Adhering to Jewish tradition, Rabbi Levi Duchman burns willow branches from a previous holiday on the eve of Passover at the Jewish Community Center of the UAE on March 26, 2021 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Next year in Dubai. If you can find a seat at the Seder table, that is. “The challenge this year was finding a Seder that wasn’t too crowded,” Michal Divon, a Dubai-based journalist, told Rebecca Anne Proctor for JI’s sister publication The Circuit. The jam-packed Passover Seders held last week in Dubai and Abu Dhabi — more than 2,000 Jews from all over the world were in attendance — marked the largest celebration of the Jewish holiday since the historic Abraham Accords normalization agreements were signed between the UAE and Israel on Sept. 17, 2020. The thousands of attendees mark a significant change from seders in the UAE several years ago, which were often held in secret and attracted only a handful of attendees.

Global outreach: A sign of the UAE’s growing Jewish population, many of the Passover Seders in Dubai and Abu Dhabi were hosted by Rabbi Levi Duchman, an American-born Chabad rabbi and the first resident chief rabbi of the UAE, in the presence of community members, government officials and ambassadors. Seders were also hosted by Lebanese-born Rabbi Elie Abadie, who joined the Jewish Council of the Emirates as its senior and resident rabbi in 2020. And, in an indication of the increasingly global and cosmopolitan makeup of the Jewish community in the Emirates, the Seders were conducted in several different languages, including Hebrew, English, French and Russian. “Eight years ago, I started off at NYU Abu Dhabi making a small Seder,” Duchman told The Circuit, “And this year, to have Seders run by multiple rabbis…and having the Israeli ambassador, the American chargé d’affaires present — it was truly beautiful. This is such a beautiful message for our children and for other communities to witness coexistence and tolerance.”

Read the full story here.

Bonus: JI’s Gabby Deutch got a behind-the-scenes look at this year’s Seder hosted by Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff — the first Seder ever held in the Naval Observatory.

Assembly member Nily Rozic speaks during a press conference at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

A proposed Holocaust education bill that had been met with fierce resistance from New York state lawmakers last legislative session now appears to be facing renewed  — if somewhat mysterious — opposition in Albany. Late last week, the bill was removed, with no public explanation, from a detailed list of agenda items that are expected to come up for discussion during a meeting of the state Assembly’s Ways and Means Committee on Monday, according to a Democratic insider who spoke with Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kasselon the condition of anonymity.

‘Revised’ agenda: The original agenda, reviewed by JI, had included the bill near the top of the list when it was distributed on Friday afternoon. But just over an hour later, the list was summarily replaced with a “revised” agenda — and the Holocaust bill was nowhere to be found. The bill appears to be the only item that was excluded from the new agenda.

Curious development: It is yet another curious development for the seemingly benign legislation, which — despite persistent efforts to stymie its path to a floor vote — has garnered widespread bipartisan support. The bill would direct New York’s education commissioner to conduct a study verifying whether public schools are educating students about the Holocaust. Those who support the bill argue that it is a useful corrective amid an uptick in antisemitism as well as reports that young American adults are uninformed about the Holocaust.

Background: The legislation was nearly quashed last spring when Education Committee Chairman Michael Benedetto attempted to block the bill, arguing that it was redundant because Holocaust instruction is already required by state law. His effort was rejected by a majority of committee members who voted against the hold. The bill was directed to Ways and Means just two weeks before the legislative session concluded last June but did not come up for a vote. Benedetto, who also sits on Ways and Means, did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday, nor did Brooklyn Democrat Helene Weinstein, who chairs the committee.

‘Shameful truth’: DemocraticQueens Assemblywoman Nily Rozic, who sponsored the legislation and is a member of the Ways and Means Committee, said she was unsure why the bill was removed from the agenda without any apparent explanation, but expressed frustration with the last-minute edit. “It is a shameful truth that Holocaust survivors still have to fight to ensure that their stories are heard, and more importantly that students are taught the lessons of the not-so-distant past,” Rozic, who is Jewish, told JI on Sunday. “There’s nothing redundant about that.”

Read more here.

Pat McCrory, governor of North Carolina, talks with attendees to the induction dinner before the NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at NASCAR Hall of Fame on January 30, 2015, in Charlotte, North Carolina.

As a former governor and former mayor of the state’s largest city, Pat McCrory might be the most well-known candidate running for U.S. Senate in North Carolina — but that is far from a guarantee of victory in this year’s turbulent political environment. Even to win the Republican primary, McCrory must overcome the symbolic and financial weight of former President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC). “I think most Republicans are in agreement on 90% of the issues,” McCrory said in an interview with Jonah Kaplan for Jewish Insider. “The disagreement comes more in personality and how to convey and get support [for] those policies. I do believe in ‘America First,’ but America is first impacted by the rest of the world,” he said, referencing the former president’s political mantra. “A lot of these issues, the economy and safety, they don’t recognize political boundaries and they’re not separated by oceans anymore.”

Test of time: McCrory, 65, who served as governor from 2013-2017, had been a talk radio host in Charlotte when he entered the 2022 race to replace the retiring Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC). In addition to Budd, McCrory’s opponents include former Rep. Mark Walker and combat veteran Marjorie K. Eastman. A recent poll from Emerson College found McCrory running a distant second at 22% of the vote, compared with Budd’s 38%. “The thing about McCrory is he’s the biggest name,” Dawn Vaughan, state politics reporter for the Raleigh-based News & Observer, explained to JI. “Almost everyone knew him as the mayor of Charlotte and then everyone knew him as governor. So the main thing is, especially for Republican primary voters — do they still like him?”

