The Jewish family targeted by foul-mouthed harassment at a New Jersey mall has spoken out in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com after shocking video of the incident went viral.
On New Year's Day, mother Adi Vaxman was with her husband and two of their children, ages 12 and 16, at the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, where the family hoped to play a round of mini golf.
As they walked through the dense holiday crowds, a young man and woman began hurling obscenities at her daughter, who was wearing a jacket with the Israeli army logo that had been a gift from the girl's veteran grandfather.
“We hear a man yelling and screaming, “Free Palestine, f*** Israel, f*** you, you w**re” – “you b***h,” he called my daughter,” Vaxman recalled . Tuesday in a telephone interview.
'The strange thing is that the shopping center was full and there were dozens of people standing in a circle around us watching. Just watching. Nobody said anything. Nobody did anything. No one called security,” she added.
Mother Adi Vaxman is speaking out after her family was subjected to anti-Jewish harassment over her daughter's IDF jacket, a gift from her grandfather. In the photo, from left to right: 16-year-old daughter Maya Vaxman-Magid (wearing the jacket), mother Adi Vaxman, father Ronen Magid, 12-year-old son Ethan Vaxman-Magid and their eldest son Tavorr Vaxman-Magid
Video first shared on X by the watchdog group Stop Anti-Semitism shows part of the disturbing confrontation, in which a young woman and a man both shout obscenities at the Jewish family.
Vaxman said a clip showing her phone falling to the ground came after the female aggressor tried to “hit” her and instead punched her phone, knocking it out of her hand.
She said her family quickly left the mall without calling police or security after the incident deeply upset their son and teenage daughter, who she says “couldn't sleep all night” and were “very shaken” goods.
“Our family is made up exclusively of IDF veterans, so we are very proud of it,” Vaxman said of the jacket her daughter wore, noting that her brother and cousin had both been drafted from the IDF reserves in the ongoing war of Israel with Hamas. Gaza.
“We pride ourselves on standing up for who we are and what's important to us, and no one will take that away from us. No one,” added the mother, who founded the company a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting IDF forces after the Hamas attacks on October 7.
“My grandparents are Holocaust survivors and they had to hide – I'm not hiding,” she said, explaining the family's decision to speak out publicly after the ordeal.
'No one has the right to tell me what I should and shouldn't wear. No one needs to make me hide my Jewish identity,” she added. “Not only are we walking around attacking people wearing 'Free Palestine' shirts, but they are walking around attacking us.”
“They have no right to attack anyone,” she said. 'No one has the right to be violent. No one has the right to pursue the freedom of others.”
A Jewish family of four was subjected to foul-mouthed harassment at the American Dream Mall in New Jersey, according to video of the incident shared by a watchdog group
A representative for American Dream Mall did not immediately respond to an inquiry from DailyMail.com on Tuesday morning.
StopAntisemitism Executive Director Liora Rez told DailyMail.com in a statement: 'Incidents like these contribute to a violent atmosphere that has pushed anti-Semitic hate crimes to new heights. They must be universally condemned if we are ever to return to public discourse that does not target or threaten Jews.”
Rez attributed the incident to the “Free Palestine” movement, which she said has “created so much hatred and division in America that a Jewish family cannot walk through a mall without being accosted.”
The video of the incident posted on X shows the confrontation already underway, with a young man and woman shouting at the family.
“Leave her alone, leave her alone!” you hear the Jewish father say as he steps between the Palestinian supporters and his family.
The Jewish mother, who appears to be filming the incident, is heard saying: “You're attacking me, you attacked me and you dropped my phone!”
The female aggressor responds, “You're recording me without my consent! It's free Palestine, die damn it, die b***h! Free Palestine that damn b***h! Liberate Palestine, you should be ashamed of supporting genocide!'
The Jewish father is seen driving his family away from the insulting rant and shouting back, “What genocide?”
“Leave her alone, leave her alone,” the father is heard saying. “Leave this shit alone.”
The Jewish mother shouts: 'You are cursing my child! You're cursing my child!'
“I curse you,” says the male bully. “I curse you and your damn husband.”
The female harasser goes on to say that she is also a minor. The confrontation culminates in a shouting match that is difficult to hear clearly, as the Jewish mother questions whether the perpetrators have ever been to the Palestinian territories.
'Palestine doesn't exist, it's a made-up lie!' the Jewish mother is heard screaming before the music video ends.
“Free Palestine, f***ing that b***h,” a young woman can be heard shouting at the family in the video
The disturbing incident is the latest example of escalating tensions in the US since Hamas launched its attack on Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking hundreds of others hostage.
Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground invasion of Gaza, killing at least 22,000 people, according to the enclave's Hamas-led health ministry.
Israeli airstrikes have reduced much of the territory to rubble and engulfed its 2.3 million inhabitants in a humanitarian crisis, leaving many thousands displaced and threatened by famine due to a lack of food supplies.
In the US, the Justice Department has said it is monitoring growing threats against Jews and Muslims in the United States due to rising levels of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia related to the war in the Middle East.
In early December, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the threat level was so high he saw “flashing lights everywhere.”