Protester at Shabbat event in Puerto Rico Nov. 10 . Photo by Screenshot/video by Zach Williams

By Jacob Kornbluh, Ben SalesNovember 12, 2023

An annual Shabbat dinner in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to celebrate Jewish-Latino relations took a tumultuous turn as more than 50 pro-Palestinian protesters Friday repeatedly interrupted the event, chanting slogans commonly heard at recent anti-Israel demonstrations across the nation.

The incident, at the Somos conference, which attracts prominent New York state and Puerto Rican politicians and lobbyists, drew sharp rebukes from Jewish leaders and elected officials, who called the incident antisemitic. 

The “Oneg Shabbat” gathering, organized by the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty and the UJA-Federation of New York, in collaboration with Chabad of Puerto Rico, has been held on the sidelines of the Somos conference in past years as its only Jewish affair.

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On Friday evening, as the event was getting underway, some 50 protesters assembled outside the hotel while a smaller group entered the venue after presenting their credentials, according to several present for the dinner. Some of the protesters covered their hands in fake blood and shouted slogans at the event, which drew about 200 people. One protester wore a scarf with the colors of the Palestinian flag and shouted, “Stop it!” Another chanted, “Never again for anyone! Plenty of Jews in New York hate genocide!”

‘Antisemitic propaganda’

David Greenfield, CEO of the Met Council and a prominent Jewish leader, said the protesters, granted access to an event they knew was not Israel-related, took advantage of the organizers’ welcome “to spread antisemitic propaganda and stoke fear for those of us who were there to celebrate Shabbat.”

“This was clearly not about Israel because this was not an Israel event,” Greenfield said, noting that the organization is the nation’s largest Jewish anti-poverty charity fighting poverty in and beyond the Jewish communities, including providing more than 1.2 million pounds in free Halal food to over 20 Halal food pantries last year. “This was a clear attempt by pro-Palestinians to scare and intimidate us on Shabbat because we’re Jewish. This is old-fashioned antisemitism and is exactly what they mean when they chant ‘globalize the intifada.’” 

A protester in a video circulating on social media was identified by participants as David Galarza Santa, a labor and community activist who unsuccessfully ran for the New York City Council. His social media accounts are filled with anti-Israel posts. Last week, he posted a selfie on Instagram with Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who was censured by the House of Representatives on Wednesday for using a phrase many interpret as a call for the elimination of the Jewish state.

Another protester was identified by participants as Andrew J. Padilla, who is currently a doctoral fellow at New York University and previously worked as a lecturer at Columbia University. In 2021, Padilla was the recipient of Columbia’s Community Fellowship, which was established as part of an anti-racism action plan. 

Amy Spitalnick, chief executive of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, also decried the protest as antisemitic. “If you’re targeting Jewish people, organizations, and events — like a Shabbat dinner — for the actions of the Israeli government, you’re engaging in antisemitism,” she wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. 

“Let’s call them what they are: antisemites,” Dan Rosenthal, a former New York Assemblyman who is now the UJA-Federation of New York’s vice president of government relations, said at the event. “We are celebrating our Shabbat proudly, and that is offensive to them.”

Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, a New York-based left-wing Jewish group that has accused Israel of genocide, held a Friday night event at Somos in which members prayed “for an end to the brutal siege on Gaza, and the return of all hostages.”

Threats to New York Jewish institutions

The morning after the protest at the Shabbat dinner in Puerto Rico, a New York Police Department bomb squad was called when someone found a grenade at Holocaust Memorial Park in Sheepshead Bay, a city park in Brooklyn. Police determined the grenade to be inert.

Soon afterward, police arrived at Manhattan’s Central Synagogue after a caller called 911 and said two bags at the synagogue were going to explode. The threat appeared to be non-credible and did not appear to disrupt the synagogue’s services, according to a livestream on Facebook.

The threats and protests come more than a month into the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and amid a significant uptick in antisemitic incidents in New York City. The NYPD recorded 69 anti-Jewish hate crimes across the city, 214% higher than the same month last year. 

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Saturday called for the deployment of the U.S. National Guard to protect Jewish institutions and houses of worship. 

JTA contributed to this article.

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