Protest in Bergenfield

Protest in Bergenfield

Anti-Israel demonstrators gather, march, and shout in residential area in the evening

Police officers maintained a strip of street between protesters and counterprotesters.
Police officers maintained a strip of street between protesters and counterprotesters.

Last Wednesday night, Rebekah Mally, who lives on a quiet street in Bergenfield, saw signs alerting residents that parking on the street would not be allowed during certain hours the following day. She assumed it was related to some sort of construction, but then heard there would be a protest nearby, in front of a private home where a family was scheduled to host a private event for a handful of friends about buying apartments in Jerusalem. Her initial reaction was fear. “My first concern was just making sure everybody was safe,” she said.

On Thursday, protesters gathered at Bergenfield High School at about 7 p.m. and walked almost a mile through residential streets to the private home. Ms. Mally’s home was on the route. “They were honking air horns and shouting through bullhorns ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine is almost free,’” she said. The marchers were escorted by police officers and walked in the area that had been cordoned off for the march, but one woman “gave my daughter the finger as she walked past,” Ms. Mally said.

The protesters did not leave until after 9, at which point they walked past her house again.

On the completely residential dead-end block that was the group’s destination, police had set up barricades dividing the street. Neighbors and friends who had come to lend support to the family hosting the gathering were instructed to remain on one side of the barricade, and protesters were told to stand on  the other side. The two sides were separated by a no-man’s land, a length of pavement that was empty except for police officers. Surrounding streets were closed to traffic.

The Bergen County Jewish Action Committee estimates that the protest drew close to 100 Hamas supporters, Chana Shields, a member of BCJAC’s executive committee said, and close to 300 counterprotesters.

Ms. Mally went to the protest to support the homeowners after the protesters passed her house. “Protesters were screaming ‘there is only one solution, intifada revolution’ and ‘from the river to the sea,’” she said. “They called us Nazis, they were waving around pictures of Hitler, and someone shouted he should have finished the job.”

She stressed that this happened “in our neighborhood, in front of our homes, where we live with our children.

“So whether or not we wanted our kids exposed to this, we really had no choice.”

A demonstrator holds up a placard with a photograph of Adolf Hitler.

Her family had been in Israel on October 7, 2023, and the protest was “really triggering” for one of her children,” Ms. Mally said. She described the block as “just a quiet dead end” where “nobody ever comes,” so the protest felt “incredibly invasive and really scary.” Ms. Mally has lived in the borough for 15 years and has never seen anything like this there.

Michael Berkowitz, who also lives in the area, said his kids “were frightened by all the police activity and loud shouting they could hear from our house,” particularly when “they understood that pro-Palestinian protesters were nearby and knew where we lived.”

An older child, who is “aware of the October 7 horrors,” woke up later that night “shaken from a nightmare and worried about something happening to our house.”

Mr. Berkowitz hopes that residents can work with local officials “to prevent such protests from happening again on residential streets where our kids are supposed to be sleeping.”

He recognizes that protesters have First Amendment rights and believes that “Bergenfield has rules about noise levels, large gatherings, and other restrictions that would allow law enforcement to require protests to take place further away from private residences,” he added. “The police escorted protesters directly to a house. They could easily have directed them to a safer, more public area to protest.”

Akiva Shapiro, a constitutional lawyer who lives in Bergenfield, wrote in an email that “the Supreme Court has made clear that there is no constitutional right to target a private home on a residential street with a disruptive late-night protest — without a permit, no less.”

Under the Bergenfield Borough Code, officials should have “required organizers to apply for a permit and set reasonable guidelines, including directing protesters to an appropriate location for a large gathering such as a nearby park or school,” he added.

He understands that many neighbors reached out to local officials asking that the protest be moved to a more suitable area and added that “ignoring residents’ repeated requests to do so and instead allowing a hate-filled mob to march down residential streets late at night and scream and blow air horns for hours feet from residents’ front doors was an abdication of their responsibility to the citizens of Bergenfield.”

Young counterprotesters wave Israeli flags.

Rachel Cyrulnik, a member of BCJAC’s executive committee, sees this protest as different from the others that have been plaguing the area since October 7. “This was conducted at a private residence, literally at the doorstep of a family,” she said. “It was a breach of the privacy and safety of the family and the neighbors. We don’t usually like to counterprotest — not much is gained by doing that — but we felt that it was important in this case. If the protest had been held at Bergenfield High School or at a park, we would not have counterprotested.”

Ms. Cyrulnik said she was grateful to the “police officers who were there to protect Jewish residents and ensure everybody’s safety.” She noted that the protest and the attacks that took place in Amsterdam the same night “certainly were not the same,” but that “the juxtaposition is an important warning that we don’t want to push the boundary in terms of the safety of Jewish residents. We want to take this issue seriously.”

