If a Jew can be threatened at the World Cup, surrounded by thousands upon thousands of law-enforcement officers, then Jews are safe nowhere.
“Baby killer!"
There it was again.
The oldest hatred, dressed up in the newest slogans. The medieval blood libel, repackaged for the age of social media. The same poison that once accused Jews of murdering Christian children now screams at rabbis in public and calls it “Free Palestine."
Millions the world over watched the attack against me by Faiz Akbar in Florida using the same “Baby Killer" blood libel, along with threats of extreme physical violence. Miami Police did zero to prosecute Akbar and till today he has paid no price whatsoever for his odious hate crime, even as Mayor Steven Meiner of Miami Beach continues to brag about how much he does to protect Jews. Tell that to the thousands of young people who watched at the Vendome Nogjt Club on South Beach as an American Nazi led the crowd in chants of “Heil Hitler."
This time it happened at a World Cup match in New Jersey, in front of tens of thousands of people, amid one of the most heavily secured public events in America. Police were everywhere. Security was everywhere. Law enforcement of every stripe was visible across the stadium.
And still, the mob came.
“Free Palestine" extremists targeted me, screamed at me, sought to intimidate me, and turned a global sporting event into another arena for antisemitic hatred. Thankfully, many Jews and Israelis who recognized me immediately came to my rescue. They called the police. New Jersey law enforcement responded quickly and protected me. (I would advise Miami Beach chief of police Wayne Jones to bring in the New Jersey State troopers for training lessons for his own police force in Miami Beach...)
I thank them from the bottom of my heart.
But let us not miss the terrifying meaning of what happened.
If a Jew can be threatened at the World Cup, surrounded by thousands upon thousands of law-enforcement officers, then Jews are safe nowhere.
Not in hotels. Not in airports. Not in universities. Not in city squares. Not in synagogues. Not in restaurants. Not on the streets. Not even at the most guarded international sporting events on earth.
The World Cup is supposed to unite nations. Instead, it became another stage for the public intimidation of a Jew.
This has become my normal life.
Over the last year alone, the public has watched me being physically and verbally attacked across the globe - in Toledo, Spain; Vienna, Austria; Sydney, Australia; Miami Beach; Times Square, and now at the World Cup in New Jersey.
Millions and millions of people around the world have watched these videos.
They have watched people scream at me. They have watched people shove and threaten me. They have watched mobs surround me. They have watched a rabbi, father of nine and grandfather of twelve, targeted again and again because I wear a kippah, defend Israel, confront antisemites, debate them on TV, and I absolutely refuse- now and forever - to bow before Jew-hatred.
These are not rumors. These are not private complaints. The world has seen them.
And yet, somehow, the burden keeps shifting back to the Jew.
Why did you film? Why did you post? Why did you confront? Why did you speak? Why did you not simply walk away, as if walking in a stadium with 80,000 people is even something easy to do.
Here is the answer: because silence is exactly what antisemites want.
At the World Cup match in which powerhouse Brazil fell before Norway, I obviously did not carry a weapon. My protection is my phone. My defense is documentation. My shield is the camera. Exposing the haters. Having evidence for law-enforcement. Hopefully prosecuting those who would violently assault me.
Because Jews know the bitter truth. If there is no video, people deny the antisemitism happened. If there is a video, they blame the Jew for posting it.
My camera is not a publicity device. In moments of danger, it is often my only shield.
In Toledo, Spain, I was attacked while publicly confronting hatred against Israel and the Jewish people. In Vienna, Austria, near Stephansplatz, I was shoved and kicked, and instead of immediately being treated as the victim, I was threatened by police and detained for approximately two hours on the Sabbath, with my wife Debbie, until an off-duty righteous California Christian police officer, who was a tourist with his wife in Vienna, served as a witness to help establish what had happened. This amazing man and righteous Christian American stayed at the police station with my wife and I the entire time.
In Sydney, Australia, I again experienced public antisemitic hostility. Across the United States, in Times Square, Miami Beach., and now New Jersey, people have watched the same pattern unfold.
A Jew appears in public.
