Lily Belle Poling, Staff Photographer

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited New Haven to speak at Shabtai, a Jewish intellectual discussion society founded by Yale affiliates. The “totally off-the-record” event, hosted at Shabtai’s Anderson Mansion on Orange Street, was attended by around 100 students and 30 faculty members.

Ben-Gvir is an extremely controversial figure both within and outside Israel. He is a follower of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the ultra-nationalist Israeli politician whose political party, Kach, was designated as a terrorist organization by both Israel and the United States. When he was 18, Ben-Gvir was exempted from service by the Israeli Defense Forces due to his far-right politics. He now leads the far-right Otzma Yehudit party and has led the Ministry of National Security since 2022.

Ben-Gvir’s visit immediately prompted widespread condemnations from both pro-Palestinian organizations and liberal Israeli and Jewish groups. Around 300 people protested outside the Shabtai house on Wednesday.

“The impact of giving people [like Ben-Gvir] a platform is not helpful to building the kind of campus that we all want to see,” said Samuel Ostrove ’25, a Jewish Israeli citizen. “Shabtai is hosting someone who so strongly stands against shared understanding and building a shared future in a land where people legitimately live.”

Rabbi Shmully Hecht, Shabtai’s co-founder and rabbinical director, defended his decision to invite Ben-Gvir, telling the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he admires Ben-Gvir, who “promotes what he believes is best for his people that democratically elected him.” According to the JTA, at least three Shabtai members have resigned over Hecht’s decision to host Ben-Gvir.

“I appreciate the fact that Shabtai and the members of the community are able to invite in a speaker who would have thoughts that are traditionally not taught [at Yale],” said Joshua Li ’26, who attended the event. Li clarified that he disagrees with Ben-Gvir’s views “of what a democracy is.”

Last night, Ben-Gvir’s visit prompted a large-scale protest at Beinecke Plaza, where around 200 pro-Palestinian protesters erected eight tents for four hours. In an Instagram post, Yalies4Palestine condemned Ben-Gvir’s visit “in the strongest terms,” referring to him as “a core architect of the genocide in Gaza.”

The University spokesperson wrote to the News that the event is not taking place on the Yale campus and that Shabtai is an “independent organization that is not affiliated with the university and does not receive Yale funding.” Naftali Kaminski, an Israeli professor at the School of Medicine, told the News that the University would benefit from separating itself more clearly from Shabtai.

On Thursday, 41 Jewish Yalies signed a letter to the News that condemned the invitation, “unequivocally [rejecting] the racist and reprehensible views of Itamar Ben-Gvir.”

Yale’s chapter of J Street, a nonprofit liberal Zionist advocacy and lobby group, wrote in an email to its members that “Ben-Gvir seeks to undermine Israeli democracy, continue forcing Palestinians from their land, and sabotage potential ceasefire in Gaza.”

The Israeli coalition group UnXeptable, which supports “a democratic Israel” against its “ultra-right-wing government,” also launched a petition that has been endorsed by more than 30 Jewish and Israeli organizations condemning Ben-Gvir’s visit to the United States.

“Imagine if someone from the KKK had been getting the role of defense minister,” Offir Gutelzon, a co-founder of UnXeptable, told the News. “[Ben-Gvir] is one of those who believe there should be no Arabs in Israel, and under his role as national security minister, there was the biggest jump in murders within the Arab community in Israel.”

Ben-Gvir met with protests

The first protesters, a small group of left-wing Israelis, arrived around 4:30 p.m., two and a half hours before the talk, holding Israeli flags as well as signs calling for the return of Israeli hostages in Gaza. One sign read “That fascist makes this Jew feel unsafe” next to a picture of Ben-Gvir.

Shaul Yogev, an Israeli professor at the School of Medicine, said the group decided to show up early to avoid the later protesters, whose views they might not totally agree with.

Ifat Levy, another Israeli professor at the School of Medicine, added that Shabtai’s invitation to Ben-Gvir doesn’t reflect the popular sentiment of the Jewish or Israeli communities in New Haven.

