The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act lawsuit on Monday against pro-Palestine protestors who allegedly targeted a synagogue in New Jersey during a Nov. 2024 demonstration that turned violent.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon believes this is the first time the FACE Act, which the Biden administration used to target pro-life activists, has been used to civilly prosecute an attack on a house of worship.
“In recent years, there have been numerous attacks on synagogues throughout the United States,” Dhillon said during a press conference. “Yet there has been a lack of the use of the FACE Act to stop these heinous attacks.”
“The past administration only applied the FACE Act civil enforcement penalties to silence pro-life protestors while ignoring the same 1994 law was intended to protect pro-life crisis pregnancy centers and, importantly, houses of worship,” she said.
NEW: Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon announces a FACE Act complaint against protestors who targeted a New Jersey synagogue in Nov. 2024.
“The past administration only applied the FACE Act civil enforcement penalties to silence pro-life protestors while ignoring the… pic.twitter.com/cowE4KhRt7
— Katelynn Richardson (@katesrichardson) September 29, 2025
Protestors “engaged in a coordinated effort to intimidate and disrupt Jewish worshipers at a religious event held at the synagogue Congregation Ohr Torah,” which included “physical assaults on worshipers Moshe Glick and David Silberberg, antisemitic and threatening chants, and defiance of police orders,” according to the complaint.
Silberberg was placed in a chokehold by defendant Altaf Sharif after another defendant, Eric Camins, identified him as “the Jew.”
“Some of the protestors carried and blew vuvuzelas, horns capable of causing hearing damage, while shouting at Jewish residents as they passed their neighborhoods,” Dhillon said. “The group marched onto synagog property, blowing the vuvuzelas and shouting to drown out a memorial service and a Torah sermon.”
Along with six individual defendants, the complaint names the New Jersey chapters of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, as well as American Muslims for Palestine, as defendants, noting both organizations have a history of organizing anti-Israel protests that have involved “violence or incitement.”
Dhillon confirmed during the press conference that there are other ongoing FACE Act investigations. She suggested during an April interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation that there could be “different applications” of the law.
“The FACE Act can be used to protect clinics where women get counseling about their options for abortion, and 200 of those have been violently attacked, firebombed, picketed and otherwise been obstructed over the last few years with zero action from the DOJ,” she previously told the DCNF.
The DOJ issued a memo in January promising to end the “weaponization” of the FACE Act. President Donald Trump pardoned 23 pro-life activists prosecuted by the Biden administration in January.
“These violent protesters meant their actions for evil, but we will use this case to bring forth good: the protection of all Americans’ religious liberty,” Dhilon said.
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