Fresh off being reappointed to the House Armed Services Committee last month for a full two-year term, Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod last week that he’s aiming to use his seat on the powerful panel — as well as his unique relationship with a colleague across the aisle — to combat antisemitism, counter Iranian malign activities and support the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Personal: For Ryan, antisemitism is “personal” and “from literally day one has been a major focus of mine.” His wife and children are Jewish and his upper Hudson Valley district includes a sizable Jewish community. “I just could have never imagined that almost a century after the horrors of Nazism… that I would have to worry about my kids going to the playground and seeing a swastika on a slide,” Ryan said — referencing a vandalism incident he encountered with his children. “It’s scary from [the perspective of] the safety of my young kids and my wife… It makes me sad on many levels and it makes me outraged that we allow the spread of this hate, and that we aren’t doing more to really directly confront those that are propagating it and hold them accountable.” A West Point graduate who served two terms in Iraq as an intelligence officer and as a defense contractor in Afghanistan, Ryan told JI last week that he sees his position on Armed Services as key to his efforts to combat antisemitism, particularly through the annual National Defense Authorization Act.

Standing strong: Ryan’s seat on Armed Services puts him in a key position in ongoing debates over how the U.S. should respond to those threats from Iran. The former Ulster County executive said that his outlook on Iran is shaped by his service in Afghanistan, which exposed him to “a flood of deadly weapons” provided by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iranian-backed militias “coming in and literally killing my fellow soldiers… and of course lots of innocent Iraqis.” Iran’s support for terrorism across the globe, Ryan continued, “has to be stopped,” as do its “blatant threats and aggression toward Israel.”

Enduring bond: Israel, the New York lawmaker continued, is an “invaluable security partner” who the U.S. must continue to support. Ryan indicated that he does not share the concerns, expressed by some fellow Democrats, that the new Israeli government and its proposed policies could pose a threat to the durability of the U.S.-Israel relationship. “There’s room for disagreement with allies,” he said, “but I remain, as I try to do with all issues, optimistic that we can work through that in good faith. The nature of the threats to Israel and to the U.S. are such that we have to be able to work through those disagreements.”

Unique relationship: Ryan may be in a unique position to work across the aisle with the new House majority. He was in the same class year at the military academy as Reps. John James (R-MI) and Wesley Hunt (R-TX), and lived across the hall from James for two years. Ryan said he and James have “a deep, strong bond that transcends partisanship,” which he hopes can be a model for his colleagues that they are “actually on the same team here” and “have to figure out how to work together” in response to increasing global threats, including China, Russia and Iran.

Read the full interview here.

A month before his election to Congress last November, Rep. George Santos (R-NY), the scandal-plagued New York Republican, falsely referred to himself as “halachically Jewish” while courting donations from pro-Israel activists at a fundraising event in South Florida, according to two attendees who were present for the discussion. It was hardly the first time that Santos had made dubious claims to Jewish ancestry. The 34-year-old congressman, who was raised Catholic, has alternately said he is “Jewish,” “Jew-ish,” “half Jewish” “a proud American Jew” a “Latino Jew” and a non-observant Jew, among other descriptors, even as genealogical records have shown he holds no familial connection to Judaism. But his invocation of Jewish law, or halacha, to establish a misleading connection to Jewish heritage through his Brazilian-born mother, whose ancestors were Catholic, adds yet another layer to the convoluted and often contradictory web of deceptions surrounding his purported Jewish roots, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

Miami meet: The embattled representative, who fabricated most of his personal and professional background, delivered the remark during an early October event at Mo’s Bagels & Deli in the heavily Jewish Miami suburb of Aventura, according to Andy Fiske, a co-chair of U.S.-Israel PAC, which hosted the meeting. “He said, ‘I’m halachically Jewish,’” Fiske, who lives in South Florida, told JI on Monday, recalling that Santos had “made it seem like” his mother was Jewish. “He just made a big deal out of that.” A second person who attended the event confirmed that Santos had used that phrase to describe himself, but asked to remain anonymous.

