American Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has condemned New York event venues for escalating what he describes as a campaign of harassment and religious suppression. According to reports, multiple venues have filed a complaint with the NYPD in an attempt to block an October 7th vigil, which was planned to be attended by hundreds of Jewish New Yorkers, to honor the victims of a massacre, including one of the most iconic victims, Shani Louk.
The organizers announced that they would hold the vigil on October 5th this year as the date of October 7th coincides with the Hebrew date of the holiday of Sukkot.
In May, a small and dignified gathering was held in Waterline Square with Shani Louk’s father, Nissim, and a prominent Rabbi to recite traditional Jewish memorial prayers. According to the organizers, the commemoration—marking the exact day of Shani’s burial—was met with objections from the venue management, who reportedly berated the Rabbi at the venue. Antisemitic comments were allegedly made during the meeting.
Now, the vigil's organizers alleged that the management has taken their campaign further by involving the NYPD to prevent this Sunday’s public memorial. According to the Rabbi, the NYPD’s 20th precinct contacted him on Yom Kippur itself (he returned the call after the fast was over) and informed him that management was allegedly pressuring the police to hinder the event.
Shani Louk became a symbol of the October 7 massacre after her lifeless, naked, and desecrated body was paraded through Gaza by Hamas terrorists in the back of a pickup truck, an image that shocked the world and was chosen by the Associated Press as their image of the year.
"In light of these actions by Waterline and the management company, who allegedly enlisted the NYPD to try to silence our memorial, we are postponing the vigil until we can meet with senior NYPD leadership and city officials, with whom we have already filed an official complaint," said the Rabbi. "We will not allow our First Amendment rights as Jews in America to be trampled. But without full NYPD support, we cannot guarantee the safety of participants, especially after the recent tragic murder of two Jews in Manchester, England, on Yom Kippur," he added.
The Rabbi warned that this incident may be a troubling sign of what Jewish New Yorkers could face under a future political climate that could be hostile to Israel. According to him, this could be a disturbing preview of the kind of policing and restrictions that may confront the Jewish community under certain political figures who align themselves with voices that may be openly antagonistic to Jewish expression and Israel.
"This should shock and horrify every Jew in New York and America to their core," the Rabbi added. "That in the greatest city in the world, on the anniversary of the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, we are being faced with serious obstacles to peacefully honoring our dead is beyond disgraceful. We will not be silenced."