TEANECK — The Palestinian-Israeli conflict found its way to this quiet suburb Sunday as thousands of protesters marched across town and demonstrated at a synagogue where a company was pitching real estate deals in Israel and the occupied West Bank.
Protesters gathered at the Teaneck Armory on the north end of town and marched about a mile to Congregation Keter Torah, where the My Home in Israel Real Estate company was giving out information on how to buy properties. Among those properties were some in West Bank settlements that U.S. policy has long considered illegal.
The protesters arrived at the synagogue shortly after 1:30 p.m.
In the morning, Teaneck police erected barriers on all local roads surrounding the synagogue for at least half a mile and barred parking on many others from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Dozens of local police and sheriff’s officers lined up outside the synagogue shortly after 11 a.m.
“At the very least, I hope this raises awareness,” said Ahmed Obidat of Paterson, one of the first protesters to arrive, shortly before noon. “They are selling stolen land. Nobody is superior and should get special treatment.”
Metal barriers were erected on both sides of Roemer Avenue as security guards stood at the entrance of the synagogue’s parking lot to examine bags. Security officers also opened trunks and checked under vehicles with a rolling mirror.
Some supporters of Israel criticized protesters, calling it a pro-Hamas event. The demonstration is a “cynical attempt to target a religious institution under false pretenses as part of a coordinated and malicious campaign to harass Teaneck’s Jewish community,” said Yigal Gross, a spokesman for the Bergen County Jewish Action Committee.
A woman driving past the synagogue and the protesters rolled down her window and sang the familiar Beatles chorus “All you need is love!” Shortly after, a man who drove past yelled out at protesters: “Die! Die! Die!”
While the protest was largely non-violent, there were some skirmishes. A man carrying an Israeli flag walked through a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters. A protester grabbed the flag out of his hand and tossed it to the ground. Police intervened and escorted the man out of the area. Some pro-Palestinian participants tossed water and plastic water bottles at some cars exiting the synagogue. A man whose car was hit with a bottle rolled down the window and yelled: “Israel is going to [expletive] you!”
A few water bottles were thrown at a small group of counterprotesters standing near the synagogue’s entrance holding Israeli flags as they exchanged barbs with pro-Palestinian protesters across Roemer Avenue while a dozen police officers stood between them. At least one bottle was hurled back.
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The seeds of the protest began last month when Teaneck resident Rich Siegel — a Jewish man and outspoken critic of the Israeli government — criticized the event at a Township Council meeting in a video that went viral on social media and already has more than 500,000 views on X, the website formerly known as Twitter.
Inside the synagogue, things were calm.
Representatives at booths offering legal advice, moving assistance or mortgages had large bowls filled with free chocolates below oversized signs that said “Looking to move to Israel?”
Gidon Katz, CEO of IMP Group, which was running the event, was beaming.
“Business has been great,” he said. “I don’t know what’s motivating peoples’ decision to want to come, but there’s no question that we’ve had increased interest.”
The real estate event featured 35 vendors and advertised more than 100 projects. Katz emphasized that the fair was strictly “an educational event” aimed at helping people who want to move to Israel or purchase real estate there and that no sales transactions were taking place at the venue. Motti Ben Yitzchok, who was staffing a table that provided information about moving to Ashkelon, a coastal city in southern Israel, boasted that his booth was so popular he ran out of brochures. “I had a big stack of them this morning and now I’m all out,” he said at around 4:30 p.m.
At around 5 p.m., security personnel in the synagogue told the event participants they had to wait inside the temple until it was safe for them to leave.
Adina Abramoff of Teaneck added that the real estate event was “very informative” and said the protesters were “misguided” about what it was about. “The fact that SWAT teams have to be called out to protect us at a synagogue event is very sad,” she said.
“We’re outraged that a synagogue would sponsor an event that is selling stolen land,” Teaneck resident Adam Weissman of Northern New Jersey Voice For Peace said Sunday afternoon. “It’s clearly in violation of a core tenet of Judaism, something as simple as thou shall not kill.”
On Sunday, at about noon, one of the early protesters said to a motorist driving into the synagogue’s parking lot: “You know it’s stolen land, right?”
On Friday, Township Manager Dean Kazinci said in a letter to residents that officials were preparing a plan that focused on “maintaining public order, safeguarding the rights of peaceful demonstrators and ensuring the protection of the synagogue and its visitors.”
Kazinci said he had received multiple requests to shut down the event because of allegations that it violates international law but that local officials have no power to cancel a private event that doesn’t violate local ordinances.
Although Kazinci said the real estate company has held such sessions at Teaneck synagogues and elsewhere across the U.S. and Canada for years, the Israel-Hamas war has stoked tensions and heightened scrutiny of such presentations.
Representatives for Keter Torah said last week that the sessions were to discuss “tax and financial implications of buying real estate abroad” and that no sales would take place.
Two Muslim civil rights organizations called on the New Jersey attorney general to investigate whether the event was discriminatory, saying it was marketed only to Jews. That drew a sharp rebuke from organizers, who said the accusation was inflammatory and admission was open to anyone.
Members of Keter Torah said last week that they stood by their decision to hold the event in their house of worship. Some Jewish residents said they would attend just to show solidarity.
Mike Kirshner, an attendee of the real estate event, pointed to the protestors and said, “I’m sure that was good for business.”
Israeli right-wing leaders have called for expanding settlements in the West Bank for nationalist and religious reasons, citing the Jewish people’s historical claims to the land. Last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated longstanding U.S. policy against the settlements — many built on seized Palestinian land — after plans to build 3,300 new homes surfaced.
A local group in Teaneck that advocates for the Jewish community turned the protest into a fundraising tool for Israel. In the face of the “intimidation campaign by Israel’s enemies,” the Bergen County Jewish Action Committee launched a fundraising effort in which for every protester who attended, a donation was made to American Friends of Magen David Adom, the Red Cross equivalent in Israel, which saves the lives of Jews, Muslims and Christians in Israel every day.
As of 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, more than $14,500 had been raised for MDA, said Emma Horowitz.
Kevin R. Wexler contributed to this story.