The Jew defends Israel.
He is recognized from television and social media for his incessant defense of the world‘s only Jewish state and the Jewish community. He is also recognized by the “Free Palestine" mob haters as an American father of four Israeli IDF soldiers.
The mob screams.
The Jew films.
Then the Jew is accused of being the problem.
Indeed, believe it, or not, in Florida, I am being threatened with actual potential imprisonment for speaking out against antisemitism. I know this is difficult to believe, but it is true. And this is not just a threat to every Jew in America. It is a threat to every American. Imagine facing imprisonment for simply exercising your first amendment right to post on social media, especially at America’s 250th birthday.
This is not only my story. It is the story of Jewish life after October 7. The masks are off. The hatred is global. The old monster has come roaring back.
And the words “baby killer" are not random.
They are the blood libel.
For centuries, Jews were accused of murdering children. That lie led to pogroms, expulsions, torture, and murder. Today the accusation has been updated. Jews are now called “baby killers" not because of anything they personally did, but because Israel fights Hamas, a terrorist death cult that murdered, raped, kidnapped, burned, and butchered Jews, including babies.
When someone screams “baby killer" at a rabbi, he is not protesting Israeli policy. He is reviving one of history’s most lethal antisemitic lies.
"Baby killer" is not political criticism. It is the blood libel in modern clothing.
I heard those same vile accusations during the antisemitic attack I experienced in Miami Beach on December 1, 2024. I was sitting peacefully in the lobby with my laptop, working on a draft of an acceptance speech for my friend Robert F. Kennedy Jr. I was not provoking anyone. I was not looking for a confrontation. I was writing, concentrating diligently.
Then came the attack.
The video went around the world. Millions saw it. And then, in one of the most grotesque inversions imaginable, the hotel sued me. Let me repeat that, since so many misunderstand what happened that night. I did not sue the hotel for anything. They sued the silence me and I’ve kept me in court to bankrupt me for nearly 2 years now.
I was the victim of a vile antisemitic attack and the hotel’s own surveillance footage shows me sitting peacefully and working before the confrontation, being stuck behind me by my assailant radical Islam Faiz Akbar. The hotel falsely portrayed me as having provoked the attack by “loitering" and seeking a payday. Not only is that a blatant and easily refutable lie, but the hotel’s counsel who wrote it, under the threat of perjury, had no fear of the legal consequences in lying to a court. The hotel’s surveillance video destroys that narrative.
And now, astonishingly, the plaintiff appears to believe that videos of attacks against me - videos watched by millions of shocked people around the world - may somehow violate a court order. It seems they want to tie my hands, silence me, and even, shockingly, expose me to the threat of imprisonment for defending myself and the Jewish community.
Let us say this plainly.
The idea of a rabbi being criminally punished after being the victim of an antisemitic attack is an affront to decency, morality, American values, and the Constitution. Moreover, a threat to any American of being imprisoned or criminal prosecuted for exercising their first amendment rights and posting on Instagram, X, or TikTok, is the end of American freedoms.
First they attack the Jew. Then they sue the Jew. Then they seek to silence the Jew for proving the attack happened. Then they seek to imprison the Jew for speaking out against potentially violent antisemitism just 80 years after the Holocaust.
This is how modern antisemitism operates.
First, they attack the Jew.
Then they accuse the Jew of provoking the attack.
Then, when the Jew films it, they accuse him of exploiting the attack.
Then, when the Jew posts it, they accuse him of inflaming hatred.
Then, when the Jew refuses to be silent, they seek to punish and imprison him.
Enough.
I will not apologize for filming antisemitism. I will not apologize for exposing it. I will not apologize for refusing to be intimidated. I will not apologize for defending Israel. I will not apologize for saying that Jewish blood is not cheap. And I will especially never apologize for having four heroic IDF children who serve in the first Jewish army in 2000 years.
What am I supposed to do when surrounded by extremists? Put away my phone?
Trust that institutions will believe me?
Trust that powerful people will admit the truth?
Trust that antisemites will politely confess?
No. The camera stays on.
