New York’s major Jewish groups are planning an antisemitism rally during UN week

If midtown already feels like it belongs to visiting diplomats during UN General Assembly week, New York’s Jewish establishment is making a reasonable counterclaim: the people who actually live here get the sidewalk.

On Wednesday, September 23, a broad coalition of Jewish organizations will gather at Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, directly across from United Nations headquarters, for a rally against antisemitism. The stated message to the heads of state assembling across First Avenue is admirably economical: “No more excuses.”

The organizer list includes the UJA-Federation of New York, JCRC-NY, the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, the Conference of Presidents, the Union for Reform Judaism, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Yeshiva University, the Israeli American Council and StandWithUs. It is important to note that these groups do not share identical politics, constituencies or definitions of a productive Tuesday. Some of them do not routinely sign onto street protests at all. Getting this particular group onto one piece of letterhead is its own measure of the temperature.

The rally will coincide with the opening of the General Assembly’s High-Level Week, when presidents, prime ministers, motorcades and a truly punitive number of security barricades descend on the East Side. It is scheduled for the day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the UN, which places it inside an already charged stretch of speeches and demonstrations.

Organizers say the point is to press world leaders to act against the “growing tide of antisemitism.” That phrasing is broad, sure, but the setting is pointed: the UN is where governments routinely produce polished statements about hatred, minority protections and international norms. Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza is where New Yorkers tend to respond when those statements begin to feel suspiciously self-contained.

This also marks a shift in the city’s Jewish protest calendar. Much of the public organizing after October 7 centered on the hostages and Israel. More recent demonstrations have increasingly focused on Jewish life here: schools, public rhetoric, street harassment and whether institutions responsible for responding to antisemitism are responding with anything more useful than concern.

There will be no shortage of competing causes, flags or police fencing around the UN that week, which is why this rally matters: it is not being held somewhere quiet enough to be agreeable. It is being placed in the diplomatic traffic, where ignoring it will at least require a detour.