Hundreds of Jews Attend Rally Protesting The New York Times

Several hundred Jews gathered outside The New York Times’s Manhattan office on Thursday to protest an opinion column by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and Times staffer Nicholas Kristof. The article included a claim that a Palestinian male prisoner was raped by a canine allegedly trained by Israeli forces to carry out such abuse.

The article, titled “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians,” was labeled a blood libel by Israel’s Foreign Ministry, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying Israel would sue the newspaper.

Kristof wrote that sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners is systemic, citing a report by the Geneva-based Euro-Med, a so-called “human rights monitor,” which he noted “is often critical of Israel.” The organization has affiliations with Hamas, and a history of grotesque and unsubstantiated claims against Israel. For example, in 2023, Euro-Med accused Israel of “organ theft” from Palestinians, without providing any evidence.

Protesters chanted, “Shame on Kristof,” “Fire Kristof,” and “All the News That’s Fit to Kill Jews.”

Some held signs reading “J’accuse” alongside The New York Times logo, referencing the false accusations against Jewish French officer Alfred Dreyfus, who was wrongfully convicted of treason in 1894.

The rally was organized by EndJewHatred, founded by Brooke Goldstein, and the Movement Against Antizionism, founded by Adam Louis-Klein, who told the crowd that enough was enough.

“So, we are here today not to accommodate, not to give permission, not to bow our heads,” Louis-Klein said. “We are here today to say no. To say that we, as Jews and as Israelis, will not be erased from this society. We will not countenance a racist hate movement. We will not accept antizionism. We are done playing their games. We are done with their abstractions and debates. We have heard them, and we have seen them desecrating our neighborhoods, vandalizing our synagogues, and murdering our people.

“Antizionism is not a justice movement. It has placed a veil of darkness and untruth over our society. We must name the problem clearly. We must use our voice. Shame on Nicholas Kristof. Shame on The New York Times. Shame on the United Nations. Shame on the universities for their antizionist garbage pseudoscience.”

Dov Hikind, former New York assemblyman and founder of Americans Against Antisemitism, said it was time to worry.

“We’re in trouble, big-time,” Hikind said. “The New York Times is not going to do a darn thing, and you know it. They are committed to this cause of undermining Jews who are proud. The only time you get an editorial in The New York Times that is positive toward the Jewish people is when there is tragedy in Israel, when Jews are murdered.

“The Jews who ran The New York Times were always opposed to the creation of the Jewish state. They fought it with everything they had.”

Hikind said The New York Times buries stories about the Holocaust and attacks on Jews.

He also said Jews need to develop a defense organization.

Pro-Israel influencer Aliza Licht said she is the grandchild of four Holocaust survivors. She accused The New York Times of printing propaganda and said people should demand that the paper retract the article, disclose how it sourced the story, and retrain staff to understand that antizionism is antisemitism.

She noted that Kristof wrote in 2010 that his father fought on the side of the Nazis, and that CAIR — the Council on American-Islamic Relations — deleted its demand that The New York Times retract its December 28, 2023, story, “Screams Without Words: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence.” The paper reportedly filmed but shelved a podcast on the topic. (Likewise, NPR later reported that there was dissent and “chaos” inside the newsroom due to staff objections to the story.)

Conservative activist Matthew Monfore, who is Christian, told the crowd that Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens were among those who call themselves Christians while spreading lies.

“It’s important to understand this is not an organic campaign against Jews,” he said. “It is an international campaign against Jews financed by Russia, China, and Qatar to turn us against each other. Do not fall for it.”

Yossi Friedman, EndJewHatred’s director of campus mobilization, told attendees that he served in Gaza as an IDF soldier when the deal to bring home the hostages was signed.

“Self-defense has become genocide, terrorism has become resistance, and Jewish survival is portrayed as aggression,” Friedman said, adding that the article was meant to portray Jews as “uniquely monstrous.”

He also described the moment as dangerous and called on Jews to “reject the blood libels.”

“We will not accept the idea that Jews are acceptable only when powerless,” Friedman said.

Asked whether American college students and the broader public would believe claims that Israel used dogs to sexually assault prisoners, Friedman said:

“People will believe the things that confirm their preconceived notions,” he told The Jewish Press after the rally. “It’s hard to deny that antisemitic rhetoric is being believed more and more because if you repeat a lie enough, eventually people believe it. It upsets me, but I expect it. It’s a reiteration of the desire to demonize Jews.”

