Last week, the 92nd Street Y—a storied Jewish institution for over 150 years—was the target of intimidating protests. As patrons entered our building, dozens of masked demonstrators banged drums, thrust signs and Palestinian flags into their faces, and hurled crude language at them. A protester assaulted me, swatting my camera out of my hands as I filmed the proceedings.
Over the last two years, such protests have become familiar. They have typically accompanied conversations about Israel or the appearance of Israeli figures. While these disruptions were never acceptable, they rested on a nominally defensible (if still flawed) premise: that such disruptions were targeting a nation and its policies, not a people. Last week’s protests proved that pretense false.
