Son of Prominent Maryland Rabbi Arrested After Altercation with Protesters in D.C.

Police recently arrested the son of a prominent Montgomery County rabbi after he allegedly got into an altercation with anti-Israel protesters last Tuesday, Apr. 16, outside the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C.

Two witnesses quoted in a Secret Service police arrest sheet accused Ezra Z. Weinblatt, a real estate agent who lives in Potomac and is the son of Rabbi Stuart G. Weinblatt, of pushing them and breaking their sound equipment.

A Baltimore native who grew up in Pikesville, Rabbi Weinblatt is the senior spiritual leader of Potomac’s Congregation B’nai Tzedek, which he and his wife Symcha co-founded in 1988. He is a 1974 graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, and was ordained by the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati.

For decades, Rabbi Weinblatt has been a prominent figure in the Washington Jewish community. He leads the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition.

Ezra Weinblatt, 45, told Secret Service police “what [the protesters] were doing is illegal and annoying,” according to the arrest sheet, which was obtained by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group that has advocated against Israel during its war with Hamas.

The Secret Service confirmed the arrest to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

“On April 16th at approximately 11:55 a.m. U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division officers arrested an individual at 3514 International Drive, NW after an altercation,” a spokesman said. “The individual was arrested for ‘destruction of property’ and ‘simple assault’.”

An Instagram video linked in the CAIR release showed a man throwing sound equipment outside the embassy on Tuesday around noon. A number of women’s voices shout that “Zionism is a sin” and “This man assaulted her” and “What is wrong with you!” while a recording of an air raid siren is heard on a loop. The man heads back to his car but is arrested by Secret Service police. He goes away peacefully with the officers.

“Law enforcement should consider hate crime charges against Mr. Weinblatt,” CAIR’s national office wrote on X.

Ezra Weinblatt is on the board of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington. His Twitter feed is mostly retweets of pro-Israel commentary on the Israel-Hamas war.

In November, Weinblatt, a married father of two, posted an op-ed on the Times of Israel website in the form of an open letter to Save the Children, appealing to the nonprofit to not to quote information dispensed by Hamas and affiliated groups. In the op-ed, he describes what he depicts as tactics of intimidation at anti-Israel protests.

“The threat of violence, and violence against the Jewish community, is frightening and real, not imagined,” Weinblatt said.

Protests at the Israel embassy in D.C. have intensified throughout the war; a pro-Palestinian U.S. airman self-immolated outside the embassy in February, later dying from his injuries.

Jewish officials who have visited the embassy have complained to the State Department about the intensity of the protests, including the loud air raid siren. The protests and whether the State Department — which is one of the agencies responsible for the security of diplomats — can do more to protect the embassy was a topic of discussion last Tuesday at a meeting between Jewish community leaders and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Protesters have approached people entering the embassy, running in front of them and filming them on smartphones, accusing them of being complicit in genocide, and hurling insults and derisive comments about their appearances at them.

Ezra and Rabbi Weinblatt and the JCRC did not return requests for comment.

Ron Kampeas is the Washington bureau chief for the JTA global Jewish news source. Jmore staff contributed to this report.