As a deadly battle raged in the Gaza Strip between Hamas terrorists and Israel, Jewish Americans are seeking support from their community amid a rash of anti-Semitic sentiment and attacks.
"A lot of people are definitely scared," actor Jonathan Lipnicki, 30, told the Los Angeles Times. "It's a scary time for the Jewish community."
Palestinian supporters in the U.S. are taking to the streets to terrorize the Jewish communities in American cities and the Fairfax District of L.A. has banded together to form a neighborhood watch to help people from Orthodox Jewish community walk home safely, according to the report.
The group sprang up through an Instagram post in the city by Remi Franklin, 37, a jujitsu practitioner, and is now being copied throughout the world, he told the Times.
"It's jiu-jitsu, it's boxing, it's mixed martial arts, and it's people that are just friends with them and want to do something," Franklin told the Times. "We have ladies who are former dancers and gymnasts who are walking with people because it makes the women feel more comfortable.
"These people are just here to enjoy family and walk to shul and walk home, and they should have that safety."
The added security is bolstered by more police presence in the area, but anything helps as fear is heightened in the Jewish community.
"I have never felt so scared being in Los Angeles," Steve Goldstein, 35, told the Times after his synagogue off La Brea had people shouting: "Death to Jews!"
Goldstein called out the Palestinian bias in America, the media, and even the Times that interviewed him.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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