Congregants return to NYC synagogue after disruption, arrest: "Let's breathe in peace"

Members of a Midtown Manhattan synagogue returned for weekend services Saturday after they were disrupted Friday night by a Bronx man who police arrested on hate crime charges.

Police arrested Larry Montes, 46, from the Bronx after he allegedly acted irate and disrupted the 6 p.m. Shabbat service Friday. As he was being escorted out, Montes allegedly assaulted a 63-year-old woman and left her with a cut lip and pain in her forearm. Police say he also spit at and headbutted a security guard.

The NYPD says Montes has been charged with assault and criminal mischief as hate crimes, among other charges, including harassment and trespassing.

Longtime synagogue member Nancy Volkman was there Friday night.

"It was very scary and unsettling," she said.

Even so, she made sure to return just hours later for service on Saturday morning, led in by armed NYPD officers with bulletproof vests.

Worshipper Susan Schlecter echoed what fellow members said as they returned to their place of solace.

"It's about resilience and lack of fear. Nobody's gonna do that to us. We're New Yorkers," she said.

For New Yorkers like Lisa Katz, it's incidents like these that bring her back to her house of worship to pray in the first place.

"I hope the world gets better. The world needs some healing," she said.

Rabbi Andrew Kaplan Mandel addressed Friday night's disruption during Saturday's services, but didn't let it disrupt the lives of the faithful.

"So let's take a few deep breaths. Let's breathe in peace. Let's breathe out fear," he said. "We cannot allow anyone to rob us of our attention on Shabbat."

On social media, the New York General Consul of Israel Ofir Akunis said he considered the attack "a direct result of Mayor Mamdani's sustained campaign of incitement," adding, "Mamdani has failed to protect New York's Jews."

During the Queens India Day Parade Saturday, the mayor responded to that statement.

"I am more focused, frankly, on delivering for Jewish New Yorkers across the five boroughs," Mamdani said. "We have a Mayor's Office to Combat Antisemitism that we have expanded, that is now hard at work on creating the nation's first-ever municipal  response to antisemitism."