The "last thing" Rabbi Rachel Timoner says she wanted to do was block the street in front of New York's Israeli consulate as part of a protest calling on Israel to increase the flow of humanitarian aid in Gaza – let alone get arrested for doing so.
The Brooklyn rabbi said on the Haaretz Podcast that when she was asked to take part in the demonstration, she found it impossible to say no.
"As a leader of the Jewish community here, as a rabbi, I feel that when Israel is acting in a way that they are claiming is representing Judaism, it's part of my job to show my understanding of what Judaism stands for. We feed the hungry, and we care for the sick, and we free the captives, and we care for the human dignity of every life, of every human life."
Timoner, the senior rabbi at Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, spoke on the podcast about the unease among New York Jews since October 7, and the mood since Zohran Mamdani's victory in the city's Democratic primary.
Mamdani, who will once again face voters in the November general election, has been embroiled in controversy over his support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and his shifting stance on others on the left calling to "globalize the intifada."