Community outreach: “I went to visit the synagogues after I learned of increasing threats [to Jewish institutions],” McCrory said. Rabbi Murray Ezring, the former senior rabbi at Temple Israel, a Conservative synagogue, told JI he extended the invitation after a rise in threats against synagogues in the area. “I told him we needed him, and he moved around his whole schedule to do it,” Ezring added. “He didn’t hesitate, and he recognized how important this was for us.” Jeff Epstein, the former president of Charlotte’s Jewish Community Relations Council, was in the audience during one visit and speech at Temple Israel. “Pat is a guy who really wants to serve. Pat very much had a reputation as mayor as being moderate and getting things done and not being an ideologue,” Epstein told JI. “He wanted to make things better.”

On Israel: Epstein, who later served as secretary of the Department of Revenue, said then-Mayor McCrory also spoke highly of a trip to Israel he took with other mayors from across the U.S. “It made a very big impression on him. I think in his gut he feels a lot of affinity for Israel because it has had so many practical successes,” Epstein explained. “You don’t understand Israel unless you go there,” McCrory added. “I went on a bus ride to the Golan Heights and the folks there were explaining to me the [strategic] importance of the highlands. You have to see it to believe it.”

Read the full interview here.

Carrie Solages

Longtime Nassau County Legislator Carrié Solages is one of several Democrats who has thrown his hat into the ring for a shot at replacing retiring Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-NY). With the race heating up, Solages is hoping his long career in the county government will give him an edge, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Background: Solages, who is in his early 40s, argued that he’s the best-qualified candidate to represent New York’s 4th Congressional District — which includes the heavily Jewish Five Towns area — because of his decade in the county legislature, which has allowed him to build close relationships with state and county officials and given him the knowledge to “deliver for my community.” The county legislator, who is the U.S.-born child of Haitian immigrants and previously spent time in Washington as an undergraduate at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, said that running for Congress has been a “lifelong dream” inspired by “a lifelong commitment to service for my community.”

Standing out: Solages’ immigrant background is a driving force behind his concerns about immigration reform, which he described as “overdue.” Solages also raised alarms about the Biden administration’s refugee policy. “I’m concerned about the treatment of Black refugees,” he said. “To see now Haitians being deported left and right — more than under Obama, more than under Trump, in one year —  President Biden has done that, deported more Haitians. And to see him do that — it’s a violation against the Convention Against Torture,” Solages said, referring to the international human rights treaty that went into effect in 1987.

Cash dash: Solages came in fourth among Democrats in fundraising in the first quarter, behind the three other prominent Democratic competitors: former Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen, Malverne Mayor Keith Corbett and County Legislator Siela Bynoe. Gillen raised $256,000 followed by Corbett at $159,000 and Bynoe at $105,450. Solages was the only one of the four to not break $100,000, coming in with a haul of $95,000. Gillen has $217,000 on hand, trailed by Corbett with $156,000, Bynoe with $102,000 and Solages with $82,000.

Looking abroad: Solages — who aspires to serve on the House Foreign Affairs Committee —  said that the Biden administration’s efforts to reenter the Iran nuclear deal go “against what I believe — my inner core — we cannot engage with them.” The aspiring congressman said the U.S. should instead keep economic pressure on Iran and continue to provide defense funding to Israel. “Going back to my days at Georgetown School of Foreign Service, I have always stated publicly, and internally I believe, that we must do everything we can to protect Israel,” he said.

Read the full story here.

Democratic Majority for Israel supporters at the 2019 California Democratic Party convention.

Democratic Majority for Israel is expected to announce today that its political action committee is endorsing a dozen new House and Senate primary candidates as the midterm elections come into sharper focus, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel scoops. The pro-Israel advocacy group is throwing its support behind nine Democratic incumbents who are up for reelection this cycle as well as three candidates vying for open seats in California, Maryland and Ohio.

Third round: “As Democrats across the country prepare to go to the polls to decide their nominees for Congress,” Mark Mellman, DMFI PAC’s president and a veteran Democratic pollster, said in a statement to JI, “DMFI PAC is thrilled to announce our third slate of primary endorsees, each of whom believes in — and has demonstrated the willingness to fight for — a strong U.S.-Israel relationship.”

Vulnerable senators: Three candidates, including Sens. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), are viewed as uniquely vulnerable in general-election matchups this November as they prepare to defend their seats — and a tenuous Democratic majority in the upper chamber — amid favorable GOP headwinds. The other Senate incumbents are Patty Murray (D-WA) and Alex Padilla (D-CA).

Holding the House: Among the House members DMFI is endorsing are Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Derek Kilmer (D-WA), Adam Smith (D-WA) and Elaine Luria (D-VA), whose race is rated a toss-up by the Cook Political Report. Krishnamoorthi, Kilmer and Smith are facing Democratic challengers who have expressed criticism of the Israeli government as well as U.S. funding for the Jewish state. DMFI is also backing Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia in California’s 42nd District, state Rep. Emilia Sykes in Ohio’s 13th District and former state’s attorney Glenn Ivey in Maryland’s 4th District.

More to come: “With this latest round of endorsements,” Mellman said, “DMFI PAC will have endorsed nearly 50 well-qualified, diverse, pro-Israel Democratic candidates for House and Senate — candidates who know well that being pro-Israel is both good policy and good politics.” Rachel Rosen, a spokesperson for DMFI PAC, said the group will be “running ads to support some” candidates but declined to elaborate further. “As races develop,” she told JI, “DMFI PAC will announce additional endorsements for both primary and general elections.”

Read the full story here.