Benjamin Netanyahu, Yair Lapid

With less than 14 days until Israelis return to the polls for a fifth general election in as many years, signs that the country is in the midst of another political race are hard to find. Some blame public apathy toward the Nov. 1 election on the lazy days of summer vacation, followed by nearly a month of Jewish holidays. Others say Israelis are fed up with an unstable political system that has been in crisis for four years. Whatever the reason, this election appears unlikely to bring about any dramatic changes. Yet political analysts who are closely watching the race say that it might be the most decisive election the country has faced so far, with matters such as the rule of law and political identity at stake, Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports.

Political observations: JI discussed the upcoming vote with three political observers — Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute; Aviv Bushinsky, a political commentator and a former chief of staff to former Prime Minister and current Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu; and Jonathan Rynhold, head of the political studies department at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University — to ask why the country is embroiled in this never-ending cycle of elections, what this election is about and what it will take for Netanyahu to return to power?

Latest polls: Polls published this week gave Netanyahu’s Likud around 30 seats out of the 120 in Israel’s Knesset. The right-wing bloc that backs him, however, appears to fall short of the requisite 61 seats needed to form a government. Yesh Atid, the party of Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who took over as caretaker leader in July, polled at 25 seats. That gives the current government bloc – the anti-Netanyahu bloc – 57 seats, with the outsider Arab party, Hadash/Ta’al, hovering at the electoral threshold with the minimum of four seats.

Slow to start: A report published this week by Israeli daily Haaretz noted that campaigns for the election, which was called in June, have been slow to kick off. With two weeks until Israelis cast their ballots, the competing political parties have spent only about 30 percent of their campaign budgets, with most focusing their efforts on a push during the final week. Netanyahu is reportedly placing emphasis on mobilizing older members of his party, with Likud supporters engaging in door-to-door canvassing. Lapid, meanwhile, is treading a fine line between poaching voters from potential coalition partners to the left of the political spectrum and ensuring high voter turnout across the board, with a particular focus on Arab voters.  

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State Rep. Emilia Sykes, Madison Gesiotto Gilbert

Voters in Ohio’s 13th Congressional District are weighing two very different candidates next month as they seek to fill the Akron-area seat currently held by Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH): on one side, a Democratic upstart in state politics who hails from a local political dynasty, and on the other, a conservative media personality and Trump-world staffer, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

In the race: Democratic state Rep. Emilia Sykes has seen her star rise since taking office — after first entering the Statehouse in 2015, she became the Democratic minority leader in 2019, holding that post through 2021. Her seat was previously held by both her father, Vernon Sykes — now a state senator — and her mother, Barbara Sykes. Sykes faces Madison Gesiotto Gilbert, a former conservative media commentator and political staffer who is a co-chair of Women for Trump and was an advisor on President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign. 

Bipartisanship: Sykes played up her ability to work across the aisle, touting legislation passed in the Statehouse while she was minority leader. “In that first year, it was nearly the same amount of bipartisan bills we had passed in the four years previously,” she told Jewish Insider, including legislation surrounding wages, tax cuts, maternal health care, criminal justice reform and school funding. “A lot of that was just working with people who sometimes did not want to work with me. And quite frankly, I maybe didn’t want to work with them, but being compelled and motivated by folks who elected me and my community first,” she continued. Gilbert and her campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Community relations: Both before and during her time in office, Sykes has maintained relationships with the small Jewish community in Akron, as well as the broader Ohio Jewish community. Her congressional campaign has been endorsed by Democratic Majority for Israel, J Street and the Jewish Democratic Council of America. “Israel is the only ally that’s a very significant ally in the Middle East, and we rely upon that friendship and that relationship for many reasons. Not only for their safety, but our safety in the United States and in the region and the world,” Sykes said. That includes continuing U.S. aid without conditions. “The United States certainly defends itself the way that we feel like we need to, as should other countries.” She said she consulted with a range of members of the Jewish community across the political spectrum as she was formulating her Israel policy during her campaign.