Pro-Israel influencer Zach Sage Fox climbed onto Monfore’s shoulders during the rally.

“They may come after us with mobs, but we will come after them with our minds, our hearts, and our actions of peace and love, because we are the light in the darkness,” he said, adding that The New York Times was spreading blood libel.

Jayne Zirkle of EndJewHatred told The Jewish Press that the timing of Kristof’s article was intended to distract from a new report on the crimes of October 7, available at Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes Against Women and Children.

She argued that Kristof’s article was contradictory, saying it both admitted uncertainty about what occurred while simultaneously alleging that abuse was systematic and ongoing.

“We are demanding better journalism,” Zirkle told the crowd. “The New York Times is the reason why most Americans do not trust the media anymore.”

Israel activist Elisha Fine shouted the names of victims murdered on October 7. He later told The Jewish Press he was flabbergasted by allegations that dogs had been trained to rape men, as well as by Kristof’s reliance on Euro-Med, which Israel alleges has ties to Hamas.

“I see this as a paradigm shift and the beginning of a movement,” Fine said, adding that there is a need to combat antizionism.

Others at the rally said abuse likely exists in prisons around the world, but they did not believe there was evidence of systemic sexual assault by Israeli forces. Some questioned why the allegations appeared in the Opinion section rather than as a reported news investigation by journalists such as Isabel Kershner.

Marni Kagan, who lives on the Upper West Side, said she attended because Jews had tolerated biased coverage from The New York Times for too long and because Kristof’s article “went too far.”

She also criticized comparisons between video evidence of Hamas assaults and the largely unnamed sources cited in Kristof’s article.

“As much as The New York Times has proven to have a substandard level of journalism these days, I was still surprised,” Kagan said. “This is such an absurd accusation. I felt I needed to come out today. If it had actually been investigated, it would have appeared in the regular news section and not the Opinion section.

“The claim that Israel trained a dog to sexually assault men is absurd. And it is shameful that the Times platforms Hasan Piker, who says America deserved 9/11. I was here in September, and I have friends I went to school with who died that day. It’s beyond the pale.”

Kagan added that many people describe themselves as antizionist “but every so often the façade slips, and they say ‘Jews,’ because we know that’s what they really mean.”

Ross Glick held a large flag combining the American and Israeli flags. Glick, who said he is known as the “Urban Warrior,” said he attended the rally for one reason.

“I’m disgusted by The New York Times, and I came to stand with my community as a proud Jew and a proud American against this blood libel,” Glick told The Jewish Press. “I am here to stand for truth. We can see on social media and on the streets people screaming at us. This is a cognitive war, and this article is like a ballistic missile.”

Several attendees said there may well be abuses in Israeli prisons, as there are in prisons worldwide, but they rejected claims of systemic sexual assault and questioned why the allegations were not handled as a thoroughly sourced news investigation.

Manhattan resident Scott Piro said he attended because he was “infuriated by The New York Times’s antizionist hate libels that mark us for violence.”

Piro described Kristof’s article as poorly sourced and questioned whether the columnist had been influenced improperly. He also said he could not understand how Kristof included allegations involving trained dogs without visiting a prison or consulting canine experts.

The Jewish Press contacted two dog experts by phone.

Michael Gould, a canine expert with 40 years of experience who has testified in court as an expert witness, said he is apolitical. The founder of Canine Behavioral Experts specializes in police canine tactics and deployment.

“I can train dogs to do almost anything, but it’s based on their motivation,” Gould said. “It would be like asking whether an alligator could be trained to have sex with a giraffe. Anatomically, it’s impossible.

“Can dogs be trained to attack people in the genitals? Of course. But training a dog to engage in sexual interaction would involve many other factors…. I’ve heard rumors over the years that it’s possible, but I’ve seen no evidence of it. I’ve never heard of a documented case of this before. Anything is possible, but I’m scientifically based, and I would need evidence — not just anecdotal information.”

James Crosby, an expert in dog aggression who has trained dogs for more than two decades, said he had heard similar rumors but “never in any context that was believable.”

Among the speakers, Louis-Klein closed with a message of hope.

“We are an unbreakable people,” Louis-Klein told the crowd. “And when we know who we are, nothing will stop the light — the light that shines and dispels the darkness. The light that shines from Zion.”