The girls organized a teach-in and walkout at their high school in November. It led to an unexpected flood of backlash from the town’s adults, including elected officials; a deluge of violent threats; a campaign organized by a new pro-Israel, Jewish lobbying group; and intervention by the federal government.

Members of the town council were key instigators — and they found a willing audience in a sitting member of Congress. Within hours of the November protest, council member Karen Orgen emailed videos of it to nearly two dozen people, among them Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., according to emails The Intercept obtained under the New Jersey public records law. Gottheimer did not respond to that thread, but three hours later, fellow council member Goldberg wrote an email thanking him and other officials for their “hard work.” Soon after, Gottheimer issued a statement condemning the Teaneck school district’s “decision allowing an antisemitic, anti-Israel protest during school hours.”

Gottheimer has become fixated with Teaneck’s high schoolers. At his urging, the U.S. Department of Education opened a civil rights probe into discrimination at Teaneck High. After the school district announced that it would partner with two Jewish and Muslim civil rights organizations — the Anti-Defamation League and the Council on American Islamic Relations, respectively — Gottheimer publicly accused the Muslim organization of glorifying terrorism and demanded Teaneck cut ties with it. CAIR’s New Jersey chapter denounced Gottheimer’s “defamatory attacks” in a written statement.

In response to The Intercept’s questions, Goldberg simply wrote in an email, “Release the Hostages.” Gottheimer, Orgen, and Kaplan did not respond to requests for comment.

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A few weeks later, Teaneck hosted the Bergen County Unite for Israel Parade. Allie Orgen, daughter of council member Karen Orgen, told the Jewish Standard that she had been inspired to organize it after attending the Jerusalem Day flag march, an annual Israeli nationalist rally in Jerusalem that has often descended into nationalist hooliganism and anti-Palestinian violence. “I want to move the [Jerusalem Day] parade to Teaneck,” she said.

An estimated 2,000 people from around New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut marched down Teaneck’s streets with Israeli flags. The Standard described the event as a “protest,”“parade,” and “party” all in one. Musicians performed pro-Israel songs at a local park. Gottheimer addressed the crowd, saying that “anyone who says Israel is a terrorist state, or an apartheid state, that’s antisemitism.”

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The controversies in Teaneck seemed almost tailor-made to suck Gottheimer in. He has a history of awkward, defensive, and sometimes downright weird interactions with the public, including in Teaneck.

In 2017, Gottheimer showed up to a fundraiser at a bar in Paterson, a city with many Arab Americans and other people of color, donning a bulletproof vest with an armed guard at his side. In 2019, the congressman had a public meltdown when he saw an elderly citizen-journalist taking notes at a Teaneck town hall event that was supposed to be closed to the press. Two years later, Gottheimer falsely accused a heckler from Teaneck of yelling an antisemitic slur at him. The protester turned out to be Jewish herself. After the October 7 attacks, Gottheimer reportedly said that Muslim Americans should feel “guilty.”