Gilbert’s stance: Gilbert’s campaign website includes a page laying out her Israel policy, where she writes, “I fully stand with Israel — America’s greatest democratic ally in the Middle East. We must strengthen our relationship with Israel and fully support Israel’s right to exist. With the rise of anti-Semitism in the Congress and across our nation, it is imperative that we combat this hateful and dangerous rhetoric.” Gilbert pledges to support security assistance, oppose the “anti-Semitic [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] movement” and “ensure Israel is treated fairly across the globe.” She also declares her opposition to a nuclear deal with Iran.Read the full story here.

Dalia Lister

It’s probably safe to say that no Friday night Shabbat dinner invitation ever landed quite like Londoner Dalia Lister’s: You’re not coming here to sit in a corner of the room with your friends, the invite warned, adding, if you’re not going to participate, you’re not welcome in the community. The fledgling — and carefully curated — community that Lister is trying to build for young Jewish professionals in London launched in early September with “Not Your Mum’s Friday Night Dinner.” It’s not a religious event, or a charity event, or a singles mixer. “I didn’t want it to be just another social event,” Lister, the chief of staff at a tech startup, told Jenni Frazer for Jewish Insider. “I wanted it to be for people who really wanted to come and mingle, who wanted to meet other people. Particularly now, post-COVID, when everything has been online.”

Inspiration: During her adolescence, Lister told JI, she was never allowed to go to parties with her non-Jewish school friends on Friday nights. But once out in the world of work, she discovered different options: “religious events, in synagogues, which I do go to, and charity events. “But some people don’t feel comfortable in a shul, or perhaps haven’t grown up going to shul,” Lister added. “On the other hand, there are charity events, that I’ve also gone to, and they’re also great, and I support many of them and am an ambassador for a couple of them. But again, they don’t attract everyone. And then there are singles events, but there isn’t actually anything for connecting people, whether you are single or not.”

Party planning committee: In 2022 London, even a social event needs meticulous planning: and so Lister, true to her business instincts, drew up a business plan. “It was to be a young persons’ dinner for connecting people, but a traditional Friday night format. I said it wasn’t to be religiously affiliated or charity affiliated. I wanted to bring together young people around London aged between 23-35, motivated, engaged people.” She posted a piece on her private Instagram account about the planning for “Not Your Mum’s” — “and I had 25 messages in 10 minutes from people asking where they could sign up.” Sensing that she was on to something, Lister opened an online waitlist — “and in two weeks 170 people had signed.”

Table manners: The first “Not Your Mum” event included some ground rules. “I said it wasn’t cool to be cliquey, and that if you don’t mingle, you won’t be invited back,” Lister explained. “I was taking a stance — saying to people, you’re not coming here to sit in a corner of the room with your friends. If you’re not going to participate, you’re not welcome in the community.” This appears to have acted as somewhat of a wake-up call, telling potential participants that this was going to be a different kind of event from “something that their mother had pushed them to attend, saying, ‘Go to this, maybe you’ll meet your husband or wife.’” She also required people to say who had referred them, meaning she could track how people were hearing about the event. “At the end of the day, it is a Jewish event, so it had to be a safe environment. But it was also good to know how the wait list had grown.”

What’s next: Now Lister is considering how to follow up. She’s decided to run “Not Your Mum’s Friday Night Dinner” four times a year. She’s also found interest from non-Jewish people — not least, she says, because people want to network and don’t go to pubs any more to do that. “It’s also about creating a comfortable environment,” she said. She’s already planning a Halloween event for 150 people, both Jews and non-Jews, for Oct. 29 (“Not Your Neighbourhood Trick or Treat”), which has attracted several commercial sponsors, and says the format has the potential to move to other venues. “In tech, we have this concept of ‘test and learn.’ So for the ‘Not Your’ events, I’m learning all the time what works and what doesn’t. And all the skills I’m using now, I’ve learned at work.” 

Read the full story here.