Daniel Barzideh, president of Bais Medrash of Bergenfield, one of the shuls in the borough, also expressed gratitude to the Bergenfield police department “for their commitment to keeping our community safe.

“However, many in our community were disturbed by the virulent protest, led by agitators from outside our town, that disrupted a quiet residential cul-de-sac,” Mr. Barzideh wrote in a WhatsApp message. “We look forward to a constructive dialogue with the town’s leadership to ensure that protests aimed at bullying Jewish residents in their own homes are not allowed to take place in this manner in the future. We are also deeply appreciative of the broader Jewish community for coming together in support of the counter-protest. By standing together, we have made it clear that attempts to intimidate us — literally at the doorsteps of our own homes — will not be tolerated.”

“We felt that the agitators were completely crossing a red line by protesting in front of a residential home,” Rabbi Zev Goldberg, who leads the shul, added. “Everyone has a right to free speech, but the protest certainly did not belong on a residential block.”

“I think the feeling of myself and local rabbis is that people certainly have a right to make their voices heard, but when it’s done outside of a synagogue or outside of a private home, that really is a cynical manipulation of one’s First Amendment right, and utilizing it as a form of intimidation or harassment,” another local rabbi said. “There have been many occasions when we have encouraged people to stay away from anti-Israel protests and not counterprotest. We’re not looking to throw fuel on the flames, we’re not looking for tension, but when it becomes a form of harassment or intimidation, we felt that it was necessary to counterprotest.”

Corey Gallo, the borough administrator, wrote in an email: “The Borough did not issue any permits. As we became aware of the events leading up to this protest, we sought and received guidance from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office regarding permissible activity as it relates to civil liberties and protests. The Borough does not have an ordinance specifically related to the regulation of protests. As such, an action plan was developed and implemented involving numerous law enforcement agencies to ensure the safety of the residents within the Borough as well as the participants involved in the protest. Being present throughout the protest, the Police Department did an outstanding job preventing any physical violence from either side while maintaining peace. Although outside influences adversely impacted our community Thursday evening, Bergenfield is a place where respect of one and another’s traditions and views are the fabric that makes this community special. We are pleased to report, as of today, there were no arrests made, no injuries reported and no property damaged surrounding this event.”

Ora Kornbluth is a member of the Borough Council. “We reached out to the Bergen County prosecutor and to our attorneys who told us, based on the borough ordinances and other information, that we could not stop this protest,” she said. “Both advised us to let the protesters march. We were told there was no ordinance that we could have used to stop them.

Pro-Palestinian protesters hurl invective across the barricade.

“Bergenfield happens to be a very closeknit town where everyone really does get along,” Ms. Kornbluth continued. “We’re a diverse community where we stand up for each other. We had an Israeli flag flying in front of Borough Hall after October 7 to show support for Israel on behalf of the council.

“Bergenfield is not a place where we want outside agitators to come. We didn’t want this hate, but we felt like there was no choice.”

And most of Bergenfield is residential, Ms. Kornbluth added. “The high school is in a residential area. Even if we could have directed the protesters to another place, it would have disturbed residents in that location.

“Once we realized that we felt we couldn’t stop the protest, we sprang into action to make sure it was safe and secure for everyone in Bergenfield,” she said. “The county rapid response team was on standby. The prosecutor’s office assisted with security details including monitoring the cameras that were installed on local streets, and we had a command center in the high school where the Office of Emergency Management and the chief of police were among the team monitoring radios and keeping an eye on the situation. We had other towns on standby ready to help us out. We did everything we could to keep the area secure and safe for our residents.

“Yes, it was hateful, and none of us were happy with the message they were spewing. Amsterdam didn’t help. What happened in Amsterdam made it much worse. People are scared. At the end of the day, there was no violence or vandalism.”

Borough officials will be “looking to see if we can strengthen our ordinances without violating anybody’s constitutional rights,” Ms. Kornbluth said. “At whether there is any legal way to put limits on protests, as a possibility for the future.”

The borough “increased patrols around all three Bergenfield shuls last weekend just in case,” she added. “We had extra officers come in and drive around town in case anybody would come back to cause problems because we didn’t want any issues for our residents.”

Assemblyman Chris Tully stopped by the counterprotest, which was in place before the protesters arrived, to offer his support and stand with the community. (His schedule did not allow him to stay for the protest itself.) “It’s vital we stand against the scourge of anti-semitism, especially when directly affecting our friends and neighbors,” Mr. Tully wrote in a text.

“The conflicts unfolding in the Middle East should never lead to the targeted harassment of a private residence on our neighborhood streets. As an elected official and Bergenfield resident, it was important to show support for our Jewish community.”

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