Speaking to Dr. Moshe Glick After Being Pardoned
At 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, January 20, Dr. Moshe Glick, a dentist and West Orange, N.J., community leader, received a phone call, one he was beginning to think would never come. He was hoping for a pardon from outgoing New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, but, after spending hours putting together the application, collecting dozens of character letters and letters of reference, and having what he thought was a “great” interview, no call came for days.
January 20, Governor Murphy’s last day in office, inched closer. “When it didn’t come through on the 19th, I kind of somewhat lost hope,” said Glick. “I said, ‘Okay, look, we took our best shot. This isn’t where the revach v’hatzalah [relief and deliverance] is going to come through. Hashem is going to have a different plan of how this ends.”
Then, hours before Murphy’s term officially ended at noon, the phone rang. He had been pardoned. “I almost had tears well up,” Glick said.
But in his eyes, and in the eyes of the larger Jewish community that supported him, he should never have been charged with a crime in the first place.
His ordeal dates back to November 13, 2024, when Congregation Ohr Torah in West Orange was hosting, among other shul activities and programming that night, an informational event about purchasing real estate in Israel. The event was originally supposed to take place at Glick’s home, but an intimidatory letter from a pro-Palestinian organization left on his porch, plus the discovery that pro-Palestinian protestors planned to march on the location, convinced organizers to move the event.
The night of the event, when the protestors marching toward Glick’s home realized it had been moved, they marched toward the shul, eventually meeting a group of Jews gathered in the shul parking lot. That’s when things escalated. According to Glick, a man named Altaf Sharif approached a group of individuals, including Glick and a 64-year-old man named David Silberberg. Sharif blew the vuvuzela he was holding into Glick’s ear, and Glick swatted it and stepped away from Sharif. Sharif then advanced in a hostile manner on Glick. Silberberg then pepper-sprayed Sharif. Sharif rubbed his eyes, and another protestor pointed out Silberberg as the man who had pepper-sprayed him by saying, “The Jew is here.” Sharif then put Silberberg in a headlock, tackled him to the ground, and dragged him down a hill. Glick called out for police, ran down the slope, and tried to push Sharif off of Silberberg. A trained Hatzalah EMT, when he saw that Sharif was cutting off Silberberg’s airway, he aimed his flashlight at Sharif’s back, accidentally hitting him on the head instead. Sharif released Silberberg.
Later, in a police interview, Sharif would tell a different story. He claimed he did not attack Silberberg but “went to grab the pepper spray” before himself being attacked by “the guy with the flashlight” (Glick) and “the guy that had the pepper spray” (Silberberg). According to him, “they were both trying to tackle me at that point.”
But video footage from that night supports Glick’s telling. Silberberg can be seen on video pepper-spraying Sharif before his hands move out of view. Another protestor then identifies Silberberg to Sharif, who puts him in a headlock, tackles him to the ground, and drags him down a hill. A man identified in footage as Glick is then seen on footage approaching Sharif at the bottom of the slope.
Glick never imagined he would be charged with a crime. “We didn’t really think much of it that night,” he said. “We had indication that the township wasn’t looking to pursue it.” But a pro-Palestinian publication picked up the story and painted him as the aggressor. He consulted attorneys and still felt sure that it wouldn’t go anywhere. Then, he was called in by a police detective for questioning. “You think that in America, if you have clear video evidence, you know what you did, … you’ve never had any issues with the law in the past, that it will just be cleared up,” he said. “For a very long time, we thought it was just a big misunderstanding or a big mistake.” Glick was arrested and charged with bias intimidation, a charge that was later dropped, aggravated assault, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and possession of a weapon. Sharif was never charged with a crime.
What followed was more than a year of legal proceedings, the threat of up to five to ten years of prison weighing over him. “From the first thing you wake up until the last thing you close your eyes at night, it’s on your mind because the consequences are real,” he said. “Going to jail, losing your professional licensing, all the consequences that come along with it.”
Many in his community and the larger Jewish world stood behind him. “Being part of Klal Yisrael, there’s a tremendous support system,” he said. Community members, rabbis, and organizations like the Agudah of New Jersey supported him. The Jewish Bar Association of New Jersey helped him find legal resources, and Israel 365 launched a campaign, including to help offset a portion of the expenses.
Still, the burden was heavy. “Everybody goes on, moving on with their life, but this was our reality, day in and day out,” he said. There were also those who assumed that he actually was to blame for the events of that night, including organizations and individuals who viewed him as a “criminal” or felt that “only guilty people get arrested.”
Then, in September 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice stepped in, suing two pro-Palestinian organizations and several individuals, including Sharif, for the events of November 13. The DOJ alleges that they violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a law that is traditionally used to go after those who block the entrance to an abortion facility or intimidate those trying to enter. But it also covers blocking or intimidating those “exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.” The suit argues that “[t]he Defendants’ conduct, both in forcing the relocation of the event from Glick’s prayer space and in disrupting the event at the synagogue through violence and intimidation, constitutes clear violations of this statute.”
Glick is thankful that the DOJ took up the case. “The Department of Justice, under AAG Harmeet Dhillon and her team, are in the trenches, looking to protect not just Jewish civil liberties, but Christian, Judeo-Christian civil liberties,” he said, referencing an incident earlier this year when anti-ICE protestors disrupted a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota. “How is it possible that in a house of worship in 2026 people can just terrorize individuals?” he said.
Ultimately, why charges were brought against him is “the million dollar question” for Glick. The proceedings were plagued by withheld evidence and flaws in the indictment. “Clearly this case was not based on its merits,” he said, adding that Sharif “breaks through a police line and attacks [an] elderly individual in front of a synagogue, he assaults him, somehow he doesn’t get charged with assault, with hate crimes, doesn’t get charged for lying to the police, filing a false police report.” Glick said that “[t]hese are really difficult questions that somebody is going to have to answer at some point.” The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
But for Glick, this was never really about himself. He declined pretrial intervention (PTI) that would have helped end this a long time ago and avoid prison time without a guilty plea because “it just had a bad look and bad smell and bad taste,” he said, adding that it “goes against my sense of morality and justice.”
He went on, “What message it would send to the good guys, to us, to our people, to the Christian community, and, more importantly, to the bad guys, which is going to embolden them if they can come in, march on the synagogue, attack somebody in front of a shul, and somehow the Jew takes pretrial intervention that this is my plea. It was distasteful, and so something I couldn’t do.”
Though his personal legal battle is over, he is motivated to continue the fight, giving speeches and encouraging Jewish organizations to be more forthright and the Jewish community to stand up for itself. “We need to be out there. I’ve never been to a protest where there’s been more Jews than there have been jihadis, and that’s something that needs to change,” he said. Glick will be testifying in front of the Religious Liberty Commission in Washington, D.C. established by President Trump, as well as at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville. “The goal of this was never just to free myself from criminal charges. That’s never my intention,” he said. “My intention was to fight for Jewish dignity and Jewish rights, and in case this happens to anybody else around the country, whether Jew or Christian.”
After he was pardoned, Glick was asked if he wanted to “take the win and ride off into the sunset.” He couldn’t. “Hashem has given me this mission, and it’s my job to take this mission on,” he said. “And maybe these are my 15 minutes of fame that I can stretch into an hour. But I’m going to try to use that platform that He’s given me to really bring attention to this plight.”