Around 6 p.m., a second coalition of protesters, around 100 pro-Palestinian Yale students and New Haveners, arrived, waving Palestinian flags and carrying a coffin covered by a Palestinian flag.

The crowd, which quickly grew to about 200, included over a dozen members of Neturei Karta International, a prominent Haredi Jewish anti-Zionist group, who held signs reading “Judaism forbids ‘Israel’” and “State of ‘Israel’ does not represent world Jewry.”

“When it came to [South African] Apartheid, it was the universities, the leaders, the presidents, and the professors who were the ones to speak up against evil,” Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, a spokesman for Neturei Karta, told the News. “You must stand up and use your lofty position and save the people of Palestine.”

The New Haven Police Department blocked both sides of the block around 6:20 p.m. Four types of security –– the New Haven Police Department, the Yale Police Department, Israeli security forces and private security –– were dispatched to the event, and an unidentified drone hovered over protesters.

As the hour approached 7 p.m., more protesters gathered in two additional locations on Lincoln Street behind the house. Some protesters formed a human chain that blocked the back entrance, while others created a singing circle for Jewish hymns.

“We are horrified by Ben Gvir’s presence on our campus on Yom Hashoah of all days,” said Zoe Kanter ’27, a member of Jews for Collective Liberation in Palestine, referring to the Jewish memorial day of the Holocaust. “We believe Jewish safety can only be found in the collective safety of all peoples.”

As students entered the house, protesters booed and shouted “shame,” waving Palestinian flags and pointing fingers at the students.

A few counterprotesters also stood outside the house on Orange Street. A New Haven resident who asked to be identified as Mendel said he brought an Israeli flag to the scene because he was driving home and “heard people screaming ‘Intifada revolution’” — even though he is not “pro- or against the speaker.”

At 7:33 p.m., Ben-Gvir, accompanied by security, entered the house. As he climbed up the stairs to the entrance, protesters shouted “shame” and pointed middle fingers at him. Ben-Gvir turned around and held up a peace sign to the protesters.

Minutes after Ben-Gvir’s entrance, Mayor Justin Elicker of New Haven appeared on the scene to talk with NHPD officers. He told the News that he showed up to “make sure that we make the right decisions to keep people safe.”

Elicker also denounced Ben-Gvir’s presence in New Haven.

“It’s totally unproductive and deplorable that someone that has been so contrary to any effort at peace in Palestine and has been so anti-Muslim is in our city,” he said. “That being said, that person was invited here, and we need to make sure that everyone’s safe.”

At 7:47 p.m., dozens of protesters outside knelt for a sunset prayer as Ben-Gvir began his talk inside the house. The conversation was “totally off the record,” according to an email to attendees, whose phones were placed into named envelopes upon entering the building.

“Tonight’s event embodied the spirit of open discourse that we would expect of those from an institution devoted to lux et veritas,” Trevor MacKay ’25, who attended the event, wrote to the News. “Guests asked difficult questions and pressed the Minister on a wide variety of topics. It was clear that no topic was outside the realm of acceptable.”

As Ben-Gvir left the event, remaining protesters threw water bottles at him, to which he made a peace sign, again. While students were subsequently instructed to leave through the back door, some students leaving through the front door were also hit by water bottles.

“It is a shame that those outside could not embody the spirit of open discourse that those inside represented so well,” MacKay wrote to the News. “This behavior has no place in civilized society.”

After the event, NHPD also arrested Mark Colville, the leading organizer of New Haven’s Unhoused Activist Community Team who has been arrested many times for his activism. The News was not immediately able to confirm Colville’s charges. Protesters on the street dispersed after the arrest.

Tomorrow, Ben-Gvir is expected to address Shabtai on New York City’s Upper East Side about “securing Israel post-October 7th.”

Asher Boiskin and Elijah Hurewitz-Ravitch contributed reporting.

Correction, April 27: This article has been corrected to explain that Yom Hashoah is the Jewish memorial day of the Holocaust. A previous version of this article described Yom Hashoah as the Israeli memorial day of the Holocaust.