WASHINGTON DC (VINnews) — A rapidly-spreading video, showing a Washington D.C. Rabbi being verbally assaulted by a pro-Hamas protester from the “Palestine News Network,” is getting hundreds of thousands of views on social media.
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In the video, Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the well-known Executive Vice President of American Friends of Lubavitch, gets followed and accosted by an angry man about the Jews’ right to what the protester called ‘Palestine’.
Amazingly, despite being grilled and cut off numerous times, Rabbi Shemtov kept his cool and composure throughout the ordeal, and gave intelligent and articulate responses to the protesters’ vicious, irrational questions and accusations.
This rabbi was harassed by a pro-Palestinian heckler in DC.
It’s interesting to see how calm and composed he remained. pic.twitter.com/wafR59ygmY
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) November 11, 2024
The Rabbi explained that “G-d gave it to Abraham and was promised that his descendants would inherit it.”
The questioner, who admitted that he had no interest in the Rabbi’s responses, said that Jews ‘Steal, rob and lie.”
At one point he said, “Stop lying bro, stop lying…You’re jealous that my grandfather was born in Palestine and yours was not.”
He called the Rabbi a slimeball and accused him of “gaslighting”.
VINnews spoke exclusively with Rabbi Shemtov, who said that the protester was trying “to evoke a reaction and stir up trouble’, and was certainly disappointed that he refused to take the bait.
“I had nothing to be ashamed of. He asked about our claim to Eretz Yisrael and I told him,” the Rabbi explained. “He picked the perfect week, since in last week’s parsha we read about G-d promising the land of Israel to Avraham Avinu.”
At one point two police officers are seen approaching the Rabbi and speaking with him. Rabbi Shemtov clarified to VINnews that they were making sure that he did not feel threatened, and he assured them that he did not.
“I could see a look of disappointment on his face when I reassured the officers,” the Rabbi told VINnews. “He was hoping that I would feel threatened.”
Rabbi Shemtov had been leaving the Jewish unity event at Nationals Park baseball stadium on Sunday when he was accosted.
It was organized by the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
Rabbi Shemtov is the Chabad ‘Shliach’ in the D.C. area and is known to be connected with many Jewish politicians, lobbyists, and government officials.
Wow! Now that a Rabbi! Every single one of his words are true! And it’s not like he spoke big suff… just information that you and I both know since were young… Eretz Yisrael is OUR land!!
The fiend asking the questions is such a rude democrat. He doesn’t let the Rabbi answer a single question. The thug just wants to get hits to his social media platform. If I was there, I probably would of punched the guy in the nose.
All you guys saying you would have punched or hit the guy – have you all never been accosted by antisemites before? Does this just happen to Rabbi Shemtov and I? If in fact you have been, which from personal experience I assume many many of us have been, you didn’t punch the thug. So please stop saying you’d punch the guy. Also, the reason anti-Semitic thugs do this is because they want to see a Jew get all bent out of shape and/or violent, so punch is the exact wrong way to handle it. The exact right way is by calmly answering that Hashem promised Abraham He would give his us – his descendants – the land and to say it without a hint of emotion showing offense or anger. In other words exactly how Rabbi Shemtov responded.
The punk was trolling the Yid and trying to egg him on to anger, but it didn’t work at all. If accosted me, he would end up with a fat lip.
He is something very special. The jerk who was taunting him was certainly nasty and stupid, not interested in the truth, just loud mouthing.
Kol HaKavod to the Rabbi, with a capital “R”.
Piers Morgan should have Rabbi Levi against Norman Finkelstein
Rabbi Shemtov is a class act! …and this antisemite lowlife is a circus clown–and thats how it looks on this video, in other words, the antisemite lowlife made a fool of himself…also hes a total liar that his ancestor was born in Eretz Yisrael, how in the world would he know that
Why waste your time and energy with this fool who will not hear anything he wants to hear!
Why did those of us in NY and NJ not have an inkling about this demonstration?
Didn’t see it in any of the usual Jewish news sites
Wow. He has the patience of a…
This interviewer has a box seat waiting for him in hell! What a piece of excrement!
hey vin. why does it say over a hundred comments and when I go to see them. only 20 appear
Disrespectful and should have stopped the conversation.
Nu, what did he have in that container? Was it from a Bris or siyum? I was watching it the whole time, nervous that it would fall to the ground. I’m getting hungry just thinking about the different options of food that he was carrying.
Weak answers! Our grandfathers were violently expelled by Roman, xian, and Islamic occupiers, buddy!
Rabbi Levi Shemtov is a Chabad Schliech and his views toward Israel is the opposite of the Rebbe Rashab. The Rashab held that Zionism and a Jewish state is a danger for jews.Plus, Rav Shemtov says in the video that “G-d gave it to Abraham and was promised that his descendants would inherit it.” True, but we say every day in Kriath Shema how Hashem tells us that Eretz Yisroel was given to us with conditions. And if we won’t follow the Torah he will send us into exile.And so it happened as we say every Yom Tov by Musaf “because of our sins we have been exiled from our land and sent far from our soil”.