‘I have not once ever voted to authorize funding to Israel, and I will never,’ Ocasio-Cortez said during a Democratic Socialists of America endorsement call, according to an editor from City & State New York
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) takes part in the Munich Security Conference.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleRep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) reportedly committed on Tuesday to opposing “any spending on arms for Israel, including so-called defensive capabilities” for Israel as well as the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, according to an editor from City & State New York.
The New York Democrat made the comments on a Democratic Socialists of America endorsement call on Tuesday evening.
“I believe the Israeli government is well able to fund the Iron Dome system, which has proven critical to keep innocent civilians safe from rocket attacks and bombardment. Consistent with my voting record to date, I will not support Congress sending more taxpayer dollars and military aid to a government that consistently ignores international law and U.S. law,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement.
“Netanyahu’s allies in the Knesset just approved a $45 billion defense budget, and the Prime Minister himself also asserted his interest in withdrawing from the MOU in January,” she continued. “It is fully within their ability to fund Iron Dome and other defensive systems. Our allies who need our military aid must understand that we will provide it consistent with the Leahy amendment and the foreign assistance act.”
Though Ocasio-Cortez has not voted in favor of aid to Israel, she did vote against an amendment last year by then-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to cut funding for defensive systems such as Iron Dome, earning the ire of the far left.
“I have not once ever voted to authorize funding to Israel, and I will never,” Ocasio-Cortez reportedly said during the forum. “The Israeli government should be able to finance their own weapons if they seek to arm themselves.”
The systems in question have no offensive use, and are only used to intercept incoming attacks on Israel. Just five lawmakers — Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Al Green (D-TX), Summer Lee (D-PA), Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) — voted with Greene on the amendment.
Last year, Ocasio-Cortez framed the vote as a clear choice.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene’s amendment does nothing to cut off offensive aid to Israel nor end the flow of U.S. munitions being used in Gaza. Of course I voted against it,” she said. “What it does do is cut off defensive Iron Dome capacities while allowing the actual bombs killing Palestinians to continue. I have long stated that I do not believe that adding to the death count of innocent victims to this war is constructive to its end. That is a simple and clear difference of opinion that has long been established.”
Some on the far left have resurfaced that vote in recent days to criticize Ocasio-Cortez, and circulated a petition opposing an endorsement if she didn’t change her stance. During a standalone vote in 2021 on Iron Dome funding, Ocasio-Cortez ultimately voted present, but said she regretted not voting against the funding.
She suggested on the forum that DSA members were misrepresenting her record in a way that would make it harder to grow the group’s membership. “It does not benefit us as a movement, because I see when we try to persuade our colleagues, I see the effect that that has when people feel like if they vote our way, they are just going to be lied about anyway,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez’s commitment to the DSA suggests she has no plans of moderating her stance on Israel — even to support purely defensive systems that still enjoy support among progressives critical of Israel — as she looks toward a potential bid for higher office.
Though she voted against the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which would codify the Department of Education’s use of the IHRA definition, Ocasio-Cortez still took heat from the far left for voting for a nonbinding resolution expressing support for the State Department’s global guidelines on combating antisemitism.
Those nonbinding recommendations, issued by the State Department under the Biden administration and dozens of international partners, recommend that governments around the world adopt the IHRA definition.
Just 21 House members — mostly from the right wing of the GOP — voted against the resolution, including Omar, Tlaib and then-Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who were the only Democrats to oppose the resolution.
A new survey by Jewish Women International found that young women experienced major disruption to their dating lives in the aftermath of Oct. 7, with some now seeking out Jewish partners
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Rear view of a young couple sitting side by side on a bench in a city park during autumn.
Nearly half (47%) of young Jewish women reported dating less as a result of increased antisemitism and other negative consequences of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, according to a new survey by Jewish Women International.
Over one-third (36%) of respondents said they’ve ended existing romantic relationships due to these dynamics, while 18% said they’ve stopped online dating altogether.
Many of the Jewish American women surveyed, who were between the ages of 20 and 34, reported other negative impacts to their romantic relationships including strained conversations (75%), arguments (53%) and decreased contact or connection (39%).
One respondent described ending a relationship over “our differing levels of Zionism” and while another experienced “tension in our relationship” on the “first anniversary of Oct. 7.” One said she “ultimately ended my relationship with my partner because he was always so angry about Gaza but never showed any anger toward antisemites, toward Hamas, or even to an antisemitic gunman who killed two of my peers.”
A vast majority (71%) of respondents said they’d changed what they’re looking for in a dating partner in the aftermath of the attacks, which for several meant seeking out exclusively Jewish partners,
“I decided to only date Jewish to avoid any blatant antisemitism, and also to ensure that there would be common ground,” one wrote. “Before October 7, like, sure, I wasn’t opposed to going on a date with someone who wasn’t Jewish, and exploring that opportunity. And now — not really so much,” another said. “Felt deeper connections to Jews I know and are strangers. Exclusively wanted to date only Jews,” another wrote.
Jewish singles have been grappling with the impact of increasingly heated antisemitic rhetoric on dating apps and among potential romantic interests for years now, as several told Jewish Insider in 2024 that they too had pivoted to seeking a Jewish partner as they waded through politically charged rhetoric on dating profiles.
Even more than their dating lives, survey respondents experienced negative impacts to their mental health (75%) and friendships (74%), with 80% reporting decreased contact in their platonic relationships. For those on college campuses, 68% said their sense of belonging was damaged in the aftermath of Oct. 7, and 63% said the same of their relationships with their classmates.
In professional settings, 39% of respondents said they’d felt pressured to minimize their Jewish identity and 18% said they’d removed Jewish content from their resumes. Several said in written responses that they’d been drawn to work in Jewish advocacy by their experiences.
“JWI has dedicated significant time and resources to a comprehensive national survey of the impact of antisemitism and misogyny on young Jewish women. Based on our findings, young Jewish women feel disenfranchised in the workplace, ostracized in social circles, and compelled to erase their Jewish identities for fear of personal safety,” said Meredith Jacobs, CEO of JWI, who added that the organization will focus its programming on “post-traumatic growth.”
“As the mothers of the next generation of the Jewish diaspora, the support these women receive will directly impact the future of Jewish peoplehood,” Jacobs continued.
The 514 respondents were largely reached through JWI’s networks, including focus groups at the organization’s leadership conference, between Nov. 11-Dec. 22, 2025.
Plus, judge rules against UPenn in antisemitism investigation
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Mourners carry the coffin of Kata'ib Hezbollah member on March 2, 2026 amid Kata'ib Hezbollah flags.
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump lashed out at European countries this morning for their posture during the war in Iran: He wrote on Truth Social that France is prohibiting planes with military supplies destined for Israel from flying over its territory, calling Paris “VERY UNHELPFUL … The U.S.A. will REMEMBER!”
Trump also named the U.K. among the countries “which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran” and are now struggling to acquire fuel due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. “[G]o to the Strait, and just TAKE IT. You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us,” the president warned…
Trump told the New York Post about reports that he’s willing to end the war without reopening the Strait of Hormuz: “I don’t think about it, to be honest. My sole function was to make sure that they don’t have a nuclear weapon. They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon. When we leave the strait will automatically open.”
He similarly said to CBS News about removing Iran’s enriched uranium, “I don’t even think about it. I just know that, you know, that’s so deeply buried it’s gonna be very hard for anybody. … It’s pretty safe. But, you know, we’ll make a determination”…
During a press briefing this morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed that he took a secret trip to the Middle East in recent days to meet with U.S. servicemembers, including Air Force intelligence analysts, Army troops and pilots.
CENTCOM also confirmed that Adm. Brad Cooper visited Israel earlier this week where he met with Defense Minister Israel Katz and Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF’s chief of staff…
Israel is ending all arms purchases from France and “replacing it with domestic Israeli procurement or purchases from allied countries,” the Israeli Ministry of Defense said today, adding that there will be “no new professional engagement with the French military” in the latest rift in the deteriorating relationship between Jerusalem and Paris…
A week after Lebanon declared Iran’s ambassador to Beirut persona non grata and expelled him from the country, the ambassador has still refused to leave the embassy compound, and Iran has stated that the embassy remains open…
China and Pakistan, which has been the intermediary for indirect negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, put forward a ceasefire proposal that would see the immediate cessation of hostilities, the safeguarding of nonmilitary targets and the restoration of transit through global shipping lanes…
American journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in Baghdad, Iraq, today, according to the Iraqi interior ministry, reportedly by Kataib Hezbollah, the same group that held researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov for over 900 days. Kittleson is a freelance journalist primarily based in Europe who has written for outlets including Al-Monitor and Foreign Policy.
Dylan Johnson, assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, said in a statement that the State Department “is aware of the reported kidnapping” and had “previously fulfilled our duty to warn this individual of threats against them.” Johnson said an “individual with ties” to Kataib Hezbollah “has been taken into custody” in connection with the kidnapping and that the department will coordinate with the FBI to secure Kittleson’s release…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attended a dinner for Eid last week where he spoke with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, a conversation that Piker called “very productive” on a recent Twitch stream.
“No, he did not disavow me,” Piker said in response to a listener’s question. “‘Did you tell him to tune out the bad faith haters?’ I did,” Piker continued. Mamdani appeared on Piker’s Twitch for an interview during the mayoral campaign but has not met with him publicly since…
“Nope,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) said in response to a video of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) claiming that, “in many respects,” Piker “is doing a very good job.” “Hasan Piker is a proud antisemite … His voice should have no place in our political discourse and all elected officials should condemn his rhetoric,” Gottheimer wrote…
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Jewish Democrat, shared an image of a sign which read, “A Jewish data center has no home here,” displayed outside a town hall she held yesterday urging caution around the approval of data centers. “If you think antisemitism isn’t a problem in Michigan, think again,” Nessel wrote…
A new poll commissioned by former Maine state Sen. Troy Jackson, now a Democratic candidate for governor, found oyster farmer Graham Platner — whom Jackson is backing — nearly 40 points ahead of Gov. Janet Mills in the state’s Senate race (66-28%) among likely Democratic primary voters. The survey was conducted after Mills had started running ads against Platner based on his past controversial statements, a sign that her line of attack may not be persuading voters…
And another poll commissioned by the Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic group, found Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton leading in the heated Republican primary runoff for Senate against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), 47-42%…
A federal judge ruled that the University of Pennsylvania must comply with a subpoena from the Trump administration that seeks information about Jewish university affiliates, which the university had said resembled nefarious efforts by governments over history to gather lists of Jews…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a report from West Bloomfield, Mich., where JI’s Gabby Deutch sat down with community members still reeling from the attack on Temple Israel earlier this month.
Democrat Analilia Mejia and Republican Joe Hathaway will participate in a debate tomorrow evening ahead of the April 16 special election in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, after Mejia eked out a surprise victory in last month’s primary. While this race will decide who serves out the rest of Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s House term, the progressive Mejia is also running essentially unopposed by other Democrats for the full term.
In observance of Passover, we’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday, April 6. Chag Pesach Sameach!
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COMMUNITY TIGHTROPE
In Michigan Senate primary, McMorrow balances Jewish fears and Arab outreach after attack
In an interview with JI, the state senator described herself as someone who supports the U.S.-Israel relationship, but not unconditionally
DECISION TIME
Trump at a crossroads on Iran: Will he or won’t he send in troops?
As the president touts progress in talks with Tehran while escalating military pressure, analysts say the administration is keeping its options open — but will need to make a move soon
Plus, one AI rabbi down but more pop up
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Caution tape near the front entrance of Temple Israel a day after an active shooter incident on March 13, 2026 in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump doubled down on threats to escalate the war in Iran while simultaneously heralding the success of ongoing negotiations: He claimed on Truth Social this morning that the U.S. is in “serious discussions” with a “new” and “more reasonable” Iranian regime and that “great progress has been made.”
“But,” he added, “if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!)”…
Trump confirmed to the New York Post that the U.S. is engaging with Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and assessing whether he’s a reliable partner: “We’re gonna find out. I’ll let you know that in about a week.” He also said the U.S. believes new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is “probably” alive “but in extraordinarily bad shape” after he was injured in an airstrike…
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed in a Fox News interview that the U.S. is “going to retake control of the straits and there will be freedom of navigation, whether it is through U.S. escorts or a multinational escort”…
A series of surveys released today reveal how Jews and Israelis are perceiving the war in Iran: A poll conducted by the Mellman Group found 55% of American Jews oppose the war while 32% are in favor. Another poll of American Jews, solicited by J Street, found 60% of respondents opposed and 40% in support.
In Israel, meanwhile, a poll released by the Israel Democracy Institute found that the war is losing some support among Israelis, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. In the first week of the war, 93% of Jewish Israelis supported continuing it, while in the latest poll — conducted nearly a month into the war — 78% support it. Nearly three times as many Israeli Jews (12%) now oppose the war as did at the beginning of March (4%)…
The FBI announced findings that the attack on Temple Israel in suburban Detroit earlier this month was “a Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism purposely targeting the Jewish community and the largest Jewish temple in Michigan.” The brother of the assailant was a Hezbollah commander who had been killed in Lebanon by the IDF the week before the attack…
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed told campaign staff that he did not want to take any public position on the killing of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the beginning of the war because “there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad,” according to meeting audio obtained by The Washington Free Beacon.
If asked by reporters, El-Sayed said his strategy would be to “go straight to pedophilia, frankly. I’ll just be like, ‘Pedophile president decides that he doesn’t like the front page news, so he decides to take us into another war’”…
Allies of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told Politico that the mayor’s dismissal of criticisms of his wife, Rama Duwaji, for her past extreme rhetoric and social media posts — calling her “a private person” — doesn’t comport with Duwaji’s very public profile.
“‘She is the first lady of New York City. She has a police detail and a government staff,’ said one of the elected officials, who believes Duwaji should explain herself publicly. ‘She would need to do an interview, better explain herself, and have her do some visits and meetings with key constituencies, like Jewish museums’”…
An AI-generated Instagram account, which featured a fake Orthodox rabbi spreading antisemitic conspiracies to its more than 1.4 million followers, was taken offline over the weekend following major backlash from Jewish groups and one Democratic lawmaker — yet several similar, hate-peddling accounts have emerged with little to no public action from Meta, JI’s Haley Cohen reports.
Several new Rabbi Goldman accounts started posting similar videos within the past two weeks — two of which already have followings of 18,500 and 10,000. Both remain active on Instagram and their bios state, “only Backup account for @rabbigoldman” and “old account got banned”…
The Knesset passed a controversial law today allowing courts to impose the death penalty on convicted terrorists found guilty of murder, JI’s Lahav Harkov reports.
The law, championed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, applies in military courts to non-Israeli residents of the West Bank — meaning, in the vast majority of cases, Palestinians. In civilian courts, the law permits applying the death penalty to those who “intentionally cause the death of a person with the aim of denying the existence of the State of Israel” — language which would also likely exclude Jewish assailants. Critics say it will likely be struck down by the High Court…
The Times of Israel breaks down the legislative maneuver used in Knesset by the coalition that caused opposition members to accidentally vote in favor of allocating 800 million shekels (~$250 million USD) to Haredi schools as they passed the state budget this morning…
In an interview on Israel’s Channel 12, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he has barely spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since their last meeting at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2023…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at the resolution coming under consideration by the Democratic National Committee that explicitly criticizes AIPAC’s political spending.
The House and Senate left for recess until mid-April, after failing to come to an agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which has now reached its longest-ever shutdown. Calls have already begun from at least one Republican senator to bring Congress back into session sooner, but prospects for an early return are currently unclear.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) will speak at Temple Emanu-El in New York City tomorrow about his new book, Stand, on the one-year anniversary of his delivery of the longest-ever speech on the Senate floor.
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The viral Instagram account with 1.4 million followers was taken offline, but similar accounts abound
Screenshot
AI Rabbi Goldman copycat accounts appear on Instagram after original is taken down.
An AI-generated Instagram account, which featured a fake Orthodox rabbi spreading antisemitic conspiracies to its more than 1.4 million followers, was taken offline over the weekend following major backlash from Jewish groups and one Democratic lawmaker — yet several similar, hate-peddling accounts have emerged with little to no public action from Meta.
An account called “Rabbi Goldman” “uses fake, AI-created authority figures to spread hate” in “a troubling and growing tactic,” according to a report published last week by Combat Antisemitism Movement.
The account, which was taken offline after the report was released, featured videos such as one in which the “rabbi,” wearing a tuxedo and seemingly seated in a luxury airplane, claims that Jews utilize empty private jets to evade taxes. A community note attached to the clip reads, “This is an AI generated rabbi who is trying to scam you by selling a fake 9$ get rich handbook. This account is ran by scammers based in south India.”
Several new Rabbi Goldman accounts started posting similar videos within the past two weeks — two already have followings of 18,500 and 10,000. Both remain active on Instagram and their bios state, “only Backup account for @rabbigoldman” and “old account got banned.”
The CAM report identified 12 AI-generated “rabbis” with a combined following of 2.1 million Instagram users, all of which promote classic antisemitic stereotypes. Many of the accounts remain active on the platform even after the Rabbi Goldman account was removed.
One account called “Rabbi Rothstein,” for example, with more than 57,000 followers, has posted more than 100 videos since February. In one video, “Rabbi Rothstein” states that “us Jews teach our children that being liked is expensive but being respected is profitable,” an apparent reference to the antisemitic trope that Jews are money obsessed. Another video also claims that Jews evade taxes, by purchasing expensive art.
Lawmakers have been pushing for more oversight regarding online antisemitism from Meta — which is the parent company of Instagram, as well as Facebook and WhatsApp — for years. In 2024, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers condemned Meta, and its oversight board, for ruling that the phrase “From the river to the sea” does not violate the social media company’s rules against hate speech, violence and incitement.
In response to Jewish Insider’s coverage of the Instagram accounts, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) called for oversight. “This is disgusting, dangerous, and exactly why we need increased accountability online to prevent the spread of misinformation and pure, flat-out hate,” he wrote on X. “These AI-generated rabbis and their antisemitic BS have real consequences.”
Meta did not respond to several requests for comment from JI asking about its decision to take the Rabbi Goldman account offline — whether it was shut down or suspended — and whether there will be a crackdown on similar accounts.
Last year, Meta received pushback from Jewish leaders when it introduced a new community-driven fact-checking system, ending its third-party fact-checking program and replacing it with a system modeled after the community notes feature on Elon Musk’s X. Some Jewish leaders expressed concern that the move would “open the floodgates to content” that could target Jewish communities and individuals, and called the decision a “step back” in the fight against rising antisemitism.
Piker, a far-left streamer who has been the subject of favorable media profiles despite a laundry list of antisemitic and terror-justifying rhetoric, is a case study in how traditional journalists normalize extremists
Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile for Web Summit Qatar via Getty Images
Hasan Piker during day two of Web Summit Qatar 2026 at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center in Doha, Qatar.
A useful rule of thumb to live by: Social media isn’t real life.
But one of the challenges in the brave new world of media is that extremist influencers can often create the perception of influence simply by dominating so much of the online discourse.
Hasan Piker, a far-left streamer who has been the subject of favorable media profiles despite a laundry list of antisemitic and terror-justifying rhetoric, is a case study in how traditional journalists normalize extremists — and how politicians conclude there’s a marketplace for radical views in the electoral marketplace, even when it’s typically a mirage.
In part because Democrats have been desperate to find anti-establishment voices that claim to speak for young men, Piker is seen as a popular, edgy podcaster by liberal leaders in both media and politics. (Nevermind the fact that Piker gets only about 36,000 viewers on a typical stream — about 1/25th of the typical nighttime audience of MS NOW, as The Atlantic’s David Frum pointed out.)
The New Yorker invited Piker to speak at its annual festival, treating the antisemitic streamer as just another one of the many thought leaders in attendance. Leading progressives, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), joined him at rallies and on his show.
And a handful of leading Democratic presidential contenders — most notably California Gov. Gavin Newsom — expressed interest in going on his show.
This, despite the fact Piker has justified Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks, forcefully denied some of the terror group’s atrocities, has called Orthodox Jews “inbred” and claimed America deserved 9/11.
Any one of those comments on their own would have typically disqualified anyone from playing a part in our political discourse. Yet in the wave of glowing profiles, Piker’s antisemitism and anti-Americanism didn’t even merit a mention.
It wasn’t until March 19, when Third Way President Jon Cowan and Lily Cohen, a press advisor from the center-left think tank, took the initiative to co-write a column for The Wall Street Journal calling out Piker’s antisemitism without any caveats. The decision to call out the crazy — when few in the press or politics had the courage to do so — was a moment that proved that one principled voice in defense of normalcy can break the mirage of those who believe there’s a political marketplace for this garbage.
The op-ed, headlined “Democrats Are Too Cozy with Hasan Piker,” generated outsized attention, in a way that previous efforts to spotlight Piker’s antisemitism hadn’t. Reporters who once gave Piker a free pass were now asking Democrats whether they agreed with his extremist positions.
Suddenly, when presented with his indefensible comments, some Democrats started building up enough courage to speak out against him. First, it was Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), head of the moderate New Democratic Coalition, who called Piker an “unapologetic antisemite.” Then, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, running for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, told JI that Piker is “somebody who says extremely offensive things in order to generate clicks” — and called on one of her primary opponents, Abdul El-Sayed, to cancel a scheduled rally with him.
Even left-wing lawmakers and candidates — such as Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner and a progressive Democratic state legislator from Michigan — canceled scheduled appearances with Piker.
By the end of the month, only three of the 14 prospective Democratic presidential candidates that Politico interviewed said they would appear on a livestream with Piker if invited. That marks a sea change from just weeks earlier, when he was being treated as the trendy fad in progressive politics.
The dynamic is a reminder that the delusions of a social media echo chamber will persist unless they get confronted by political reality. Sometimes that reality is as simple as speaking up against craziness when everyone else is afraid to speak the truth.
It would be heartening to conclude that this episode is proof that antisemitism can be confronted when good people speak up.
But this past week also featured Politico publishing a virulently antisemitic cartoon that could have been drawn from the Nazi tabloid Der Sturmer — one that they pulled from their website and apologized for. This is the same publication, owned by Axel Springer, that gave Piker a credulous interview last year making no mention of his extremism. (And last week, it also blatantly misrepresented leading Democrats’ comments on AIPAC to manufacture an anti-Israel narrative.)
It all goes to show that the antisemitic rot fueled by social media is entering into the mainstream. It will take more brave and principled voices like Cowan and Cohen to stem the tide.
‘Injecting the views of antisemites into’ the rise of political extremism ‘and welcoming those views is dangerous,’ Deutch said
Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images
Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, testifies about 'The Crisis on Campus: Antisemitism, Radical Faculty, and the Failure of University Leadership" during a US House Committee on Ways and Means hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on June 13, 2024.
Ted Deutch, the CEO of the American Jewish Committee and a former Democratic congressman, said that Democratic lawmakers and candidates should not associate with far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who has a record of antisemitism and support for terrorism.
His comments come at a time when a small but growing group of Democrats has begun speaking out against Piker, particularly as he’s set to join a far-left Michigan Senate candidate on the trail.
Deutch drew parallels between Piker on the far left and white supremacist influencer Nick Fuentes on the far right.
“In both cases, each party should make clear that voices that aren’t representative of their parties have no place in an official campaign setting — shouldn’t be welcomed, shouldn’t be welcomed in to share their views,” Deutch said. “In Piker’s case, his record speaks for itself, the same with Nick Fuentes. I don’t need to go into details about who they are or what they represent. Neither one of them belongs in the middle of the political process as a result of candidates choosing to put them there.”
He said he’s expressed that view to candidates on both sides of the aisle and would keep those conversations private, but “my hope is that we’ll see some clarity on that issue going forward.”
“The challenges that we’re facing now with increasing polarization and the rise of extremism on the edges of both political parties is bad enough. Injecting the views of antisemites into that mix and welcoming those views is dangerous,” Deutch said.
AJC’s Director of Antisemitism Policy Holly Huffnagle: ‘The No. 1 reason that we have the antisemitism levels that we do today in the United States and around the world is because of the digital space’
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
AJC CEO Ted Deutch on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on April 30, 2025.
A new report by the American Jewish Committee, released on Friday, found that 73% of American Jews saw or heard antisemitism online in the last year and 21% said that the antisemitism they witnessed made them feel physically threatened.
Top officials at the group say that this pervasive antisemitism online is the fundamental root of the current wave of antisemitic sentiment society-wide, including violent extremist attacks on Jewish communities in the U.S. and globally, and that protecting the Jewish community requires making real progress in tackling that problem.
According to the group’s CEO, Ted Deutch, the report is the first comprehensive survey-based tracking of American Jews’ experiences with and opinions on social media, “and the results are alarming.”
Deutch told Jewish Insider in an interview on Thursday that the report further finds that those pushing antisemitic content have found an “alarming number of ways” to avoid rules on various platforms to safeguard against hate.
Deutch, a longtime former House lawmaker, expressed frustration at the continued lack of action from Congress on antisemitism generally, amid a series of violent attacks across the country and the globe, drawing some parallels between that dynamic and his own struggles in the House to pass legislation in response to school shootings, as such events repeated themselves.
“If we stop it from spreading online, we’ve taken a dramatic step to preventing someone from showing up in D.C., killing two people, and saying, ‘I did it for Gaza,’ or someone in Colorado showing up, throwing Molotov cocktails with people at a march for the hostages, and killing someone there, and saying, ‘I did it for Palestine,’” Deutch said. “This needs urgent attention. It’s not getting it and it’s not acceptable.”
Speaking out against antisemitism is important, he said, “but you know what? We know where this starts, we know how it spreads. We have to do something to stop it there, so that we can stop the violence.”
He said that he’s concerned that Congress is becoming desensitized to the string of attacks on the Jewish community and isn’t responding with the action it warrants.
“The ability for Congress and policymakers around the country to simply move on, from one attack to another, the normalization of the antisemitic rhetoric that’s being used, the willingness to simply chalk this up to one extreme or another … You wind up accepting it. We cannot accept it,” Deutch said. “That sense of urgency does not exist. I don’t understand it.”
“I get it that this is a really hard time for Congress to legislate,” Deutch continued. “I understand that there are very strong feelings about everything that happens in politics, but I cannot understand how on an issue like this, when the data is clear and the impact of what’s happening is clear, that we can allow week to week, more attacks on synagogues, more attacks on schools.”
He said that ultimately, true security for the Jewish community won’t come through increasingly stringent physical security measures, but through a broader shift, “and that starts with what’s happening online” because the attacks across the country and the world “aren’t isolated incidents.”
He said that he wants Congress, President Donald Trump and the American people to understand that, and to collectively work to tone down antisemitic rhetoric online and decrease its spread.
The report, compiled in collaboration with Cyberwell, an Israeli nonprofit aimed at fighting antisemitism online, offers a variety of recommendations for technology companies and platforms to respond to antisemitism on their services.
“The No. 1 reason that we have the antisemitism levels that we do today in the United States and around the world is because of the digital space,” Holly Huffnagle, AJC’s director of antisemitism policy, said. “We can’t just keep sitting by and observing and collecting data. We actually need to do something about this, and this is how we think is the best way to go forward in closing some of those gaps around enforcement on the platforms.”
The report found that, across social media platforms, only around one-third of American Jews report antisemitic content they see, in many cases feeling that doing so will be futile. Deutch said he found that data point the most concerning.
“If the Jewish community is essentially throwing up its hands … then that says an awful lot about them, and our larger population as a whole,” Deutch said. He argued it sends the conclusion to the population at large that “the battle is lost. We can’t afford that. This isn’t a battle that is lost. This is an ongoing effort that we all have to be a part of.”
Huffnagle said that the report, based in part on data from AJC’s annual poll of the Jewish community’s experience of antisemitism, is proof of what many in the Jewish community have long seen and felt — that antisemitism is rampant online — and shows that “they’re not alone.”
The report offers a set of nine recommendations for tech companies: tightening enforcement mechanisms against those who support terrorism and antisemitic attacks; clarifying and strengthening policies on antisemitism; addressing coded antisemitism through emojis and euphemisms; consistently applying visibility restrictions on antisemitic content, ensuring that such measures are applied early and improving tools to prevent targeted harassment; ensuring that hateful content is not monetized or amplified and that users can’t evade restrictions; detecting and preventing AI-created and -driven antisemitic content; implementing better tools to prevent coordinated activity to boost antisemitic content; creating better reporting systems for antisemitism; and providing greater transparency and data access.
Legislatively, AJC is supporting the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act, which would require social media companies to share more data with the public. Deutch said that lawmakers are “flying blind” when it comes to antisemitism on social media platforms, lacking the data internal to the platforms that they and civil society need to address the problem.
“The transparency … can help drive accountability and real policy change and real changes to community standards, so that we don’t have to see these kinds of data points repeat year after year,” Deutch said.
“We have to approach this with greater urgency,” he continued. “Congress can’t simply allow itself to fall into the same old argument about how to approach this, and should we be talking about liability or not, whether this is free speech or it’s not free speech. That’s not what this is about. This is about real threats to the Jewish community and the ability that social media companies have — and the urgent need that we all have — for them to act, to keep the Jewish community and, in turn, to keep society safe.”
Huffnagle said she hopes the report can help identify other “creative” solutions and approaches to addressing antisemitism, particularly outside of government and apart from longstanding debates in Congress like reforming liability protections for social media platforms under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — an idea that Jewish groups have discussed for years but hasn’t seen movement on legislatively.
“I think we need to be creative,” she said. “Just because something’s being stalled doesn’t mean there can’t be movement elsewhere.”
Huffnagle said AJC is working with various platforms to tailor the group’s approach to the specific issues on those platforms — having developed a greater understanding of the distinct problem sets on each platform — rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach that they and others in the Jewish community previously had.
In spite of policy shifts at social media companies in recent years toward a more permissive posture, including less strict content moderation and less company-sponsored fact-checking, Huffnagle said that AJC maintains relationships with social media companies and that they have been receptive to and implemented some of the feedback that AJC has offered.
She added that engaging with the tech sector — not just law enforcement and government — is necessary to addressing the society-wide problem of antisemitism. Huffnagle emphasized that she wants to see real change come out of this report — not just a compilation of data and unfulfilled recommendations.
She acknowledged that the survey likely includes a blindspot when it comes to TikTok because AJC only surveyed adults, and the platform is highly popular among younger teens.
The survey found that a majority of American Jews (65%) are concerned that artificial intelligence chatbots will spread antisemitism, and 69% were concerned that information produced by AI will fuel antisemitic incidents.
AI, Huffnagle said, poses both “novel problems” as well as “helpful solutions.” It can both create and amplify antisemitic content, but can also help moderate content, particularly as platforms are scaling back on human moderators. But, she said, using AI for moderation can’t currently keep up with the pace of antisemitic content.
“It can be used for good. I see it. It’s just not nearly as efficient and sufficient to meet how it’s being used for bad,” Huffnagle said.
Deutch said another concern is that, without proper policies and transparency from social media companies, platforms may devolve into a “war … between the AI that’s targeting us and the AI that’s trying to protect us.”
Deutch and Huffnagle’s conversation with JI came on the same day that a jury ruled that Meta and YouTube were negligent in their design of their platforms, awarding a plaintiff $3 million, a landmark case finding that social media platforms are responsible for their platforms’ impacts on their users.
“The one conclusion that I think everyone should draw from these headlines is that the courts have now ruled that there is responsibility to the customer,” Deutch said. “The tech companies acknowledge that. They wouldn’t have their community standards if they weren’t worried about what’s happening to their users. … It’s time for these community standards to be enforced.”
Lewis George pledged not to exclude Jews ‘based on your opinions or feelings on matters here and across the world'
Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington
D.C. City Councilmember Janeese Lewis George speaks at a "Lox and Legislators" breakfast held by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington on Dec. 18, 2025
After Janeese Lewis George met last week with Washington rabbis and other local Jewish leaders who were concerned about her views on Israel and antisemitism, the Washington, D.C., mayoral candidate released a statement pledging to stand firm in both her opposition to antisemitism and her support for the Palestinian cause.
“Those two things are not in conflict,” Lewis George, who is endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, wrote in a statement that was posted to her campaign website on Wednesday.
Her campaign has not publicly acknowledged the meeting at Congregation Ohev Sholom, where Lewis George discussed a DSA questionnaire she filled out in which she pledged to avoid events that promote “Zionism and apartheid” and took issue with local Jewish groups’ approach to fighting antisemitism, according to attendees who spoke to Jewish Insider.
At the meeting, Lewis George apologized for the language she used in the questionnaire and attributed it to a staff member. She said she would have responded differently if she had written the answers herself. A spokesperson for Lewis George did not respond to requests for comment from JI about the meeting.
“To the Jewish community in DC: I will not be a mayor who includes or excludes you based on your opinions or feelings on matters here and across the world. I will always protect your freedom, safety, and sense of belonging,” Lewis George, a D.C. councilmember, wrote in the statement. She described going to synagogues when she was growing up and working with Jewish organizers in Washington.
“As Ward 4 Councilmember, I worked with Jewish organizations and neighbors to secure security grants for our schools and synagogues,” Lewis George wrote. “Antisemitism is morally wrong and unacceptable, and it is spreading. It is part of the same machinery of division and fear used against Black people, immigrant communities and others. We must work together to stop it.”
Lewis George then noted that she was one of the first councilmembers in the District to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and that she met with students at George Washington University who were advocating for a ceasefire.
“Together, we mourned the innocent lives that have been lost in Israel as well as in Gaza and the West Bank. I will continue to stand up against efforts to silence local pro-Palestinian speech and organizing,” Lewis George wrote. “I have no problem voicing my disagreement, loudly, when it is needed. I do not shy away from standing by my values in front of all audiences.”
Council Speaker Julie Menin says the mayor ‘hasn’t indicated’ he will veto her signature legislation
John Lamparski/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Julie Menin, speaker of the New York City Council, left, and Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York, during an announcement in Brooklyn, New York, on Jan. 12, 2026.
The New York City Council passed a suite of legislation Thursday intended to battle antisemitism — and to formalize NYPD policy toward protests at religious and educational facilities — leaving it up to Mayor Zohran Mamdani to try to block the bills or let them become law.
Council Speaker Julie Menin told reporters before the vote that she’s received no signal that Mamdani would veto her signature bill, which would compel the city’s police commissioner to lay out official department procedure for its longstanding practice of establishing buffer zones around religious institutions during protest activity.
Mamdani has repeatedly refused to take a stand on the issue, though he has acknowledged concerns against the bill from civil rights organizations and left-wing activists in his base who have targeted synagogues and yeshivas with anti-Israel demonstrations.
“I have many conversations with the mayor, we meet one-on-one all the time. He hasn’t indicated to me that he will do that,” Menin said when asked about the potential for a veto.
The NYPD told the Council it had “no objections” to a revised version of the proposal at a council hearing in February, which would typically signal the mayor, who oversees the police department, intends to sign the legislation, or take no action, at which point it would automatically become law after 30 days. The bill had 35 co-sponsors and passed with 44 of 51 council members voting in favor, well in excess of the two-thirds majority needed to override a mayoral veto.
Far closer was the vote on a bill advanced by Bronx Councilman Eric Dinowitz, chair of the body’s Jewish Caucus, which would similarly obligate Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch to create formal protocol for police security perimeters — but near educational institutions rather than religious ones. Michael Gerber, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for legal affairs, expressed hesitation as to this measure at last month’s hearing, arguing that a single uniform policy may not be appropriate to police actions around private property.
Dinowitz maintained after the vote that the bill’s language makes clear the NYPD should only establish perimeters around entrances and exits onto public parks and sidewalks, not school facilities themselves.
“We wanted to be clear that the intent of the bill is not to police what’s going on at college campuses,” Dinowitz told reporters.
Still, the bill passed with just 30 votes, four shy of what it would require to overcome a veto.
Plus, fake AI rabbis peddle antisemitism
Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, March 26, 2026.
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President Donald Trump announced this afternoon that he’s extending his original five-day delay on strikes on Iran’s energy sector, which was set to expire tomorrow, by another 10 days. “As per Iranian Government request … I am pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction by 10 Days to Monday, April 6, 2026, at 8 P.M., Eastern Time,” he wrote on Truth Social, adding that negotiations continue and are “going very well”…
At a Cabinet meeting earlier today, Trump revealed that the “present” Iran had provided the U.S. earlier this week was allowing eight Pakistani-flagged oil tankers to pass safely through the Strait of Hormuz, which he said proved the U.S. was speaking with the “right people” in Iran with the authority to make such decisions.
Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, meanwhile, confirmed reports that the U.S. had presented Iran with a “15-point action list” as a starting offer in peace talks between the two countries, and that Pakistan is acting as mediator…
Speaking at the FII Priority summit in Miami, Jared Kushner said that, during his negotiations with Iran prior to the war, “We basically saw that there was no seriousness, and that they were trying to play different games to just get beyond President Trump in order to preserve their capabilities and pathway to get to a nuclear weapon in a way that would have been very, very hard to be stopped in the future”…
CENTCOM applauded an Israeli strike that killed Alireza Tangsiri, the commander of the IRGC Navy, and warned all IRGC Navy members to “immediately abandon their post and return home.” Tangsiri had been named a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the U.S. in 2019 and was leading Iran’s efforts to shutter the Strait of Hormuz…
Even as U.S.-Iran negotiations continue, the U.S. is considering diverting weapons for Ukraine to the Middle East, The Washington Post reports, including air-defense interceptor missiles.
Ukraine has proved a stalwart ally to the Gulf as it comes under attack from Iran — around 200 Ukrainian military personnel have been deployed around the Middle East to help defend against Iranian drones and President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Saudi Arabia today for a surprise visit…
Resources are also being redirected to Gaza — the Trump administration has reportedly pulled $1.25 billion from international peacekeeping and disaster assistance programs for the Board of Peace’s operations, for which Trump had pledged $10 billion in U.S. funding…
An AI-generated Instagram account portraying an Orthodox-looking rabbi is pushing antisemitic conspiracy theories to its more than 1.4 million followers, and it’s not the only one, according to a study published Wednesday by Combat Antisemitism Movement.
Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports: Researchers identified 12 AI-generated “rabbis” with a combined following of 2.1 million Instagram users, all of which promote classic antisemitic stereotypes. The “Rabbi Goldman” account features many of these, including one video in which the “rabbi,” wearing a tuxedo and seemingly seated in a luxury airplane, claims that Jews utilize empty private jets to evade taxes…
A new Emerson College poll of the Maine Senate race found oyster farmer Graham Platner with a nearly 30 point lead over Gov. Janet Mills (55-28%) in the Democratic primary. Both Platner and Mills lead Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in the general election matchup, 48-41% and 46-43%, respectively…
California Gov. Gavin Newsom again reaffirmed his support for Israel in an interview with The Bulwark, likening his love for the country but strong disapproval of its current government with how he feels about the U.S…
Democrat Analilia Mejia and Republican Joe Hathaway will participate on April 1 in what is likely to be the only debate of the New Jersey 11th Congressional District’s special election, after the far-left Mejia won the Democratic nomination in a hotly contested primary last month. The New Jersey Globe, which is hosting the debate, acknowledged it had chosen to do so on the first night of Passover, in a district with a sizable Jewish population…
The College Republicans chapter at the University of Florida is suing the school, after a photo of one of its members doing what appeared to be a Nazi salute led to the chapter’s ban from campus.
The chapter argues that the ban violated its First Amendment rights as the member “expressed a viewpoint off-campus that was alleged by some to be anti-Semitic,” and claims it was deactivated in part because it recently hosted James Fishback, a candidate for Florida governor who has expressed antisemitic and anti-Israel views…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for comments from Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow on Israel and antisemitism as she seeks the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and Abdul El-Sayed.
President Donald Trump will provide closing remarks at the FII Priority summit in Miami tomorrow afternoon.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will headline CPAC’s Ronald Reagan Dinner. His primary opponent, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), will not be making an appearance, despite the confab taking place in his home state and calls from its leadership for him to attend.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is traveling to France to attend a meeting of G7 foreign ministers where he is expected to press allies on the Iran war — he told reporters as he departed today, echoing a line from Trump, that the countries involved “get far more of their fuel from” the Strait of Hormuz “than we do.”
Stories You May Have Missed
TROUBLE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Gulf states slam Arab League countries for tepid response to Iranian aggression
Frustrated UAE leaders are questioning the ‘impotence’ of countries like Egypt — and warn that silence on Iranian aggression will push the Gulf closer to U.S., Israel
MICHIGAN MOMENT
Elissa Slotkin, Haley Stevens criticize El-Sayed over rallies with Hasan Piker
Stevens said that by associating with Piker, El-Sayed is ‘choosing to campaign with someone who has a history of antisemitic rhetoric’
The report from Combat Antisemitism Movement found the platform has actively recommended this content to millions of users
Illustration by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The Instagram logo is being displayed on a smartphone among other social media networks in this photo illustration in Brussels, Belgium, on January 22, 2024.
An AI-generated Instagram account portraying an Orthodox-looking rabbi is pushing antisemitic conspiracy theories to its more than 1.4 million followers, and it’s not the only one, a study published this week about antisemitic content on the social media platform has found.
An account called “Rabbi Goldman” “uses fake, AI-created authority figures to spread hate” in “a troubling and growing tactic,” according to the report, published on Wednesday by the Combat Antisemitism Movement.
The 12-page report, titled “Engineered Exposure: How Antisemitic Content Is Pushed and Amplified to Millions Across Instagram,” documents 100 posts that researchers described as antisemitic, pushed directly to Instagram accounts over a 96-hour period from March 19-22.
These posts, actively suggested by the platform’s recommendation systems, generated more than 5.3 million likes and 3.8 million shares, with an estimated reach of 150 to 280 million users, according to the report.
CAM defined antisemitic posts as ones that invoke conspiracy theories — such as Jews controlling the media or manipulating global conflicts — and posts that claim Jews, often referred to as “Zionists,” are linked to demonic forces or satanic imagery, all of which have been used to justify antisemitic violence.
The report raises particular concern around the creation of “closed content environments,” in which users are repeatedly fed similar antisemitic themes, with little or no countervailing content.
“This type of algorithmic clustering reaffirms dangerous beliefs, contributing to a process of radicalization that can have lethal real-world consequences,” the report states. Researchers identified 12 AI-generated “rabbis” with a combined following of 2.1 million Instagram users, all of which promote classic antisemitic stereotypes.
The “Rabbi Goldman” account features many of these, including one video in which the “rabbi,” wearing a tuxedo and seemingly seated in a luxury airplane, claims that Jews utilize empty private jets to evade taxes. The community note attached to the clip reads, “This is an AI generated rabbi who is trying to scam you by selling a fake 9$ get rich handbook. This account is ran by scammers based in south India.”
Meta, which is the parent company of Instagram — as well as Facebook and WhatsApp — did not respond to a request for comment from Jewish Insider about the report’s findings.
“Simply put, this is evidence of a broad systemic failure on the part of Instagram and Meta,” Sacha Roytman, the CEO of CAM, said in a statement. “When a platform actively recommends content that dehumanizes Jews to mass audiences, we are no longer talking about a simple oversight or a mistake in the algorithmic design. We are talking about infrastructure that normalizes hatred at scale that must be addressed immediately.”
“CAM is calling on Meta to go beyond basic enforcement and take real responsibility. What’s been uncovered here must be taken seriously. This isn’t a fringe problem. Rather, it points to a broader, systemic issue with global reach, shaping how millions of people encounter and engage with antisemitic ideas in 2026,” the report states.
Last year, Meta received pushback from Jewish leaders when it introduced a new community-driven fact-checking system, ending its third-party fact-checking program and replacing it with a system modeled after the community notes feature on Elon Musk’s X. Some Jewish leaders expressed concern that the move would “open the floodgates to content” that could target Jewish communities and individuals, and called the decision a “step back” in the fight against rising antisemitism.
Dangerous implications of social media have extended beyond the Jewish community, with a jury in Los Angeles ruling on Wednesday that Meta, as well as Google, are liable for creating addictive products that caused a teenager’s depression and anxiety. The verdict marks the first time juries have decided that tech companies are at least partially liable for distress online and offline.
Plus, is Stevens losing steam in Michigan Senate race?
Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) speaks to the press at the U.S. Capitol on October 17, 2025 in Washington, DC.
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Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt downplayed reports that Iran has rejected President Donald Trump’s ceasefire proposal, saying in a press briefing today that “talks continue” and “are productive.” She further confirmed, while cautioning against speculation, that there are “elements of truth” to the 15-point plan that has been reported.
About potential face-to-face negotiations, which International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said could take place in Pakistan as soon as this weekend, Leavitt said she “would not get ahead of our skis on reporting about any talks this weekend until you hear directly from us”…
Emerging from a classified House Armed Services Committee briefing on Iran, Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) expressed frustration that the administration isn’t forthcoming enough about its war plans. “We want to know more about what’s going on, what the options are and why they’re being considered, and we’re just not getting enough answers on those questions,” Rogers told reporters.
And Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS), asked about his House colleague’s comments, said, “Let me put it this way: I can see why he might have said that.” It’s the latest sign of cracks in the GOP nearly a month into the war effort…
For the first time since the start of the war, the UAE — which has faced the brunt of Iran’s attacks — reported zero Iranian ballistic missile attacks today, raising questions about the Islamic Republic’s potentially dwindling supplies.
Yousef Al Otaiba, the Emirati ambassador to the U.S., called for a “conclusive outcome” to the war, as opposed to a “simple cease-fire.” Writing in The Wall Street Journal, he argued that “building a fence around the problem and wishing it goes away isn’t the answer. It would simply defer the next crisis”…
European authorities are investigating whether a new group that has claimed responsibility for several recent terror attacks on Jewish institutions across Europe, the Islamic Movement of the Righteous Companions, is a front for Iran, which has likely recruited people online to carry out the attacks on its behalf…
The Journal profiles Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf as he emerges as a potential leader and negotiating partner for the U.S., with one expert calling him a “wannabe strongman” who simultaneously has “the necessary credentials to deliver a potential deal with the Trump administration”…
An internal poll from the campaign of Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow shows her leading the pack in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, followed by the far-left Abdul El-Sayed with Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) trailing in third place, a sign her campaign is struggling to build momentum. A fifth of potential primary voters still identified themselves as undecided.
Stevens’ campaign then released its own internal poll that showed her in first place, followed closely by El-Sayed with McMorrow in third, though the survey was conducted in mid-February…
As the Trump administration sues Harvard — again — over alleged civil rights violations and failure to address campus antisemitism, Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, president of Harvard Chabad, told The Harvard Crimson that the school is in fact “taking the issue” of antisemitism “very seriously.”
“While there is much more to be done, the only plausible characterization of Harvard’s current leadership is as principled and effective in confronting and removing the intolerance which had taken root on campus over more than a decade,” added Jason Rubenstein, executive director of Harvard Hillel…
Asked at a recent event at Harvard’s Kennedy School whether the Biden administration could have done more to save lives in the war in Gaza, former Secretary of State Tony Blinken said, “Could we, should we have done things differently such that the suffering that people endured, the loss of the children you just listed and so many others could have been averted? The short answer is: Maybe yes.”
Blinken also called on people not to be “binary” in their thinking about the Middle East, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. With the Gaza war, he said, “Where did we start? We started with Oct. 7. We started with the most horrific massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. It’s very easy to say, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s a given.’ Except it wasn’t a given for Israelis and Israeli society”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at the growing divide in the Democratic Party over engagement with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker — and the questions it raises about the meaning of progressivism in the current political landscape.
The Atlantic Council and U.S.-Syria Business Council will host a symposium on Syria’s energy sector with keynote remarks from U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack. Also speaking are several oil executives and Jacob McGee, the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs.
The FII Priority Summit continues in Miami; among other sessions tomorrow, Jared Kushner will speak on U.S.-Gulf investment and Zach Witkoff, co-founder of World Liberty Financial and son of Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, will discuss crypto.
CPAC, which President Donald Trump is seemingly not attending for the first time in a decade, continues in Dallas. GOP candidates who are in attendance include Brandon Herrera, the far-right influencer running in Texas’ 23rd District; Michael Whatley, the front-runner in North Carolina’s open Senate race; Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), running in a competitive primary to challenge Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA); Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), seeking the Senate seat vacated by new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin; and Nate Morris, running to succeed retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
The House Ethics Committee will hold a rare public hearing on Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick’s (D-FL) alleged ethics violations, including her laundering of funds from a FEMA-backed contract for her family business into her congressional campaign.
Stories You May Have Missed
STRAIT TALK
Senate Republicans express confidence, but say they haven’t heard plan for reopening Strait of Hormuz
Some disagree on who should claim ultimate responsibility for the strait — the U.S. or other countries in the region
GUARDING THE GATES
Rep. Brad Schneider, New Dems chair, urges Democrats to disavow Hasan Piker
Schneider called Piker ‘an unapologetic antisemite’ and warned ‘Democrats risk losing our credibility to condemn those on the right who traffic in bigotry’ if they continue to embrace him
‘Fortnite’ was rated the best at implementing safeguards to combat antisemitism, with ‘Grand Theft Auto Online,’ ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘Minecraft’ following closely behind
Thomas Fuller/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The Fortnite logo is displayed on a smartphone screen in the Apple app store on March 6, 2026.
A first-of-its kind leaderboard evaluating how major video game companies address antisemitism and extremism in online games was released on Wednesday by the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Insider has learned.
The leaderboard assessed 10 of the most popular games and their respective companies on their policies and in-game safety features. “Fortnite” was rated the best at implementing safeguards to combat antisemitism, with “Grand Theft Auto Online,” “Call of Duty” and “Minecraft” following closely behind. Other major games evaluated included “Roblox,” “Valorant,” “Clash Royale,” “Counter-Strike 2” and “PUBG: Battlegrounds.”
ADL evaluated the product features of each individual game and the relevant policies that govern that game — for some games, the policies that govern them were specific to the game, while for some it was the company policies that apply to all of their games.
The leaderboard, created by the ADL Center for Technology and Society in partnership with the ADL Ratings and Assessment Institute, builds on the annual survey work that CTS did in partnership with gaming analytics firm NewZoo, from 2019-2023.
Games received labels of advanced, moderate or limited protections based on criteria including: antisemitism and hate policy; extremism/terrorism policy; in-game display of code of conduct; documentation of escalation to law enforcement; and in-game tooling.
The latter criteria, which accounts for 60% of a game’s overall score, includes players’ ability to block and/or mute other players; players’ ability to report players for voice, text, usernames and user-generated content; and the game’s prevention of antisemitic and hateful extremist usernames.
Bonus points were awarded for clear appeals processes and engagement with ADL, and points were deducted for harmful content on public-facing game stores. The antisemitism watchdog shared detailed findings with each gaming company and invited them to discuss the assessment before the leaderboard’s release, to which Epic Games, Supercell and Minecraft responded.
Popular online games boast hundreds of thousands of players, with 85% of U.S. teens reporting playing video games in 2024, according to the Pew Research Center. The Pew study found that 80% of all teens think harassment over video games is a problem for people their age, and 41% of those who play them say they’ve been called an offensive name while playing.
The leaderboard comes one year after ADL conducted a study where it asked 15 participants (university students, recent graduates and young adults) to play four leading online games (“Valorant,” “Counterstrike 2,” “Overwatch 2” and “Fortnite”) in one-hour increments with different identities (Jewish and Muslim religious and ethnic identities, as well as in national identities such as Chinese, Mexican and Israeli). It found that almost half of game play experiences included some form of harassment, such as slurs, trash-talking or disrupted play, and one-third included identity-based harassment, such as “gas the Jews” or calling people the “N-word.”
The ADL said it plans to feature the results in an online Gaming Leaderboard, designed to be a resource that will track how gaming companies manage their online multiplayer ecosystems over time to guide parents, gamers, policymakers and the gaming industry itself.
“When a parent wants to know if an online game is safe for their child, there has been no one-stop shop to understand how a particular game approaches online safety,” Daniel Kelley, senior director of the ADL Center for Technology and Society, said in a statement. “This leaderboard addresses that critical gap by offering the most comprehensive evaluation of safety measures in online multiplayer games to date, with a focus on how companies manage antisemitism and extremism.”
Plus, media misdirection over AIPAC money
Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile for Web Summit Qatar via Getty Images
Hasan Piker during day two of Web Summit Qatar 2026 at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center in Doha, Qatar.
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Rumblings of a potential peace summit between Washington and Tehran have begun — sources told Axios that the U.S. and several mediating countries are waiting for Iran to respond to a proposal for peace talks this Thursday, while President Donald Trump reposted a message from Pakistan offering to “be the host to facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks”…
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office this afternoon that “we’re dealing with the right people” in Iran because they “gave us a present, and the present arrived today. It was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money,” but would only tease that it was “oil and gas related.” Asked if he is negotiating over who will control the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said, “No … we’ll have control of anything we want”…
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has encouraged Trump to continue the campaign against Iran and push towards toppling the regime, The New York Times reports, believing that Iran’s threat to the Gulf will only be removed through the transition of its government and not if the war results in a failed state. MBS has reportedly argued in favor of striking Iran’s energy infrastructure and putting U.S. troops on the ground…
The Pentagon is expected to announce the deployment of about 3,000 soldiers from the military’s 82nd Airborne Division to participate in the campaign against Iran, The Wall Street Journal reports, a move that opens the possibilities for boots on the ground, as the division is trained to parachute into hostile territory…
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said today that the IDF will now maintain control over a security zone south of the Litani River in Lebanon and prevent the return of Lebanese residents who have been evacuated from the area “until the security of northern [Israeli] residents is assured”…
Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Youssef Raggi declared Iran’s ambassador to Beirut persona non grata and expelled him from the country, as Iranian proxy Hezbollah continues to fire on Israel against the Lebanese government’s orders.
Shortly after, an Iranian ballistic missile was launched towards Beirut for the first time — it was reportedly intercepted by a “foreign naval vessel,” presumably the U.S., though fragments struck Lebanese towns…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is being dispatched to France later this week to discuss the Iran war, among other issues, with the U.S.’ G7 allies, including Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, countries that have all declined to participate in the war effort…
Majed al-Ansari, spokesperson for the Qatari foreign ministry, said today that Qatar is not involved in mediating any U.S.-Iran negotiations, a shift for the country that has traditionally played the part of go-between. Al-Ansari said there has been no communication between Doha and Tehran since a phone call early in the conflict when Qatar made clear its anger with Iranian strikes on its territory…
Politico reports that several 2028 Democratic presidential hopefuls said they wouldn’t or haven’t taken money from AIPAC, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
But while framing the statements as rejections of AIPAC and Israel, the outlet buried or declined to mention Booker’s rebuke of the Democratic Party’s singling out of the pro-Israel group, several respondents’ inability to accept funds from AIPAC since it only participates in congressional elections and Newsom’s own about-face on Israel, where in the same publication he walked back critical comments he’s made and said he’s “proud to support the state.”
AIPAC said in response that it has “never given to a presidential campaign” and that “singling out and excluding millions of pro-Israel Democrats” who are AIPAC members “is wrong and undemocratic”…
Michael Sacks — a prominent Democratic donor and supporter of former President Barack Obama who chaired the 2024 Democratic National Convention host committee — denounced Democratic criticism of AIPAC as a “thinly disguised effort to make support for Israel politically toxic in the Democratic Party, to chase Jews and their allies out of our big tent coalition.”
Sacks wrote in the Chicago Tribune, “Real leadership recognizes that we can hold complicated views about the Israeli government and still refuse to make Jewish identity and pro-Israel sentiment a political disqualifier in our party. We can defend the big tent when it is inconvenient, not just when it is easy”…
Jonathan Cowan, president of the moderate Democratic think tank Third Way, condemned far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed for his upcoming rallies with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports.
“It is morally repugnant and strategically self-defeating for Democrats like Abdul El-Sayed and Members of Congress like Summer Lee to cozy up to antisemitic extremists like Hasan Piker,” Cowan said in a statement. “Anyone eager to campaign with Hasan Piker is, at best, comfortable overlooking his antisemitic and anti-American extremism and, at worst, endorsing it”…
El-Sayed stood by his controversial statement about the shooting attack at Temple Israel in suburban Detroit earlier this month, in which he condemned the attack but blamed Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon for the perpetrator’s actions (the attacker’s brother was a Hezbollah commander).
The statement “was a risk,” El-Sayed said on an internal campaign call, per Punchbowl News, “but leadership is being willing to say the thing if you believe it to be true that nobody else is going to say”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for coverage of another war powers resolution expected to receive a vote this evening in the Senate.
President Donald Trump will give the keynote speech at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual President’s Dinner in Washington.
The House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing assessing the impact of the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, as lawmakers make progress on negotiations to fund the agency.
D.C. councilmember and mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George will rally alongside other members of the Democratic Socialists of America including Squad-member Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), days after Lewis George held a private meeting with Jewish leaders to apologize for saying in a DSA questionnaire she would boycott events “promoting Zionism” and avoid the “Zionist lobby.”
Scholar of Jewish literature Ruth Wisse will deliver the annual Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, the highest honor the federal government gives for intellectual achievement in the humanities, at the Kennedy Center in Washington.
The FII PRIORITY Summit, a high-profile investment and policy conference, will kick off in Miami, with speakers over the rest of the week including Trump; Donald Trump Jr.; Jared Kushner; White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff; Dina Powell McCormick, president of Meta; Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Princess Reema Bandar Al Saud; former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin; Massad Boulos, senior White House advisor on the Middle East; and many more.
The Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC, also begins tomorrow in Dallas.
The Jewish Book Council will hold the 75th National Jewish Book Awards Gala, hosted by entertainer Jonah Platt, at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.
Stories You May Have Missed
SECOND ACT
Former Rep. Jamaal Bowman finds work with Track AIPAC
PAIN TO POWER
From WhatsApp chats to City Hall, a new Jewish activism is born
In the wake of Oct. 7, some in the Jewish community turned to faith, philanthropy or federal advocacy. Others set their sights closer to home, organizing to shape school boards and influence city councils
The centrist think tank called it 'morally repugnant and strategically self-defeating' for the left-wing Michigan Senate candidate to appear with Piker at an upcoming rally
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Politicon
Hasan Piker speaks onstage during Politicon 2018 at Los Angeles Convention Center on October 20, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.
A prominent moderate Democratic think tank is continuing to call out Democratic candidates for being “too cozy” with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, who has been embraced by several left-wing Democrats in recent months.
In his latest statement, Jonathan Cowan, president of Third Way, condemned Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed for his upcoming rallies with Piker, first reported by Politico, set to take place on April 7 at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan alongside Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA).
“It is morally repugnant and strategically self-defeating for Democrats like Abdul El-Sayed and Members of Congress like Summer Lee to cozy up to antisemitic extremists like Hasan Piker,” Cowan said. “Anyone eager to campaign with Hasan Piker is, at best, comfortable overlooking his antisemitic and anti-American extremism and, at worst, endorsing it.”
Cowan referenced a Wall Street Journal editorial he co-authored with Third Way’s Lily Cohen last week, titled “Democrats Are Too Cozy With Hasan Piker,” in which the two urged Democrats to follow the lead of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in calling out antisemitism in their own party.
“Piker’s depravity rivals that of far-right bigots. We will not defeat the surge of antisemitism in America without taking on its most influential proponents on our own side,” Cowan’s statement continued. “Embracing extreme bigots like Piker, who, for starters, has called religious Jews ‘inbred’ and said ‘America deserved 9/11,’ is not only dangerous and wrong, but antithetical to the urgent work of winning over the middle and defeating Trumpism.”
Other Democrats, including Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), have also embraced Piker, while California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently pledged to appear on Piker’s popular Twitch stream.
In the wake of Oct. 7, some in the Jewish community turned to faith, philanthropy or federal advocacy. Others set their sights closer to home, organizing to shape school boards and influence city councils
Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
A pro-Israel supporter holds a sign during the "March for Israel" held on the National Mall.
After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, Norri Leder dedicated herself to fighting gun violence as a founding member of Moms Demand Action, the gun control group created after the shooting.
And last year, there was another single defining moment that pushed her to create something new, just like she did after Sandy Hook: A candidate running in a Houston school board special election in 2025 sent out a mailer showing herself in a photo with a virulently anti-Israel politician. When Leder ran into the candidate at the polls, she told the candidate that she was “unknowingly alienating yourself, potentially, from members of the Jewish community.” The candidate had no idea.
“She asked me if there was a Jewish group that meets with candidates as they’re running,” Leder recalled. “I said, there are Jewish groups, but it occurred to me that many of them don’t have the bandwidth to meet on these races that are at much more of a local, state and county level as [candidates are] running for office.”
So Leder created one. Where she was once a single-issue activist fighting for gun control measures, now she is putting everything else aside to focus on Jewish communal concerns with her new organization, Houston Jewish Women Vote. Less than four months into its existence, the group has met with candidates running in local attorney, city council and judicial races in 2026.
“We are narrowly focusing on physical security for the Jewish community, antisemitism, targeting of Jews in academic and professional settings, prayer in school and staying in your lane for state, local and county offices — just please don’t engage in foreign policy issues that undermine bridge building in the community and accomplish nothing in the world of foreign policy,” said Leder. “There’s a feeling of, we’re Jewish women, and a lot of us feel politically homeless right now. People feel good knowing that they’re participants and that they can exercise their voice.”
Houston Jewish Women Vote joins dozens of other Jewish advocacy efforts that grew out of the desperation people felt in the days after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks to fill a void in local politics.
In Pittsburgh, the Beacon Coalition was created when community activist Jeremy Kazzaz saw that local politicians were too afraid to criticize a colleague who posted pro-Hamas messages. The group is now urging Jewish Democrats in the Pittsburgh area to run for seats on the Allegheny County Democratic Committee to be able to help shape the party’s endorsements.
In California, Israeli immigrants helped launch the Bay Area Jewish Coalition (BAJC), in part to help locals make sense of the many local races for positions most people have never heard of.
“Even when we have special elections for things that seem totally unrelated, like the county assessor, which is in charge of property taxes and things like that, at this point, people are reaching out to us and saying, ‘Who do we vote for?’” said BAJC co-founder Keren-Or Reiss, who was born in Israel and now lives in San Mateo, Calif., where she works as a product manager at a tech company. “Is there someone here who’s going to somehow use this platform to spread hate or to normalize antisemitism against us?”
Some in the Jewish community turned to religious practice after Oct. 7, or to supporting charities helping victims of the attacks in Israel, or to pro-Israel political advocacy through establishment groups like AIPAC, or some combination. Leder, Kazzaz and Reiss represent a new class of Jewish American activists: people who were disappointed by the apathy or even outright hostility that some co-workers, teachers, neighbors and local elected officials demonstrated towards Jews and Israelis suffering in the aftermath of Oct. 7, and who felt no one was doing what needed to be done to reach those leaders.
“Local community members can’t just wait for institutions to have enough bandwidth to do everything. People can take responsibility to step up and engage. And that’s what people were doing,” said Jeremy Burton, CEO of the Boston Jewish Community Relations Council. “Part of this revitalization of American Jewish life that we’ve seen has been this emergence of these activists.”
They saw a new kind of opportunity in an American political landscape reshaped by Oct. 7 and the ensuing war in Gaza. Advocating for Congress to vote a certain way on weapons sales to Israel would not do much to affect the swell of antisemitism growing in their communities. Although the war was happening thousands of miles away, they understood that its impact would be local.
“Almost every other community and interest group is doing this on the local level, and not the Jewish community. So we’re really trying to close that gap,” said Tyler Gregory, CEO of the Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council, which in 2024 became the first JCRC in the country to launch an affiliated advocacy arm to fundraise for candidates and engage in elections. “I think it’s a combination of Congress being sexier and there being fewer issues at the local level.”
After Oct. 7, it became clear that there were not, in fact, fewer issues locally. City council members who were elected to work on municipal governance were now tasked with voting on contentious ceasefire resolutions and calls to divest from Israel. School superintendents and principals had to decide how to respond to teachers who were bringing biased, anti-Israel instruction into the classroom. These were battlefields where existing Jewish communal infrastructure did not have the capacity to fight — either because their nonprofit status kept them from engaging in political races, or because they simply did not have the manpower to reach the hyper-local spaces where debates about Israel, Zionism and antisemitism were now front and center.
“Local community members can’t just wait for institutions to have enough bandwidth to do everything. People can take responsibility to step up and engage. And that’s what people were doing,” said Jeremy Burton, CEO of the Boston Jewish Community Relations Council. “Part of this revitalization of American Jewish life that we’ve seen has been this emergence of these activists.”
The new Jewish activism did not begin in Jewish federation board rooms or congressional office buildings in Washington. It was grassroots campaigns that started in WhatsApp groups and recruited dozens of volunteers through word-of-mouth conversations. These were people who showed up to city hall hearings or met with candidates running for local offices that prior to Oct. 7 may have seemed irrelevant to Jewish concerns.
For Sam Gechter, who works in tech in Boston, a call from a friend in early 2024 alerted him that the city council of Somerville, Mass., where he lives, was trying to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The language, Gechter recalled, was “atrocious,” pinning the blame for the war on Israel and hardly mentioning Hamas.
“I got off the phone. I turned to my wife, who was standing next to me, and said, ‘We gotta start a WhatsApp right now of everybody we know in Somerville and get people to come and speak against this,’” Gechter told JI. “That was my moment of being politically activated.”
Soon, that WhatsApp group became Shalom Somerville, a group of Jewish people in the small Boston suburb — an uber-progressive city that neighbors the better-known Cambridge — committed to advancing “a Somerville that is safe for Jews and Israelis.” Despite nominally being an advocacy organization, Shalom Somerville has also become a lifeline for people who otherwise weren’t connected to Jewish institutions.
“For a number of people who haven’t found their place Jewishly in the community, this has become their main Jewish community,” said Gechter. “We had, like, 150 people at our Hanukkah party. It’s gotten to be a pretty big group.”
New organizations that formed to focus on important but unglamorous posts like the county commission and municipal human relations councils are heading into a major election year with ambitious plans to activate Jewish community members to flex their political muscle. They want to show local officials that they ignore Jewish voters at their own peril — and that, conversely, Jewish voters will miss a chance to improve their community if they sit out these races that have a real impact on their day-to-day lives.
“Around the country, there was this awakening, and an understanding that the cavalry wasn’t coming for anybody,” Chicago Jewish Alliance founder Daniel Schwartz told JI.
Each local outfit has a different strategy. Mindy Miller, a former top aide to the Colorado Senate president, co-founded the Colorado Jewish Action Alliance to educate her former colleagues about topics that they never expected to address but that are now everywhere, even in state politics.
“We ask them what they think Zionism means because it’s been so weaponized, and I would say virtually all of them have been appreciative of being able to have those conversations without being fear of being canceled or called out or vilified, because they have to walk a tight rope,” Miller told Jewish Insider.
Chicago Jewish Alliance founder Daniel Schwartz has taken a more confrontational approach. During the city council’s vote on a contentious ceasefire resolution in January 2024, he showed up at City Hall draped in an Israeli flag. He created a WhatsApp group — called the “Zionist Information Group” — to get Chicagoans out to protest.
“Around the country, there was this awakening, and an understanding that the cavalry wasn’t coming for anybody,” Schwartz told JI.
In Lexington, Mass., a suburb of Boston, a group called Lexington United Against Antisemitism, is focused on interfaith work, and connecting members of the town’s Jewish community with Christians.
“Quickly we understood that people, actually, even in Lexington, know very little about Jews altogether. Jews — what do they think? What do they believe?” said Francine Jacobs, a retired Tufts professor who created LUAA.
The group was founded several months before Oct. 7, but its founders have doubled down on their mission, particularly as some liberal Christians who are critical of Israel have taken stances that crossed into antisemitism.
“It took some of the steam out of our effort. There were some folks who just said, ‘Oh, Israel, I’m so angry about it, I just can’t hear the word Jew,’” said Stephen Van Evera, a retired MIT international relations professor, who is Christian and leading LUAA with Jacobs. “I mean, why are you connecting these dots that way? Do you really think that the Jewish community in Lexington is deciding how to fight the Gaza war?”
What drove many people to get involved was their kids. Viviane Safrin became an education activist in San Francisco after the pandemic, when she felt frustrated that public schools were not doing more to reopen. After Oct. 7, parents started calling her to report that their children had experienced antisemitism. So she created SF Jews in School, with the tagline “advancing Jewish inclusion in San Francisco schools.”
“We respond to incidents. We guide families through working with their school. We also engage directly with principals and administrators to support them in ensuring that our schools are welcoming spaces, but we also celebrate our heritage. We build Jewish pride and belonging across the city,” Safrin told JI. “We bring apples and honey for Rosh Hashanah and sufganiyot for Hanukkah.”
Two thousand five hundred miles away, in the Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion, Dani Shaw created a WhatsApp group for 75 moms soon after Oct. 7. They wrote to the diversity, equity and inclusion director in their school district to ask to talk about ensuring Jewish perspectives were included in the office’s programming. They wound up meeting with the superintendent instead and having a productive conversation. But, shortly after, an op-ed in a high school newspaper that Shaw said spread “blood libels” against Israel caused the moms to step up their activism.
“We created an organization called the Jewish Families Association with a board that consisted at the time of about 15 parents who were all representing different schools in the district,” Shaw told JI. There are now several other Jewish Families Associations in small school districts across Pennsylvania. “It’s really representation — a bridge between the parents and the administration, the school district, to make sure that these incidents, whether they be bullying or problematic curriculum, are dealt with appropriately.”
The group in Lower Merion, a heavily Jewish suburb, supported three Republican candidates for school board last year. They all lost in the liberal town. Keeping activists engaged in the work is hard — “they have to get on with their lives and their livelihoods,” Shaw acknowledged — particularly because the group plans to remain volunteer-led and grassroots, with no fundraising arm.
Fatigue is real. The work of building ties with dozens or even hundreds of local elected officials requires dedicated volunteers and resources. BAJC, the Bay Area group, created a voter guide in 2024 tracking dozens of races — work they want to replicate in 2026, even as they see some people in the community losing interest.
“It’s a constant fight to activate the community. I wouldn’t take that for granted. People prefer to go and watch a football game than to go to a demonstration,” said Oded Shekel, a BAJC leader and an Israeli immigrant who is the CEO of a financial technology startup. “You need to find ways to keep people motivated, activated, connected. I think local fights are easier to connect to than, ‘Would you like to come and support, like, a D.C. bill that we are going to promote?’ Yeah, whatever, I don’t care. ‘Would you like to meet the school boards who actually create policies for the teachers or the kids in your class?’ That’s more likely.”
Not everyone who got involved in this work after Oct. 7 remains involved. But many still are. There is now an entire class of American Jews, many of whom were not engaged politically at all before, who now wholeheartedly believe that the way to make their communities safer and more welcoming is to get involved in local politics. And as both the Democratic and Republican parties face internal fissures over Israel at the national level, an awareness is starting to solidify that reaching politicians at the beginning of their careers, when they are unpolished and open-minded, is a winning strategy.
“We’re not seeking to educate candidates about our issues once they announce for Congress. We want to have multi-year relationships and be able to explain the many nuances of Judaism and Zionism long before they’d like to run for higher office,” said Sam Jefferies, co-chair of The Kids Table, a political action committee in Washington state that is supporting “pro-Jewish” candidates. “You can’t solve antisemitism, but you can prevent antisemites from being in positions of power.”
Plus, GOP losing hope in unseating Ossoff
Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport on March 23, 2026 in West Palm Beach, Florida.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump revealed today that White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and advisor Jared Kushner have been negotiating with Iran amid the ongoing war, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports, which played a role in Trump’s decision to delay by five days potential strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure.
“We have had very strong talks,” Trump told reporters. “Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner had them. They went, I would say, perfectly. If they carry through with that, it’ll end that problem.” But the president kept the option of continued military action open: “If it goes well, we’re going to end up with settling this. Otherwise, we’ll just keep bombing our little hearts out,” he said.
At an event in Tennessee this afternoon, Trump added, “My whole life has been a negotiation, but with Iran we’ve been negotiating for a long time, and this time they mean business” and claimed the U.S. has taken out 90% of Iran’s missile launchers…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement that he spoke with Trump today about the negotiations, which the president believes could result in “an agreement that will safeguard our vital interests.”
“At the same time,” Netanyahu said, Israel is continuing to strike targets in Iran and Lebanon; the IDF announced it had struck several “regime headquarters” in Tehran and CENTCOM also said it continues “to aggressively strike Iranian military targets with precision munitions”…
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) declined to directly address whether the degradation of Iran’s military infrastructure should be viewed as a positive outcome, JI’s Matthew Shea reports, instead emphasizing the war’s potential economic and geopolitical consequences.
Asked on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” if the degradation is a “good thing,” Schumer said it’s a “premature question. What is going to happen in the next several months? Is it worth it? Will the world economy collapse? … If you ask the American people, if you have the choice of degrading the military structure in Iran, but having gasoline be $6 a gallon and our economy falling into a deep recession where millions lose their job, what do you think?”…
The New York Times reports on the apparent failure of a plan by the Mossad to foment internal Iranian rebellion that could lead to the overthrow of the regime amid the ongoing war, as American and Israeli intelligence indicates the regime is weakened but intact…
UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed said Abu Dhabi will “never be blackmailed by terrorists,” in response to a post from French diplomat Gérard Araud who called the UAE’s further embrace of the U.S. amid bombardment from Iran “strange”…
The Associated Press examines Israel’s use of Iran’s network of surveillance cameras to carry out intelligence operations including the assassination of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei…
Asked if former intelligence official Joe Kent was leaking classified information, as he is reportedly under investigation by the FBI for doing, Trump said “that’s possible,” and largely derided Kent for his failed congressional campaigns and for remarrying “quickly” after his first wife was killed in 2019 while serving in Syria.
“I felt badly for him, so I told my people, ‘Reach out to him, give him a job at the White House.’ This is the thanks I get,” Trump told reporters. He also dismissed Kent’s opposition to the Iran war as an effort “to get publicity”…
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said that internal MAGA divisions over the Iran war, like those espoused by Kent, are “good” for the movement. “As it relates to tensions in the movement or disagreements about national security, actually, it’s good that those exist,” he told The Hill. But, Roberts said, he believes Trump “has executed [the war] perfectly, including not involving untrustworthy European, quote, unquote allies in the conversation”…
Politico looks at the decision of pro-Israel groups including AIPAC and the Republican Jewish Coalition not to spend money against Texas congressional candidate Brandon Herrera as they did during his first run for Congress, despite Herrera’s history of extreme views and antisemitic rhetoric. Trump endorsed Herrera last week after Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) withdrew from the race…
New filings from the Federal Election Commission show that two super PACs rumored to be established by pro-Israel groups during the Illinois Democratic primaries were primarily funded by United Democracy Project, the AIPAC-affiliated super PAC, which spent more than $5.3 million through Elect Chicago Women and Affordable Chicago Now.
Among the other major donors who backed the two groups was prominent Democratic philanthropist Michael Sacks, who had lamented the rising “Jew hate” among candidates who refused to take money from donors affiliated with AIPAC earlier in the election…
Republicans are quietly losing hope in their ability to defeat Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), a seat which the GOP had named as one of its main targets to flip, The Washington Post reports. “This guy’s no slouch,” Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA), running in the GOP primary, told a crowd of Republican voters, calling Ossoff “articulate” and “handsome.”
Jewish leaders in Georgia told JI last year that Ossoff was making amends with their community after he had voted to block some aid to Israel, though the Jewish lawmaker is now drawing fresh controversy by adopting Rep. Ro Khanna’s (D-CA) rhetoric about the “Epstein class,” which some have identified as antisemitic…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at how the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks has sparked a wave of grassroots Jewish political activism across the U.S., as community members organize locally — from city councils to school boards — to respond to rising antisemitism and shape down-ballot races.
The Hill & Valley Forum, a summit focused on connecting government and the tech and innovation industries, will hold its annual gathering in Washington tomorrow with opening remarks by its co-founder, Jacob Helberg, now under secretary of state for economic affairs. Ahead of the summit, Helberg announced today that the U.S. will contribute $250 million alongside a consortium of countries involved in the Pax Silica initiative to invest in energy projects and critical minerals.
Also speaking tomorrow are Sens. Mike Rounds (R-SD), Chris Coons (D-DE), Todd Young (R-IN), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Jim Banks (R-IN), Rick Scott (R-FL) and Mark Warner (D-VA); House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA); Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and John Moolenaar (R-MI); OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap; JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon; NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman; Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar; Michael Duffey, under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment; and Ben Black, CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.
Stories You May Have Missed
PERSIAN COVERAGE PUSH
Court ruling reviving VOA sparks cautious hope for expanded Iran coverage
The international broadcaster, along with Radio Free Europe, has struggled to deploy its Persian-language services to provide coverage amid an internet blackout in Iran
IVY LEAGUE INQUIRY
Report on declining Jewish enrollment at Harvard raises alarm and sparks debate
The report’s author argued Harvard has been ‘ambivalent’ about its decreasing Jewish population, while other Jewish leaders cast doubt on its findings
Plus, Trump suspends strikes on Iranian energy targets
(Henry Nicholls / AFP via Getty Images)
Local residents gather next to a firetruck (behind) as firefighters secure an area in the Golders Green neighbourhood of north London on March 23, 2026, after volunteer ambulances run by a Jewish organisation were set on fire overnight.
👋 Good Monday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the implications of Iran’s ballistic missile strikes targeting the U.S.-U.K. base in Diego Garcia, and break down a new poll of GOP voters that found overwhelming support for military action in Iran. We report on a meeting between the Congressional Progressive Staff Association and Columbia University protest leader Mohsen Mahdawi, and cover the creation of a new PAC created to push back against New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Elise Stefanik, Michael Kotlikoff and Yossi Cohen.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social site minutes ago that the U.S. will postpone — for five days — strikes targeting Iranian energy infrastructure over Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, about 12 hours before his 48-hour deadline to the Islamic Republic was set to expire. The president cited “very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East,” which he said will continue over the course of the week.
- A final vote on Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s (R-OK) nomination to be secretary of homeland security is likely to take place today or tomorrow. Mullin is expected to be confirmed with support from at least two Democrats: Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), the latter of whom cited his “very honest and constructive working relationship” with the Oklahoma Republican in explaining his vote.
- The House and Senate are both expected to vote on war powers resolutions this week.
- Sara Netanyahu is slated to travel to Washington this week for a two-day summit being convened by First Lady Melania Trump for women — many who, like Netanyahu, are the spouses of heads of state — and technology companies focused on children’s empowerment. The summit kicks off on Tuesday at the State Department.
- Mrs. Netanyahu will be among a small number of people able to fly out of Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport after Israeli authorities on Sunday cut the maximum number of passengers allowed per flight from 150 to 50, amid ongoing missile fire from Iran.
- Senior Trump administration officials are heading to Houston this week for the annual CERAWeek conference, which kicks off today.
- Conservative radio host Mark Levin, a frequent critic of Tucker Carlson and other far-right figures, is slated to interview Joe Kent, who resigned last week as the head of the National Counterterrorism Center, on his program tonight.
- In New York tonight, author Matti Friedman will sit in conversation with Abigail Pogrebin at 92NY to discuss his new book, Out of the Sky: Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe, a look at the young Jews from then-Mandatory Palestine who parachuted into Nazi Europe in an effort to assist Allied forces and rescue Jews.
- The Leffell Foundation’s fourth annual “Zionism: A New Conversation” conference is taking place in Florida today and tomorrow. Read more here.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS
Iran’s launch over the weekend of two ballistic missiles targeting the joint U.S.-U.K. Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean — hours after London said it would allow the U.S. to use the base to launch strikes on Iranian missile sites — deepened concerns that the Islamic Republic had not been forthcoming in the past about its weapons capabilities and set off alarms in Europe that the continent could find itself on the receiving end of Tehran’s long-range missiles.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said last month that the Islamic Republic only had ballistic missiles with the capacity to hit targets within a 2,000-km radius (approximately 1,200 miles) with the country’s state-run media quoting the diplomat as saying “We are not developing long-range missiles … we have limited the range below 2,000 kilometers.”
Diego Garcia is some 2,400 miles from Iran, twice as far as the distance Iran’s top diplomat had claimed the country’s missiles could reach. It’s further from Tehran than most major European capitals — meaning that the bulk of the European continent is potentially within striking range of Iran. (And, critically, without the types of air defenses and civilian protective measures that have been deployed multiple times a day in Israel for the last month.)
The discrepancy didn’t go unnoticed by current and former U.S. officials. Brett McGurk, who served as a senior national security official in the Biden administration, noted Araghchi’s February claim alongside a map showing Diego Garcia’s distance from Iran, saying that Araghchi’s blatant falsehood “speaks for itself.” In a rare show of agreement between the Trump administration and its predecessor, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the White House’s rapid-response account shared McGurk’s post.
Though neither missile reached the Chagos Island base — one fell short and one was intercepted — the weekend launches have elevated concerns that Tehran has developed the capacity to strike deep inside Europe — most of which is much closer to the Islamic Republic than the Diego Garcia base in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
POLITICS PULSE
Republican voters embrace Trump on Israel and Iran, reject Tucker Carlson
Republican voters expressed strong support for President Donald Trump’s military action against Iran, and would decidedly prefer a GOP congressional candidate who advocates for the war’s aims, according to a new survey from pollster J.L. Partners. The poll, which surveyed 1,018 likely GOP voters between March 17-18, finds that an overwhelming share of Republicans (83%) support Trump’s war against Iran, with just 9% opposing. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of Republicans said they “strongly support” Trump’s war efforts, Jewish Insider’s Josh Kraushaar reports.
Additional findings: The poll also found a sizable share of Republicans holds negative views towards far-right, antisemitic podcaster Tucker Carlson, even as many media outlets claim he speaks for the MAGA movement. Only 40% of Republicans hold a favorable view of Carlson, while nearly one-quarter of respondents view him unfavorably. When GOP voters were asked whether they’d prefer a candidate endorsed by Trump or by Carlson and Megyn Kelly, a whopping 80% preferred a Trump-backed candidate, with just 7% siding with the podcasters. Asked whether voters trust Trump’s position on Iran or Carlson and Kelly’s view, 83% sided with Trump while just 6% sided with the far-right podcasters.
HILL HAPPY HOUR
Progressive congressional staff meet with Columbia protest leader Mohsen Mahdawi
The Congressional Progressive Staff Association, a congressional employee group for progressive staffers and prospective staffers, hosted a happy hour this week with Columbia University protest leader Mohsen Mahdawi, whom the administration has been trying for months to deport, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Background: The Department of Homeland Security has characterized Mahdawi, who has not been charged with a crime, as a “ringleader” in anti-Israel protests at Columbia and accused him of using “threatening rhetoric and intimidation” against Jewish students. The administration has also claimed that Mahdawi admitted to being involved in and supporting terrorist violence, including telling a gun shop owner more than a decade ago that he had “considerable firearm experience” and used guns to “kill Jews while he was in Palestine,” that he attempted to purchase a rifle and a machine gun, that he claimed to have made guns for Hezbollah and that he said that he enjoyed killing Jews.
PAC ATTACK
Rahm Emanuel ally launches PAC to battle Zohran Mamdani in New York
A veteran operative for former Chicago mayor and congressman Rahm Emanuel has established a new political action committee to fight New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America in the Big Apple — an effort that sources say could involve former city Comptroller Scott Stringer and aides to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.
Joining forces: The Next NYC PAC registered with the New York State Board of Elections on March 11, using the address of Gregory Goldner’s home in the Mid-North District of Chicago. Goldner, who helmed Cuomo’s mayoral campaign in the final weeks of the 2025 cycle and ran a PAC aimed at preventing the election of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson two years prior, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. However, sources — who spoke anonymously with JI as Next NYC remains in its formative stages — said that it could fuse the political infrastructure of two candidates who failed to block Mamdani from City Hall last year: Cuomo and Stringer.
DIGGING IN
Graham Platner doubles down on anti-Israel rhetoric
Graham Platner, the progressive Maine Senate candidate, in a CNN interview that aired Sunday accused Israel of committing genocide and said the U.S. should cut off all aid, as well as dismissed concerns that bringing the Iran war to a halt would endanger U.S. forces in the region, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Notable quotable: “I fundamentally believe that a nation that is committing a genocide should not be a place that we are putting money. We should be leveraging the fact that we have a lot of power in this relationship due to our funding,” Platner said in the interview. “We should be leveraging that to, frankly, get the Israeli government to stop behaving in such an utterly atrocious fashion.”
SHIFTING STANCE
Rep. Greg Landsman now says he’ll vote for Iran war powers resolution, urges end to war
Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH), one of the few House Democrats who has supported strikes on Iran and opposed a war powers resolution to bring it to an end earlier this month, now says he wants to see the war wrapped up, and will vote for an upcoming resolution to end the conflict, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Time up: “It’s time to finish the operation in Iran. It’s time to be done,” Landsman said in a statement on Friday. “No expansion of the original operation. No ground troops.” Landsman’s statement comes in advance of an anticipated vote on another war powers resolution to end the conflict this week, led by Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY). Landsman said he plans to vote for the war powers resolution, and urged colleagues to do the same.
War worries: As the U.S. deploys thousands of Marines to the Middle East and President Donald Trump continues to send mixed messages about whether he plans for a ground invasion of Iran, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told JI he’s hoping the administration does not take that step.
CAMPUS CRACKDOWN
Trump administration sues Harvard over ‘hostile’ environment for Jewish students
The Trump administration filed a new lawsuit against Harvard University on Friday, claiming that its leadership violated the civil rights of Jewish students by failing to address ongoing antisemitism that has roiled the Ivy League campus since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
What it says: In the 44-page lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, the Department of Justice said that Harvard unlawfully discriminated against Jewish students by its “intentional conduct and its deliberate indifference to discriminatory harassment of Jewish and Israeli students and creation of a hostile educational environment” since Oct. 7 and “up to the present day.” Jewish and Israeli students “were repeatedly denied access to educational facilities by antisemitic demonstrators. Fearful for their safety, Jewish students wore baseball caps to conceal their yarmulkes or kept out of sight, effectively denying them access to federally funded educational opportunities,” the lawsuit argues.
Leadership rebuke: Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff rejected a recent Student Assembly resolution calling for the university to boycott its partnership with an Israeli institution, the Technion in Haifa, stating that doing so would “fundamentally conflict with our core commitment to academic freedom” and noting the “political bias” within the resolution “is deeply disturbing.”
Worthy Reads
Aiding the Revolution: The Free Press’ Eli Lake looks at Israel’s efforts to align with Iranian opposition efforts. “The Iranian people have voted against the Islamic Republic with their feet since the first student uprisings at Tehran University in 1999. In 2009, Iranians protested a stolen presidential election. Since 2017, uprisings have sprouted throughout the country every few years, only to be crushed by the Basij and Revolutionary Guards. Israel is evening the odds for a revolution by putting its air force in the service of Iran’s dissidents. At least that’s the dream.” [FreePress]
U.K. Concern: In The Guardian, Jonathan Freedland raises concerns about attacks on Jewish institutions conducted under the guise of criticism of Israel. “Every minority faces discrimination – note Tory frontbencher Nick Timothy’s appalling attack on Muslim prayer this week – but next to no other diaspora community goes through this. People can’t stand Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, but Russian Orthodox churches don’t require round-the-clock protection. People loathe Donald Trump and his bombing of Iran, but U.S.-branded stores on UK high streets are not smashed and daubed. As for British businesses with investment links to the U.S., including to U.S. security firms, those remain untouched. Israel and Jews are the exception.” [TheGuardian]
Word on the Street
Police in London are investigating a series of overnight fires that damaged four Hatzola Northwest emergency vehicles in Golders Green, one of the city’s most heavily Jewish suburbs; the U.K.-based Community Security Trust said that the Iran-linked Ashab al-Yamin, which said it was behind recent attacks in the Netherlands and Belgium, claimed responsibility for the string of arsons…
The Treasury Department announced sanctions on 10 individuals in Lebanon, Syria, Poland, Slovenia, Qatar and Canada accused of laundering more than $100 million in money, arms and telecommunications equipment to Hezbollah…
The U.S. reportedly rejected a proposal from Russia in which Moscow would end its intelligence sharing with Iran on the condition that Washington cease giving intelligence to Ukraine regarding Russia…
Axios looks at efforts by the CIA, Mossad and other intelligence agencies to assess the status of Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since he was named his father’s successor earlier this month and is believed to have been injured in the strikes last month that killed the elder Khamenei…
One person was killed and another injured in Israel over the weekend, after two cars caught fire in the Upper Galilee from errant IDF shells that fell inside Israel, rather than Lebanon, an investigation by the military found on Monday. Over 100 people were injured in missile strikes from Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon between Saturday night and Sunday morning, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports…
The Wall Street Journal reports on concerns that the Houthis in Yemen could join the conflict, as the Iran-backed terror group, whose previous attacks on naval vessels in the Red Sea, ramps up its threatening rhetoric, including a warning from a senior Houthi official last week that “Yemen joining the conflict is only a matter of time”…
Nine Senate Democrats and more than 30 House Democrats wrote to the administration defending Columbia University protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, describing the protests in which he was involved as “overwhelmingly non-violent expressions of views in opposition to the conduct of the Israeli government in Gaza”…
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) was honored over the weekend at Chabad of Stamford, Conn., with the group’s inaugural Eishet Chayil Award…
The Wall Street Journal looks at frustrations among some progressive Senate Democrats — a group of eight legislators known as the “Fight Club” over Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) approach to the midterms as they mull a potential challenge to his leadership…
The Hill explores Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s vocal support for Israel in recent interviews as he mulls a 2028 presidential bid…
President Donald Trump, who spent the weekend in Florida, dropped into the anniversary party being hosted for Gary and Terri Schottenstein over the weekend at Mar-a-Lago…
The New York Times reviews Michael Kimmel’s “Playmakers,” as the distant relative of teddy bear inventors Morris and Rose Michtom looks at the major contributions of Jewish immigrants to the American toy industry…
A Reuters deep dive into decades-old Manhattan police records confirmed the identity of the graffiti artist Banksy…
Former Mossad head Yossi Cohen and Israel Canada controlling shareholders Barak Rosen and Asaf Touchmair are investing in the Israel-based UAV company Aerodrome Group…
Molecular biologist David Botstein, whose research laid the groundwork for the field of gene-mapping, died at 83…
Pic of the Day
Israeli judoka Raz Hershko won the gold medal at the women’s over 78 kg final at the Grand Slam judo tournament on Sunday in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Birthdays
Former NFL referee for 23 seasons, he is the only NFL head referee to officiate four Super Bowl games (1983, 1987, 1992 and 1995), Jerry Markbreit turns 91…
Actor, film director, television director and producer, Mark Rydell turns 97… Together with her husband, Theodore, she pledged $25 million to BBYO in 2019, Harriette Perlman turns 86… Mandolinist and composer of acoustic, instrumental, bluegrass and newgrass music, David Grisman turns 81… Writer and producer of television series, creator of “Deadwood” and co-creator of “NYPD Blue,” David Milch turns 81… Tel Aviv native, she has been a professor of music at the Juilliard School since 1993, Yoheved “Veda” Kaplinsky turns 79… Los Angeles-based psychologist and author, her first book is The Blessings of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children, Wendy Mogel turns 75… Designer of men’s and women’s footwear, clothing and accessories, Kenneth D. Cole turns 72… Former mayor of Austin, Texas, first elected in 2014 and reelected in 2018, Stephen Ira Adler turns 70… Former director of business development at Fannie Mae, she was also the president of the Jewish Federation of Howard County (Md.), Beth Millstein… Investor, author, financial commentator and radio personality, Peter Schiff turns 63… Russian-American businessman with holdings in oil, he is also a winemaker, Eugene Shvidler turns 62… Senior writer for “The Daily Show,” he is also the creator of 2018’s television series “Liberty Crossing,” Daniel Radosh turns 57… Managing partner of D.C.-based Stein Mitchell Beato & Missner, Jonathan Missner turns 57… French actress who has appeared in more than 30 films, her Holocaust survivor grandparents changed their name from Goldreich, Judith Godrèche turns 54… Client partner at Meta/Facebook working with the financial services and real estate industry verticals, Scott Shapiro… Member of the Maryland General Assembly since 2011, initially as a delegate and since 2016 as a state senator, Craig Zucker turns 51… Israeli actress, comedian and television host, Adi Ashkenazi turns 51… Three-time Grammy Award-winning record producer, audio engineer and songwriter, Ariel Rechtshaid turns 47… Writer and teacher in Los Angeles, Yehuda Martin Hausman… Staff reporter for The New York Times, Sarah Maslin Nir… Israeli singer-songwriter, actress and musician, she performs in Hebrew, French and Arabic, Riff Cohen turns 42… Chief of staff for the Commonwealth’s attorney in Fairfax County, Va., Benjamin Shnider… Former tennis coach at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, as a player she won five singles and four doubles titles on the ITF Women’s Circuit, Julia Cohen turns 37… Former member of the National Israeli Rhythmic Gymnastics Team, she competed in the 2012 Olympic Games, Moran Buzovski turns 34… Television and film actress, Victoria Pedretti turns 31…
Amid other ongoing legal battles, the federal government is seeking to reclaim millions in taxpayer dollars over Harvard’s alleged civil rights violations
JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images
Tents and signs fill Harvard Yard in the anti-Israel encampment at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 5, 2024.
The Trump administration filed a new lawsuit against Harvard University on Friday, claiming that its leadership violated the civil rights of Jewish students by failing to address ongoing antisemitism that has roiled the Ivy League campus since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel.
In the 44-page lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, the Department of Justice said that Harvard unlawfully discriminated against Jewish students by its “intentional conduct and its deliberate indifference to discriminatory harassment of Jewish and Israeli students and creation of a hostile educational environment” since Oct. 7 and “up to the present day.”
Jewish and Israeli students “were repeatedly denied access to educational facilities by antisemitic demonstrators. Fearful for their safety, Jewish students wore baseball caps to conceal their yarmulkes or kept out of sight, effectively denying them access to federally funded educational opportunities,” the lawsuit argues.
It further claims that Harvard faculty and leadership’s response was to “turn a blind eye to antisemitism and discrimination against Jews and Israelis.”
The suit is seeking to recover millions of dollars in taxpayer funds that the school received as these alleged civil rights violations were ongoing.
The litigation marks the administration’s latest crackdown in its ongoing battle with several elite universities including Harvard, which have faced multibillion-dollar funding cuts since last year. The school sued the federal government over the funding freezes, and a federal judge ruled last September that the government violated Harvard’s First Amendment rights and federal law when it froze nearly $2 billion in federal grants. The Trump administration filed an appeal in December 2025, which is ongoing.
“Harvard University has failed to protect its Jewish students from harassment and has allowed discrimination to wreak havoc on its campus. President Trump is committed to ensuring every student can pursue their academic goals in a safe environment,” White House Regional Press Secretary Liz Huston said in a statement.
In a statement to Jewish Insider, a Harvard spokesperson said, “Harvard cares deeply about members of our Jewish and Israeli community and remains committed to ensuring they are embraced, respected, and can thrive on our campus. Our actions illustrate this. Harvard has taken substantive, proactive steps to address the root causes of antisemitism and actively enforces anti-harassment and anti-discrimination rules and policies on campus … Harvard’s efforts demonstrate the very opposite of deliberate indifference.”
Since Oct. 7, Harvard has also faced legal action from Jewish groups. In May 2024, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed a federal lawsuit claiming that students and faculty on campus have called for violence against Jews and celebrated Hamas’ terrorism daily as the university ignored harassment— including a physical assault — of Jewish students.
The DOJ suit comes days after a new report was released by the university’s official Jewish alumni group that found Jewish enrollment at Harvard has fallen to roughly 7% — its lowest level since the pre-World War II era.
The report’s author argued Harvard has been ‘ambivalent’ about its decreasing Jewish population, while other Jewish leaders cast doubt on its findings
Zhu Ziyu/VCG via Getty Images
A glimpse into the Harvard University campus on May 24, 2025 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
A newly released report finding that Jewish enrollment at Harvard University has fallen to roughly 7% — its lowest level since the pre-World War II era — has sounded alarms among some Jewish leaders, while touching off a debate at Harvard about its accuracy.
The figure marks a steep decline from a decade ago, when Jewish students made up about twice that share, and represents the lowest proportion among Ivy League schools with available data. The decrease is not reflected at all Ivy Leagues, though: At Princeton, Jews declined at less than a fifth of the rate of their white non-Jewish peers. At Brown and Cornell, Jewish enrollment held or grew over the past decade.
The 64-page report, “A Narrowing Gate: Jewish Enrollment at Harvard and Its Peers, 1967-2025,” released this week by the university’s official Jewish alumni group, argues that the decline is not simply the byproduct of neutral admissions trends, but reflects a growing “ambivalence” to admitting Jewish students on Harvard’s part.
“It’s not that Harvard intended [Jewish enrollment] to decline. It’s that they were ambivalent about the decline. We were invisible and therefore irrelevant,” Adrian Ashkenazy, the report’s author and president of the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance, told Jewish Insider.
Jews face several documented structural disadvantages in the admissions process, according to the report, chief among them geography. Harvard has deliberately shifted enrollment away from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, it alleges, home to nearly half of all American Jews, with New York state enrollment alone falling from 264 students in 1992 to 160 in 2024.
An increase in international student enrollment has deepened the effect: The report finds that international students come from a “uniformly and dramatically less Jewish applicant pool,” meaning every percentage point of international student growth decreases the available seats for Jewish students.
Racial and ethnic diversity goals and financial aid present additional headwinds: The vast majority of American Jews are Ashkenazi and check “white” on an application box, placing them outside the diversity categories universities actively recruit.
Harvard’s access initiative since 2004 recalibrated holistic review to weight “socioeconomic context, parental occupation, and first-generation status as positive factors.” Jewish applicants are, the report finds, “disproportionately higher-income, continuing-generation, and concentrated in coastal urban centers, characteristics that sit on the unfavored side of all four dimensions of this initiative simultaneously.”
The Supreme Court’s decision reversing affirmative action, which was ostensibly meant to reverse these policies, has “made it much harder to pursue diversity for its own sake, which includes a targeted increase in Jewish enrollment,” said Ashkenazy.
But Ashkenazy argues it’s not a given that these factors have to decrease Jewish enrollment — he offered Brown as a counter-example to Harvard, saying the Rhode Island school had been intentional in its efforts to recruit Jews.
“Brown looked at its Jewish community and decided that maintaining and growing it was consistent with their broader diversity goals — that the Jewish community is not a monolith and that real diversity can be pursued within it. At Harvard we were absent from the equation. At Brown we were integrated into it. That is the difference.”
“The decline at Harvard is a story of absence, not intention,” he continued. “We were crowded out by other admissions priorities. Harvard didn’t measure it, anticipate it or manage it. The Jewish community simply was not a priority.”
“When a decline is steepest at particular institutions, it ceases to be coincidence and looks more like culture,” Rabbi David Wolpe, emeritus rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, who served as a visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School in 2023-24, told JI. Harvard now has “a choice of denial or determination to change the atmosphere and procedures that led us here,” said Wolpe, who stepped down from his position on Harvard’s antisemitism advisory committee in December 2023 due to what he said was an inability to effect change.
A spokesperson for Harvard told JI that the university “does not collect data on applicants’ shared ancestry or religious identity. Any estimates that exist on applicant data come from external surveys, which vary widely in methodology and cannot reliably measure changes over time, outline differences across schools, or explain application, admission, or enrollment patterns. Harvard continues to fully comply with the law, including Title VI and the Students for Fair Admissions decision, in its admissions policies and practices.”
Harvard “shares the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance’s commitment to fostering a vibrant Jewish community at Harvard,” the spokesperson said. “Jewish life on campus remains active and well-supported, with strong participation across student organizations, religious and cultural life, and campus programming. Additionally, over the last few years, Harvard has taken intentional steps to strengthen our campus culture and environment.”
Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network, said that the report “has provided university leaders with a thoughtful and rigorous analysis.”
“While Harvard has seen a dramatic decline in Jewish undergraduate student enrollment, enrollment at Brown remains high and robust, even though this Ivy League university has also experienced antisemitic incidents in recent years. What explains the difference? It’s because Brown has significantly invested in campus Jewish life and cares about recruiting Jewish students,” Elman told JI.
“For a number of years it has strategically focused on a number of local New England high schools with high Jewish student populations,” Elman continued. “Brown is also initiating a host of educational programs that infuse a welcoming culture that supports Jewish and Zionist students: open inquiry, dialogue across difference and mutual understanding. So, while there are still challenges and room for improvement, Jewish life at Brown is thriving. Harvard should look closely at Brown’s successes.”
Two Jewish leaders on Harvard’s campus expressed skepticism about aspects of the study.
Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, founder of Harvard Chabad, said that “while the data and studies are admittedly not scientific, they raise important questions.”
“However, because different methods and factors vary across universities — and even within the same institution over time — we don’t have the data to accurately contrast Jewish population figures,” Zarchi told JI. “Additionally, from Chabad’s personal relationships with hundreds of students, we know that many Jewish students at Harvard come from highly assimilated backgrounds who often first discover their Jewish identity and belonging with Chabad on campus. This indicates that the actual number of Jewish students is likely higher than what may surface on non-scientific surveys.”
Rabbi Jason Rubenstein, director of Harvard Hillel, told JI that the study provides a “vitally important” opportunity to better understand why Harvard’s Jewish population is “significantly smaller than similar institutions,” an issue that he said the Harvard Jewish community has been advocating on for several years already.
Still, “our perception is that each of the last two admitted classes have an appreciably larger number of Jewish students than the preceding classes,” said Rubenstein.
Hillel’s data from last year’s admissions cycle shows the number of students admitted from two prominent New York Modern Orthodox day schools — five from Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy and five from Ramaz — is high compared to previous generations.
“Harvard has been speaking with stakeholders for a while about the need to refocus efforts” in outreach to Jewish day schools, said Ashkenazy. “That’s obviously a good thing that they’re starting to prioritize it. On the one hand, it’s a visible win for the university and Jewish community to recruit from Jewish day schools. At the same time, we all have to accept that the percentage of us that goes to Jewish day schools is excruciatingly small as it pertains to our community.”
Zac Sardi-Santos, a Jewish Harvard senior studying computer science, said the report left him with a question: “If this is true, where are these potential Harvard Jewish students going, and why?”
“But in order to diagnose this issue, we must first prove its existence with transparency and independent review,” said Sardi-Santos. “I do believe it would be in Harvard’s best interest to collect this data and verify if this anomaly is truly the case … especially for Jewish students, in a time when antisemitism on college campuses is increasing.”
The study draws only on data collected before the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, and therefore does not reflect Jewish enrollment during and after the campus protests and encampments that disrupted many universities.
“I’m hoping the number has stayed stable. What I can say is that Jewish prospective students I’ve spoken with have expressed real hesitation about Harvard since Oct. 7, and that is something the university needs to take seriously,” said Ashkenazy.
In the aftermath of the attacks and the surge of antisemitism that ensued, Jewish scholars, as well as students and their parents, grappled over whether they should still attend schools such as Columbia and Harvard — two Ivy League campuses that have been beset by controversy over anti-Israel encampments and classroom disruptions, physical assaults of Jewish students and battles with the federal government over an alleged failure to address antisemitism. (While Brown has been relatively quieter, it too was targeted by the Trump administration over antisemitism allegations, and in July 2025 reached a settlement.)
But declines in Jewish representation have been a persistent and contentious issue at Ivy League institutions well before Oct. 7. In April 2023, Tablet reported that the number of Jews on most major prestigious campuses had been cut in half or more over the past decade, by “new elite doctrines that downplay merit in favor of amorphous definitions of ‘diversity’ and ‘privilege.’”
The issue dates further back, to the 20th century when wealthy, liberal American Jews in the Northeast navigated a system that tried to exclude them. Harvard admitted to having a quota system for Jews in the early 1920s. From the 1920s until the early 1960s, Yale’s administration implemented a series of secret admissions rules that had the intention of keeping the Jewish percentage of the student body at a consistent 10%.
But eventually, Ivy League doors opened to Jewish students, and the community at Harvard became “a present and vital part of this university for a century,” Ashkenazy told JI. “We have long believed in the importance of building a genuinely diverse university, and that commitment has not changed.”
“We ask only that we remain woven into the university’s social fabric, valued as much as those we have long advocated for. Diversity is not a finite resource. Making room for the Jewish community does not diminish anyone else’s place here. It never has. A university that embraces every other race, religion, and background should understand that better than most.”
Plus, Temple Israel seeks to 'tell its story'
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Tulsi Gabbard is sworn in as Director of National Intelligence in the Oval Office at the White House on February 12, 2025 in Washington, DC.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard distanced herself — to a degree — from two of her isolationist-minded aides, Joe Kent and Dan Caldwell, who have taken a hostile stance to the U.S.’ Middle East policy, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Gabbard affirmed, after being pressed at a House Intelligence Committee hearing today, that the conspiratorial views about Israel espoused by Kent in his resignation letter earlier this week did concern her, and said about Caldwell that he would have no influence over intelligence reports at her agency.
Gabbard, who has previously been a vocal critic of military engagement with Iran, further acknowledged that her current position requires her to “check” her personal views “at the door”…
Reports of a potential $200 billion emergency funding request from the Pentagon for the war in Iran are drawing firm Democratic opposition and hedged responses from Republicans on the Hill: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he’ll “look at” the request “but obviously it’s a dangerous time in the world and we have to adequately fund defense,” while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he’d “hate to be the senator that denied the request if it made sense.” Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) responded with a simple “No,” while Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called it a “nonstarter”…
The Senate is set to hold another round of votes on blocking U.S. arms transfers to Israel, after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) filed three new joint resolutions of disapproval against $658.8 million in sales of over 20,000 bombs to Israel, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
A majority of the Democratic caucus — 27 lawmakers — voted to block at least one arms sale in July of last year, a significant jump in support from previous similar efforts; Israel’s standing in the party has largely declined since then amid Democratic criticism of the war with Iran…
During a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the White House today, President Donald Trump reiterated that he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack Iranian oil facilities, after an Israeli strike on the South Pars gas field yesterday: “I told them, don’t do that. We didn’t discuss. … It’s coordinated, but on occasion, he’ll do something.”
Trump also put pressure on Takaichi to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, while European leaders released a joint statement “express[ing] our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait,” after repeatedly declining to get involved. A team of British military planners is now consulting with CENTCOM on options to assist short of military action, The New York Times reports…
Asked if he will deploy more U.S. troops in the region, Trump told reporters he’s “not putting troops anywhere. If I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you — but I’m not putting troops”…
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth compared Iran to Hamas in a briefing today, saying that, “just like Hamas and their tunnels,” Iran has “poured any aid, any economic development … into tunnels and rockets”…
A group of congressional Democrats is urging the State Department to restart chartered evacuation flights out of Israel and take additional steps to help U.S. citizens who wish to leave the country amid the ongoing war with Iran, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
The lawmakers described the State Department’s current partnership with El Al, which launched on March 13 with a limited number of special evacuation flights for U.S. citizens, as insufficient. The Israeli airline has currently suspended registration for the flights, and government-imposed security restrictions are limiting passenger capacity on each flight and reducing airport operations…
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the U.S. may lift sanctions on Iranian oil already at sea in order to blunt rising gas prices. “In essence, we will be using the Iranian barrels against the Iranians to keep the price down for the next 10 or 14 days as we continue this campaign,” he explained on Fox News…
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan warned the kingdom is reaching a breaking point after continued Iranian attacks, saying “what little trust” Riyadh had with Tehran has “completely been shattered.”
On a potential Saudi military response, Prince Faisal said, “Do they have a day, two, a week? I’m not going to telegraph that.” It’s a notable shift for Riyadh, which had been pivoting away from its traditional allies and towards Iran and other Islamist countries prior to the war…
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker condemned AIPAC after a primary cycle in which the pro-Israel group spent millions backing — and opposing — candidates across the state, calling it “an organization that was supporting Donald Trump and people who follow Donald Trump.”
Pritzker, a Jewish Democrat who was once an AIPAC donor himself, said it “really is not an organization that I think today I would want any part of.” He further echoed far-left sentiments that Israel dragged the U.S. into conflict with Iran, claiming Trump “simply follow[ed] Netanyahu into that war”…
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) details his experience with a would-be assailant, a man described by authorities as a “ticking time bomb,” who was arrested near his home last year after police discovered an arsenal of weapons and a handwritten list of targets that included Jewish sites and Moskowitz.
“Besides the police presence outside his house, Moskowitz himself will not appear in parades and says he won’t speak at outdoor staged events. ‘It’s not worth it. I’d rather lose my election,’” the lawmaker told Roll Call…
Temple Israel in suburban Detroit released photos of the devastation to the building caused by an attacker last week, noting that it had “chosen thus far not to make [the photos] public” but are doing so now “to take back control of our narrative” after several were leaked to the media.
“We share these images because our community deserves to see our building through eyes of love, not through the lens of spectacle. This is our sacred space, and we will be the ones to tell its story,” the synagogue wrote…
The University of California, Berkeley reached a settlement in its lawsuit with the federal government, agreeing to pay $1 million and make changes to its discrimination policy following accusations that the university had failed to properly address campus antisemitism.
Among the policy changes, the school will clarify that the word “Zionist” cannot be used as a proxy for Jew or Israeli. The claims in the lawsuit predate the recent campus unrest over Israel’s war in Gaza, stemming from an incident in 2022 when student groups adopted policies saying they would not host Zionist speakers…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at the struggles facing international broadcasters Voice of America and Radio Free Europe in reaching Iranian citizens during the ongoing war due to budget cuts and roadblocks from the U.S. Agency for Global Media.
The House Appropriations Committee will hold a field hearing at the U.S. Mission to the U.N. in New York City on “accountability and reform” at the U.N.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!
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Owens and Kent are set to speak at a far-right Catholic advocacy gala, while one Catholic leader called to ‘reject the conspiracies … against our Jewish brothers and sisters’
Franco Origlia/Getty Images
Archbishop of Portland Alexander King Sample receives the Pallium from Pope Francis during the Solemnity of Saint Peter and Paul at Vatican Basilica on June 29, 2013 in Vatican City, Vatican.
In the 24 hours before a fringe Catholic political group planned to host a gala in Washington honoring a number of public figures who have faced accusations of antisemitism, several prominent members of the American Catholic Church stated unequivocally that antisemitism is not a part of their religious doctrine.
“The Jewish community is attacked at a far higher rate than any other religious group in the United States. If we Catholics, in truly living out the Gospel, are to defend religious freedom with integrity, we must clearly speak out against antisemitism,” Archbishop Alexander K. Sample, the archbishop of Portland, Ore., said in a video posted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Wednesday.
Sample is the chairman of the religious liberty commission at the USCCB, the membership organization of current and retired Catholic bishops in the United States. The video was timed with the upcoming Easter holiday, which Sample said has “at times been the occasion for outbursts of hatred and even violence against Jews” by Catholics who collectively hold the Jews responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus.
“As Catholics, we are called to walk in the truth and so to reject the conspiracies and lies that lead to harassment and even violence against our Jewish brothers and sisters,” said Sample.
On Thursday morning, Vince Haley, the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, delivered greetings from President Donald Trump at the annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington. Haley, who is Catholic, wrapped up his own remarks with a call for Catholics to take a stand against antisemitism.
American Catholics have a responsibility, Haley said, “to render assistance to and speak out tirelessly in defense of our beloved Jewish neighbors and fellow citizens in the face of rising attacks and the tidal wave of hatred that is being manufactured against them.”
“Hatred toward Jewish people is ugly, despicable, an affront to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and surely an occasion of terrible grief for our Jewish mother, Mary,” Haley continued. “And such evil should be condemned loudly and often by all people of goodwill, especially us.”
Neither Haley nor Sample mentioned the Catholic Prayer for America Gala, an event being hosted on Thursday night in Washington by Catholics for Catholics, a far-right political advocacy organization with a mission of targeting Catholic politicians who they deem to be insufficiently supportive of their perspective on church doctrine.
But the gala raised eyebrows across Washington when the organization announced just hours after Joe Kent resigned as director of the National Counterterrorism Center in protest of Trump’s policy toward Iran earlier this week that Kent would speak at the event.
Kent, who has a history of ties to far-right extremists and sought the support of antisemitic influencer Nick Fuentes during a 2022 congressional run, claimed that the U.S. was driven into war by “Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
The event’s lineup already featured a who’s who of right-wing media personalities who have faced accusations of antisemitism.
Carrie Prejean Boller, a former beauty pageant contestant who was fired from the White House Religious Liberty Commission Task Force in February after a disruptive anti-Zionist tirade at a public hearing, will be speaking. She was invited soon after the blow-up at the hearing, and in the weeks since she has doubled down on posting antisemitic content online.
At the Religious Liberty Commission hearing, Prejean Boller came to the defense of the far-right influencer Candace Owens, who since parting with the Daily Wire in 2024 has become a reliably antisemitic voice on social media. Owens will also be speaking at the Catholics for Catholics event, along with Michael Flynn, who served as national security advisor for the first 22 days of Trump’s first term.
Plus, JD Vance says he likes Joe Kent
Oliver Contreras/AFP via Getty Images
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin testifies during a Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC
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Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing today that the Iranian regime “appears to be intact but largely degraded,” Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports, as the U.S. and Israel continue to target Iranian leaders and assets. If it survives the war, she said, the regime would “seek to begin a yearslong effort to rebuild its military, missiles and UAV forces.”
Gabbard, a longtime opponent of war with Iran, repeatedly declined to say whether the intelligence community had assessed Iran to be an imminent threat to the United States, after her former deputy, Joe Kent, alleged in his resignation letter yesterday that no such threat existed. CIA Director John Ratcliffe, however, was clear in his view that “Iran has been a constant threat to the United States for an extended period of time, and posed an immediate threat at this time”…
Regarding Kent’s resignation over his opposition to the war in Iran and claims that Israel coerced the U.S. into the war, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Kent “was not someone who was involved in … the president’s intelligence briefings over the last several months. Have not seen him here at the White House for quite some time.”
She said President Donald Trump finds it “disappointing” that Kent would “resign with a letter filled with falsehoods, accusing the president of the United States [of] being controlled by a foreign country. That’s both insulting and laughable.”
Vice President JD Vance told reporters, “I know Joe Kent a little bit. I like Joe Kent … It’s fine to disagree, but once the president makes a decision, it’s up to everybody who serves in his administration to make it as successful as possible. That’s how I do my job”…
In his nomination hearing to be secretary of homeland security, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said he will aim to “streamline the process” for grants, including the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, JI’s Matthew Shea reports, vowing to work to “cut out the redundancies.”
“The amount of paperwork once you’re approved to get the funding flowing, and then the paperwork that’s followed up on is way too encompassing,” Mullin said. “Taking years to get reimbursed is not acceptable. Taking months to get reimbursed is not acceptable.” His hearing was otherwise colored by personal hostility with Homeland Security Committee Chair Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), which could complicate Mullin’s path to nomination…
The Israeli Air Force reportedly struck the South Pars gas field in Iran, the largest in the world; Qatar, which owns half of the field, called it a “dangerous and irresponsible step.” The U.S. reportedly had knowledge of the operation, despite the Trump administration asking Israel earlier this month not to strike energy facilities…
Trump issued a veiled threat to American allies who have declined to assist in securing the Strait of Hormuz, musing on Truth Social, “I wonder what would happen if we ‘finished off’ what’s left of the Iranian Terror State, and let the Countries that use it, we don’t, be responsible for the so called ‘Strait?’ That would get some of our non-responsive ‘Allies’ in gear, and fast!!!”…
Michael Blake, the Democrat challenging Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) whose campaign has focused extensively on criticism of Israel and AIPAC, expressed strong support for Kent’s resignation letter and his baseless claim of Israel’s role in initiating the war. “An absolutely breathtaking, courageous and bold resignation letter stating that Iran posed NO IMMINENT THREAT to us and Trump made this decision due to the Israeli government and its American Lobby,” Blake wrote on X…
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner released an ad in response to one from his opponent, Gov. Janet Mills, highlighting social media comments he had made about sexual assault. “If I saw these ads, I’d have questions,” Platner says in the spot. “Maine, I’m asking you not to judge me for the worst thing I said on the internet on my worst day 14 years ago, but who I am today.”
Mills replied with another ad featuring an interview clip of Platner in which he said about his posts, “I made a lot of comments that I’m not, like, ashamed of. It’s not as though I have this ream of comments in which I look back and I’m like, oh my god, I was a terrible person back then”…
During an economic-focused visit to Detroit today, Vance remarked about the recent shooting attack at nearby Temple Israel, “When something happens to any member of our American family, and this particular incident happened to Jewish members of our American family, it is something that all of us have to stand up and say, it’s disgusting, it’s unacceptable”…
Also in response to the Temple Israel attack, Montgomery County, Md., a heavily Jewish suburb of Washington, announced it will provide $500,000 in supplemental funding for its Nonprofit Security Grant Program for current recipients over the next 90 days. It’s one of the few localities that provides its own funding in addition to the federal program…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at the far-left candidates running against establishment Democrats in Colorado.
The Senate will vote on another war powers resolution this evening aiming to stop the U.S. operation in Iran. The resolution, sponsored by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), is expected to fail largely along party lines, as the previous one did earlier this month.
Administration intelligence officials including DNI Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe will appear before the House Intelligence Committee tomorrow for its rescheduled worldwide threats hearing.
The Senate’s Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee is set to hold a vote on Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s (R-OK) nomination to be secretary of homeland security, though Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) threatened to cancel it over personal animosity and outstanding questions about a 2016 overseas trip that Mullin claims was classified. If a vote is held, Mullin will need the support of at least one Democrat on the committee in order to advance without Paul’s support, which Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has previously pledged to provide.
After his appearance this evening on far-right commentator Tucker Carlson’s podcast, Joe Kent will be interviewed tomorrow by Candace Owens, who similarly deals in antisemitic conspiracy theories, at the Catholic Prayer for America gala in Washington. Also appearing at the gala is Carrie Prejean Boller, the former beauty pageant queen who was removed from the White House’s Religious Liberty Commission after berating Jewish hearing witnesses over antisemitism.
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Mullin said he would work to streamline the paperwork process and reimbursement timelines
Oliver Contreras/AFP via Getty Images
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin testifies during a Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC
In his nomination hearing to be secretary of homeland security, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said he will aim to “streamline the process” for grants, including the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) aimed at helping harden religious institutions, amid heightened antisemitism and increased threats during the ongoing war in Iran.
The NSGP has faced persistent challenges, including severe underfunding, controversial new conditions and, most recently, delays tied to the ongoing partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.
When pressed by senators on the need to unlock NSGP funding in the wake of the violent attack at Temple Israel in suburban Detroit last week, Mullin agreed that the process should be streamlined and said he would aim to “cut out the redundancies” and “amount of paperwork.”
“The Jewish community is spending about a billion dollars a year privately securing their own institutions,” said Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI). “No religious group should have to spend that amount of money on their own security in the United States of America. So I would just ask for your help in reforming the Nonprofit Security Grant Program so it’s agile, so you don’t have to win the grant and then still do 100 pieces of paper.”
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) echoed those sentiments, noting that the “length of time it takes to get a response” is concerning, especially for “locations that are higher risk than others.”
“Synagogues and temples have been one of those very high risk locations that are out there,” Lankford said, referencing the attack at Temple Israel. “That location happened to be one of the locations where there’s also been this nonprofit security grant to help harden that facility.”
“We have multiple challenges here,” Lankford added. “One of them is, when the decision is made, they make a request, go through the paperwork, get approval to be one of those locations that we say we need to harden this location. Once the approval is done, it may take months to over a year just for the dollars to actually come on it because there’s more bureaucratic hoops to go through.”
In response, Mullin agreed, “there’s a better way to do this.” He added that while he may have political differences with some of the lawmakers on the committee, this issue “isn’t one” of them and that he would be “laser focused and get this resolved.”
“The amount of paperwork once you’re approved to get the funding flowing, and then the paperwork that’s followed up on is way too encompassing,” Mullin said. “Taking years to get reimbursed is not acceptable. Taking months to get reimbursed is not acceptable.”
Mullin was also pressed on the threat of terrorist attacks domestically amid the DHS funding lapse and ongoing conflict in Iran.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), cited several recent incidents that had “potential terrorist ties,” including the antisemitic attack at Temple Israel in Michigan whose perpetrator had family ties to Hezbollah; a school shooting at Old Dominion University earlier this month, which is being investigated as an act of terrorism; a mass shooting in Austin, Texas, which is being investigated as having ties to the Iran conflict; and the detonation of bombs in New York City.
“Is this a good time for the Department of Homeland Security to be shut down and unfunded?” Hawley said.
“It’s a horrible time,” Mullin replied. “It’s devastating to the morale of the men and women we have tasked to keep care, take care of all of us, all the homeland, regardless it’s a blue state or red state.”
Sen. Richard Bumenthal (D-CT) pressed Mullin over whether he would approve the deportation of Iranian dissidents who could face death or punishment upon being returned to Tehran. The Trump administration has deported Iranians back to Iran from the U.S. on several deportation flights after a deal between the two governments was reached.
“Before the war in Iran began, the Trump administration negotiated a back-channel agreement, a deal with the Islamic Republic to deport Iranian nationals, including asylum seekers and dissidents,” Blumenthal said. “I have no doubt you share my outrage about the treatment of Iranian nationals who were deported, possibly to torture and death in Iran. We should not be sending Iranian dissidents and asylum seekers back to Iran, wouldn’t you agree?”
Mullin was noncommittal, arguing that he didn’t know “the specifics” behind the incident.
“Before I can talk about hypotheticals, I would need to know the reasons behind it,” Mullin said. “But I don’t want to deport anybody that’s here legally and most definitely not individuals that have done everything possible to be a contributor to society.”
“We know that our enemies want to infiltrate us and use our rules and generosity against us, so I don’t know the specifics of their background,” Mullin added. “But I will be happy to look into it.”
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), a leader in the House on antisemitism and NGSP funding who attended Mullin’s hearing, told Jewish Insider that DHS needed “new leadership,” and signaled an openness to working with Mullin on the issue.
“We don’t agree on everything, that’s for sure. But, after a decade of working out together most mornings, and finding bipartisan solutions to some of the toughest issues, Markwayne and his family have become very good friends,” Gottheimer said.
During the hearing, Mullin also noted that Gottheimer is “a friend” and that he would “run through fire for the guy.”
“When Josh asked me to join a bipartisan group called No Labels, that’s when we really started seeing that there’s a lot of common ground that we can work together on,” Mullin said. “We can set the differences aside, and we can work together. In fact, our daughters are writing a book together about bipartisanship.”
Mullin’s prospects for confirmation remain somewhat in question, given apparent opposition from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who leads the committee where Mullin’s nomination vote will take place. Paul’s opposition traces to personal animosity between the two colleagues, as well as what Paul described as Mullin’s “anger issues.”
Mullin recently called Paul a “freaking snake” and said that he “understood” why Paul’s neighbor had attacked him, an assault that resulted in serious injuries and a prison sentence for Paul’s neighbor. Mullin refused to apologize at the hearing, to Paul’s outrage.
“I was shocked that you would justify and celebrate this violent assault that caused me so much pain and my family so much pain. The record will show a lack of contrition, no apology and no regrets for your support. You completely understand the violence that was perpetrated on me. You’re unrepentant,” Paul said. “I just wonder if someone who applauds violence against their political opponents is the right person to lead an agency that has struggled to accept limits to the proper use of force.”
“We can have our differences,” Mullin replied. “It’s not going to keep me from doing my job as secretary of homeland security.”
Paul threatened during the hearing to cancel the vote, scheduled for Thursday, on Mullin’s nomination. If Paul refuses to allow a vote, that would effectively block Mullin’s nomination, even if he otherwise has the necessary support to advance.
The Kentucky senator and committee Democrats also raised questions about a classified trip Mullin claims to have taken to a combat zone while he was a member of the House, the details of which Mullin refused to discuss in public during the hearing, alleging that the trip was classified. Committee members retired to a secure room to discuss the trip after the hearing.
If a vote is held, Mullin will need the support of at least one Democrat on the committee in order to advance without Paul’s support. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has previously expressed his intention to support Mullin, and urged Paul and Mullin to move past their feud during the hearing.
Nadell and Robert Kraft both offered messages of resilience to the Jewish community amid a spate of antisemitic attacks
Courtesy
Historian Pamela Nadell speaks with ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt at the organization's Never is Now summit on March 17, 2026.
Prominent historian and Jewish studies scholar Pamela Nadell joined the ongoing debate over the effectiveness of legacy Jewish organizations on Tuesday, arguing that they play a crucial role in educating non-Jews about antisemitism.
“It is impossible to consider dismantling legacy organizations that uncover potentially extremist attacks and that educate Americans — not Jewish Americans, we don’t need this education — about antisemitism and all forms of hate. We need to continue doing this work,” Nadell said at the conclusion of the Anti-Defamation League’s Never is Now conference in Manhattan in a conversation with the group’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt.
Nadell was referring to a recent speech by conservative New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, in which he questioned the necessity of Jewish civil rights groups like the ADL, which Greenblatt has pushed back on.
Nadell, the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s and Gender History at American University and director of the school’s Jewish studies program, spoke as America prepares for its 250th anniversary this July. The anniversary comes at a fraught moment for American Jewry, which is reeling from recent synagogue attacks in Mississippi and Michigan while grappling with the implications of rising antisemitism on both the far left and right, exacerbated by social media.
Nadell said the current moment is unprecedented. “It’s really hard to make sense of this moment because when we think of the era [of when] antisemitism was at its highest peak in America, it was the 1930s and 40s,” she said. “What ADL’s predecessors were fighting back against was by and large antisemitism coming from the right, [such as] a plot to kidnap 20 prominent Hollywood Jews and hang them in hopes of sparking a nationwide pogrom that would keep the U.S. out of [World War II].”
Nadell ended with a message of resilience for American Jewry’s next 250 years. She quoted the biblical psalm “those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy.”
“I’m sowing in tears,” said Nadell. “Maybe I won’t be around to reap in shouts of joy but I hope my children and grandchildren will.”
The second day of the ADL’s annual two-day conference kicked off Tuesday morning with an address by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who also conveyed a message of resiliency, as he was awarded with the group’s Changemaker Award.
The society “we want to build — a society of dignity, tolerance and respect — will not be built by one leader or one organization, it will be built by all of us standing together,” Kraft, founder of the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate, told attendees.
“We must refuse to accept a world where hatred is normalized and insist that our country live up to its noblest values,” continued Kraft. “We’re living in a time of rising division. Too many voices are trying to pull people apart. That’s why we must stand closer together… refusing to let hate define who we are as a country.”
The conference opened on Monday with Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL’s CEO, calling out two Democratic lawmakers — Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) — during his State of Hate address, accusing them of perpetuating antisemitism.
Elsewhere at the conference, Ofir Akunis, consul general of Israel in New York, said that those who like posts that “cheer” the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel “are antisemitic,” an apparent reference to social media posts liked by New York City First Lady Rama Duwaji, the wife of Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Bob and Nancy Milgrim, the parents of slain Israeli Embassy staffer Sarah Milgrim, also addressed the gathering on Tuesday.
Plus, airlines push back direct flights to TLV
TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP via Getty Images
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (2L), New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch (2R) and Cardinal Timothy Dolan (R) participate in annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York on March 17, 2026.
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Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned from his role today over opposition to the war in Iran, baselessly alleging that Israel had coerced the United States into what he characterized as a misguided military conflict, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
In a letter to President Donald Trump, Kent, a former Green Beret who had reported to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, wrote that he “cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” claiming that the Islamic Republic “posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
Kent, a hard-right former congressional candidate with isolationist foreign policy leanings, has previously promoted conspiracy theories, echoed pro-Russia messaging and associated with white supremacists and neo-Nazis, among other controversies. He’s now expected to appear on the podcast of his ally and friend Tucker Carlson…
After being largely rejected by foreign leaders on his repeated calls to assist in the war with Iran, Trump claimed in a post on Truth Social that, “Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID! … WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”
Asked about the timeline of the war by reporters in the Oval Office this afternoon, Trump said, “We’re not ready to leave yet, but we will be leaving in the … very near future”…
Reports indicate Iran’s security forces, despite being badly battered by the U.S. and Israel, are conducting renewed crackdowns on the Iranian public and potential dissenters. At least 500 people have been arrested since the start of the war, and new security checkpoints are being deployed for regime oversight…
Major U.S. airlines have extended their suspensions of direct flights to Tel Aviv as the war continues, JI’s Haley Cohen reports, with both United and Delta airlines not offering any direct flights until June.
The first direct flight on United Airlines between Newark Liberty International Airport and Ben Gurion Airport is available on June 16, while the first direct New York to Tel Aviv flight on Delta Airlines is available June 1. United’s direct flights from Israel to Chicago O’Hare and Washington Dulles International Airport are also suspended…
U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack denied reports that the U.S. is encouraging Syria to deploy forces into eastern Lebanon to help disarm Hezbollah, as the IDF begins to carry out ground incursions in the south of the country…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to post “proof of life” videos on social media amid internet conspiracy theories that he has been killed and replaced by a look-alike…
Trump’s decision to withhold his endorsement in the Texas Senate GOP runoff all but guarantees that Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will both appear on the May 26 runoff ballot, as neither have dropped out of the race ahead of this evening’s deadline…
Maine Gov. Janet Mills released her first attack ad against her Democratic primary rival in the race for U.S. Senate, oyster farmer Graham Platner, highlighting social media comments he made about sexual assault that have marred his campaign. In the ad, several women read disparaging comments made by Platner on Reddit over a decade ago relating to rape, and a picture of Platner’s Nazi tattoo — which he has since had covered — is displayed under a magnifying glass. “The closer you look, the worse it gets,” the ad’s narrator says…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights the gamble being made by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker as he expends political capital (and actual capital) backing his lieutenant governor, Juliana Stratton, in the state’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate taking place today. Pritzker’s involvement has drawn the ire of the Congressional Black Caucus, which is backing Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL), even though both Stratton and Kelly are Black. The race is seen as a test of Pritzker’s political clout in his home state…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani took the occasion of St. Patrick’s Day and the presence of former Irish President Mary Robinson in New York to accuse Israel of committing genocide and to praise Robinson’s controversial tenure as the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights, JI’s Will Bredderman reports.
“I think also of how she stood steadfast alongside the people of Palestine,” the mayor said in listing Robinson’s accomplishments. “I say this as over the past few years as we’ve witnessed a genocide unfold before our eyes, there has been deafening silence from so many. For those who have long cared about universal human rights and the extension of them to Palestinians, silence, however, is nothing new. For Palestinians are so often left to weep alone. Yet former President Robinson has never been silent”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a rundown of the results of Illinois’ Democratic primaries, where polls close at 8 p.m. ET.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is expected to face questions over the departure of her deputy, Joe Kent, at the Senate Intelligence Committee’s hearing on worldwide threats, where she will testify alongside other intelligence agency heads. Gabbard said today after Kent’s resignation that, as commander-in-chief, Trump “concluded that … Iran posed an imminent threat and he took action based on that conclusion,” but did not say whether she agrees herself in that assessment, something she is likely to be pressed on tomorrow.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will receive a classified briefing on the war in Iran from State Department intelligence officials.
The Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a nomination hearing for Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to be secretary of homeland security after Trump’s ouster of Secretary Kristi Noem.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom will hold a hearing on rising antisemitism abroad.
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Three people with backpacks on sidewalk in front of the campus administrative building on sunny day moving away.
A newly released report from House Republicans on the Education and Workforce Committee alleges that faculty members and student groups have played a central role in promoting and amplifying antisemitism on college campuses, particularly those affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
The report, titled “How Campuses Became Hotbeds: The Rise of Radical Antisemitism on College Campuses,” was released Tuesday and examines campus activity following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.
The report finds that faculty affiliated with Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) “played a significant role in legitimizing and amplifying antisemitism on college campuses,” and that campuses with FSJP chapters were seven times more likely to experience “violence against Jews.”
It alleges that some faculty members sought to “strip Jewish students of protections, incited protests that turned violent, taught antisemitic content in their courses and hosted programming that isolated Jewish students and demonized Israel.”
According to the report, FSJP chapters have pressured universities to boycott Israel, reject the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism and circulated statements that justified violence against Israel.
In one example, the report indicates that the FSJP chapter at Sarah Lawrence College challenged the school’s decision to put the word “antisemitism” before the word “racism” in a two-day orientation curriculum. “We’re worried [it] sends a message to incoming students about whose oppression matters,” the school’s chapter wrote.
“Faculty members also perpetuate antisemitism through university centers, such as Middle East studies centers, that offer a one-sided view of Israel as a ‘settler colonialist’ enterprise,” the report states. “It also views Jews as white and the privileged ‘oppressor,’ rather than a diverse minority that has been persecuted for thousands of years.”
The report found that in September 2024, the University of California Berkeley announced Ussama Makdisi as the inaugural chair of a newly created program in Palestinian and Arab Studies. However, earlier that year, Makdisi made a post on social media supporting the actions of Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, writing: “I could have been one of those who broke through the siege on October 7.”
The report also alleges that student groups, most notably SJP, have “consistently acted as ringleaders for antisemitic harassment faced by Jewish students on campus.” It argues that institutions of higher education have “given in” to student demands and “failed” to discipline students promoting antisemitism. SJP chapters in particular “organize violent antisemitic disturbances, host antisemitic speakers and pressure universities to boycott Israel.”
The report cites another incident at Sarah Lawrence College in which the school’s SJP chapter posted a statement calling on peers to “defend the student intifada,” described the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks as an “uprising” and shared an image “of a Hamas bulldozer tearing through Israel’s security fence.” The group later received a student leadership award after being nominated by the school’s FSJP chapter.
“At the award ceremony, the individual presenting the award described SJP as having ‘engaged in empathetic and powerful activism,’” the report states.
“Every campus that the Committee investigated while preparing this report featured an SJP chapter, or a variant of one, that served as a ringleader for antisemitic activity on campus,” the report adds, noting that many colleges and universities not only “failed” to respond to SJP, but also allowed “hostility towards Jewish students to fester.”
The report also suggested that foreign influence in American higher education is part of the problem, pointing to satellite campuses in Qatar operated by Northwestern University and Georgetown University. It alleges that both institutions have “housed faculty or fellows and student groups that foment antisemitism” without consequences.
“Neither NU-Q nor GU-Q have disciplined any faculty, students, or staff for antisemitism since October 7, 2023,” the report states. “The committee found that after October 7th, GU-Q entities that should be neutral promoted, participated in or hosted deeply one-sided events that legitimize antisemitic rhetoric.”
The report cites a series of incidents involving faculty and staff at Northwestern’s Qatar campus, including Professor Marc Jones, who it says has circulated a conspiracy theory that Israelis steal Palestinian organs and described Israel as “worse than Hamas.” It also references visiting Professor William Youmans, described as an Al Jazeera specialist, who called Israel a “terrorist state” and defended Hamas following the Oct. 7 attacks.
Additionally, the report highlights a social media post from Sami Hermez, director of Northwestern in Qatar’s Liberal Arts Program, in which he wrote that “Zionists have control over European policy and power,” adding, “If you want to make the leap that Jews control Europe, I don’t care.”
At Georgetown University’s Qatar campus, the report alleges that student groups displayed posters reading, “We stand with violence on Israelis,” and that at an SJP event, some students “drew hearts around Hamas’ name,” while others left messages including, “Oh Allah, deal with the Zionists,” and expressed a desire for the Jewish people “to fall.”
The report also outlines a series of recommendations aimed at addressing these problems, including adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
It also calls on Congress to pass legislation such as the Civil Rights Protection Act, which would require higher education institutions to be more transparent about procedures and investigations related to civil rights complaints, as well as the Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes in Nefarious Transactions (DETERRENT) Act, which would lower the financial threshold at which universities must report foreign gifts and contracts.
The report further suggests requiring U.S. universities operating overseas to make course syllabi publicly available, arguing that doing so would allow the government to hold faculty “who have exhibited blatant antisemitism” accountable.
“The findings in this report make clear that antisemitism in higher education is not confined to encampments at a handful of elite universities, nor did it begin or end with the events of October 7th,” the report states. “The evidence demonstrates that antisemitism is driven by persistent leadership failures and radical faculty and student groups that legitimize and foment antisemitism in classrooms and on campus grounds.”
The ADL’s annual summit comes amid high-profile antisemitic attacks during the Iran war
Courtesy
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt speaks at the 2026 Never is Now summit.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, called out two Democratic lawmakers from the main stage of the organization’s Never is Now conference in Manhattan on Monday, accusing them of perpetuating antisemitism.
“For the senior senator from Maryland — a state with one of the largest, most active and most observant Jewish populations in the country — he blamed AIPAC, which he slandered as ‘un-American,’” Greenblatt said during his State of Hate address, referring to Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s (D-MD) address at the J Street convention where he attacked the pro-Israel advocacy group earlier this month.
“Then, there is the U.S. congressman who stated that he stands against the ‘neoconservatives’ who led the U.S. into the current war [with Iran] and instead is ‘proud to stand’ with Hasan Piker, one of the most outspoken, virulent antisemitic influencers in the world … who the congressman described as one of the representatives of the ‘new moral order,’” continued Greenblatt, a reference to Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA).
Van Hollen and Khanna have previously faced blowback from Jewish leaders and centrist Democrats for their antagonistic rhetoric.
“Other elected officials fell over themselves to make big splashy announcements of not taking money from the largest pro-Israel organization in the country — but seemingly have no problem taking money from anyone else,” Greenblatt added.
In an apparent reference to a recent speech by conservative New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, in which he questioned the necessity of Jewish civil rights groups like the ADL, Greenblatt made the case that fighting antisemitism and building thriving Jewish communities should not be mutually exclusive.
“Recently, some have argued that we need to choose between ‘fighting antisemitism’ or ‘building Jewish life,’” he said, apparently alluding to Stephens’ call last month for the American Jewish community to dismantle the ADL and reallocate its ample communal resources to building Jewish identity, rather than combating antisemitism.
“But they got it wrong. Security and identity aren’t competing priorities; they’re inseparable preconditions for the flourishing of Jewish life in an open society,” continued Greenblatt.
As America’s 250th anniversary approaches this summer, Greenblatt said that fighting antisemitism does not only protect Jews but is also a fight to “save America itself … to keep this incredible, 250-year experiment alive and thriving.”
The address, opening the two-day conference which is being attended by about 4,000 people, was followed by a conversation between Greenblatt and Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, a prominent American evangelical leader.
The Latino Christian community “will not tolerate” antisemitism, said Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, the largest Hispanic Christian organization in the country.
He said that his pledge comes as “sectors and segments of the evangelical community have unfortunately [started] to advance a narrative that is antisemitic.”
The ADL and NHCLC announced a partnership in October aimed at combating antisemitism and deepening Hispanic-Jewish solidarity.
Greenblatt called the collaboration “one of the most important undertakings I have had the privilege to be a part of.”
“The bigots are afraid of this kind of alliance,” said Greenblatt. “They’re afraid of Jews and Christians coming together to push back on the bigotry.”
Rodriguez, who leads a Pentecostal church in Sacramento, Calif., added that “education of our children at an early age” is the first step in combating hate.
“We engage the culture in order to reform the culture, and push back on manifestations of hate in society, [including on] college campuses.”
This year’s Never is Now summit comes as Jewish communities continue to see a persistent rise of antisemitism that started after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, and has been sparked anew by Israel’s ongoing war with Iran. Last week, a synagogue in Michigan faced an attempted terrorist attack, and several Toronto synagogues were targeted in shootings the week prior.
And Europe to Trump: Iran is 'not our war'
Peter W. Stevenson/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro sits for an interview at the Pennsylvania State Capitol on June 11, 2025.
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
European countries are largely rebuffing President Donald Trump’s calls to join the war with Iran and help secure the largely impassable Strait of Hormuz. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said today, “This is not our war; we did not start it,” while the French foreign ministry said, “Posture has not changed: defensive it is.” Poland, the U.K. and Italy similarly made clear they would not be participating in an offensive capacity…
On potential negotiations with Iran, Trump told reporters, “We don’t even know their leaders. We have people wanting to negotiate. We have no idea who they are.” He said new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is “badly disfigured” and noted it’s “unusual” he hasn’t recently been seen in public.
Khamenei narrowly survived an airstrike on his compound on Feb. 28 as he briefly stepped outside, according to leaked audio obtained by The Telegraph, which reportedly contains remarks by an official in the office of deceased Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to senior clerics…
IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani denied reports that Israel is running low on missile interceptors, saying there is no “urgent problem” and that the military re-equips its supplies “in real time”…
Debris and missile fragments from Iranian attacks fell in the Old City of Jerusalem near several sensitive sites including the Western Wall Plaza and feet away from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre…
Twenty-three Democratic members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee wrote to Trump requesting a public hearing with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to understand their role in “lead[ing] diplomatic engagement with Iran”…
Representatives of the U.S.-led Board of Peace met with Hamas officials over the weekend in Cairo, Egypt, Reuters reports, in an effort to keep ceasefire negotiations on track even as the war with Iran proceeds. Aryeh Lightstone, an aide to Witkoff, reportedly represented the U.S. delegation, with more meetings expected this week…
Times of Israel reporter Emanuel Fabian chronicles his experience receiving death threats from users of the prediction market platform Polymarket over his reporting on a recent Iranian missile strike in the city of Beit Shemesh…
Trump announced that Susie Wiles, his White House chief of staff, has been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer and will receive treatment while remaining in her post…
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a potential 2028 presidential contender, tested out his measured, pro-Israel messaging in a series of recent podcast interviews, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. In his appearances on “Pod Save America” and “Higher Learning,” Shapiro made the case that, as the starting point for any public political conversation about Israel, the fact of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state must be respected.
“I think what is dangerous here … is for those who think Israel doesn’t have a right to exist in [the] conversation. That to me is a recipe for permanent war,” Shapiro told “Higher Learning” host Van Lathan. He also pushed back on California Gov. Gavin Newsom, his potential 2028 opponent, for saying Israel could be described as an apartheid state…
Rep. Mike Lawler’s (R-NY) reelection campaign is employing a community activist, Darrell Davis, who has criticized Democratic politicians, including Rep. George Latimer (D-NY) and a county executive, for taking money from pro-Israel groups and traveling to Israel, Politico reports.
Davis accused Latimer of being on the receiving end of a “Jewish organized spending spree” and taking “about $30 million to buy a congressional seat, to represent the interests of Israel,” which he called “a horrific threat to democracy.” About Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins’ trip to Israel, Davis wrote, “Why are they in Israel?? What more proof do people need that black Dems don’t give a sh*t about you. They are up for sale”…
The day before her primary election in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, far-left social media influencer Kat Abughazaleh removed language from her campaign website claiming “There is no acceptable scenario that leaves Hamas in charge of the Gaza Strip,” after she had faced criticism from the Hamas-friendly outlet Drop Site News over its inclusion. Her site says that the earlier language on the page “did not accurately reflect Kat’s views or the values of this campaign”…
And the closing drama in the Illinois Senate Democratic primary is Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton’s claim that she received a deathbed endorsement from civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, which the Jackson family said today he had never finalized. The late reverend’s support is seen as meaningful in the race, which includes multiple prominent Black candidates, as well as Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL)…
The Atlantic spotlights one of the main obstacles facing Maine Gov. Janet Mills in her Democratic primary for U.S. Senate against oyster farmer Graham Platner: her age. Mills, 78, “does not have a dicey Reddit history or a recently covered-over Nazi tattoo” but is still trailing in the polls, even as Platner continues to be plagued by scandals. “One likely factor: If she is elected, Mills would be the oldest freshman senator in history”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at the tense runoff in the Democratic primary for Texas’ 35th Congressional District, where a fringe conspiracy theorist eked out a narrow victory over a sheriff’s deputy backed by the pro-Israel establishment.
All eyes will be on the Prairie State tomorrow, as several high-profile Democratic primaries will be decided across Illinois. Read JI’s coverage of the races to watch.
On the Hill, the House Intelligence Committee will hold its annual hearing on worldwide threats, with testimony from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, FBI Director Kash Patel, NSA Acting Director William Hartman and DIA Director James Adams.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on reforming U.S. defense sales.
Stories You May Have Missed
BREAKING POINT
Antisemitism meets America’s ‘thoughts and prayers’ ritual
Democrats began calling out those who traffic in antisemitic rhetoric when they offered platitudes after an attack on a Michigan synagogue
UNDER PRESSURE
Ro Khanna facing new Democratic challenger hitting him from the political center
Tech entrepreneur Ethan Agarwal: ‘He thinks being racist against Jewish people is going to help him win the American left. I don’t care if he’s right. I just think it’s unethical and immoral’
Tech entrepreneur Ethan Agarwal: ‘He thinks being racist against Jewish people is going to help him win the American left. I don’t care if he’s right. I just think it’s unethical and immoral’
Courtesy
Ethan Agarwal
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) has become one of the harshest critics of Israel in the House, in recent months associating with some of the leading anti-Israel figures within the Democratic Party — at one point proudly declaring his ties to a far-left antisemitic podcaster.
In his pushback to the U.S. war against Iran, he has caricatured those supportive of taking military action against the Islamic Republic as part the “Epstein class” — which critics have accused of being an antisemitic trope — while defending right-wing commentator Pat Buchanan from past charges of antisemitism.
As a result, he is facing a primary challenge from tech entrepreneur Ethan Agarwal, who is accusing the congressman of embracing far-left views to seek national attention for a potential presidential campaign — at the expense of focusing on constituents back home in the Silicon Valley-based district.
“The district is being represented by a guy who could not care less about the people in the district, and that’s frustrating because I supported Ro when he first ran back in 2012,” Agarwal told Jewish Insider on Friday. “He’s completely [turned around] on basically everything that he said to his supporters.”
Agarwal said he sees Khanna’s activities, including his opposition to the Iran war and outspokenness against Israel, as plays for national attention, rather than representing the district that elected him.
Khanna “just totally does not give a s*** about the district. He’s running for president, and he wants to run to the left on every issue,” Agarwal alleged. “The district needs a representative that’s focused on the district itself, and that’s why I’m running for Congress.”
Those allegations of political opportunism were echoed in a recent Washington Post column by writer James Kirchick, who reported that Khanna professed to being a strong ally of Israel and the Jewish community earlier in his career when he was seeking a role in the Obama administration. The op-ed framed Khanna as a relentless self-promoter willing to change his views for attention and career advancement.
Khanna, in response to the allegations that he’s lost focus on his district back home, told JI he was “proud of my record representing California’s 17th district,” pointing to his work to secure $13.5 million in funding this year for projects including affordable housing, veteran housing, safe routes for children to get to school, clean water and transportation. He added that he has held nearly 80 town halls, is regularly meeting with local community leaders and is in touch with anti-ICE activists, and touted his constituent services and endorsements from local leaders and groups.
“And I’m willing to take on powerful people when accountability is needed. When I called for the release of the Epstein files, many dismissed it and said no one in the district would care. They were wrong. Constituents raise it with me regularly because they want transparency and justice for survivors,” Khanna added.
Agarwal’s criticisms go beyond hitting Khanna for putting national issues ahead of local ones. He accused the congressman of engaging in shoot-from-the-hip social media commentary that has inflamed antisemitism at a time of heightened fears within the Jewish community.
“Even if you weren’t running for Congress or trying to run for president — what is wrong with you?” Agarwal said. “If the congressperson of the district is advocating these kinds of things publicly, it stokes and it inflames the culture on the ground.”
“He thinks being racist against Jewish people is going to help him win the American left,” Agarwal added. “I don’t care if he’s right. I just think it’s unethical and immoral.”
Khanna responded that he has “consistently condemned antisemitism in all forms,” including speaking out specifically against various recent incidents, that he has been “been clear in my support for Israel as a Jewish and democratic state,” that he has worked with Jewish leaders and visited synagogues within the district.
“This issue is personal for me. My nieces and nephews are Jewish through my brother’s marriage, which has deepened my understanding of why it is so important to speak out against antisemitism in any form,” Khanna continued.
Defending his affiliation with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner and far-left influencer Hasan Piker, Khanna said, “I do believe like Franklin Roosevelt and President Obama that we need to build a big tent, and Mayor Mamdani and Graham Platner are part of that. I also engage with media across the political spectrum, from Hasan Piker to Shawn Ryan to Theo Von to Sean Hannity, because we shouldn’t shy away from debates or discussions with people with different ideologies. We must engage.”
Agarwal has publicly linked Khanna’s rhetoric to an assault on two people speaking Hebrew in a San Jose restaurant earlier this week. The attack took place within Khanna’s district.
“It doesn’t take a genius to draw a line between those two things,” Agarwal said.
“We MUST capture and punish the perpetrators. Beyond that, we HAVE to turn down the dial of anti-Israeli rhetoric. [Khanna] acknowledge your role in this, and apologize for inflaming tensions,” he urged the congressman on X last week. “Take responsibility for creating the environment that enables these lunatics.”
In response, Khanna called the assault “horrific” and said it has “no place in our community,” adding that he had “unequivocally condemned” the attack and pushed for the attackers to be prosecuted.
“I’ve taken concrete steps to confront antisemitism locally. I’ve held multiple town halls and meetings with members of the Jewish community across the district to hear directly about their concerns and make sure they feel safe,” Khanna said.
He also highlighted his move two years ago to appoint a staffer in his office to serve as a point of contact for community members on antisemitism and a recent town hall he held with a local Jewish Democratic group.
“My focus has been making sure that when antisemitism occurs, our community knows it will be taken seriously and addressed immediately,” Khanna continued.
While he didn’t weigh in on the broader strategic goals of the U.S. operation in Iran, Agarwal has argued that it’s an unequivocal good for the Iranian people and the world that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the joint U.S.-Israel operation, is dead, and criticized Khanna for trying to prevent or stop the U.S. operation against Iran.
“I am in support of the murder of Ali Khamenei because he was a brutal dictator and 20,000 Iranian Americans in [this] district — I spoke to many of them — agree with that,” Agarwal said. “I don’t know what happens from here. I think there’s open questions. I think there’s a good path, and there’s mistakes that can be made, but what I do know is that Iran is better off without him, and I think America is better off without him being alive.”
Khanna stood behind his advocacy for the war powers resolution, emphasizing the support it received among House Democrats, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and two moderate Jewish Democrats who initially opposed it. He said that the issue is a matter of constitutional authority.
“I have been clear that the Iranian regime is brutal and destabilizing, as we have seen in its repression of its own people and the killing of thousands of protestors. But launching a war of choice in the Middle East without fully understanding the risks to our servicemembers or the potential for wider escalation has been reckless,” Khanna said. “People in my district understand the cost of these endless wars and oppose them. They expect their representative to stand up for the Constitution and to ensure that decisions are made carefully and with accountability.”
Agarwal has also blasted Khanna for his comments linking the Iran war to the Epstein case.
“What does [Jeffrey] Epstein have to do with the war in Iran? … aside from these being two topics he thinks are going to help him get elected president,” Agarwal said, adding that he believes that Khanna is using “Epstein class” as a broad pejorative to smear his political enemies, Israelis and the Jewish people.
Khanna told JI, “The ‘Epstein class’ refers to a group of wealthy and powerful elites who use their wealth and connections to operate as if they are above the law and not subject to the same accountability as everyone else. The phrase reflects the reality that Jeffrey Epstein and the people around him were able to operate for years without consequences,” and said “many prominent Jewish Americans” including Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and columnist Bill Kristol “have used the phrase after I coined it.”
“Attempts to twist the meaning of that phrase into something else is an empty political attack to distract from the real issue, which is accountability for powerful people who believe the rules do not apply to them, including rules of war,” Khanna said.
Agarwal also didn’t expound at length on Israel policy — emphasizing that his first responsibility in Congress would be on local issues in his district. He did say, however, that he believes that Israel is “our strongest ally in the Middle East” and that a stronger relationship between the two countries is good for the U.S., the U.S. economy and the district.
With a nearly decade-long record in Congress, a prominent profile and $15.5 million in donations on hand as of the end of the year, Khanna is strongly favored to win re-election. In the previous election, Khanna picked up 63% of the vote in the all-party primary, rising to 68% in the general election against a Republican challenger.
But with some prominent figures in Silicon Valley’s tech scene getting behind Agarwal, he might have a chance at making Khanna work harder for his re-election.
Agarwal argues that Khanna is also taking the election for granted, and that his alleged lack of attention to local issues will backfire on him, as well as his support for a wealth tax and his breaks with the local Israeli, Jewish, Iranian and other immigrant communities.
“I’m going to win this election by listening to the people in the district and being their advocate, as opposed to focusing on my national profile,” he said, pointing to Khanna’s national travel to 2028 presidential primary states.
The prominent NYC Reform leader condemned Mamdani’s recent decision to host Mahmoud Khalil at his residence
Screenshot
Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch speaks at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City on Feb. 28, 2025
The vehicle ramming and shooting attack on a Michigan synagogue last Thursday was the latest example of a “direct connection between hatred of Israel and hatred of Jews,” Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, a prominent Reform rabbi who leads Manhattan’s Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, said during a sermon on Friday evening.
From the pulpit, Hirsch urged both the Jewish community and U.S. elected officials — including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — to take seriously the “moral and political blindness” that is “casting a darkening shadow over all that we hold dear.”
“We must grapple seriously with this phenomenon of antisemitism; not only for the sake of the Jews, but for the sake of America,” said Hirsch, one day after the suspect, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, drove a truck full of explosives through the front entrance of Temple Israel, one of the country’s largest Reform congregations, as 140 children were inside the building.
Armed security stationed at the synagogue engaged with Ghazali who killed himself when his truck caught fire during the gunfight with security officials. One other person — the synagogue’s director of security, Danny Phillips — was injured.
“It is still the case that decent people see an attack on an American nursery school and are aghast at the brazen immorality, the unfathomable indecency, and the bottomless depravity. They send thoughts and prayers — and these sentiments are sincere. But there is an encroaching moral and political blindness in the West casting a darkening shadow over all that we hold dear,” said Hirsch.
He highlighted a connection between “hateful words and hateful deeds — between bad ideas and bad outcomes.”
“There is a direct connection between the obsessive and frenzied incitement against Israel, and incitement against American Jews. Everyone knows this. Why is it even controversial to say?” said Hirsch. “If [far-right commentator] Tucker Carlson pulls out of nowhere wild blood libels against Chabad that they pushed America into war — will it surprise anyone if the next Bondi Beach [massacre] is being hatched as we speak? And those on the other end of the political spectrum who shout ‘globalize the intifada’ — they mean Oct. 7 brought to the West, the Midwest and West Bloomfield.”
Hirsch said society “must do the much harder work of eradicating ideologies of hate in our communities. It means facing the problem of extremism and antisemitism head-on. It means acknowledging with honesty that antisemitism today is not only the domain of white supremacists and neo-Nazis.”
Hirsch, a self-described liberal who voiced opposition to Mamdani throughout the mayoral election, called the mayor’s statement on the Michigan attack “half-fine.”
Hirsch said he “welcomed” that Mamdani “expressed his horror, emphasized that his thoughts are with the congregation, called the attack ‘antisemitic violence” and pledged increased NYPD presence at Jewish institutions in New York.
“But unless you say the second half, the first half is just cover — a distraction — an evasion, a diversion from the source of the problem.”
“What about committing to using the bully pulpit of the mayor to influence greater tolerance for Jews in this city?” continued Hirsch. “What about castigating anti-Israel hate that so influences anti-Jewish hate? Help us understand why the attempted murder of children at Temple Israel is so morally clear while the actual murder and hostage-taking of children in their living rooms in Israel is so morally opaque?”
Hirsch condemned Mamdani’s recent decision to host Mahmoud Khalil, a former leader of Columbia University’s anti-Israel protest movement, at his official residence.
“The issue is not Mahmoud Khalil’s right to speak, or his immigration status. It is that Mayor Mamdani hosted him for an iftar meal and proudly posted his picture as if he is some kind of heroic freedom fighter. This is the man who said about Oct. 7, ‘we could not avoid such a moment.’ This is the man who called for the ‘collapse of the Zionist project and the ideology that it’s built on.’ Along with upholding his asserted right to free speech, do you have anything to say about the actual content of Mahmoud Khalil’s speech?”
This past Shabbat marked a gathering of “determination and defiance,” said Hirsch.
“On some level, to be a Jew is, itself, an act of defiance. We will not cower. We will not cringe. We will not crawl. We have seen it all before, we have survived it all. We are not going anywhere. You can harm us, you can inflict pain upon us, you can kill some of us, but you cannot destroy us.”
Democrats began calling out those who traffic in antisemitic rhetoric when they offered platitudes after an attack on a Michigan synagogue
Jim Vondruska/Getty Images
A vigil is held near the scene of a mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade, on July 5, 2022 in Highland Park, Illinois.
American antisemitism is having its “thoughts and prayers” moment.
Whenever there is a mass shooting in the United States, the immediate reaction has become something of a meme. “Sending thoughts and prayers,” politicians — mostly Republicans — will inevitably write in a social media post expressing grief at the murder of innocent people at an elementary school, in a bowling alley or at a Walmart.
Gun violence prevention advocates roll their eyes. They see the oft-repeated sentiment as disingenuous, given how little action Congress has taken to enact gun control measures. During the 2018 March for Our Lives, when hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets to demand action after 17 people were killed at a high school in Parkland, Fla., scores of people carried signs with the words “thoughts and prayers” crossed out, and the phrase “policy and change” written underneath.
A similar phenomenon was on display after a heavily armed man drove a car into a synagogue in suburban Detroit on Thursday. He was killed by a security guard before he was able to enter the building, where 140 preschool and kindergarten students were locked down in their classrooms.
Afterward, politicians with a history of promoting antisemitic tropes began bemoaning antisemitism. And Jewish politicians and activists in the Democratic party who had grown exasperated over the hypocrisy of it all started calling them out.
Noah Arbit, the Jewish state representative whose district includes West Bloomfield Township, where the attack took place, called out Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed for his “crocodile tears” expressing concern about the shooting. Arbit grew up attending Temple Israel.
“Amazed by the crocodile tears from someone who’s done more than most to stoke & inflame hatred against Jews. It’s a very small logical leap from ‘AIPAC controls the US government,’ ‘Israel is committing genocide,’ ‘Zionists kill Arab babies’ to ‘kill Jews in West Bloomfield,’” Arbit, a Democrat, wrote in a post on X replying to El-Sayed.
El-Sayed, a progressive running a campaign with an anti-Israel message, sent a fundraising email on the two-year anniversary of Oct. 7 accusing Israel of genocide and calling out AIPAC. “If you’re asking yourself, ‘Why on Earth are politicians in Washington continuing to add fuel to the fire?’ The answer is money. AIPAC is funneling millions into campaigns in exchange for loyalty,” El-Sayed wrote in the Oct. 7 email, referring to the war in Gaza.
As the attack was unfolding, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) took to social media to respond to a message by a junior staffer at the centrist think tank Third Way that called for Democrats to do more to address antisemitism within their ranks. Rather than taking the criticism seriously, Khanna said he was “proud” to stand by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and far-left antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, and took aim at “neocons” in the party. (Forty minutes later, Khanna condemned the shooting and said “antisemitism and violence have no place in America.”)
“What the hell is wrong with you? 48 hours ago two men were beaten in your district for speaking Hebrew. Earlier today there was a shooting at a Jewish school in Michigan. Is it politics? Lack of empathy? Are you actually racist?” Ethan Agarwal, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur challenging Khanna in this year’s Democratic primary, wrote in response.
Earlier in the day, Khanna had tweeted in defense of Pat Buchanan, President Ronald Reagan’s communications director who has a lengthy history of making overtly antisemitic arguments.
“The same Pat Buchanan who wrote that Hitler was ‘a man of great courage’? Who called Capitol Hill ‘Israeli-occupied territory’? Who said there was ‘No evidence exists that any Jews were gassed at Treblinka’? Pretty sure he was antisemitic,” said Shannon Watts, a liberal activist who started the advocacy group “Moms Demand Action” after the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, when 26 students and teachers were killed at a Connecticut elementary school.
Khanna doubled down afterward.
Later, Watts — who has called Republicans’ “thoughts and prayers” framing a form of gaslighting — said Democrats need to do more to combat antisemitism among members of their own party.
“The Democratic Party has been infected by antisemitism and it’s spreading. It isn’t (yet) as virulent as it is on the right, but it’s insidious and we have to stop pretending it doesn’t exist,” Watts wrote on X.
In West Bloomfield, tragedy was averted, miraculously, because of the actions of a security guard who quickly put himself in harm’s way.
But if the response to rising antisemitism begins to resemble the country’s response to gun violence — expressions of outrage followed by little introspection — the result may be a familiar one: condemnation after the antisemitic incident, but little reckoning with the permissive culture that helped create the danger in the first place.
Plus, Iranian missile injures dozens in northern Israel
Emily Elconin/Getty Images
Law enforcement respond near Temple Israel following reports of an active shooter on March 12, 2026 in West Bloomfield, Mich.
👋 Good Friday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on yesterday’s attack on the Temple Israel congregation in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., and talk to Senate leaders about how the incident, in which one person was injured, could affect the ongoing stalemate over Department of Homeland Security funding. We cover the clash between the center-left think tank Third Way and Rep. Ro Khanna over the Democratic Party’s approach to antisemitism, and talk to experts about Iran’s degraded missile launch capabilities. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Sarah Rogers and Jeff Miller.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik, Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: The Amodei siblings leading Anthropic clash with the White House over AI safety; Conservative students alarmed about College Republicans leader with Nick Fuentes ties; and Will Iranian attacks push Qatar to expel Hamas leaders? Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- We’ll be keeping an eye out in the coming days on how yesterday’s attack on a Michigan synagogue is playing out on the national stage, from Jewish communal conversations to debates in Washington and in state capitals about antisemitism, security funding and safety measures.
- We’ll also be monitoring the ongoing military operations in the Middle East. Overnight, dozens were injured in an Iranian strike on the northern Israeli Arab town of Zarzir. Earlier this morning, CENTCOM confirmed that four of the six crew members of a U.S. KC-135 that crashed during a refueling mission in western Iraq on Thursday were killed, with an investigation underway.
- In Iran, a large explosion was reported this afternoon local time at a Quds Day demonstration in Tehran. The IDF had previously warned against congregating in the area.
- SXSW continues today, with Tech Tribe hosting its annual Shabbat dinner this evening.
- On Sunday, Jewish philanthropists are convening in San Diego for the three-day annual Jewish Funders Network conference. eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher and Rachel Kohn will be on the ground at JFN — sign up for eJP’s Your Daily Phil for the latest on the conference, and say hello if you see Jay and Rachel in San Diego.
- The Zionist Organization of America is hosting a gala in South Florida on Sunday night, where the group will honor Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) and the Justice Department’s Leo Terrell.
- In New York on Sunday, HaZamir: The International Jewish Teen Choir, is slated to perform at Lincoln Center.
- And across the country, the Oscars are taking place Sunday night in Los Angeles.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR
It’s a testament to the level of security, staff preparation and good fortune that a potential terrorist attack against Temple Israel in suburban Detroit was foiled yesterday. The fact that no one other than the heavily armed perpetrator was killed after driving a vehicle filled with explosives into a synagogue filled with preschoolers, counts as something of a miracle.
It’s also a reminder of the consequences of what can happen when antisemitism is allowed to become normalized in our society, moving unchecked through our social media feeds and political discourse, all amid the record levels of hate crimes committed against Jews simply for their identity.
Even as politicians are reflexively speaking out against antisemitism in the aftermath of the attack, it’s hard to forget the poisonous rhetoric many on the extremes have advanced that could easily activate a lone-wolf extremist to commit an unspeakable crime.
On the hard left, opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza has morphed into accusations of genocide, attacks against AIPAC as a uniquely sinister organization, conspiracy theories that Israel tricked the U.S. into war with Iran and euphemizing the support of terrorism as merely being “pro-Palestinian.”
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who has emerged as one of his party’s leading anti-Israel voices as he mulls a presidential campaign, had the audacity to say he “stands with” antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker — along with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has refused to condemn “globalize the intifada” rhetoric and anti-Israel Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner — during the Michigan synagogue terror attack.
Former Obama deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes and his “Pod Save America” colleagues are now declaring that anyone who supports the Iran war — a group that may well include some Jewish Democrats in Congress who are sympathetic to the operation’s aims, even if they have reservations — should be primaried, and have no place within the Democratic Party.
On the hard right, extremist podcasters are broadcasting the most undiluted antisemitism in media since the days of Father Coughlin in the 1930s. Tucker Carlson has devoted much of his show to promoting conspiracy theories about Jews, while other social media influencers have found that attacking Israel and questioning Jewish influence is a ticket to building a niche audience in online spaces. Gatherings of young right-wingers have all too often become cesspools of anti-Jewish hate.
TEMPLE ISRAEL ATTACK
Assailant killed in active shooter situation at Michigan synagogue
An assailant was killed during an active shooter situation at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., law enforcement officials confirmed on Thursday afternoon. One other person, a security guard, was injured, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Probe details: The attack is being investigated as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community,” Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office, confirmed in a Thursday evening press conference. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed to JI that the attack was carried out by Ayman Mohamad Ghazali. Ghazali, 41, was born in Lebanon and entered the U.S. in 2011 on an IR1 immigrant visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen. He was granted U.S. citizenship in 2016, according to DHS. Law enforcement officials did not release information on a possible motive.
SECURITY RECKONING
Michigan synagogue attack seems unlikely to shift DHS funding stalemate
The car ramming and shooting attack at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., on Thursday seems unlikely to break the congressional stalemate over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which has been in a partial shutdown for weeks, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Among other programs, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Nonprofit Security Grant Program fall under the DHS funding bill, which Democrats have sought to renegotiate to implement new restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, following the deadly shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.
Not shifting: Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said that Republicans have tried to fund DHS through a short term stopgap bill as negotiations continue, but Democrats have refused. “It’s a dangerous game, and people are going to get hurt,” Thune said. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pointed blame for the lack of NSGP funding toward Republicans, highlighting that they had blocked passage of legislation by Democrats on Thursday to fund and reopen portions of DHS, including FEMA. “Leader Schumer is an ardent supporter of NSGP funding, and this week, Republicans rejected Democratic efforts to fund the program through FEMA, along with the TSA, CISA, and the Coast Guard,” a spokesperson for Schumer told JI.
TAKING A STAND
Democratic divide over antisemitism erupts in clash between Third Way and Ro Khanna
Following a Republican convening this week focused on combating right-wing antisemitism, a prominent moderate Democratic group urged fellow Democrats to follow the lead of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in calling out antisemitism within their own party. “We certainly believe that Cruz was right and our side has a real antisemitism problem too that too many Democrats are failing to face squarely,” Matt Bennett, executive vice president for public affairs at the center-left think tank Third Way, told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch on Thursday.
Speaking out: His comments came after Lily Cohen, a press advisor at the organization, shared a post highlighting Cruz’s comments at the Republican Jewish Coalition confab and said she “would love to see more Dems calling out antisemitism on their own side with the same fervor.” Cohen specifically mentioned Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the far-left, antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker. “We do believe that Platner has not remotely done enough to explain why he had a Nazi tattoo for 20 years,” said Bennett. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a progressive lawmaker who has been a frequent critic of Israel and pro-Israel activists in the U.S., responded to Cohen’s post by saying he stands with Platner, Mamdani and even Piker.
ISRAEL UNDER FIRE
Iranian missile injures 58, damages 300 homes in northern Israel
An Iranian missile struck northern Israel early Friday, injuring 58 residents and damaging 300 homes in Zarzir, a Bedouin town near Nazareth, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. A woman in her 30s was moderately injured by shrapnel in her back; the rest of the injuries were minor, according to Magen David Adom emergency services.
Threats from all sides: Soon after the attack, President Donald Trump issued a threat to Iran: “Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th president of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so!” Iranian state TV said that new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei released his first statement since being named to the position earlier this week, after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in the initial strikes of the ongoing war with Iran, which began on Feb. 28. In the statement, Khamenei vowed that Iran “will not neglect avenging the blood of [the] martyrs.”
MISSOURI BREAKS
GOP Sens. Hawley, Schmitt suggest U.S. operations in Iran can wrap up soon
Both of Missouri’s Republican senators, Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, argued that the administration seems to have largely achieved its key objectives for the war in Iran — a posture that distinguishes him from most GOP colleagues and highlights subtle but emerging divisions among Republicans on the proper scope and duration of the war, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What he said: “I assume our overriding national security objective when it comes to Iran is to prevent them from getting nukes. And between our bombing last June and in the last … 12 days, I don’t know how they’re going to reconstitute their nuclear program anytime in, maybe, our lifetimes,” Hawley told JI on Thursday. “My point is just that I think the military has achieved a tremendous amount. It has ended [Iran’s] nuclear program for all intents and purposes. It has destroyed their navy. It has eliminated most of their ballistic missiles — those are good things. I’d be glad to take that [win].” Eric Schmitt, who is also aligned with the populist wing of the party, likewise emphasized the progress the U.S. has made and pushed for a quick conclusion to the war.
DOWN BUT NOT OUT
Iran’s missile capabilities degraded despite recent increase in missile attacks, experts say
Despite a recent escalation in Iranian missile attacks targeting Israel, experts remain confident that Tehran’s military capabilities have been significantly degraded by the U.S. and Israel. U.S. and Israeli officials have touted that Iran’s missile capabilities have been severely reduced, with CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper saying Wednesday that Iran’s ballistic missile attacks have “dropped drastically,” Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
State of play: That may not feel like the reality for Israelis — after four consecutive days of declining missile fire, Iran briefly increased its launches to 46 missiles on Wednesday, a roughly 70% percent increase from the 27 missiles fired the previous day. But the data shows and analysts remain confident that Iran’s stockpiles are being degraded. Ari Cicurel, the associate director of foreign policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, told JI that the escalated attacks might actually be a “reflection of Iran’s degrading capabilities.”
Worthy Reads
A Bridge Too Far: Puck’s Julia Ioffe looks at the catch-22 facing Elbridge Colby, the Trump administration’s under secretary of war for policy, as the U.S. engages militarily with Iran — a strategy that Colby has long personally opposed. “Colby isn’t the first to strike this kind of Faustian — or simply Washingtonian — bargain over the past decade. But for him, as for everyone else, the MAGAfication cuts both ways. On one hand, he has political power and the kind of job that NatSec types dream of. On the other, that power is entirely subject to Trump’s whims. ‘He’s an ideological actor in an administration that has no ideology,’ a Democratic member of Congress told me.” [Puck]
Van Hollen’s Venom: In the Jewish News Syndicate, Betsy Berns Korn, chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, raises concerns about Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s (D-MD) allegation that AIPAC is “neither” a pro-American nor a pro-Israel organization. “Citizens advocate for stronger alliances with NATO partners, support Taiwan’s democracy, promote human-rights abroad, defend labor interests, protect the environment and work to expand trade relationships. That tradition of civic participation is a hallmark of American democracy. Advocacy for a strong relationship between the United States and Israel belongs squarely within that tradition. … Support for this partnership does not make Americans less loyal to their country. On the contrary, it reflects their judgment about what best serves American security, democratic values and global stability.” [JNS]
Regime Unchanged: The Washington Post’s David Ignatius warns that the U.S.’ strategy in Iran runs the risk of allowing the regime to stay in place. “If the conflict ends tomorrow, Iran will have lost nearly all its nuclear facilities and scientists, most of its missiles and missile launchers, most of its weapons factories, most of its navy, and much of the command and control for its military, intelligence and security forces. But the regime survives. It has taken America’s best punch, and it’s still standing. Tiers of senior military, intelligence and political leaders are dead, but they have been replaced by others. There’s no sign of a popular uprising. The cadres of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hide among piles of rubble, but they haven’t been eliminated.” [WashPost]
Kurds Force: In New Lines Magazine, Laurent Perpigna Iban spotlights the Kurdish factions that had until recent days been under consideration by the U.S. to lead a ground incursion into Iran. “For the first time in their history, the various Iranian Kurdish factions have found common ground and established a platform for cooperation. … The project is more political than military, laying the groundwork for the protection of Iran’s Kurdish population. According to converging sources, discussions about a potential ground incursion do exist, even if such a scenario has not formally been placed on the table.” [NewLines]
Mind Meld on Iran: The Financial Times’ Neri Zilber reports on the close coordination between Washington and Jerusalem on the joint attack on Iran. “The speed and ferocity of the aerial campaign has required extraordinary levels of coordination — from the initial war plan that was put together to the thousands of phone conversations every day between the two militaries. ‘It’s a mind meld,’ said Dan Shapiro, a former senior US defence official and ambassador to Israel. … The close coordination, across the entire chain of command, has involved some 4,000 to 5,000 calls per day — from the chief of staff level down to the hundreds of pilots in the air at any given time, according to the senior Israeli military official.” [FT]
Word on the Street
Politico reports on Vice President JD Vance’s skepticism ahead of U.S. strikes on Iran; Vance reportedly privately conveyed his opposition to military action to senior administration officials…
President Donald Trump officially removed Carrie Prejean Boller from the Religious Liberties Commission, weeks after Prejean Boller vociferously defended antisemitic conspiracy theorist Candace Owens at a commission hearing…
Religious Liberties Commissionadvisory board member Sameerah Munshi, who had allied herself with Prejean Boller, announced her resignation from the board…
Trump nominated Sarah Rogers, the State Department’s undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media, days after a federal judge voided the actions undertaken at the agency under Kari Lake, who was serving as acting CEO; Rogers will maintain her State Department role in addition to leading USAGM…
The president also nominated United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Governing Council member Jeff Miller to serve as the body’s chair; Miller, who also serves on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition, was first appointed to the USHMM’s governing council by Trump in 2021…
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Thursday introduced legislation, co-sponsored by Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Tom Cotton (R-AR), designating the Polisario Front, the terrorist group that claims sovereignty over parts of the Western Sahara, as a foreign terrorist organization; “This bill will ensure that America’s most powerful anti-terrorism sanctions can be used to counter those threats and, once a designation is secured, the Polisario Front and its leaders will be cut off from access to the global financial system, international travel, and the resources they rely upon to conduct their terrorism,” Cruz told JI…
Following the Michigan synagogue attack, Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) shared on X an antisemitic death threat that he received, saying that they are a daily occurrence for him and other Jewish members of Congress…
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) raised concerns about the status of Kamran Hekmati, an Iranian-American Jewish constituent in Suozzi’s district who has been jailed in Iran for nearly a year after being arrested for having visited Israel more than a decade ago for his son’s bar mitzvah…
Reps. Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Jason Crow (D-CO) and Yassamin Anasari (D-AZ) led 121 House Democrats in a letter questioning the administration over a strike on an Iranian girls’ school reportedly executed by the U.S….
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), who is 85, announced that he will seek an 18th House term, two years after the South Carolina Democrat stepped down from his Democratic leadership role…
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsed New York state Assemblymember Micah Lasher, who had served as a mayoral aide to Bloombergin the Democratic primary to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY); Bloomberg is preparing to spend up to $5 million on an ad campaign boosting Lasher in the crowded 12th Congressional District primary…
The Treasury Department announced on Thursday that it was imposing sanctions on four “sham charity” groups in Turkey and Indonesia that it said are funnelling money and resources to Hamas, JI’s Marc Rod reports…
The Trump administration is temporarily lifting sanctions on Russian oil that is already at sea in an effort to lower prices as Iran maintains control over the Strait of Hormuz; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday that it was “unfortunate” that Moscow would benefit in the short term from the conflict with Iran…
The White House intervened to water down a broadly bipartisan sanctions bill targeting Iran’s oil exports to China, sources told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod…
Turkish elites have reportedly begun circulating claims that Israel could turn its military attention toward Ankara should Iran emerge from the war depleted — a belief analysts say reflects growing mistrust and conspiratorial thinking in Turkey rather than any actual Israeli intent, JI’s Matthew Shea reports…
The Wall Street Journal gives a play-by-play accounting of the defection of six members of the Iranian women’s national soccer team, who sought asylum in Australia while playing in a tournament in the country…
Palestinian scholar Walid Khalidi, a co-founder of Beirut’s Institute for Palestine Studies, died at 100…
Pic of the Day
Amb. Michael Mann, the head of the European Union delegation to Israel, donated blood yesterday during a visit to Magen David Adom headquarters in the mixed central Israeli city of Ramla.
Birthdays
Four-time Israeli national champion in the skeleton event and pilot of Israel’s first-ever Olympic bobsled team in Milan, Adam “AJ” Edelman turns 35 on Saturday…
FRIDAY: Editor of Avotaynu Magazine, a journal of Jewish genealogy and scholarship, Sallyann Amdur Sack-Pikus turns 90… Former mayor of Miami Beach, Fla., and author of Destiny: From Shoeshine Boy to Mayor, Norman Ciment turns 90… Israeli singer, he won the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest, Izhar Cohen turns 75… Psychotherapist in private practice in Manhattan and Teaneck, N.J., Shana Yocheved Schacter… U.S. Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) turns 69… Founder of the Drug Policy Alliance, a NYC-based organization working to end the war on drugs, Ethan Nadelmann turns 69… Professor of applied mathematics at Imperial College London, he is also a chess grandmaster, Jonathan Mestel turns 69… Former Florida congressman, Alan Grayson turns 68… Teacher of rabbinic literature and author of The Jewish Family Ethics Textbook, Rabbi Neal S. Scheindlin turns 66… Founder and CEO of MediaBistro which she sold in 2007, now managing director of Supernode Ventures, Laurel Touby turns 63… Heavy metal songwriter, vocalist for the band Disturbed as well as for the band Device, he is a former yeshiva student, David Draiman turns 53… Member of the California state Senate since 2014, Benjamin Allen turns 48… Former member of Knesset for the Jewish Home party and decorated IDF reservist, Yonatan “Yoni” Chetboun turns 47… Deputy campaign manager on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) 2020 presidential campaign, now host of radio show “The Agenda,” Ari Rabin-Havt… Television and film actor, Emile Hirsch turns 41… President and CEO of Nefco, a distributor of construction and industrial supplies, Matthew Gelles… Television and film actor, Emory Isaac Cohen 36… Senior director of social marketing at NBC Universal, Jessie Hannah Rubin… Former Formula 3 racing driver, his mother is Houda Nonoo, the first Jewish woman to serve as an ambassador of Bahrain, Menasheh Idafar turns 35… Gabriel Romano…
SATURDAY: Professor emeritus of chemistry at Tel Aviv University, winner of the 1982 Israel Prize, Joshua Jortner turns 93… Founder and retired president of Los Angeles-based Skirball Cultural Center, Rabbi Dr. Uri Herscher turns 85… Dean of Yeshiva Toras Moshe in Jerusalem, Rabbi Moshe Meiselman turns 84… Senior lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, Marshall Ganz turns 83… Canadian criminal defense attorney, Brian Greenspan turns 79… Actor, writer, producer, director and comedian, Billy Crystal turns 78… Former member of the Maryland House of Delegates for 28 years, Shane Elizabeth Pendergrass turns 76… One-half of the eponymous Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (Ben is four days younger), Jerry Greenfield turns 75… Retired Hebrew teacher, Eliezer Cohen Barak… Co-founder of the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, she is the president of Stand By Me, an organization that supports cancer patients, Gila Milstein… Partner at Hefter, Leshem, Margolis Capital Management Group of Wells Fargo Advisors in Highland Park, Ill., Steven Hefter… Founder and leader of ChangeCommunications, Jo-Ann Mort… NYC-based restaurateur and CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, Danny Meyer turns 68… Professor in the department of Jewish philosophy at Tel Aviv University, Menachem Lorberbaum turns 68… Minneapolis-based attorney, Jonathan S. Parritz… Past president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Denise L. Eger turns 66… Owner of Baltimore’s Tov Pizza, which he founded in 1984, Ronnie Rosenbluth… Owner and COO of EJM Development Company, he also heads its lending division, New Frontier Capital, Jon Monkarsh… Microgrid architect at Urban Ingenuity and lecturer at Georgetown University, Shalom Flank, Ph.D… Film and television actress, she is best known for her title role in the 1985 film “The Journey of Natty Gann,” Meredith Salenger turns 56… Entrepreneur, musician, songwriter and record company executive, Josh Gruss turns 52… Screenwriter and film director, Etan Cohen turns 52… Canadian fashion stylist, publicist and close friend of Meghan Markle (her children were in the royal wedding as page boys and flower girl), Jessica Brownstein Mulroney turns 46… Heiress, together with her brother and cousins, to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, philanthropist, former child actress, Liesel Pritzker Simmons turns 42… Oldest of three sisters who are members of the rock band Haim, Este Arielle Haim turns 40… Former NASCAR driver, he is the sole inductee into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in the “Auto Racing” category, Jon Denning turns 39… Former point guard at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the Ivy League player of the year in 2012, Zack Rosen turns 37… Director, screenwriter and actor, known for his work on “The Intern,” “Big Time Adolescence” and “I Want You Back,” Jason Orley turns 37… Product quality specialist at The Topps Company, Philip Liebman… Coach for first-time founders, Sophie Galant… CEO of Prizmah, Paul Bernstein…
SUNDAY: Emmy, Golden Globe and Tony Award-winning actor, active in film, television and on the stage, Judd Hirsch turns 91… UCLA professor, biochemist and biophysicist, David S. Eisenberg turns 87… First-ever NYC Public Advocate starting in 1994, he is an author of 23 books, Mark J. Green turns 81… British billionaire and philanthropist, former chairman of retail conglomerate Arcadia Group, Sir Philip Nigel Ross Green turns 74… Former managing member at Buena Vista Fund Management in San Francisco, now owner of a homemade bread business, Robert Mendel Rosner… Animator and director of numerous episodes of “The Simpsons,” David Silverman turns 69… Real estate agent at Signature Realty Associates in the Tampa and Florida Gulf Coast market, Ze’ev “Wolf” Bar-El… White House special envoy leading diplomatic efforts around the world, Steve Witkoff turns 69… Freelance writer and consultant, Bathsheva Gladstone… Executive director of the Jewish Culture Center at Indiana University Bloomington, Debra Barton Grant… Member of the Knesset for the Likud party, currently serving as speaker of the Knesset, Amir Ohana turns 50… Retired MLB infielder, he now owns Loma Brewing, a brew pub in Los Gatos, Calif., he was Team Israel’s batting coach in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Kevin Youkilis turns 47… Global business editor for Defense One, where he writes about the intersection of business and national security, Marcus Weisgerber… Psychotherapist based in Raleigh, N.C., Mindy Beth Reinstein Brodsky… Born in Jerusalem, she is a member of the New York state Assembly for the northeast portions of Queens, Nily Rozic turns 40… Rapper, comedian and actor, better known by his stage name Lil Dicky, David Andrew Burd turns 38… Board chair at the African Middle Eastern Leadership (AMEL) Project and executive director of the 30 Birds Foundation, Justin Hefter… Co-founder of Punchbowl News, Rachel Schindler… and Rachel’s twin brother, college admissions consultant and SAT/ACT tutor, Max J. Schindler… Zach Shartiag… Professional wrestler, Maxwell Jacob Friedman turns 30…
The potential terrorist attack against Temple Israel is a reminder of the consequences of what can happen when antisemitism is allowed to become normalized in our society
JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images
Families leave after being reunited outside Temple Israel synagogue after an assailant rammed his truck into the building in West Bloomfield, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, on March 12, 2026.
It’s a testament to the level of security, staff preparation and good fortune that a potential terrorist attack against Temple Israel in suburban Detroit was foiled yesterday. The fact that no one other than the heavily armed perpetrator was killed after driving a vehicle filled with explosives into a synagogue filled with preschoolers, counts as something of a miracle.
It’s also a reminder of the consequences of what can happen when antisemitism is allowed to become normalized in our society, moving unchecked through our social media feeds and political discourse, all amid the record levels of hate crimes committed against Jews simply for their identity.
Even as politicians are reflexively speaking out against antisemitism in the aftermath of the attack, it’s hard to forget the poisonous rhetoric many on the extremes have advanced that could easily activate a lone-wolf extremist to commit an unspeakable crime.
On the hard left, opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza has morphed into accusations of genocide, attacks against AIPAC as a uniquely sinister organization, conspiracy theories that Israel tricked the U.S. into war with Iran and euphemizing the support of terrorism as merely being “pro-Palestinian.”
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who has emerged as one of his party’s leading anti-Israel voices as he mulls a presidential campaign, had the audacity to say he “stands with” antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker — along with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has refused to condemn “globalize the intifada” rhetoric and anti-Israel Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner — during the Michigan synagogue terror attack.
Former Obama deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes and his “Pod Save America” colleagues are now declaring that anyone who supports the Iran war — a group that may well include some Jewish Democrats in Congress who are sympathetic to the operation’s aims, even if they have reservations — should be primaried, and have no place within the Democratic Party.
On the hard right, extremist podcasters are broadcasting the most undiluted antisemitism in media since the days of Father Coughlin in the 1930s. Tucker Carlson has devoted much of his show to promoting conspiracy theories about Jews, while other social media influencers have found that attacking Israel and questioning Jewish influence is a ticket to building a niche audience in online spaces. Gatherings of young right-wingers have all too often become cesspools of anti-Jewish hate.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who has emerged as a leader in speaking out against right-wing antisemitism, cautioned that Republicans may be losing the fight to contain the scourge — especially among a younger generation of conservatives.
All this is happening amid relative bipartisan silence towards the social media companies that often profit through division, using tech-tailored algorithms to feed extreme content to unsuspecting audiences. It’s no coincidence that polls indicate dramatic levels of antisemitism and extremist views from the youngest Americans, who are marinating in echo chambers instead of reading the headlines dispassionately from newspapers, as the generation before them did.
That the only fatality from yesterday’s attack in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., was the assailant is a testament to the time, energy and money that the Jewish community, with some federal assistance, has dedicated to ensuring security for its many institutions across the country. The FBI’s recent active shooter preparedness drill held for clergy and staff at the synagogue undoubtedly led them to be prepared in that fraught moment Thursday.
But a strong defense — hardening security for Jewish institutions — requires a complementary offense, in leaders confronting rising extremism whenever it rears its ugly head. It shouldn’t take the avoidance of a mass casualty event to get candidates across the political spectrum to start speaking out against antisemitism, as Platner did on Thursday.
We saw some signs of growing courage from political leaders this week in calling out the hate emanating from their fringes. Cruz, who called Carlson “the single most dangerous demagogue in this country,” at an antisemitism conference this week co-sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition and National Review, was joined by Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Jim Banks (R-IN) in speaking out against anti-Jewish hate.
The moderate Democratic think tank Third Way directly confronted Khanna on Thursday for his praise of Piker and other anti-Israel figures in the party. “Our side has a real antisemitism problem too that too many Democrats are failing to face squarely,” Third Way VP Matt Bennett bluntly told JI, in one of the few public intraparty acknowledgements about the growing threat.
The country feels like it’s at a boiling point, with few institutional leaders providing the guardrails necessary to contain growing extremism and hate. We saw on Thursday where unchecked extremism leads. It will take leaders to put principles ahead of political expedience for the wave of antisemitism to subside.
As state Sen. Jeremy Moss, a Democrat who represents the district where the attack took place, wrote: “When I was growing up, antisemitism was primarily in history books and black and white film reels. Today it was in real color right up the road at Temple Israel … This is a fire that will take all of us to snuff out.”
Plus, Ro Khanna defends Hasan Piker amid Mich. attack
Emily Elconin/Getty Images
Law enforcement respond near Temple Israel following reports of an active shooter on March 12, 2026 in West Bloomfield, Mich.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
A suspect was killed during an active shooter and car ramming incident at Temple Israel in the heavily Jewish Detroit suburb of West Bloomfield Township, Mich., this afternoon, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Armed synagogue security engaged the suspect with gunfire, and a security guard who was knocked unconscious is expected to recover. A preschool that was in session at the time of the incident was evacuated safely. Authorities are continuing to investigate the suspect’s identity and motive.
“Everyone is safe. All 140 students in our Susan and Harold Loss Early Childhood Center, our amazing staff, our courageous teachers, and our heroic security personnel are all accounted for and safe,” the synagogue wrote on social media. “This note is coming to you before we know anything about our future programming or services, or any investigation. We wanted you to know we are safe, and we love you all”…
Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, issued his first public statement today that indicates he’s as hard-line as his late father: Khamenei demanded the U.S. shut all its military bases in the Gulf immediately and said he’ll continue to target the Strait of Hormuz in order to “pressure the enemy.” His statement was read on state media indirectly by a presenter, as reports indicate the 56-year-old was injured in an Israeli strike and he has not been seen in public since.
President Donald Trump did not seem dissuaded — he posted on Truth Social, “when oil prices go up” the U.S. makes “a lot of money,” but “of far greater importance to me, as President, is stopping an evil Empire, Iran, from having Nuclear Weapons”…
Following a Republican convening this week focused on combating right-wing antisemitism, the center-left think tank Third Way urged fellow Democrats to follow the lead of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in calling out antisemitism within their own party.
