Yair Rosenberg, a longtime journalist and commentator on American Jewry, is joining The New York Times as a reporter covering Jewish American life, the Times announced on Monday. 

Rosenberg joins the Times following 15 years covering Jewish life, antisemitism and the intersection of politics and religion, including writing for Tablet Magazine and authoring The Atlantic’s Deep Shtetl newsletter since 2021. 

“Yair will bring that boundless energy and deep expertise to a new religion beat on National focused on Jewish American life, chronicling a period of extraordinary tension but also possibility and reinvention,” New York Times Editor Nestor Ramos said in an announcement about the move.   

Rosenberg joins The New York Times amid criticism from some over its alleged bias in covering antisemitism and Israel, including during its war with Hamas. Last month, the paper was condemned by the Israeli government and American Jewish organizations over an opinion column by Nicholas Kristof accusing Israel of systemic sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners — including training police dogs to rape prisoners — which some critics called a “modern day blood libel.” 

“Yair brings a deep understanding of American Judaism and the vast, diverse and multifaceted community that falls under that big umbrella,” said Ramos. “His reporting and writing are rich with nuance, speaking clearly to Jews and everyone else at the same time. It’s a perspective that can only come from real experience.”

Ramos recalled, “When I first met Yair for coffee, he left mid-conversation; a group in the next room was one short of a minyan, and he’d agreed to be their 10th — even if it meant stepping away.”

Four friends gather around a table as a waiter serves a tray of pastrami sandwiches; a Torah scroll is passed from grandfather to father and son, marking a bar mitzvah; three grandmothers sit on lawn chairs outside of a brownstone, watching passersby on a summer night.

These candid glimpses of ordinary American Jewish life, part of a new art exhibition, “Golden Age: Nostalgia for the American Jewish Century” — currently on display at the Altneu, an Upper East Side Orthodox synagogue — evoke a bygone era, before today’s historic rise in antisemitism.

“I grew up in the golden age [of North American Jewry], the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. It was an easy time,” Jacqueline Kott-Wolle, one of the seven artists whose work is highlighted in the exhibit, told Jewish Insider on Wednesday at an event to mark the gallery’s opening. “My memories of growing up Jewish [in Toronto] were very positive. Everybody was Jewish — even the people at my high school who weren’t Jewish were Jewish. It was a good time to be alive. [Today,] antisemitism slammed into us so hard. It shocked us.” 

Kott-Wolle, who is based in Highland Park, Ill., and is the daughter of Holocaust survivors, said her oil paintings “represent the height of that time period, when we were very comfortable being Jewish.” The artwork, she said, evokes memories of the “Golden Age of American Jews,” which a 2024 piece in The Atlantic claimed is ending due to antisemitism stemming from both the left and right. 

In addition to her six paintings displayed in the exhibit, Kott-Wolle has a larger exhibit called “Growing Up Jewish – Art and Storytelling.” The series of 40 paintings illustrates five generations of her family photos, which have been exhibited in the Maltz Museum in Cleveland and Houston Holocaust Museum. 

“[The paintings] are playful and fun, and they make us feel a little more nostalgic for something that we think or worry might be lost,” she told JI, noting that displaying her work in a synagogue is a unique experience.  

“The paintings resonate everywhere, but differently,” she said. “I find Jewish audiences recognize it immediately. I can’t tell you how many times someone will come up to me and say, ‘I love this painting and how come my mom is in it?’”

In more mainstream settings, her art has also been widely embraced, she said. “It’s like our Jewish faces have been beaming into people’s TV screens forever. Our faces are familiar, so non-Jewish audiences also respond, but in a different way. Still in a very loving and receptive way.”  

But amid the highest levels of antisemitism seen in generations following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, many Jewish and Israeli artists no longer feel their work is welcome in non-Jewish spaces. Located in the basement of the Altneu synagogue — a Tudor Revival townhouse on East 70th Street —  the new exhibit directly responds to that exclusion, according to curator Anne-Marie Helwaser and co-chairs Diana Gordon and Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt, who is also Altneu’s rebbetzin.

“At a moment when openly Jewish artists are facing growing barriers in cultural spaces, we are doubling down on Jewish creativity by giving space and visibility to strongly Jewish [and] Israeli emerging art, in the heart of the Upper East Side,” said Chizhik-Goldschmidt who founded Altneu in 2022 together with her husband, Rabbi Benjamin Goldschmidt.

“On a deeper level, there is a spiritual component too. Visual arts is a powerful connection point for people; in the words of Rav Kook, ‘Literature and art are positioned to express the deepest of secrets hidden within the soul.’ We believe it’s an important part of our spiritual experience, to be moved, to feel a stirring in the soul when seeing a particularly evocative piece of work,” she told JI. 

“As the Altneu grew, I dreamt of people coming to an Orthodox synagogue for a contemporary art show, and for those two pieces to feel utterly organic together,” said Chizhik-Goldschmidt, who recalled growing up in the halls of New York’s museums, the granddaughter of a passionate art historian and tour guide.

