Man arrested at Temple Israel for firing shotgun on front steps and speaker sparks first amendment battle
DELMAR – Over a hundred people came out under snow-filled skies to witness the lighting of the public menorah at the Four Corners on Thursday.
The local tradition takes place on the first day of Hanukkah, the eight-day festival of lights, but this was a week of challenges for the Jewish community as it grappled with a controversial event at the Bethlehem Public Library and a man firing a shotgun on the steps of Temple Israel a few hours before the lighting.
“The attendance [at the Menorah lighting] has been growing each year since we started, but this was the largest we have had,” Rabbi Zalman Simon of Bethlehem Chabad said. “People, both Jewish and non Jewish, expressed that they were coming to support us given what went on earlier in the day. Our approach to fighting hate is to use positivity and shed light on it.”
Bethlehem Chabad held the event with entertainment and prayer before lighting the first candle on the large Menorah that stands on Kenwood Avenue.
After the lighting, the organization hosted guests for food and entertainment at its Adams Street location.
“If we impact people positively we will change the world. Our world and the whole world will be better,” Rabbi Zalman added. “It is all about education and open dialogue. We do have to make sure the community is not fearful to participate.”
The event was not only well attended, but also protected by an increased and visible presence by Bethlehem police and other law enforcement.
Earlier in the day, Albany police were called to Temple Israel on New Scotland Avenue at approximately 2 p.m. for the report of a man firing two shotgun rounds on the front steps of the building. There were approximately 60 children inside the building at the time.
Police responded to the synagogue and took a 28-year-old Schenectady man into custody a short distance away. Local, State and Federal law enforcement responded to the scene.
Mufid Fawaz Alkhader, a U.S. citizen born in Iraq, allegedly shouted “free Palestine” after police detained him and possibly before firing the shots, according to officials.
Federal law enforcement charged him with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person because he allegedly admitted to using marijuana regularly to police, according to the criminal complaint.
He was arraigned on Friday morning and is being held at the Albany County jail without bail.
Alkhader was charged federally with a felony, but because the weapon was a shotgun, it is unclear whether he could be charged for the incident under State laws and be held.
“After this press conference, we’re going to be lighting Hanukkah candles — because we need light in darkness,” Temple Israel Rabbi Wendy Love Anderson said on Thursday at a press conference at the synagogue, which is next to St. Peter’s Hospital.
Albany police and the FBI are exploring charging Alkhader with a hate crime for the incident.
“During this time of rising antisemitism throughout our country and the world we encourage our community to be especially vigilant and aware of potential threats,” the Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York said in a statement. “At the same time, we can not succumb to fear and intimidation and we must remain proud of our Jewish heritage and traditions.”
At the Bethlehem Menorah lighting, attendees reacted to the Albany incident.
“The darkness brought about by [the] shooting at Temple Israel in Albany, will not swallow the light of Hanukkah,” Bethlehem Town Board Member David DeCancio said. “Now more than ever we must be the light by standing together to condemn antisemitism, hate, and violence.”
The incident in Albany came on the heels of an event held on Tuesday, Dec. 5 at the Bethlehem Library that caused concern for many in the Jewish community.
The local organization, Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace organized a presentation of Israeli-American activist and author Miko Peled.
Both the timing of the event and Peled came with a high degree of controversy in the community. The event was held during increasing tensions in the Middle East and also two days before Hanukkah and the two-month anniversary of the October 7 Hammas terror attacks against Israel.
Peled is an Israeli-born Jew who was raised in Israel and the son of a top Israeli General. His experience in the military and life inside Israel prompted him to become a critic of Israeli and US policy treatment of the Palestinian people.
A day earlier, the library’s Board of Trustees held a special meeting to discuss the event and allow the community to express its views in hosting Peled. The meeting became a discussion of what constitutes free speech, hate speech and whether the library board should take action to stop the event.
“This cannot happen here,” said Delmar resident Hope Grenz Amsterdamer who spoke during the public comment segment of the almost three-hour long meeting.
“I left Israel after being in two wars to come home (to Bethlehem for) a safe haven for me and my children where we don’t have to run from rockets and hide from terrorist attacks. Not here, please not here,” she said.
The board, after the first round of public comment, also passed three motions pertaining to the patron conduct policy for groups which use the meeting rooms.
The board did not take action to disallow Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace from using the space or to restrict who could speak at it. It did, however, vote to require the library director, Geoffrey Kirkpatrick, be present at the event and to ensure that the patron conduct policy is not violated.
