By: Fern Sidman – Jewish Voice News

The Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles has issued an extraordinary public warning following a violent protest at Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s Audrey Irmas Pavilion on Wednesday, asserting that foreign actors—including Iran and Qatar—are bankrolling extremist groups that are increasingly targeting Jewish institutions across the United States. The Jerusalem Post, which has been closely tracking the escalation of such incidents, reported on Friday that Israeli officials fear the attacks could foreshadow an assault akin to the lethal terrorist strike outside Washington’s Capital Jewish Museum last May, in which two embassy staff members were murdered.

Deputy Consul General Yulia Rachinsky-Spivakov, addressing the aftermath of Wednesday’s turmoil, said that many protesters at the event had “no connection whatsoever to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” suggesting they were mobilized by outside agitators and foreign money. “There are stronger forces standing behind them,” she warned, insisting that the scale, consistency, and coordination of recent anti-Israel demonstrations in Los Angeles—and nationwide—cannot be explained by spontaneous activism alone.

According to the information provided in The Jerusalem Post report, Rachinsky-Spivakov and Consul General Israel Bachar believe that a mix of foreign governments and ideologically aligned networks are deliberately exploiting American democratic freedoms to destabilize communal life and to intimidate the Jewish community. Bachar put it bluntly: “They are cynically using the American democracy to attack it. We need to fight against their fear tactics.”

Wednesday’s event, titled Innovating Safety, Empowering Communities, was intended to bring Jewish and Asian community leaders together, in partnership with the Korean American Federation of Los Angeles, Faith and Community Development (FACE), and the Jewish Federation’s Community Security Initiative. The symposium was meant to be an antidote to rising hate crimes and a forum for strengthening local safety strategies.

Instead, it became the target of a ferocious demonstration.

Protesters—some masked, some chanting threats—surrounded the building and blockaded entrances, burning objects outside the venue and hurling slurs such as “Zionist pigs” and “Baby killers,” according to event organizers and statements shared with The Jerusalem Post. Inside, several attendees reported that protesters infiltrated the hall, attempting to disrupt the program. When security staff intervened, a scuffle ensued, resulting in shattered vases, flying shards of glass, and at least one injury among security personnel.

As attendees attempted to leave, additional demonstrators reportedly descended on their vehicles, pounding on windows and attempting to obstruct their exit.

The Jerusalem Post report noted that arrests were made for battery and property destruction, but consular officials expressed deep concern that local authorities did not grasp the severity of the threat or the geopolitical forces animating these actions.

The Los Angeles protest follows the now-infamous November 19 siege of Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue, where anti-Israel agitators surrounded the entrance to the synagogue’s school during an informational event about immigrating to Israel. Demonstrators reportedly screamed threats, attempted to intimidate worshippers, and called for “globalizing the intifada,” a chant widely understood within the Jewish community as an incitement to violence.

According to the information contained in The Jerusalem Post report, the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles specifically cited the Park East protest as a precursor to Wednesday’s violence—evidence of a disturbing trend in which Jewish life in America is being directly targeted through increasingly aggressive tactics.

Deputy Consul General Rachinsky-Spivakov cautioned that the United States risks a repeat of last May’s deadly attack in Washington, D.C., if authorities fail to recognize the warning signs. “We already have had tragic experience with what can happen,” she said, referencing the terrorist assault that left two Israeli embassy staff members dead outside the Capital Jewish Museum.

In her remarks highlighted by The Jerusalem Post, Rachinsky-Spivakov said that multiple groups involved in recent anti-Israel protests—including the persistent weekly demonstrations led by Code Pink outside the Israeli consulate—are receiving substantial backing from foreign regimes such as Iran and Qatar.

Code Pink’s documented ties to a Chinese Communist Party–linked influence network, she noted, are one example of how foreign governments leverage domestic activist organizations to launder their geopolitical messaging.

The diplomat stressed that this is not about stifling dissent but about understanding who is orchestrating it. “Some of the protesters at Wednesday’s demonstration had no ideological connection to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” she said. “This is not organic political speech. This is a deliberate manipulation of American civic space.”

Organizers confirmed that two of the primary protest groups outside Wednesday’s event—Koreatown for Palestine and Nodutdol for Korean Community Development—mobilized demonstrators specifically to object to a presentation involving the Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems. Yet Rachinsky-Spivakov emphasized that the protest quickly exceeded any issue-based grievance and became a violent attempt to intimidate Jewish and Asian community members.

Perhaps the most alarming assertion from the Israeli consulate was its warning that U.S. authorities are underestimating the threat posed by foreign-backed extremist networks. Rachinsky-Spivakov said that the violence at Wednesday’s protest—including physical assaults, property destruction, and the blockade of exits—was not treated with the seriousness it warranted.

“We need to recognize the clear and present danger,” she said. “The extremists who targeted this event behaved with the same tactics we have seen escalated in other incidents across the country.”

Her comments echo an increasing chorus of Jewish communal leaders, law enforcement officials, and counterterror analysts who say that extremist groups—some local, some foreign-backed—are deliberately zeroing in on Jewish institutions as strategic targets.

According to the report in The Jerusalem Post, one of the most tragic aspects of Wednesday’s disruption is the destruction of a rare moment of unity between Jewish and Asian American organizations, communities that have both faced a surge in hate crimes in recent years.

The symposium aimed to share best practices on safeguarding vulnerable communities—a subject made all the more urgent by recent violence in Los Angeles targeting Asian Americans as well as Jews.

Instead, the event became a case study in how extremist actors aim to fracture intercommunal alliances and destabilize efforts at bridge-building.

The Israeli Consulate’s warning is ultimately a call for action. Officials insist that without strong intervention—including stricter enforcement at protests near houses of worship, intensified counterextremism efforts, and increased federal scrutiny of foreign-funded networks—violence will escalate further.

Consul General Bachar summarized the stakes succinctly: “They are using American democracy to attack America.”

The Jerusalem Post reported that both consular officials and community organizations are pressing local leaders, law enforcement, and federal agencies to recognize the coordinated nature of these attacks and to act decisively before another tragedy occurs.

For now, Jewish institutions across the country continue to reinforce their own security—alert to the reality that the threats surrounding them are no longer isolated expressions of domestic unrest, but part of a much larger and increasingly brazen foreign-influenced effort to intimidate, disrupt, and destabilize Jewish life on American soil.