“It was a major part of my upbringing, as a child of Soviet Jewish immigrants,” she told JI. “The arts were the only kind of spirituality that Jews had access to in the USSR. Now, we are blessed to be able to combine this with a sanctuary space.”

This is the fourth art exhibit the Altneu has hosted. Until now, the synagogue has focused on Israeli artists. However, the conflict with Iran made the logistics of securing their artwork nearly impossible in time for this exhibit.

The idea first came about “at a fragile moment,” said Helwaser, director of the Helwaser Gallery on Madison Avenue. 

On a trip to Israel soon after Oct. 7, she recalled being moved by an exhibition by one artist who was an IDF soldier.  

“He came back [from war] and started painting,” she said. “I talked to my friend, [Altneu community leader] Diana [Gordon], and thought we should show the images. We created — very improvised — an exhibition here. People responded really well.” 

Once the organizers realized the Iran war would make it a challenge to bring Israeli art, they issued an open call for American Jewish artists, and the resulting meetings sparked the idea to highlight this different political moment. 

“Hundreds of artists responded. I selected maybe 20 and we met with them and chose seven. 

In different ways, all the selected artists were asking the same question: what does it mean to be Jewish today in America? It’s something we are concerned about,” Helwaser continued.  

Asked why she displayed the art at Altneu instead of her own gallery, Helwaser admitted she never expected to curate for a synagogue. She explained that unlike gallery visitors, this audience comes for the story and to connect with the artists rather than just the art.

“We don’t need Altneu for art, we have the best galleries in the world in New York,” she continued. “[Visitors] want to talk about what it is to be Jewish. Art is a nice way to do that.” 

“It’s not easy [to show Israeli artwork] in New York City galleries now,” said Helwaser. “I would do it but I’d be worried. In London, you wouldn’t be able to do it. Israeli artists here [are afraid] to be shown as Israeli.”

In addition to Kott-Wolle, participating artists are: Rotem Amizur, Nicole Gordon, Noa Ironic, Alan Richards, Ephraim Wuensch and Allison Zuckerman. 

Paintings are priced between $600- $52,000. Many of the buyers are not Jewish, according to Helwaser. The exhibit is scheduled to run until July 6. 

The opening night brought a diverse crowd of Jews together, including many newcomers to the synagogue — from those wearing black yarmulkes and sheitels to others sporting piercings and tattoos. “That’s the beauty of Manhattan, and of the Altneu as a gathering point. It goes beyond denomination,” said Chizhik-Goldschmidt.

The artwork appears to be resonating. At the debut, one guest was overheard gesturing toward a painting and remarking to a friend, “This is nostalgia for me. This is exactly how American grandmothers looked when I was growing up.”

Last Friday, we laid out how American Jewry is facing a fork in the road in the aftermath of the Gaza war and release of hostages, and that the coming months will be crucial in assessing whether Jews will experience a renewed period of normalcy or whether the rising tide of anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism will continue unabated. 

There are a number of upcoming key elections that will test the power of the mainstream against extremist forces. Here are the developments we’ll be watching most closely.

Will Zohran Mamdani win a majority of the New York City vote, and how will he govern if elected as mayor? Right now, without any surge in funding and organization among anti-Mamdani forces in Gotham, it’s looking very likely that the far-left candidate will prevail. But polls still show him consistently under 50%, without gaining any real momentum since winning the Democratic primary. And half of the six most recent public polls in the race (as tracked by RealClearPolitics) show the anti-Mamdani candidates collectively winning more of the vote than the front-runner. This race doesn’t at all look like a mandate for the far left.

If Mamdani wins, the next big question is whether he’ll govern more pragmatically than his past record would suggest. Will he try to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York City, as he has consistently said he would do on the campaign trail? Will he threaten the tax-exempt status of Jewish groups because they support Israel? Will he reappoint Jessica Tisch, the effective NYPD chief, as a signal of his willingness to moderate?

He’s been wooing business leaders and working to spin reporters that he’s not as ideological as his political career suggests, but that may be more wishful thinking than anything based on a careful scrutiny of his comments and record.

Will Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) or Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) receive a serious primary challenge? Massie and Greene are the two members of the small but loud faction of the anti-Israel and increasingly antisemitic crowd among House Republicans. Not coincidentally, they also are the two Republicans that are most antagonistic towards President Donald Trump — from calling for a release of the government files on Jeffrey Epstein to, in Greene’s case, agreeing with some Democratic health care demands during the government shutdown. 

Massie looks more politically vulnerable, with Trump and his allies actively recruiting a challenger to run against him and releasing internal polling showing he can be defeated. Former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, who ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Kentucky Senate last year, looks like Trump’s favored candidate. But no one has yet announced a challenge, with the filing deadline less than three months away (Jan. 9). 

Greene looks safer, but her increasing Trump criticism could change that dynamic. The filing deadline in Georgia isn’t until March 2026.

How credible a threat will Graham Platner pose to Gov. Janet Mills in Maine’s Democratic Senate primary? Under normal political circumstances, an established two-term governor would hold a commanding advantage over an oyster farmer without any elective experience in a race for the Senate. That’s especially true given that the challenger has a long paper trail of comments calling himself a communist and embracing a laundry list of radical views.