It also passed a motion to have the library staff set up a “clear and accessible” reporting tool for people to report violations of the policy to the board. This tool is to report after the event has taken place to the Board of Trustees. A third motion directed the staff to develop programming to discuss the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and history at a later time.
“The patron conduct policy states that people that violate it can be asked to leave the property,” Kirkpatrick said. “Although I was planning on being there, the board took the extra step of requiring me to be there.”
When it comes to allowing free speech, almost all of the speakers were in agreement, but the opinion differed on what would be considered “hate speech,” which would be a violation of the patron conduct policy.
“It is not the library’s job to protect the groups using the rooms from themselves,” Kirkpatrick said. “They have a right to free speech under the first amendment, but the same speech puts at risk (BNP’s) relationship with the community and other groups within it.”
Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace said they were not bringing someone to speak to spread hate speech.
“Our goal is to bring someone who has a different perspective,” BNP member Trudy Quaif said. “If you define hate speech as any speech that you don’t agree with, that is not a good definition.”
“The Jewish community has open communications with local dignitaries, supervisors and library board, to express what we are feeling and communicate and educate people on what is considered hurtful speech. Words can be very powerful,” Rabbi Zalman Simon of Bethlehem Chabad said.
With no action changing the library policy, the program was held on Tuesday as scheduled. The room was filled and tensions were high, according to Kirpatrick.
“People were certainly hot and we did our best to control the room,” he said. “The shouting back and forth was getting a bit out of control sometimes.”
Kirkpatrick did stop the event at one point to explain about the policy and what speech could violate the Patron Conduct Policy.
One phrase in particular was singled out during the event and Peled posted on X, formally twitter, the next morning.
“Tales from Bethlehem NY: a library administrator interrupted my lecture to say I can’t use the term “from the River to the Sea” at the library!” he wrote. “An Israeli woman in the audience wore an IDF shirt – when I pointed out [it] was offensive – she said ‘I am entitled.’”
The phrase referenced is one that came up in public comments the night before as a reference to the elimination of the state of Israel, since the referenced points are the borders of the country. According to many speakers the night before, Peled uses the platform to write inflammatory statements that amount to hate speech against Jews.
According to Quaif, protesters in the room called police during the event.
“The protesters called the police. They got called three times and by the end of the night the Police Chief was there,” she said.
Bethlehem police confirmed they had officers inside the room and others outside, according to Bethlehem Deputy Chief James Rexford. He said that at one point there were six officers at the library out of an abundance of caution.
One person was asked to leave and did so without police intervention.
The event’s format was set up as an interview where David Banks, program director for global studies at the University at Albany would ask Peled questions.
“I think a lot of people are accusing us of antisemitism but the speaker and interviewer at the event were both Jewish. We haven’t done anything, in my opinion, that was anti semitic,” Quaif said. “I am not saying I agree with everything he said. Our position is that he has the right to say what he wants to say.”
Others in the community came to the meeting looking for information.
“I am of the belief that we can always solve problems. In this case, it is how do we stop the killing on both sides,” Imam Manoor Rafiq Umar of the Muslim Community of Bethlehem said. “I didn’t really get a sufficient answer after attending the event. I ended up leaving it early because of that.”
The other point made by members of the Jewish community was the timing of the event. Quaif said that the schedule was set based on when the Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace had the room reserved and the availability of the speaker.
“We did not target this for Hanukkah. Look at our history. Have we ever targeted anyone? No.
We are a handful of people who advocate peace and justice,” Quaif said. “This was strictly a scheduling thing. We do one meeting a month and we already had that date and he could come.”
In addition to BNFP, the event was co-sponsored by the Troy Area Labor Council, Veterans for Peace, the Palestinian Rights Committee and Women against War.
According to Quaif, the group paid for Peled’s airfare and gave him an honorarium for speaking.
“We got some financial donations from other organizations, but mostly funded by the Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace,” she said.
Quaif acknowledged that the event angered people, but she said that was not the intent.
“We are living in unprecedented times. The amount of violence is so high right now.
If people can’t talk about these things, what do we do? How can we have a democracy if we can’t discuss these issues?” Quaif said.
“Much of the conversation [with the library] was where do you draw the line? I think the community is looking for consistency if the issue is what do you do when people do cross the line with things like this,” Zalman said. “As a Rabbi and a Jewish leader I am a proponent of the first amendment, but with hate speech, it potentially spills over to action on that hate. That happened with the incident at the Temple [Israel]. I don’t want my words to imply, however, that there is a link between these two events, I do not think there is.”
