Dentist at center of fracas outside NJ synagogue wins last-minute pardon

by Dana DiFilippo, New Jersey Monitor

One day after former Gov. Phil Murphy pardoned a Jewish dentist accused of assaulting a pro-Palestinian protestor outside a West Orange synagogue, the dentist says he is “profoundly grateful” to Murphy, and a Muslim civil rights group is condemning the ex-governor for sending “a deeply troubling message.”

Murphy pardoned Moshe Glick, who heads a nonprofit called Israel365 Charity, on Tuesday during his final hours in office as part of a yearlong clemency initiative.

Glick, 53, had been charged by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office with aggravated assault, bias intimidation, and weapons offenses after police accused him of bashing a Muslim protester in the head with a metal flashlight during a fracas outside Congregation Ohr Torah in November 2024.

Pro-Palestinian activists were there protesting the sale of Jerusalem properties, according to a police report. The injured man got four staples to close a head wound, the report says.

Selaedin Maksut, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations of New Jersey, said Wednesday that Glick’s pardon “sends a deeply troubling message at a time when all faith communities are facing heightened threats and deserve assurance that the law will be applied fairly and consistently.”

“This is not about politics — it is about principle,” Maksut said in a statement. “Selective accountability, especially in cases touching public safety, weakens confidence in our justice system. The prosecutors were doing the right thing, and Governor Murphy stifled justice from taking its course. Our state must be clear: no one is above the law, and no community’s safety or dignity is expendable.”

The case won national attention after President Donald Trump’s administration last September sued the pro-Palestinian protesters and accused them of assaulting Jewish worshippers that night, a complaint that includes a starkly different description of the incident than how West Orange police and the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office characterized it.

Trump’s lawsuit says Glick hit the alleged victim to stop him from attacking a worshiper.

“The aggressor was actively choking an elderly man. Had that assault continued, the outcome could have been catastrophic,” Glick told the New Jersey Monitor.

Glick’s attorney, Michael Bachner, said his client is “profoundly grateful” to Murphy and noted that Glick had not been convicted of a crime.

“The charges against Moshe were meritless. What began as an act of defending a person from violent assault outside of his synagogue has ended with the truth prevailing. This prosecution was a gross overreach, selective prosecution, and an attempt to criminalize Jewish self-defense amid rising antisemitism,” Bachner said.

A spokesman for the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office did not return a request for comment.

Essex prosecutors indicted another man, David Silberberg, on similar offenses after police accused him of pepper-spraying the same victim. Silberberg, 65, of Millburn, did not receive a pardon, and his case remains ongoing. His attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

Glick was among 148 people whom Murphy pardoned or commuted the sentences of on Tuesday.

West Orange has declined requests for copies of the police-worn body camera footage of the incident outside the synagogue.

Ed. Note: About 50 protestors assembled outside the synagogue to protest at an event promoting the illegal sale of property in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, where Essex prosecutors claimed organizer Moshe Glick and his customers were the aggressors. Federal officials charged protestors who intended to protest the real estate sale with interfering with the Congregation Ohr Torah’s right to exercise their religion freely.