NYPD Commissioner Tisch's speech at Central Synagogue after Attack on Jews

By Jessica Tisch

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s powerful words delivered at Central Synagogue’s Friday evening service, August 21, 2026 reassured a congregation reeling from a malicious attack the previous week in the same sacred space. Below is her speech.

Photo courtesy of JBS TV. Still shot was taken from its broadcast of the Friday night service at Central Synagogue, Friday August 21, 2026. JBSTV broadcasts this service live every Friday evening to a worldwide audience.

“Good evening, and Shabbat Shalom.

Rabbi Buchdahl, thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening.

One week ago, this congregation gathered here to welcome Shabbat. And during those services, an individual entered this synagogue and disrupted worship.

As synagogue security was escorting him out, he struck a member of the congregation, damaged property, and then spit at and headbutted a member of the security team.

An NYPD sergeant working a paid detail here immediately stepped in and took him into custody.

That individual, Larry Montes, of the Bronx, has now been charged federally.

I am deeply grateful that no one was seriously injured.

What happened here is unacceptable anywhere in this city. No New Yorker should be assaulted or threatened because of who they are or how they worship.

A hate crime such as this is a message written in violence.

The physical wound is inflicted upon one person, but the fear is intended for an entire community. It is meant to tell everyone who shares the victim’s identity that they do not belong, that they are vulnerable, that they should be afraid.

That message lands with particular force in the Jewish community.

Jewish history is full of times and places when Jews were targeted because they were Jewish. And we are seeing that in New York City: for years now, Jewish New Yorkers have accounted for roughly half of the city’s confirmed hate-crime victims, despite making up approximately 10% of its population.

Those numbers are staggering, but sometimes the data can be just that – numbers on a page, abstract, at a distance.

What happened here last Friday brought that hatred inside the doors of this synagogue.

And we understand the fear that incidents like this create, because we see the broader pattern.

Since October 7, hate has ricocheted across the globe, and the Jewish community has been targeted again and again. We have watched rhetoric shift from slogans to direct calls for violence.

And we know that violence can inspire more violence. Every high-profile attack raises the risk of another. Individuals already on the edge do not always need instructions. Sometimes, all they need is a spark.

That is why we take threats seriously, and why we work aggressively to intervene before hatred becomes violence.

But understanding that pain and that fear and that danger is only the beginning of my responsibility. My job, and the job of the entire New York City Police Department, is to act.

That is what the NYPD has done, and will continue to do, in response to antisemitic hate crimes. We will respond immediately, conduct a thorough investigation, and pursue complete accountability under the law.

The NYPD’s work goes far beyond responding after a crime has occurred.

We remain in close contact with Rabbi Buchdahl and the leadership of this synagogue. Across New York City, our precinct commanders and community affairs officers are in contact with synagogues and yeshivas, doing everything we can to ensure their safety. Our Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau acts aggressively against potential threats and directs resources where they are needed.

The full capacity of the New York City Police Department stands behind this work.

Jewish institutions will not be left to protect themselves without a partner in the NYPD. Jewish families will not be told to accept fear as the price of practicing their faith.

And in this moment, we can once again look to the Torah for guidance.

This Shabbos, in synagogues around the world, we read Parshat Ki-Teitzei, which contains the prohibition on violating an oath. The Torah then commands us:

You must fulfill the words that have crossed your lips.

Rashi, the great medieval Jewish commentator, notes that this instruction seems redundant. He explains that the Torah includes this language to make clear that there is not just a negative commandment, a ban on breaking our word. There is a positive commandment to keep our word, a mitzvah to fulfill our promises.

We are, all of us, defined by our commitments – to our family, our friends, our synagogue, our city, our religious identity. And we rely on each other to honor those commitments and build community, together.

As a proud Jew and a lifelong member of this congregation, you have my word that I stand with you in these uncertain, precarious times.

And as Police Commissioner, you have my word that behind that commitment stand 35,000 members of the NYPD willing to risk their own lives for people they have never met, supported by the most robust municipal counterterrorism capacity in the world and a Hate Crimes Task Force that is second to none.

For me, that commitment is professional.

Here at Central, it is also deeply personal.

Shabbat Shalom.“