Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO) are set to introduce the Safer Spaces for All Act, which would modify and expand the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program to allow institutions to use grant funding for additional purposes.

The legislation is a companion to a bill in the House by Reps. Joe Neguse (D-CO) and Don Bacon (R-NE). It would allow institutions to use grant funding to pay full-time security staff, pay off-duty police officers to provide security and spend 5% of grant funding to pay administrative staff to apply for and manage grant funding.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday shrugged off the protest — which featured jeers of “traitor” at the democratic socialist leader, and chants of “long live Hamas” — that sought to drown out an event he attended the night prior memorializing the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks.

The mayor, who rose to power as a fierce critic of the Jewish state, declined at a press conference to denounce or even meaningfully engage with the presence of hecklers who massed in Union Square Wednesday night against a vigil organized by the liberal group Israelis for Peace. Protesters used drums and megaphones to berate the mayor and drown out remarks from speakers.

A planned study trip to Italy for some 100 Jewish early childhood educators from the U.S. and Israel was canceled after participants were required to sign a statement condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza, prompting organizers to conclude that the trip’s political litmus test made such a trip untenable. 

The educators — members of the U.S.-based Paradigm Project — were scheduled to travel to Reggio Emilia, Italy, from Oct. 11–16. Their goal was to study the Reggio Emilia Approach to early childhood education, a method long embraced by Jewish preschools, and bring those insights back to their classrooms. 

Several speakers at the right-wing National Conservatism Conference in Jerusalem said on Wednesday that Jews complain too much about antisemitism — on the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, which were followed by a sharp increase in hate crimes against Jews around the world. 

NatCon, as the conference spearheaded by right-wing Israeli American intellectual Yoram Hazony is known, was held in Israel for the first time this week.

Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) and Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO) wrote to the leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees on Thursday to urge them to ensure that a provision mandating the creation of a Department of Defense-wide policy on hate symbols remains in the final version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act.

Similar language was adopted in both the Senate and House versions of the bills, but the final NDAA remains under negotiation by lawmakers. The push comes largely in response to a back-and-forth last year in the Coast Guard over whether displays of swastikas and nooses would be considered banned hate symbols or only “potentially divisive.”

A provision in the draft 2027 National Defense Authorization Act that aims to coordinate and enhance cooperation between the U.S. and Israeli militaries has proven to be a significant source of controversy among Democrats, with even some senior lawmakers who defended the provision on its merits flipping against it under pressure.

And, as Congress will have only months to pass the NDAA when it returns from recess after the November elections, the provision may face some resistance from Republican lawmakers as well — an indication of skepticism of the U.S.-Israel partnership building among the GOP base as part of the debate between hawks and isolationists. 

University of Michigan Hillel is ending its formal affiliations with student groups and national organizations engaged in Israel advocacy, lobbying or political organizing, while insisting that the policy does not represent a retreat from its support for Israel.

The policy, announced by interim Executive Director Cindy Hughey in a message to students at the start of the academic year last month, is part of what Michigan Hillel described as a renewed focus on Jewish life, learning and community. 

The Mamdani-world operative serving as treasurer for a national anti-AIPAC campaign is now running a New York State committee seeking to oust three Republican lawmakers in Brooklyn — two of whom are Jewish.

State Board of Elections records show that attorney and activist Mark Hanna submitted paperwork to establish the Kings County Victory Project committee in late September. The PAC’s stated purpose is to boost the candidacies of three Democrats running against incumbent Republicans in centrist and right-leaning parts of southern Brooklyn: Joey Cohen-Saban, running against Assemblymember Michael Novakhov; Chris McCreight, seeking to unseat Assemblymember Alec Brook-Krasny; and Joyce Xie, vying against Assemblymember Lester Chang.