Among the hodgepodge of signs that have sprouted in Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, one man in jeans and a baseball cap has been carrying placards that shout their suggestions: “Google: Jewish Billionaires” and “Google: Zionists control Wall St.”

But the protests have also, on occasion, had a distinctly Jewish flavor: The encampment has coincided with the busy Jewish holiday season and has witnessed, in its midst or on its edges, a crowded Kol Nidre service on Yom Kippur, festive dancing with a scroll on Simchat Torah on Thursday night, and the sukkah.

The protesters, clustered together in a kind of ad hoc Athenian democracy in the canyons of Lower Manhattan, firmly deny that their demonstrations against corporate greed and the political power of banks exhibit antagonism that singles out Jews.

“You’re going to get a few wackos,” said Aaron Moses Miller, 25, a slender, unemployed man from Ridgewood, Queens, who had been in the park for 16 days. “You can’t help it in a population of this size.”
Mr. Miller, who is Jewish, said that he had not seen the man holding the anti-Semitic signs, but said: “If I had seen him, I would have said something to him. My name is Aaron Moses Miller.”

Jeff Smith, 41, part of the press team for Occupy Wall Street, assailed those who he said ascribed the views of one sign-holder to the entire movement.

“To put someone out there to say, ‘This is who the group is,’ is about as dishonest as you can be,” Mr. Smith, who is also Jewish, said. “It’s yellow journalism.”

(Source: NY Times)