Because without evidence, the Jew is blamed. And sometimes, even with evidence, the Jew is blamed.
The World Cup attack should be a national wake-up call. A Jew was targeted at one of the most visible, most secure, most law-enforcement-heavy events in the world. That means the issue is no longer merely security. It is culture. It is morality. It is the collapse of the taboo against public antisemitism.
Too many people now believe they can harass Jews in public and call it activism. Too many believe “Free Palestine" gives them license to scream at rabbis. Too many believe any visible Jew can be treated as a representative of Israel and therefore abused.
That is not human rights. That is not justice. That is not peace.
That is antisemitism.
A movement that hunts Jews in stadiums is not a peace movement. It is a mob.
Of course Palestinian Arabs are human beings created in the image of God. Of course they deserve dignity, freedom, and a future not ruled by Hamas. And of course, they are my brothers under God. But targeting Jews in public does nothing for Palestinian Arabs. It does not build schools in Gaza. It does not remove Hamas. It does not create peace. It does not protect children.
It merely intimidates Jews.
The New Jersey police understood the danger. So did the Jews and Israelis who came to my aid. They did not debate my tone. They did not lecture me about nuance. They saw a Jew being targeted and they acted.
That must become the standard for Jewish life everywhere.
When a Jew is attacked, we defend him.
When a Jew is threatened, we stand beside him.
When antisemitism is filmed, we share it.
When institutions try to bury it, we expose them.
When lawyers try to silence victims, we call it out.
When mobs chant blood libels, we do not explain them away.
We fight back.
The tragedy is that too much of the Jewish world has become frightened, cautious, and polite in the face of barbarism. We issue statements. We convene panels. We discuss “rising tensions." We beg for allyship. Meanwhile Jews are being screamed at, shoved, threatened, harassed, sued, and silenced.
I am done with polite cowardice.
The Jewish people did not survive Pharaoh, Haman, Rome, the Crusades, the Inquisition, pogroms, Hitler, Stalin, Arab rejectionism, and Hamas in order to tremble before stadium bullies.
Jews did not survive Auschwitz in order to be lectured about tone by people who are silent before mobs.
What happened at the World Cup was not an isolated incident. It was part of a global pattern. The public has watched it again and again: Toledo, Vienna, Sydney, Miami Beach, Times Square, and New Jersey.
A rabbi is attacked. The video goes viral. Millions are shocked. Then life moves on.
That cannot continue.
The civilized world must decide whether it will defend Jews while the danger is still verbal and physical intimidation, or whether it will wait until the mobs become more violent and then pretend to be surprised.
I am not surprised.
I have seen this hatred up close. I have heard it in my face. I have felt it physically. I have watched institutions excuse it. I have watched lawyers weaponize it. I have watched the mob become emboldened.
But I have also seen courage.
I saw it in the Jews and Israelis who came to my rescue at the World Cup. I saw it in the New Jersey police who responded immediately. I saw it in the millions of decent people who watched these videos and understood that this is not normal.
Now that courage must spread.
Every Jew must understand: documentation is protection. Public exposure is protection. Refusing to be silent is protection. Solidarity is protection.
And every antisemite must understand: we will film you. We will expose you. We will identify your hatred. We will not let you hide behind slogans.
The World Cup is supposed to bring nations together. Instead, it revealed something darker: even amid global celebration, even amid massive security, even under the eyes of thousands of officers, Jews can still be targeted.
That should terrify every decent person. Because if Jews are not safe there, Jews are safe nowhere.
And if the world does not wake up now, then the failure will not belong only to the mobs.
It will belong to everyone who saw the videos, heard the screams, watched the attacks, and still found a reason to remain silent.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is the international bestselling author of thirty-eight books, translated into more than twenty languages. He has been hailed as “the most famous rabbi in America" (The Washington Post, Newsweek), “arguably the most famous Orthodox Jew on earth" (The New York Observer), and named one of the fifty most influential Jews in the world (The Jerusalem Post).
A fearless public intellectual and one of Israel and Jewry’s most eloquent defenders, Rabbi Boteach has appeared on virtually every major television network and media platform across the globe.