After a volatile protest at a Manhattan synagogue last fall unnerved an already anxious Jewish population, the new leader of the New York City Council promised action.
Council Speaker Julie Menin declared in January that she would pass legislation requiring the Police Department to secure buffer zones of up to 100 feet outside of houses of worship.
In doing so, Ms. Menin, the Council’s first Jewish speaker and the daughter and grandchild of Holocaust survivors, seemed eager to capitalize on her relationship with Jewish New Yorkers. She also cast herself as a counterweight to the city’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who came of age in the pro-Palestinian movement, and whose longstanding, wholesale criticism of Israel had alienated some Jewish leaders.
But Ms. Menin’s initial efforts to legislate buffer zones quickly ran up against First Amendment concerns, and her bill — which is expected to be approved by the Council on Thursday — has been watered down.
It now merely requires the Police Department to present a plan to the mayor and to the Council speaker explaining how it will use “security perimeters” to “address and contain the risk of physical obstruction, physical injury, intimidation, and interference,” at houses of worship, “while preserving and protecting the rights to free speech,” the bill says.
The Police Department will also have to explain how it engages with protesters and clergy and post its plan online.
Ms. Menin’s bill is part of a package of legislation that imposes similar police reporting requirements around protests at schools.
It remains unclear if Mr. Mamdani will sign the bills into law. “The mayor is keenly aware of the serious concerns regarding these bills’ limiting of New Yorkers’ constitutional rights, and he will keep these concerns in mind for any bills that land on his desk,” said Dora Pekec, a spokeswoman for the mayor. “He wants to ensure both the right to prayer and the right to protest are protected here in New York City.”
She also referred The New York Times to a rabbi and a reverend who oppose the effort.
The saga of this legislation began before either Ms. Menin or Mr. Mamdani took office. In November, a crowd gathered outside of Park East Synagogue, in Manhattan, for an event billed as a protest of a “settler recruiting fair.” The synagogue was hosting Nefesh B’Nefesh, a nonprofit organization that helps Jews emigrate to Israel and also to the occupied West Bank, where violence against Palestinians has intensified in recent months.
Robert Friedman, a father of two who works in real estate and lives in Manhattan, was on his way to the event because he was curious about the process of emigrating to Israel, where he has family. But when he got there, he said in an interview on Tuesday, he found the synagogue’s entrance impeded by protesters shouting, “We don’t want no Zionists here,” and “Death to the IDF.” Instead of attending the event, he joined a counterprotest.
“Whatever house of worship it is, whatever type of location it is, people should be able to go there without this kind of harassment,” he said.
PAL-Awda, a group that organized the protest, did not respond to a request for comment. But on social media, it has described the legislation as a “targeted attack on the movement for Palestinian liberation.”
The events posed an early test for Mr. Mamdani, who initially both “discouraged the language” of the protesters and chastised the synagogue for hosting an event that promoted “activities in violation of international law,” before eventually making clear that he thought it was inappropriate to call for the death of anyone.
The episode also presented an early political opportunity for Mr. Menin, an ambitious politician whose position is designed to serve as a structural counterbalance to the mayor’s office.
But from the start, Ms. Menin’s proposal raised concerns about its potential to infringe on freedom of speech. Several court rulings over the last two decades, including a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court in 2014, found that comparable restrictions on demonstrations were unconstitutional.
Ms. Menin said in an interview that she amended the bill’s language after Jessica Tisch, the current police commissioner, raised concerns that the bill would unduly restrict the department’s ability to determine the appropriate size of the necessary buffer zones.
Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said Ms. Menin’s legislation was not only unconstitutional, but also unnecessary, because existing laws already protect worshipers from harassment.
“Every difficult situation should not generate a change in the law, unless it’s really, really necessary,” Ms. Lieberman said. “And when it comes to the First Amendment, we have to be really, really, really careful.”
Ms. Menin argued that if those laws sufficed, then the situation at Park East, and a separate protest where some attendees chanted in favor of Hamas outside of another synagogue in Queens, would not have happened in such proximity to houses of worship.
“It’s absolutely needed, because there’s a real problem,” she said in the interview. “It keeps occurring and occurring.”
The whittled-down legislation still enjoys strong support among some Jewish leaders, who argue that at a time of rising insecurity for Jews in the United States, this legislation will enable better Council oversight of police practices and codify those practices into law for whoever ultimately succeeds Commissioner Tisch, who is Jewish.
“People felt targeted and harassed while going into their synagogues, their houses of worship,” said Daniel Rosenthal, the vice president for government and external affairs at the UJA Federation of New York. “And when that happens, clearly there needs to be a reaction. Things need to change to make sure there are protocols in place to make sure that does not continue to happen.”
The opponents arrayed against the measures include a broad spectrum of the political left, including the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Mr. Mamdani’s political home, which on Tuesday urged the City Council to oppose the measure.
“I think it does expand police presence in a way that is deeply scary and uncomfortable to a lot of communities that also deal with hate violence,” said Zara Nasir, the executive director of the People’s Plan NYC, a progressive advocacy group. “We feel left out, and the right to protest is very important, especially under the Trump regime.”
Rabbi Sam Kates-Goldman, who leads a progressive congregation in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, said he was aware of the recent high-profile protests at synagogues and was concerned by them.
“But also I feel like speaking out for Palestinian human rights is not just important in general, but specifically important in fighting antisemitism,” said Mr. Kates-Goldman, who was connected to The Times by the mayor’s office.
Ms. Menin’s bill is distinct from a parallel effort advancing in Albany.
State lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul are backing legislation that would outlaw protesters from demonstrating within 25 feet of houses of worship. It would also punish demonstrators who “alarm and annoy” people seeking to enter a temple, mosque or church.
Ms. Hochul featured the proposal in her State of the State address in January, arguing it was meant to ensure that people “who simply want to pray can do so without fear of harassment.”
The proposal is part of her broader executive budget proposal, which is due April 1.
Benjamin Oreskes and Liam Stack contributed reporting.
Dana Rubinstein covers New York City politics and government for The Times.
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