Rebecca Bennett, the Democratic nominee in New Jersey’s swing 7th Congressional District, distanced herself from a fellow Democratic nominee, Adam Hamawy, who is running in a neighboring district.

Hamawy has attracted national scrutiny over his past association with Omar Abdel-Rahman, the terrorist known as the Blind Sheikh, and his work for a charity in Bosnia that was subsequently shuttered as al-Qaida front group. Republicans have sought to tie Bennett, a military veteran running on a more moderate platform, to Hamawy, who is also a veteran.

Kenneth Marcus, the president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, urged the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Tuesday to repeal a longstanding rule requiring large employers to keep and report data on the racial, ethnic and sex makeup of their workforce.

Marcus was one of a slew of speakers who appeared before the commission to testify for and against the rule, which the commission has proposed repealing. He argued that the reporting requirements have resulted in employers feeling pressure to make hiring decisions based on race, rather than encouraging equal treatment.

Today’s Democratic primaries in Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin won’t have the same shock value as previous contests that underscored the strength of the anti-establishment, anti-Israel forces within the party. 

But the possibility of Minnesota Democrats nominating a true-blue progressive over a battle-tested moderate lawmaker as their Senate standard-bearer, along with the growing likelihood suburban voters will reject a pragmatist for a left-wing candidate, may well demonstrate just how far left the party has swung in the past year.  

At last year’s grand opening for Oro Nami, a kosher sushi spot in Washington, the restaurant’s splashy aesthetic — red velvet booths, multicolor clocks projected on the ceiling, dark walls, a light-up floor — did not exactly align with the clientele: Capitol Hill staffers, new Trump administration appointees, K Street lobbyists and a handful of Orthodox rabbis.

But even if Oro Nami’s atmosphere felt slightly out of place in Washington’s quiet West End neighborhood, where the city’s small Orthodox community is centered, that incongruity was no match for the excitement among observant Jews living in the nation’s capital. For years, people had been clamoring for more kosher dining options in the city, and in particular one that would be open past 8 p.m. Oro Nami seemed like the answer. 

Two U.S. ambassadors highlighted ongoing U.S. efforts to bring Ahlam Tamimi — who was convicted by Israeli courts for her involvement in the 2001 bombing of a Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem that killed 16 people, including three Americans — to face trial in the United States around the 25th anniversary of the terror attack.

Tamimi has resided in Jordan since being released from Israeli custody in 2011 as part of a deal that saw Israel free 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, who was held hostage by Hamas for more than five years. 

A lawn sign for Rep. Randy Fine’s (R-FL) reelection campaign outside an early voting site in Flagler Beach, Fla., was spray-painted with a swastika over the weekend, local news outlets reported on Monday.

Fine is one of the few Jewish Republicans in Congress and has been vocal about his Jewish identity and advocating for Israel and against antisemitism. He’s being challenged in his primary race by Dan Bilzerian, an openly antisemitic online influencer.

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) on Sunday praised the new mutual defense pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan as an accomplishment by President Donald Trump.

“The mutual defense pact of Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Pakistan is another achievement of [Trump] promoting stability, peace, and prosperity in the Middle East,” Wilson, a vocal supporter of Israel who has also been strongly supportive of Turkey, said in a post on X. “With our prosperous Gulf allies, a liberated Syria, and Lebanese-Israeli negotiations, it is clear the murderous regime in Iran is isolated and the people of Iran can regain a new government worthy of Iran’s rich history.”

A national co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America said last week that she would have attended an anti-Israel rally in Times Square one day after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks had she been in New York City at the time, describing the terror group’s slaughter of more than 1,200 people across southern Israel as “inevitable.” 

“I think that Oct. 7 was largely inevitable. If you put people in an open-air concentration camp and you deprive them of rights, of dignity, of food, of the ability to live in safety, you have to expect that they are going to not take that for that long,” Megan Romer, who has served as a DSA co-chair since 2023, said in a podcast interview with The New Yorker’s David Remnick. “That is not defending any harm of civilians or non-combatants,” she added.