Oct. 7 Vigil in Manhattan Overrun, Mamdani Booed as Traitor

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters overran a vigil marking the third anniversary of the October 7 massacre in Manhattan's Union Square Park on Wednesday night. They chanted against Israel, carried a portrait of Yahya Sinwar and booed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as a "traitor," JTA and The Jerusalem Post reported.

The vigil was organized by Israelis for Peace, a left-wing peace group. After demonstrators flooded the planned site, organizers moved the ceremony to another part of the park ringed by police barricades. Speakers struggled to be heard over the noise. Attendees held electric candles and signs reading "Not one more life." Ynet reported that the disruption delayed the ceremony by several minutes. Participants read aloud the names of Israelis murdered in the Hamas attack and of Palestinians killed in Gaza.

When the crowd learned that Mamdani was present, it broke into chants of "Traitor!" and "Zohran, what do you say? How many boots did you lick today?" VINnews recorded further taunts: "sellout," "You coward!" and "Zohran, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide." The mayor stood solemnly beside Brad Lander, the former New York City comptroller, holding a candle. He neither spoke at the vigil nor answered the protesters.

One protester shouted at the organizers: "We don't want peace with Israelis, bro! We sent your people to hell on October 7." Another called Mamdani "100% Muslim" but said the mayor "stands as an ambassador of Zionism and U.S. imperialism." Earlier in the evening, demonstrators had snatched electric candles meant for the vigil and sung "Hava Nagila" in mockery. One held up a poster of Sinwar, the Hamas chief behind the assault that left 1,200 people dead in southern Israel. Some waved Hamas flags. As mourners left, protesters shouted "Death to the IDF!" Across the city that day, rallies also rang with chants of "Long live Hamas."

Lander is now the Democratic nominee for a congressional seat covering parts of Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. At the vigil, he took the microphone to read words from the mother of a 20-year-old murdered at the Nova music festival. Speakers also shared testimonies of Palestinians killed by the IDF, and the group was led in a Muslim prayer. The evening closed with the Mourner's Kaddish, led by Amichai Lau-Lavie of New York's Lab Shul.

"That level of heartbreak is a lot more than the level of having some people shouting. The flattening of empathy is another sadness."

Those were Lander's words afterward. Lau-Lavie said the protest atmosphere left "no room for nuance" and welcomed the mayor's presence. "For all his flaws, and there are many, I hope he got something," he said. Tamar Glazerman, a co-founder of Israelis for Peace, called it "a difficult night." "Verbally, it was very violent," she said.

Ross Glick, a pro-Israel activist from New York who once ran Betar US, showed up with counter-protesters waving Israeli flags. Anti-Israel demonstrators quickly confronted them, and the two camps traded shouts across a barrier. Both crowds eventually dispersed peacefully. Police made no arrests.

Before marching to the park, the protesters rallied at City Hall at an event organized by Pal-Awda and student groups. About 125 people attended that rally. The crowd chanted "Globalize the intifada" and "Resistance is justified when people are occupied," and accused Mamdani of capitulating "to Zionist pressure." One sign showed the mayor rolling out a red carpet for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Another read "Liberation in action Oct. 7." An Israeli flag carried the words "Death cult" and an inverted red triangle, a Hamas symbol, over the Star of David.

The mayor's anniversary statement that morning had already angered Jewish leaders. It noted that Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251, but called Israel's campaign in Gaza an "ongoing genocide." ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt accused Mamdani of "weaponizing" the victims' memory, writing on X: "Not once do you say 'Jews.'" Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the UN, told the New York Post that the mayor was "trying to hijack the day to talk about attacking Israel."

Earlier in the day, Jewish New Yorkers spoke of their unease. "We should never forget," said Toni Rabin, 83, who marked the anniversary at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan.