While many Jews in Israel and around the world recited the Yizkor prayer to honor the memories of their loved ones whose lives were claimed by terrorism and who fell defending the Jewish people, more than 1,500 people gathered at an event organized by Jewish anti-Israel groups that used the Yom Kippur memorial prayer to honor those who murder Jews.
The public event, which organizers called “Yizkor," was organized by Rabbis for Ceasefire, Jewish Voice for Peace, Jews For Racial & Economic Justice, IfNotNow, and Shoresh US.
Speakers addressed participants from a podium bearing a sign reading, “For the sin of genocide, we atone." Behind them stood a mock-up of a synagogue Torah ark displaying the Hebrew word “Yizkor" (remembrance) and the English words, “Refuse, remember, recommit."
Many of those attending the event were draped in prayer shawls.
Among the speakers were anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil, Palestinian-American novelist, poet, clinical psychologist and professor Hala Alyan, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, as well as several other elected officials from New York City and the New York State legislature.
Khalil is a former Columbia University graduate student who emerged as a highly visible leader of the anti-Israel encampments and demonstrations on the university’s campus. He was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in March 2025 and released in June of that year after a judge ruled his detention unconstitutional. He has continued to face deportation proceedings. Khalil has repeatedly refused to condemn Hamas, including when questioned about the terrorist organization’s October 7 massacre.
Addressing the Yizkor gathering, Khalil said that he had brought with him a stone from Jerusalem that a friend had given him.
“I try to keep it with me all the time just to connect with the land," Khalil said, describing the stone as coming from the Old City of Jerusalem.
He claimed that he, his family, and “over six million Palestinians" are not permitted to visit what he called their hometowns.
“I take it with me because I remember that Palestine is worth fighting for," he said.
Khalil went on to accuse the US of using tuition payments, tax dollars, and votes “to kill, to maim, to displace Palestinians, to displace Lebanese, to bomb Iranians."
He then attacked both the US government and Zionism.
“This is what this particular fascist government in this country is trying to make us forget," Khalil said. “This is what the Zionist project is trying to make us forget, that we are all one, that we’re all humans."
Invoking the religious theme of the gathering, Khalil accused Israel of genocide and of killing Palestinian Arabs in Gaza and Judea and Samaria.
“So at this time of repentance I really ask that may God remember that Israel is committing genocide, that Israel is killing Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, that Israel displaced my grandparents in 1948," he said.
Khalil concluded by declaring: “I come here to say no with you. No to the bombs, no to the engineered famine, no to this country’s money paying for it, no to the lie any of it was inevitable."
“May God through us all, all of us, hold Israel accountable," he added.
The organizers said that more than 1,500 “Jewish community members and friends" took part in the event, which they described as “a day of mass mourning, collective atonement, and a dignified action" demanding that Israel end what they called a “genocide of Palestinians" and that the US cease funding Israel.
“In response to the unspeakable genocide in Gaza, we disrupted the holiest of Jewish holidays. We disrupted life. We disrupted business as usual in New York City. We disrupted our own personal practice of Yom Kippur," the organizers stated.
They argued that their actions represented an expression of Yom Kippur rather than a departure from the observance of the day. “Our public civil disobedience was not, however, a break from Yom Kippur, but an expression of it," they said.
Following the Yizkor event, participants held a protest blocking access to the Brooklyn Bridge for more than an hour. According to the organizers, nine rabbis and Jewish clergy members and 50 other participants were arrested during the demonstration.
“We came together to speak and act clearly," the organizers stated. “We reject the genocide of Palestinians and insist on a free Palestine: we will not stand idly by."