Congressman Gregory Meeks, D-NY, Wednesday, May 22, 2019, at LaGuardia Community College in New York.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) forcefully denied recent reporting in The New York Post that suggested he had courted votes from anti-Israel activists affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America in a behind-the-scenes effort to lock up support for Adrienne Adams in the race for New York City Council speaker. “The New York Post was 100% wrong in their reporting, not even close,” Meeks said in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel on Tuesday. “There were no negotiations and not even any conversations with anyone from the DSA or anything of that nature. Not one.”

Correct the record: Meeks was responding to a series of stories published last week alleging that he had forged an alliance with incoming council members connected to the DSA — which supports the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment movement targeting Israel — to elect Adrienne Adams, his preferred candidate, over Francisco Moya, who was until recently a leading contender for the speakership. “Under any circumstances, that wouldn’t be,” Meeks, who chairs the Queens County Democratic Party, told JI. “But the implication of me even meeting with them to cut a deal is false in fact because that never happened.”

Silent treatment: Until now, Meeks had refrained from commenting publicly on the matter. “I just chose not to talk about it,” he explained, “because I know anyone that could read the article thoroughly would see that it just didn’t make sense.” But the congressman also seemed eager to correct what he viewed as a separate misimpression — that his back-channeling had been part of an effort to stymie Mayor-elect Eric Adams, who had favored Moya for the speakership. Far from it, he said. “The person that I was talking to the most was the mayor himself, who had nothing to lose in this scenario,” Meeks told JI, referring to Eric Adams. “We understood each other.”

No tension: Meeks, for his part, rejected the implication that his support for Adams had caused tension for the mayor-elect. “Some tried to make it like the mayor wasn’t successful and this was a defeat,” Meeks said. “That’s not true, because it was all of us,” including labor groups as well as county chairs, who “had an open line to the mayor all the time. He knew that he could not lose in this process.” “I’m a moderate Democrat — look at my voting record, look at Adrienne’s and look at the mayor’s, and you’ll see they’re similar,” Meeks said. “I think that we are in a prime position to move forward to make the city safer. That’s important. That’s what this is really about, is making the city safer and more prosperous, and that benefits everybody.”

Read the full interview here.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, Professor of Surgery, Columbia University speaks onstage during the 2021 Concordia Annual Summit – Day 2 at Sheraton New York on September 21, 2021, in New York City.

TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz’s announcement last month that he is running for Senate in Pennsylvania has been met with a mixture of surprise and curiosity by political strategists and activists in the state, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. The political neophyte joins a growing field of Republicans vying for their party’s nomination in the open seat, which will be vacated by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), who opted not to run for a third term.

Jersey boy: Oz, 61, has lived in New Jersey for the last three decades, and he commutes to Manhattan to film “The Dr. Oz Show” and perform surgeries at New York Presbyterian-Columbia Medical Center. He has said he and his wife moved to Bryn Athyn, a suburb of Philadelphia in Montgomery County, last year, although social media activity shows him routinely spending time in New Jersey. “His lack of connection to Pennsylvania is going to be a serious problem,” said Mike Conallen, who has served as chief of staff to three Pennsylvania Republicans in the House of Representatives.

NatSec novice: Only one foreign policy issue is mentioned on Oz’s website: “Get tough on China,” it says. Oz visited Israel in 2013 with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on a trip funded by Republican donor and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who died earlier this year. Oz approached the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in much the same way he is approaching his Senate campaign: as a doctor who knows how to ease suffering. “As a healer I would love to contribute whatever I can to ease suffering of those caught in the current conflicts,” he told Boteach in an interview at the time.

Turkey ties: The son of Turkish immigrants, Oz would be the first Muslim member of the Senate. “I think Islam is a huge opportunity, and an obligation to explain what it’s really about. It’s too easily characterized as people blowing things up, motivated by hate. It doesn’t really reflect the religion I grew up with,” Oz said in a 2017 interview with the Turkish broadcaster TRT. Oz is a dual citizen of Turkey and the United States, and he served for two years in the Turkish army. Earlier this year, he appeared in an advertising campaign for Turkish Airlines, which is 49% state-owned.

PA problems: He has not weighed in publicly on his positions on Middle East politics, particularly as they relate to Turkey. But Oz has at least met Erdogan several times. In Pennsylvania, the issue has more relevance — the state is home to Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish religious leader who has lived in Pennsylvania in self-exile for more than two decades. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed Gülen and his followers for a failed coup attempt in 2016 and has repeatedly called for Gülen’s extradition from the United States.

Read the full story here.

Greg Casar

Texas’s newly redrawn 35th Congressional District, which includes parts of Austin and San Antonio, has made a safe Democratic district even safer, local political observers say. But the question that is emerging for the early frontrunner, Austin City Councilmember Greg Casar, a Democratic Socialist and a prominent member of the council, is just how far left to tack in the primary for the seat being vacated by longtime Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

By the numbers: An internal poll from Casar’s campaign released earlier this month showed the councilman leading his closest competition, Democratic state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, by 25 points — 42% to 17% — although such polling, especially in primaries, can be unreliable. Former San Antonio City Councilwoman Rebecca Viagrán formally entered the race after the poll results were released.

To the left: Analysts said the deeply Democratic district could end up being favorable to a left-wing candidate like Casar, who has made a name for himself in Austin as an advocate for a range of progressive causes, including cutting police funding. “This is the kind of district where, not unlike [Rep.] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [D-NY] and some of the other more progressive candidates, you have a very safe Democratic district that’s going to be decided in the primaries, and so sometimes running far to the left could be an advantage,” Walter Wilson, a political science professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, told JI.

Tightrope walk: Casar’s involvement with the “defund the police” movement could also end up as a disadvantage to him among minority voters, who have not been consistently supportive of such tactics. “[Defunding] the police is an interesting thing for this district,” Jesse Crosson, a political scientist at Trinity University in San Antonio, said. “I have a feeling Casar is going to have to be careful about how he speaks about those issues because there’s going to be a sizable blue-collar contingent in this district [where] that’s not going to play as well as people might think.”

Making connections: Casar is backed by the Democratic Socialists of America and Justice Democrats. He has not publicly shared his views on the Middle East.

Read the full story here.

The central staircase and interior entrance of the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem.

Over the last 3,500 years or so, few construction projects in the holy city of Jerusalem have piqued as much curiosity or controversy as the Museum of Tolerance. For the last 21 years, Jerusalemites have watched with anticipation as industrial machinery burrowed and hammered into sacred ground and a sparkling new structure has risen slowly – very slowly – to dominate the heart of the modern city center. Hindered by precious archeological discoveries, bitter legal battles, protests and now a global pandemic, many have also wondered what this mysterious building will eventually contain and what it might add to a city already packed with museums, Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports.

First look: Set for completion in the summer of 2023, the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem (MOTJ), a project of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, has already hosted a handful of high-profile events, but few people have been granted an in-depth look beyond its luxurious facade or heard in detail about the creators’ vision for a vibrant cultural center aimed at fostering dialogue and opening people’s minds. Such a concept might seem like an anomaly in one of the world’s most conflicted and divided cities, but it is exactly Jerusalem’s fractious population who those involved with the museum’s creation are hoping will visit and utilize what they say is an investment for future generations.

Read the full story here.