New York, September 24 - Anti-Israel activists who commandeer Jewish rituals to agitate against the Jewish state announced today that, owing to a scheduling conflict, the memorial passages for which Jews gather in synagogues on major holidays will take place not on the Day of Atonement, which occurred this past Monday, but a week later.

Rabbi Christopher Aziz of If Not Now sent the message out to the organization’s membership this morning. He thanked the recipients for their continued dedication to the protection of Palestinian rights, and reminded them that, this time, the event must take place as scheduled, and not, as happened this week, shunted aside because too many potential attendees chose instead to partake of barbecue at a colleague’s Long Island residence.

The postponed Yizkor, originally slated for the night of September 21, right after the end of the fast day, will now convene this coming Monday in a rented community room above a Fairway Market in Brooklyn. Organizers have prepared laminated cards listing the names of “resistance fighters” whose deaths they intend to commemorate alongside, or in preference to, Jewish civilians murdered on October 7 and in other attacks. Among those expected to be invoked are commanders previously identified by their own organizations as members of Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Aziz’s email stressed that the gathering remains fully grounded in Jewish tradition. Participants are invited to wear white, recite an adapted version of the memorial prayer, and then process to a nearby fountain where they will affix name cards. A land acknowledgment for “occupied Lenape territory and occupied Palestine” will precede the service. Dietary accommodations have been arranged: vegan kugel and gluten-free dates for those still observing a delayed fast, plus a discreet catering table for those who broke the fast early at yet another Long Island cookout.

If Not Now has a long record of inserting Mourner’s Kaddish and other liturgical forms into street actions against Israel. In 2014 the group recited the prayer for Gazans killed during Operation Protective Edge; in 2021 it included named Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives; after October 7 it organized public “shiva” shifts themed by identity category.

Aziz urged members to check online Jewish calendars before scheduling or accepting invitations to social functions, and also took pains to emphasize that while Good Jews such as they seek to build Jewish identity divorced from Israel, they will nevertheless center every single observance and action around Israel.

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