A crowd waving Israeli and American flags gathered outside The Butcherie, the Boston area’s only kosher grocery store, on Sunday afternoon to show solidarity after the Jewish-owned business was vandalized overnight.

Located in Brookline, a suburb of Boston with a large Jewish and Israeli population, The Butcherie has served the community since 1971. It is located just blocks from several kosher restaurants, synagogues and a Jewish funeral home.

Gil Zilberberg, the store’s third-generation owner, told JNS that around 1:15 a.m. on Sunday, a group of masked vandals hurled a brick painted with the words “free Palestine” through the market’s front window.

Surveillance footage showed a group gathering behind the store—on what critics of U.S. President Donald Trump dubbed a “No King’s Day” of protests—before one person sprinted toward the front, hurled the brick through the window and quickly fled down the street.

“This was not a statement of protest,” Zilberberg told JNS during the afternoon rally, which about 100 local Jewish supporters attended, in front of his store.

“It was an attack on the Boston Jewish community,” he said.

The brick was thrown through a glass window that displayed a map of Israel’s wineries. The grocery store’s employees found shattered glass and the brick when they arrived for work Sunday morning and immediately called the police.

The Brookline Police Department told JNS that it is investigating the incident as a hate crime.

“I am deeply saddened and outraged to report a disturbing act of hate and antisemitic vandalism that occurred overnight here in Brookline,” stated Jennifer Paster, chief of the department.

“This was not simply an act of property damage, and it is not simply vandalism. There is no doubt that this crime was a targeted, hateful message meant to intimidate a Jewish-owned business and our broader Jewish community,” she stated. “Brookline is a place of inclusion, dignity and respect.”

“Let me be clear. There is no room for antisemitism, hate or political violence here,” she added. “The Brookline Police Department is investigating this incident as a hate crime, and we are fully committed to holding those responsible accountable.”

Paster said that it didn’t appear that other businesses were targeted and that the department is “providing enhanced attention and visibility to Jewish institutions and organizations in our town.”

She added that the attack “comes at an already tense moment globally and nationally, and I recognize that antisemitic tensions are rising amid the ongoing conflict overseas and volatile domestic rhetoric.”

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) stated that the incident was “a vile act of antisemitic violence.”

“This is absolutely unacceptable,” he wrote. “We must stand united against hate in all its forms.”

Zilberberg told JNS that “no one should feel fear when simply trying to go to work or buy kosher food in this city.”

“We are disturbed and we are saddened, but we are not shaken,” he said. “We will not be silenced and have always stood tall, with dignity and unity. We will continue to serve our community proudly and without fear.”

This is the first time that the store was vandalized in an act of Jew-hatrd, he added.

At the rally, attendees waved flags, danced, wrapped tefillin and sang Jewish and Israeli songs. Several people drove by and yelled anti-Israel slogans or held up anti-Israel signs.

A woman from the Boston area who attended the rally, and who only gave her name as Alla, told JNS that she attended to call for the Jewish community to be protected.

“It was a threat toward our community,” she told JNS. “We have kids and families, and we are very concerned about safety and that is why we came to protest.”

Another attendee of the protest, who identified herself as Sabina, told JNS that the vandalism caught her off guard. She is already full of anxiety about her family sheltering in Israel from Iranian missiles.

“We want peace,” she told JNS. “My whole family is in Israel sitting in their shelters as Iran shoots missiles. It’s very, very important that we all hold together and stand with Israel and know that we will win. The light will come. It always comes.”

Matan, a resident of Beverly, Mass., who attended the rally, said that the incident was part of a troubling pattern in the Greater Boston area.

In Matan’s hometown in January, 34-year-old Matthew Scouras was arrested after allegedly encouraging others to shoot people outside synagogues. Police recovered firearms, ammunition and more $70,000 in cash from his home. Scouras faces multiple weapons charges and a charge of threatening to destroy a place of worship.

“It startles us for sure,” Matan told JNS. “It’s close to home, and there’s a lot of antisemitism going on.”

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, condemned the attack, which she called “deeply concerning and totally unacceptable.”

“We stand with our Jewish neighbors against antisemitism,” Healey wrote. “Everyone deserves to live, pray and do business without fear in Massachusetts.”

Social media accounts for Michelle Wu, the Boston mayor who is also a Democrat, wished the city “happy pride” and commented on Father’s Day and Juneteenth but didn’t mention the attack on Jews. (JNS sought comment from the mayor’s office.)

The local Anti-Defamation League office stated that the incident is part of the “latest in a string of attacks on the Jewish community where the words ‘free Palestine’ were used to weaponize violence against Jews.”

“Holding a Jewish business accountable for the situation in the Middle East is antisemitic, plain and simple, and is another example of radical anti-Israel activity resulting in violence against the Jewish community,” it said. “Silence in the face of antisemitism only emboldens those who spread hate.”

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