A NYPD van is parked across the street from Temple Emanu-El at One East 65th Street and Fifth Avenue on 23 May 2025, following a shooting that left two people dead in Washington, DC. Two Israeli embassy staffers, identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were shot dead late 21 May by a gunman who shouted "free Palestine," authorities said, with U.S. officials and Israeli diplomats expressing shock and outrage over the killings. (Photo by Timothy A. Clary, AFP, Getty)

Militia Commander Allegedly Plotted Attacks on U.S. Jewish Sites

By Claire Meyer

18 May 2026

U.S. federal prosecutors said they had thwarted a plot to attack a New York synagogue—an attack that was “targeting the heart of our Jewish community,” said New York City Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch on 15 May.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the arrest of Mohammed Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, an Iraqi national and commander of an Iranian-backed militia. Tisch said that he had planned to kill Americans and Jews in Los Angeles, California, and had also targeted a synagogue in Manhattan that supported Israel and Zionism. Al-Saadi was detained in Turkey and handed over to U.S. authorities.

The DOJ alleged that Al-Saadi directed and urged others to attack U.S. and Israeli interests, and prosecutors claimed he was involved in nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks in Canada, Europe, and the United States. He was charged by complaint with six counts of terrorism-related offenses for his alleged activities as an operative of Iranian armed proxy group Kata’ib Hizballah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The DOJ also claimed Al-Saadi regularly posted videos of attacks.

“For example, on or about March 15, 2026, individuals carried out an attack involving explosives against the Bank of New York Mellon, an American bank, in Amsterdam, Netherlands,” a DOJ press release said. “The next day, on or about March 16, 2026, AL-SAADI posted a propaganda video of the attack, in which Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya claimed responsibility for the attack. The video also showed aspects of the attack planning, including maps of the location of where the attack would be and a message which read: ‘In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful This is the Final Warning[.] To all the peoples of the world, especially in the European Union, Immediately distance yourselves [] from all American and Zionist interests, facilities, and what is affiliated with them.’”

In the New York City case, Al-Saadi had allegedly planned to use cryptocurrency to pay someone to set off improvised explosive devices and fires at the New York synagogue (which remains unnamed) and at two Jewish centers—one in Los Angeles and one in Scottsdale, Arizona, The New York Times reported. He agreed to pay $10,000 for the attacks to an apparent member of the Mexican cartel, insisting that the incident be recorded, prosecutors said. The cartel member was actually an undercover law enforcement professional, part of an investigation by the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force.

During a pre-scheduled speech at Temple Emanu-El in New York City, Tisch acknowledged the effect current geopolitical tensions have on religious and cultural sites and identities.

“Right now, we are policing through a period of extraordinary tension and division. No city experiences that more directly than New York,” she said.

She had intended to speak about falling NYC crime rates and the growing number of anti-Semitic incidents in the city, the Times reported. In 2025, 330 of the 576 recorded hate crimes in New York City targeted Jewish people, NYPD data said. But Tisch pivoted to address the allegations against Al-Saadi.

“In my 18 years in government, I have not seen a threat environment quite like this one,” she said. “Today’s case is a stark example of how these tensions that originate overseas translate into violence.”

In an audit released 6 May, the Anti-Defamation League found that 2025 was one of the most violent periods for American Jews, with 6,274 incidents of anti-Semitic assault, harassment, and vandalism. While that total represents a 33-percent decrease from 2024, it’s notably higher than before the Hamas massacre in Israel in 2023 and Israel’s retaliatory action in Palestine.

Anti-Semitic incidents are increasing outside the United States as well. An annual report from Tel Aviv University found that 20 people were killed in four anti-Semitic attacks in three countries—the highest number of casualties in one year for more than 30 years.

“Across the globe, the number of anti-Semitic incidents remained dozens of percent higher than in the period before the war,” the report said.

ASIS members can access the ASIS Cultural Properties Community, which includes a Houses of Worship Subcommittee that shares and produces resources on safety and security for faith-based organizations.