Yet Platner has parlayed his rough-and-tumble biography and anti-establishment authenticity into media buzz, and raised an impressive $4 million for the race since announcing his candidacy over the summer. 

Mills, who is 77 and the favorite of Democratic Party leaders, starts out as the favorite to win the nomination. Platner has lately been facing scrutiny over his lengthy string of social media posts where he identified as a communist, called all police “bastards” and said rural Americans are racist and stupid, among other incendiary comments. He also downplayed concerns of sexual assault in the military in online forums.

Normally, those types of views and comments would be political career-enders. But in this anti-establishment, populist moment, it’s hard to be confident in assuming the traditional rules of politics apply. After all, Mamdani has weathered scrutiny of his own radical affiliations without suffering outsized political consequences.

In addition to holding down-the-line progressive views on the economy, Platner is also uniquely hostile to Israel, even to the point of releasing a digital attack ad against the pro-Israel advocacy group AIPAC. Shortly after launching his campaign for the Senate, Platner labeled Israel’s war against Hamas a genocide. 

Mills, as governor, doesn’t have much of a foreign policy record but has spoken out against Israel boycott measures embraced by municipal leaders in Portland. But as the candidate representing more-mainstream Maine Democrats, it’s likely she will adopt a more-moderate posture when it comes to Middle East policy.

Will Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares be rewarded for his work against antisemitism? For a while, it looked like there would be a sizable blue wave in this November’s Virginia statewide elections, with Trump unpopular in the state and the DOGE-fueled government layoffs juicing up Democratic engagement.

That leaves Miyares, the state’s Republican attorney general who has targeted terrorist funding from anti-Israel groups in the state and called on Virginia’s universities to aggressively confront antisemitism, in a precarious political position. 

But a shocking scandal involving his Democratic opponent, former state legislator Jay Jones, has upended the race and given Miyares a good chance to win reelection. The revelation of text messages from Jones wishing violence against one of his GOP colleagues has drawn bipartisan outrage, and led some Democrats to distance themselves from him. Public polling has been sparse, but recent surveys have shown Miyares pulling ahead in the race after trailing throughout the year.

One nonpartisan Jewish leader in Virginia told Jewish Insider that Miyares was one of the most effective and engaged elected officials in countering antisemitism, and the race was emerging as a key bellwether of whether Jewish voters would reward GOP officials for their allyship.

One example of Miyares’ bipartisanship: the Virginia attorney general played a key role in working to remove the anti-Israel protest encampment outside former Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s Northern Virginia home after progressive local government officials declined to do so.  

Can Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) prove anti-Israel activists on social media are more bark than bite? The other big Democratic Senate showdown is taking place in Michigan, the state with a sizable Jewish constituency but also the largest share of Arab voters in the country.  

Stevens starts out as the front-runner, thanks to her record of winning tough elections, successful fundraising and backing from many national Democratic leaders. She has also been a stalwart supporter of Israel, easily toppling an anti-Israel Democratic challenger in a closely watched 2022 Democratic primary against another sitting member of Congress. She’s a favorite of the politically engaged Jewish Democratic community, many of whom have championed her candidacy.

But with the political winds on Israel in the Democratic Party shifting, Stevens will be facing her fiercest test against two challengers running campaigns that are decidedly more hostile towards Israel. Abdul el-Sayed, an acolyte of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), has long been an opponent of the Jewish state, and is likely to win over many Arab-American voters with anti-Israel views. 

State Sen. Mallory McMorrow began her campaign sounding more in the pro-Israel camp, but has grown steadily more hostile as Democratic voters have turned more critical of the Jewish state. This month, she said she considered Israel’s war in Gaza to be a genocide.

Stevens is still widely viewed as a favorite, and led the pack in fundraising in the just-completed third fundraising quarter. She also benefits from the possibility that McMorrow and el-Sayed split the progressive, anti-Israel vote, leaving more-mainstream Democratic voters in her camp.

But if anti-Israel sentiment becomes a litmus test for more Democratic primary voters, Stevens could face headwinds down the road. This primary, taking place next August, is as clear a test as there is of the size and depth of hostility towards Israel in the Democratic Party.

Will socialist, anti-Israel candidates prevail outside of New York City? While Mamdani’s Democratic Socialists of America-aligned mayoral campaign has gotten outsized attention, socialist candidates in the mold of Mamdani are running for mayor of other big cities across the country. 

In Minneapolis, the city’s liberal Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey (who is Jewish), is facing a DSA-backed challenge from Omar Fateh. Fateh, a state senator, is a BDS supporter and hired senior staffers who defended the Oct. 7 terror attacks, and have called for the dismantlement of Israel. This race is expected to be close, according to in-state analysts.

The other notable contest is in Seattle, where Mayor Bruce Harrell finished in second place in an August primary to a self-declared socialist challenger, Katie Wilson. The two candidates are facing off in the general election, where Harrell is now seen as an underdog. Wilson has spoken out less about Israel and the war in Gaza than many of her socialist counterparts, but many Jewish leaders in Seattle are concerned about her overall record.