They definitely were. Margaret Killjoy did a couple episodes on her podcast about them with John Darnielle from the Mountain Goats if anyone would rather listen than read about them.

even a newborn can count that high.

Israel has devoted a lot of resources to claiming that any criticism of the state of Israel and its hasbara is anti-semitic. NYC has a famously large and active jewish diaspora. The state claiming to be the voice of all jewish people is also claiming that the man most likely to be mayor of the city with (i think) the largest jewish population in America hates jewish people because he thinks that gunning down refugees in a bread line is bad.

edit:grammar