Brookline has been a hotbed for discourse, demonstrations and vandalism over the two years since the attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 that killed around 1,200 Israelis and became the catalyst for a war that has claimed more than 67,000 lives in Gaza.
Jewish residents Susan Etscovitz, 80, and Martin Solomon, 76, participated in anti-Vietnam War protests during the 1960s and ’70s. But they now have different focuses for their activism.
“The left that I politically lived in my entire life, they are so quick to demonize the Jewish community rather than the current government in Israel,” said Solomon, a retired primary care physician.
Etscovitz — who said she was raised a “Zionist Jew”— had an “epiphany” during a trip to Palestine 15 years ago, which she said altered her worldview and committed her to Palestinian liberation. She is now on the leadership council of Jewish Voice for Peace Boston.
“This was done to the Jewish people, and the government is doing it to the Palestinians, and it’s just unbearable,” Etscovitz said. “If any people should know better, it’s us.”
While the town’s ideological schisms have only appeared to deepen since Hamas’ initial attack, pro-Israel and -Palestine residents hold on to hope for a Brookline united by mutual understanding.
Aftermath sends shockwaves homeward
On Oct. 7, 2023, Rabbi Marc Baker was woken by phone calls from two of his children — one of whom was in Israel. He said “the worst nightmare that any of us had seen in our lifetimes” was unfolding.
Baker, president and CEO of Combined Jewish Philanthropies, said CJP began launching Israeli relief efforts.
“Many people in Brookline and in our surrounding towns have family in Israel, family who were taken hostage, who are fighting in Gaza and who are just suffering in the face of this trauma,” he said.
David Pearlman, vice chair of the Select Board, recalled granting leeway on the three-minute public comment rule and allowing two-way discussion during meetings after Oct. 7.
“I like to let people be heard, and especially in the aftermath of such a tragic event where emotions are so high,” Pearlman said.
Shortly after Oct. 7, 2023, nonprofit leader Mona Mowafi was asked to coauthor a letter with her friend Hajar Delshad, who is part Palestinian, which was signed by Muslim families in Brookline and read at a School Committee meeting .
“Our hearts go out to our Jewish neighbors for innocent lives lost in Israel, while also breaking over innocent lives lost in Palestine,” the letter says. “We pray that, in this difficult time, we could find common ground, bravely calling out injustice wherever we see it and remembering our Abrahamic traditions of unity, love and [peace].”
Mowafi has brought her two children to demonstrations for peace at the Massachusetts Statehouse and Brookline High School. Though they have faced harassment, Mowafi said it’s important to involve her children in activism.
“I worry that if we stayed quiet in our homes, that would be the message that we’re sending them,” she said. “I want my kids to be reflecting on what is happening around them, and I want them to exercise the muscle of moral courage.”
Community cornerstones
A hole in the window of The Butcherie, a Jewish grocery store on Harvard Street which was vandalized in June. Photo courtesy Brookline Police Department.
A brick marked “Free Palestine” was thrown through the window of The Butcherie, a kosher grocery store in Coolidge Corner, in June. The FBI considered and ultimately declined to open a case for the incident, but the Brookline police investigation remains open.
Baker called the incident at The Butcherie a perfect example of the “outpouring of antisemitism” in the U.S.
“When you see an attack like this on such a beloved local institution, you feel it in a particularly powerful way,” he said.
Stickers bearing swastikas over the Israeli flag were spotted around Brookline in late 2024, near synagogues and Jewish businesses.
Brookline businesses were also targeted for promoting Palestinian perspectives. A New York man was arrested for allegedly calling in a bomb threat to the Iris Hotel in Coolidge Corner after it flew a Palestinian flag.
In August, conflicting viewpoints collided at Brookline Booksmith when pro-Israeli activists protested a talk with Arab author Aymann Ismail. The bookstore has faced criticism for its programming related to the conflict.
Lisa Riddle, Booksmith’s co-owner and co-manager, said the store treats its selection as a democracy.
“If people buy them, then we will restock them, no matter how conservative or how progressive those forces are from within,” Riddle said.
Meanwhile, Coolidge Corner Theatre received “overwhelmingly positive community feedback” after screening the Israeli-Palestinian film “No Other Land” in February despite its lack of U.S. distribution, according to a statement by Katherine Tallman, the theater’s executive director and CEO.
A tabled ceasefire resolution
Town Meeting members talk before the start of the meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024 Photo by Brennan Kauffman
Town Meeting member Omar Mabrouk said he wouldn’t describe the conflict in Gaza as a “war” — rather, “something else” that couldn’t happen without U.S. support. He said it’s up to local communities to get their elected officials to raise awareness, so state and federal leaders take notice.
“The rights of Palestinians, in my mind, are linked to the rights even of us here at home,” he said. “If you let one group be dominated and destroyed in one place in the world, it’s not a far stretch for that to happen somewhere else, even closer to home.”
In May 2024, Mabrouk and members of Brookline Peace Coalition — a grassroots movement that formed shortly after Oct. 7, 2023 — sponsored Warrant Article 19, a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and return of all hostages.
Solomon opposed the resolution, saying the town has more important municipal matters to attend to over global conflicts.
It was tabled on a 181 to 42 vote. Mabrouk said he’s lost hope and thinks the town has fallen “out of step with broader public opinion.”
Where does Brookline go now?
With negotiations over President Trump’s proposed peace plan underway in Egypt, Brookline grapples with the long-lasting impacts of the war on the local community.
Paul Campbell, deputy superintendent of Brookline Police Department, said he is frustrated with people who exceed their First Amendment rights and commit criminal acts.
“I understand these are emotionally charged issues,” he said. “But it’s no excuse for crossing that line and violating the law.”
Solomon said he welcomes continued protests but doesn’t want the town to do anything related to the global conflict.
“I’m out there all the time protesting. That’s what it is to be an American,” he said. “But municipalities should not be taking positions on issues like this.”
For an hour every day, Etscovitz sits in front of a painted electric box in Coolidge Corner holding a sign that reads, “Another Jewish mother against the slaughter of Palestinian children,” and chants “Free Palestine.”
“We have to act on hope and know that things will get better,” Etscovitz said. “I just hope they get better before every Palestinian is dead.”
This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
This article was originally published on October 7, 2025.