Working the crowd: The comment, which has not previously been reported, was positively received as a clever nod to Jewish heritage, Fiske said. That was most likely because, at the time, participants had little reason to doubt Santos’ claim, which remained unchallenged until weeks after the midterm election, when several of his lies were first uncovered. “He got a chuckle out of the crowd,” Fiske, who is Jewish himself, told JI. “It’s sort of funny. It’s sort of like when somebody who’s not Jewish makes a Yiddish comment and you get a little chuckle. It was like that type of thing. It was like, ‘Hey, and by the way, I’m halachically Jewish.’ He was charismatic. He was bantering with the crowd.” Santos arrived at the event an hour and a half late but quickly charmed the room as he discussed his campaign and took questions from participants, Fiske said. “I found him to be very warm and friendly,” he told JI, adding: “He knows how to work a crowd.”

Dashed hopes: Members of the pro-Israel PAC, which mostly backs Republican candidates, were particularly eager to hear from a rare Jewish Republican running for Congress, according to Fiske, as Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) was then poised to vacate his seat. “It’s nice to have a Jewish Republican member, because I like to see diversity,” Fiske said. “It was nice to have a guy that doesn’t fit the Republican model.” Now, however, Fiske holds a different perspective. “He said all the right things, where everyone was like, ‘Yeah, this guy’s good,’” he said of Santos, who has cast himself as a stalwart supporter of Israel. “But it was disappointing later to find out that a lot of this stuff is not true.” While Fiske emphasized that “being Jewish isn’t a prerequisite” for candidates seeking support from U.S.-Israel PAC, he acknowledged that “it helps sometimes,” if only because a shared Jewish identity can engender a unique sense of common understanding.

Read the full story here.

Bonus: The New York Times reports on a slew of Santos’ unexplained campaign expenditures — totaling more than $365,000 and accounting for nearly 12% of the New York Republican’s campaign spending.

In the hours and days since a massive, 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey last Monday, dozens of Jewish and Israeli organizations — along with aid agencies from all over the world — have dispatched teams to help with relief efforts as the death toll climbs above 30,000. “Israel’s proximity to Turkey is undoubtedly one reason so many of our Israeli partners were able to get to the scene so quickly after the devastating disaster,” Naomi Lipstein, the communications manager for Olam, a network of Jewish and Israeli relief groups, told Madison Hahamy for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Added need: Sheba Medical Center, the largest medical center in Israel, is another Israel-based organization that has dispatched teams to provide medical humanitarian relief, recently operating in Ukraine and Kenya. In Turkey, there are around eight medical reserve officers assisting in the Israeli Defense Force’s humanitarian effort — in the next month, the IDF plans to rotate out and Sheba will begin running the Israeli humanitarian operation, according to Yoel Hareven, head of Sheba Global. Brian Abrahams, the CEO of American Friends of Sheba Medical Center — the fundraising arm of Sheba Medical Center — noted that Sheba’s sees its “mandate in the world” as being part of humanitarian relief efforts. This mandate, he added, has only increased over the past few years due to the coronavirus pandemic, war, and an influx of natural disasters.

Back to basics: The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee has worked specifically with Turkey’s Jewish community and population more broadly to assist with previous earthquake and other disaster responses. In response to last week’s catastrophe, they immediately sent a team to the disaster zone to help distribute blankets, food and direct survivors to shelter. Leora Wine, JDC’s director of disaster response, arrived in Turkey 33 hours after the earthquake initially struck. The initial response, she said, is focused on attending to people’s most basic needs — the “bottom of the bottom” of the Maslow pyramid — and making sure that people afraid to sleep in their homes have hot soup, water, blankets and a general feeling of safety. She noted that these efforts are often communal and not just relegated to foreign humanitarian organizations— everyone who is able to help does what they can.

Long-term plan: IsraAid has worked in over 60 countries. Similar to JDC, they focus both on immediate relief and long-term recovery and resilience. According to Yotam Polizer, the group’s CEO, the teams he dispatches will often spend five to seven years in one location, rather than just a few months. In Turkey, the organization has a team of nine people on the ground in two different locations, which includes trauma specialists, water engineers, and people with operations and logistics experience who are helping to provide immediate relief in the form of heating and winter clothing. At the same time, they are training local people to build capacity while also partnering with local organizations to help make the work sustainable. “This crisis in terms of Turkey, in terms of climate disaster, is the worst we’ve seen in years,” Polizer said, noting the widespread disaster and inaccessibility of many places. “People go to areas more accessible or highlighted on mainstream media, but if you go two miles down the road, there’s a small village equally devastated or more that has received zero support.”

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