in the low 30s under overcast skies, a crowd gathered outside of the municipal building where the government conducts its business. Most were there to support a measure that would rid the city of a license plate reader system designed for crime reduction. They sang protest songs and chanted slogans. Many wore keffiyehs, the accessory du jour for protests of any kind. When the doors opened, they filled the chamber to standing room only.

Several members of the Jewish community addressed the council. We contended that encouraging antizionist slogans on public property could lead to violence against Jews, that political propaganda in general should not be permitted on public property, and that the Council should honor its earlier decision to support a mural that did not include “Free Gaza.”

Supporters of “Free Gaza” smeared us. We were accused of being complicit in genocide and censorship – code for denigrating Jews. One speaker described opponents of “Free Gaza” as “slave catchers,” those bounty hunters who captured and returned fleeing slaves. “As a Jew” speakers who invoke their Judaism to lend credibility to their open hostility toward Israel claimed that “Free Gaza” is an expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Terence Vann of the mural team accused Israel of “vaporizing” children and killing one-hundred thousand civilians. His claim that he was “filled with love” is unreconcilable with his earlier paranoid social media rant that the “Zionists are out to get me.” Maryann Adib, Vann’s partner in painting asserted that Palestine “has been occupied for 80 years,” a calumny contrary to fact. None of these and other libelous claims were challenged by Cantelmo or other members of the Common Council.

The measure passed 9-2. “Free Gaza” stays. In the aftermath, supporters of “Free Gaza” took to social media to further vilify Jews, Zionists, and Israel. On the Instagram feed of @cjtherhetorician, Maryann Adib’s sister with upward of 55k followers, comments fell into roughly three categories: Jews are pigs and perverts, Israel is a white genocidal settler-colonial state, and white people (yt or whyte) are the problem.

The other day I was driving north on Route 13, a highway lined with big box stores, strip malls, grocery stores, and restaurants. It is a shopping destination for residents and for those traveling from  small surrounding villages. There, on the wall of a handball court in a public park facing the highway, is this new graffiti:

Will this too become part of Ithaca’s “vibrant art scene”? I hope not, but neither am I optimistic that it will be removed any time soon.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)