“We certainly believe that Cruz was right and our side has a real antisemitism problem too that too many Democrats are failing to face squarely,” Matt Bennett, the group’s executive vice president for public affairs, told JI’s Gabby Deutch.
Similar comments from Third Way staff sparked a public clash with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who defended controversial left-wing figures including antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker and said the true issue lies with the “neocons” in the party…
Less than a week until primary election day in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, outside spending in the race is approaching $9 million, the majority of which is aimed at boosting state Sen. Laura Fine, a pro-Israel Democrat. Nearly half of all outside spending has come from the Elect Chicago Women super PAC, widely rumored to be connected to pro-Israel groups.
Another PAC rumored to be connected to AIPAC, Chicago Progressive Partnership, has spent over $1 million attacking anti-Israel social media influencer Kat Abughazaleh, including a new ad that spotlights her support from James “Fergie” Cox Chambers Jr., a communist political activist and scion of the billionaire Cox family often involved in radical-left causes…
A new poll commissioned by the far-left advocacy group Justice Democrats finds Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) in a competitive race for his seat — he’s now neck-and-neck with his primary opponent, state Rep. Justin Pearson. Pearson, a progressive legislator, gained public attention for being expelled from the Statehouse in 2023 for participating in a gun control protest on the floor…
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsed Assemblyman Micah Lasher, his former staffer, in the hotly contested primary race for New York’s 12th Congressional District today, calling him “a key part of our team in City Hall.” Bloomberg plans to spend “millions of dollars” on a super PAC and ad campaign to boost Lasher, The New York Times reports, a notable effort by the popular former mayor to elevate Lasher among the pack…
Trump has delayed endorsing Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the Texas Senate runoff against Attorney General Ken Paxton, which Trump implied last week he would do imminently, instead using the potential endorsement to pressure Senate Republicans to change filibuster rules and pass his voter-ID bill. Paxton raised the stakes by saying he might drop out if the bill passes, a move that forced Cornyn to shift his stance on the filibuster…
The Boston Globe looks at Rep. Seth Moulton’s (D-MA) efforts to get on the Democratic primary ballot in his race against Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), which will require him to receive support from 15% of delegates at the state Democratic Party’s upcoming convention. Moulton is attempting to recruit unregistered voters to become delegates in order to boost his chances, which observers are split on…
Politico uncovers the past political stances and writings of Morris Katz, the Democratic operative and anti-Israel whisperer now behind several high-profile progressive campaigns, when he lauded former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and derided progressive icon Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)…
Shortly after the organization elevated a new political director who is closely tied to neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, College Republicans of America’s chapter at Georgetown University came under investigation by the school for a social media post in which it claimed “Muslims have no place in American society”…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of CENTCOM, as he “stay[s] out of the politics of the war” in Iran “and remains focused on waging it”…
The Treasury Department issued sanctions against four “sham charity” groups in Turkey and Indonesia that it said are funneling money and resources to Hamas’ military wing, JI’s Marc Rod reports…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for reaction to today’s attack on Michigan’s Temple Israel from Jewish leaders and leading lawmakers.
The South by Southwest festival will hold its annual #openShabbat experience for Jews in tech, film and music tomorrow in Austin, Texas.
A Saturday fundraiser for Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA) with an appearance by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in Nunn’s home district in Iowa has been canceled; the event, called “Top Nunn” in reference to the “Top Gun” movies, had drawn scrutiny after several soldiers who had been stationed in Nunn’s district were killed in the course of the war with Iran.
The Jewish Funders Network international conference starts Sunday in San Diego.
HaZamir: The International Jewish Teen Choir performs at Lincoln Center in New York City on Sunday evening.
The Zionist Organization of America will host its Florida Superstar Gala Sunday evening, where it will honor Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel; Justice Department official Leo Terrell; and Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), among others.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!
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POLITICAL TIGHTROPE
Pro-Israel Democrats walking a fine line on U.S. operation in Iran
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said she would likely have voted to authorize force against Iran if the administration had approached Congress properly before launching the war
FEELING THE HEAT
UAE, more than Israel, absorbing bulk of Iranian strikes in war’s early weeks
Republican senators argued to JI that the war will ultimately be to the Gulf’s benefit, even if they’re feeling the pain now
Khanna, who has been an outspoken anti-Israel voice, said he stands with Hasan Piker, Graham Platner and Zohran Mamdani — during the Michigan synagogue attack
SAUL LOEB/AFP
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA)
Following a Republican convening this week focused on combating right-wing antisemitism, a prominent moderate Democratic group urged fellow Democrats to follow the lead of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in calling out antisemitism within their own party.
“We certainly believe that Cruz was right and our side has a real antisemitism problem too that too many Democrats are failing to face squarely,” Matt Bennett, executive vice president for public affairs at the center-left think tank Third Way, told Jewish Insider on Thursday.
His comments came after Lily Cohen, a press advisor at the organization, shared a post highlighting Cruz’s comments at the Republican Jewish Coalition confab and said she “would love to see more Dems calling out antisemitism on their own side with the same fervor.”
Cohen specifically mentioned Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the far-left, antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker.
“We do believe that Platner has not remotely done enough to explain why he had a Nazi tattoo for 20 years,” said Bennett.
Cohen’s comments inadvertently spotlighted — and even ignited — the growing feud within the Democratic Party over Israel and antisemitism. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a progressive lawmaker who has been a frequent critic of Israel and pro-Israel activists in the U.S., responded to Cohen’s post by saying he stands with Platner, Mamdani and even Piker.
“The problem is with the neocons in our party who blundered into Iraq, 20 years in Afghanistan, Libya, Gaza, & now support the Iran war. Out with the old guard. We need a new moral direction,” Khanna wrote — prompting Bennett to call on Khanna directly to do more to oppose antisemitism.
“We do not support the Iran War — we have publicly and strenuously opposed it. But we do stand against antisemitism. It would be good if you did, too,” Bennett wrote.
When Khanna posted a message on X condemning Thursday’s active shooter attack at a suburban Detroit synagogue, Jim Kessler, another senior Third Way official, offered a verbal eye-roll.
“Yadda, yadda, yadda…” Kessler wrote.
While Republicans are now rejoicing over their narrow win, it otherwise largely demonstrated how Democratic leaders effectively sacrificed the seat to the GOP rather than elevate an extremist member of their own party
Muhammed Casim's campaign page
Muhammed Casim
In a low-profile electoral upset that defied the difficult national political environment facing the GOP, a Republican candidate declared victory this week in a down-ballot race for a seat on the Prince William Board of County Supervisors in Virginia — for the first time in nearly 40 years.
But while Republicans are now rejoicing over their narrow win, it otherwise largely demonstrated how Democratic leaders effectively sacrificed the seat to the GOP rather than elevate an extremist member of their own party who had claimed the nomination.
The result underscored the extent to which local Democrats had swiftly mobilized to oppose their own nominee, Muhammed Casim, who faced backlash over a series of recently uncovered past social media comments in which he used racist, misogynistic and antisemitic language. The posts, written more than a decade ago, used the n-word as well as demeaning rhetoric targeting women. He also accused Israel of genocide and promoted a conspiratorial post about U.S. financial assistance to the Jewish state, among other extreme comments.
More broadly, the outcome is an atypical example of how the Democratic Party worked to meaningfully confront extremism within its own ranks, even if its efforts came at the expense of an easily winnable local seat that instead flipped to Republicans for the first time in decades.
Casim apologized for his comments but refused bipartisan calls to drop out of the race, which had motivated a Democratic challenger to launch a write-in campaign that ultimately helped siphon votes away from his embattled bid. He lost to Republican Jeannie LaCroix by a margin of 258 votes. Write-in candidates pulled in 744 votes — a relatively sizable total that appeared to have made a difference in the closely contested race.
“Opposing antisemitism, racism or misogyny isn’t a partisan position,” Marc Broklawski, a Jewish vice chair of the Virginia Democratic Party, told Jewish Insider on Wednesday. “It’s a floor, not a ceiling, and the least we should expect from any party, official candidate or voter. When Democrats hold that floor even when it’s costly, that’s something to be proud of. When we don’t, voters notice that too.”
Casim’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Though some prominent Democrats have sought to reject radicalism in their party, many Jewish party activists have begun to express a growing sense of unease about whether their longtime political home will remain welcoming, amid rising hostility toward Israel that has frequently crossed into antisemitism while producing alliances with controversial figures.
This week, for instance, leading Jewish groups spoke out against New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s decision to host Mahmoud Khalil, the campus anti-Israel activist facing deportation who had justified Hamas’ terror attacks, for dinner at his official residence, while Democratic officials largely stayed silent.
Likewise, a mounting number of Senate Democrats have endorsed Graham Platner in his insurgent bid for Senate in Maine, brushing aside concerns about a recently covered Nazi tattoo whose provenance he has struggled to explain as well as associations with antisemitic conspiracy theorists that have continued to raise alarms among many Jewish party members.
And in Virginia, Jewish Democrats have denounced an anti-Israel state legislator, Sam Rasoul, who has called Zionism “evil” and a “supremacist ideology,” even as high-ranking state party officials have been reluctant to weigh in on his incendiary commentary.
By contrast, several Jewish activists and party strategists said they were encouraged that most Democratic leaders had enforced red lines in the Virginia supervisor election. Even if the party had been forced to endure a short-term hit in losing the seat, they suggested, it was healthy to set standards — particularly in a time of rising extremism on both sides of the aisle.
“Virginia Democratic leaders were clearly repulsed by Muhammed Casim’s racist, misogynistic and antisemitic social media posts,” Sara Forman, a Jewish party strategist who previously worked in the state, told JI. “Their actions, including calling Casim out publicly, should send a strong signal nationally that the entirety of the Democratic Party has not capitulated to the leftist narrative entirely.”
Such opposition was not unanimous, however, as the local party accepted Casim’s apology and said it would stand behind his campaign. “There’s a lesson in there about the integrity of voters and the lack of integrity — and therefore weakened legacy — among some Dem leaders,” Shannon Watts, a gun control activist who has also criticized Platner, wrote in an X post on Wednesday.
“Leadership means speaking out clearly and consistently against antisemitism, racism, misogyny, and not only when it is easy, but especially when it is not — and from whomever,” Eileen Filler-Corn, a Jewish Democrat and former speaker of Virginia’s House of Delegates, told JI. “These values should unite us. We can disagree on policy and politics, but standing against hate and discrimination in all forms should never be up for debate. Our credibility with voters depends on our willingness to apply that standard fairly and without hesitation.”
Still, with most Democratic elected officials in the county refusing to support Casim after his posts had surfaced near the end of the race, nonpartisan Jewish leaders and members of both parties voiced satisfaction regarding the strong show of resistance.
“We think it is imperative that both parties call out the fringe and hateful elements in their own parties, so we’re certainly glad to see the Democratic Party do it in this instance — especially when it was hard and cost them a seat,” Vicki Fishman, the director of Virginia government and community relations at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, told JI. “It’s an important lesson for everybody that hate is hate, and when you see the ugly rhetoric in your own house for what it is, it’s important to call it out.”
Gary Katz, a Jewish Republican activist in nearby Loudoun County, said he was “encouraged by the outcome” of Tuesday’s race, “where principled voices within the Democratic Party chose to reject a nominee whose past comments reflected racism, misogyny and antisemitism — even at the risk of losing the seat to a Republican.”
He said the dynamic “mirrors efforts we’ve seen in the GOP, such as in Fairfax County, to keep hateful elements from gaining leadership roles,” referring to a recent election where Republicans beat back an extreme candidate for county chair who had spread antisemitic conspiracy theories.
“It’s a reminder that combating the rising scourge of antisemitism requires people of good conscience in both parties to prioritize our shared values over partisan wins,” Katz told JI on Wednesday. “We need more of this vigilance to ensure that extreme fringes on either side never hold power, and that we support responsible leadership, even when we disagree politically, rather than those who align with us but betray our core principles.”
Plus, Israel considers building Somaliland base
Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Ben Rhodes, then-deputy national security advisor to President Barack Obama, participates in an interview with press at the White House in on Wednesday, December 14, 2016.
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
The Strait of Hormuz continues to be a key site of conflict in the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran — a spokesperson for the Iranian Armed Forces said in a video statement that the regime “will never allow even a single liter of oil to pass through the Strait of Hormuz for the benefit of America, the Zionists or their partners,” shortly after several ships were struck by missiles while passing through or near the strait…
The International Energy Agency announced its member countries will release 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves in order to blunt the impacts of the war, the largest emergency release in history…
President Donald Trump told Axios that the war will end “soon” because there’s “practically nothing left to target” in Iran. U.S. and Israeli officials are reportedly preparing for at least two more weeks of hostilities…
Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea speaks to experts and former Trump administration officials about Qatar’s potentially changing calculus on hosting Iranian-backed Hamas leaders as Tehran continues to attack the Gulf state…
A preliminary U.S. military investigation has found the deadly strike on a school in Iran was caused by the U.S. as it was targeting a nearby Iranian base, sources told The New York Times…
The FBI recently warned California police departments that Iran may launch a drone attack in the state, ABC News reports. As of last month, “Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United State Homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event that the U.S. conducted strikes against Iran,” the bureau’s alert read…
Israel is considering building a base in Somaliland, which it recently recognized as an independent country, in order to combat the threat of the Houthis, which are based in Yemen just across the Gulf of Aden…
Iran will not participate in the 2026 World Cup after the U.S. “assassinated our leader,” Iran’s sports minister told state media, shortly after Trump said he would still “welcome” the team’s participation. Iran’s national men’s soccer team was set to compete in June in Los Angeles and Seattle; several athletes from the country’s women’s team recently defected to Australia after playing in a match there…
Spain permanently withdrew its ambassador to Israel, as the countries’ already tense relations worsen over Madrid’s opposition to the war in Iran…
House Republican leadership discussed ways to incorporate an expected emergency supplemental for the U.S. military into the budget reconciliation process, Politico reports, rather than attempting to rally support from Senate Democrats for the 60-vote threshold that would otherwise be required in the Senate on a stand-alone vote. The move would also sidestep a vote that could be politically challenging for some House Republicans…
Former Obama administration official Ben Rhodes, a leading Israel critic on the left, said on an episode of his “Pod Save the World” podcast that Democrats who vote in favor of funding for the war with Iran “should be primaried. I don’t want you in the Democratic Party.”
Rhodes and co-host Tommy Vietor referenced the four Democrats who voted against a war powers resolution in the House as ripe for primary challenges. Left unsaid: Three of the four — Reps. Greg Landsman (D-OH), Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and Jared Golden (D-ME) — represent GOP-leaning seats that would likely flip with a more progressive Democratic candidate…
In a sign of the political gulfs between the Israeli and American left, Yair Zivan, who is an advisor to Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, pushed back on Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) after the senator criticized Israeli operations in Lebanon.
“Senator, I work for the Leader of the Opposition in Israel and I’m writing this from a bomb shelter with my children. Israel is under attack by fanatical terrorists who want to murder us. It never ceases to amaze that your humanity never seems to extend to Israeli lives,” Zivan wrote on X…
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said he called New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to “check in on him and his wife to make sure they’re doing okay” after the attempted terror attack outside Mamdani’s official residence over the weekend. “As someone who’s had to deal with political violence, I know it can take a toll,” Shapiro said. The governor previously spoke with Mamdani after his win in November to express concerns over his rhetoric about Israel…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at the far-right ties of the new political director of College Republicans of America.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing on foreign influence in American higher education, including testimony from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Craig Singleton.
The annual weeklong South by Southwest festival kicks off tomorrow in Austin, Texas. Appearing at the summit, whose 300,000 attendees include many film and media professionals, is anti-Israel protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, who will speak about “the system that tried to silence him, and the personal and political stakes of resistance.”
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PRIMARY PRESSURE
DMFI focusing ire on anti-Israel Democrats running in swing districts
The pro-Israel Democratic group warns that nominating far-left candidates will cost the party winnable seats against GOP incumbents
DEMOCRATIC DIVIDE
John Fetterman again offers scathing criticism of his own party’s foreign policy views
The Pennsylvania senator told JI about the U.S. military operation’s successes: ‘Why can’t a single Democrat agree that this is a good thing for the world and the region?’
The Education Department’s Noah Pollak argued at an antisemitism conference that IRS regulations could force nonprofits to increase transparency about funding and staff
Kevin Carter/Getty Images
A sign is displayed outside of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Building on June 7, 2025 in Washington, DC.
The next frontier for the Trump administration’s war with higher education might be the U.S. tax code, a senior Education Department official said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a conference about antisemitism organized by the Republican Jewish Coalition and National Review, Noah Pollak, a senior advisor to Education Secretary Linda McMahon, said that making changes to American tax policy could be a useful vehicle to fight antisemitism on campuses.
His argument was a wonky one, suggesting that changes to IRS rules regulating nonprofits could increase transparency — and require the organizations fomenting antisemitism at U.S. universities to reveal much more information about their operations and staff.
Pollak called for the federal government to create limits on fiscal sponsorship, a tool by which an existing nonprofit incubates a new one. This allows a new nonprofit organization to launch quickly, with donations passing through a larger, more established organization. The idea is that once the new nonprofit has a steadier foundation, it will eventually incorporate as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with the IRS, after which point it must meet certain federal requirements and make information about its finances and activities publicly available.
But there is currently no legal requirement that a nonprofit ever spin off from the organization where it is fiscally sponsored. That allows organizations seeking to avoid the spotlight to stay in the shadows, and to avoid having to file a Form 990, the IRS-mandated document that nonprofits must file yearly laying out the state of their finances, activities, senior staff and top board members.
“Over the past 15 years or so, particularly on the left and on the far left, they realized that there were really no restrictions on this, and you could just run whole organizations via fiscal sponsorships,” Pollak said. “It means you can raise money — tax deductible money, which is much easier to raise than non-tax deductible money — and never have to disclose who the money’s going to, what it’s funding [or] how much money.”
Pollak argued this transparency gap benefits organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine, which played a key role in fomenting anti-Israel sentiment on campuses after the Oct. 7 terror attacks.
“Changing the fiscal sponsorship rules to compel disclosure of who’s being funded via fiscal sponsorships would basically be a neutron bomb going off in the world of radical, left-wing, kind of criminal activism,” said Pollak. “You all know what Students for Justice in Palestine is. Go try to find their EIN [Employer Identification Number]. Go try to find a 990 for them. You can’t. They’re not a real organization. They’re not incorporated.”
“Things in the tax code, they may sound boring,” Pollak added. “But they would be very effective in creating some disclosure.”
Pollak said changes to the tax code might also force universities to cut back on spending on left-wing priorities.
“Over the past 40 or 50 years, the tax code has actually been tweaked and rigged and modified in so many different ways that creates a lot of advantages for universities, to the point where the universities now have so much money that they can spend on essentially luxury goods,” Pollak said. “For a university, the luxury goods they spend on is the gender studies department, and it’s DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] bureaucracies.”
Pollak pointed to those “luxury goods” — left-wing programs in the humanities, for instance — as a key factor in the growth of antisemitism at elite universities. He did not offer a specific policy fix but said he thinks that the solution might be found in the tax code.
“If you actually look at adjustments to the tax code, that will translate into less antisemitism, because the universities would be compelled to sober up to get back to the core mission of education and the pursuit of knowledge and the pursuit of excellence,” said Pollak. “They would actually have to drop a lot of the kind of insane nonsense departments and fake academic programs.”
Universities’ status as nonprofit organizations should also come into play when the State Department determines how many foreign students should be allowed to enroll at those universities, Pollak said.
The Trump administration has sought to limit the number of foreign students at universities and deport those who are flouting American values; Pollak argued that the number of foreign students at elite institutions is so high that they push the campuses toward an anti-American sentiment.
“There’s so many of them, and many of them are from cultures that, frankly, are not particularly compatible with the type of values that we want on a campus, on a Western U.S. campus, and they get our kids spun up on third worldist-type causes and radical causes,” said Pollak.
“Universities in America are actually supposed to — they are charities. They’re 501(c)(3)s, and they are actually supposed to be operated for the benefit of Americans, and not just be kind of sold out to whoever wants to come from all over the world.”
Plus, CNN walks back coverage downplaying NYC terror attempt
JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP via Getty Images
A person points at a page on the Marinetraffic website that shows commercial boats traffic on the edge of the Strait of Hormuz near the Iranian coast, in Paris on March 4, 2026.
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump denied reports that U.S. intelligence has found Iran is taking steps to deploy mines in the Strait of Hormuz, but said if it has been done, “we want them removed, IMMEDIATELY!” If not, he warned, “the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before,” and if they are removed, “it will be a giant step in the right direction.”
Shortly after, Trump confirmed the U.S. has “hit, and completely destroyed, 10 inactive mine laying boats and/or ships.”
Aramco, the world’s top oil exporter out of Saudi Arabia, warned oil markets will face “catastrophic consequences” if the strait continues to be impacted by the war. “While we have faced disruptions in the past, this one by far is the biggest crisis the region’s oil and gas industry has faced,” CEO Amin Nasser told reporters…
The White House asked Israel not to target any more Iranian energy facilities, Axios reports, citing harm to Iranian civilians, the hope to cooperate with the Iranian oil industry after the war and potential for Tehran to retaliate against Gulf states…
Around 140 U.S. servicemembers have been injured in the course of the campaign against Iran, Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell said today, the majority of whom have already returned to service…
After receiving a classified briefing in the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told reporters, “I emerged from this briefing as dissatisfied and angry, frankly, as I have from any past briefing in my 15 years in the Senate. … We seem to be on a path toward deploying American troops on the ground in Iran.”
Blumenthal continued, “There is also, as disturbingly as anything else, the specter of active Russian aid to Iran … with intelligence and perhaps with other means, and China also may be assisting”…
The U.S. ordered the departure of its diplomats and their families from southern Turkey after two attempted Iranian missile strikes in the area; it’s the first mandated departure of U.S. officials outside of the Gulf and Lebanon since the start of the war…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement to the “people of Iran” hinting at a coming opportunity for a popular uprising. He wrote on X, “We are waging a historic war for liberty. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for you to remove the Ayatollah regime and gain your freedom. … In the coming days we will create the conditions for you to grasp your destiny. … When the time is right, and that time is fast approaching, we will pass the torch to you”…
CNN significantly changed a story and removed a social media post today that downplayed the attempted terror attack outside Gracie Mansion, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s official residence, over the weekend, initially writing that the suspects traveled from Pennsylvania for “what could’ve been a normal day” during the city’s “abnormally warm weather.”
CNN later deleted its post on X and added an editor’s note to its story, saying that the language “failed to reflect the gravity of the incident thereby breaching the editorial standards we require for all our reporting”…
The NYPD evacuated Carl Schurz Park near the mayor’s mansion today after a suspicious device was found in the vicinity; it was determined to be “non-threatening”…
Secure Community Network said there was no known threat to the Jewish community following an active shooter incident Tuesday afternoon near the Agudath Israel of Baltimore synagogue, during which a Baltimore Police officer and a suspect were shot in what appeared to be a domestic incident…
A week ahead of Illinois’ primary election, a new poll conducted by an outside group backing Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) shows the congressman with a double-digit lead in the race for Senate, up 11 points over his next closest competitor, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton. Over 87,000 early votes have already been cast in the race, 40,000 votes more than had been cast at the same point in early voting during the 2022 primaries…
Morris Katz, the Democratic strategist who has shaped the campaigns of progressive politicians hostile to Israel including Mamdani and Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, is now behind the campaign of another populist Democrat: Allison Ziogas, a first-time candidate attempting to unseat Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY). Trump won 61% of the vote in Malliotakis’ Staten Island–based district in 2024, making it difficult for any Democrat to prevail…
The Anti-Defamation League released its 2026 Campus Antisemitism Report Card, which showed a “clear upward trend” in universities taking steps to address antisemitism, the organization said. Almost two dozen schools received A grades.
UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk celebrated his university’s improvement from a D to a B, but said in a statement, “a grade is a waypoint, not a destination. … While we have made clear progress in addressing antisemitism, we have more to do in our shared goal of eradicating it in its entirety”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at a late flurry of spending against far-left social media influencer Kat Abughazaleh in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, as pro-Israel groups indicate concern that the virulently anti-Israel Democrat could win the seat.
President Donald Trump will host an event in Hebron, Ky., tomorrow, with Republican congressional candidate Ed Gallrein in attendance. Gallrein is challenging Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) with Trump’s endorsement — Massie will not be attending the event, which is taking place in his district.
Fox News’ Bret Baier will speak in conversation with journalist Gary Rosenblatt at Temple Emanu-El’s Streicker Center in New York City.
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SCOOP
Ann Arbor mayoral candidate featured Hamas supporter in campaign video
Local DSA chair Justin Yuan wrote on social media, ‘Love Hamas. Simple as’
BLUEGRASS BATTLE
Thomas Massie’s opposition to Iran war could cost him reelection
President Trump is set to rally with Massie’s opponent this week
The Texas senator called Tucker Carlson ‘the single most dangerous demagogue in this country’
Republican Jewish Coalition
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks at antisemitism symposium in Washington on March 10, 2026.
Antisemitism is rising on the American right, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned on Tuesday, expressing concern that efforts to combat it are not doing so quickly or effectively enough.
“I want us to be winning, but I’m not sure it is accurate as a descriptive manner that we are winning right now,” Cruz said at an antisemitism symposium in Washington organized by the Republican Jewish Coalition and the National Review.
Cruz has emerged in recent months as one of the Republican Party’s most vocal critics of right-wing antisemitism. He has targeted influential commentator Tucker Carlson and his strain of isolationist, anti-Israel politics that has in recent months crossed over into overt antisemitism, though Cruz has bemoaned other Republicans’ wariness to criticize Carlson by name.
At the RJC event, Cruz called Carlson “the single most dangerous demagogue in this country.”
But he said that not enough of his colleagues and allies on the right are aware of the extent of the problem.
“I don’t want to wake up in five years and find myself in a country where both major political parties are unambiguously anti-Israel and unapologetically antisemitic, and I think that is a real possibility. If Tucker and his minions prevail, that will happen,” Cruz argued.
Cruz expressed fear that this attitude is not just present but popular among young people on the right, as evidenced by two viral Turning Point USA events last fall where students at Auburn and Ole Miss cheered after deeply anti-Israel questions were asked.
“I worry about the 19-year-olds who say, ‘Oh, that’s what our team believes. That’s who we are.’ Let’s be clear, if you are a young, ambitious Democrat, it is obvious what you should do. You should be viciously anti-Israel,” said Cruz.
He applauded the people who came out to the Museum of the Bible on Tuesday to discuss antisemitism but pointed out that their concern does not reflect how the rest of the country thinks about the issue.
“The fact that this room is persuaded does not mean that the college campus is. It does not mean that the Capitol Hill interns are. It does not mean that the interns at Heritage, at [Conservative Partnership Institute] and every other conservative institution in this country, that they’re persuaded,” said Cruz. “We need to fight and engage it and take on the core premises, because if we lose the next generation, we lose the country.”
Cruz posited that Carlson and other anti-Israel influencers are being paid by foreign nations like Qatar, China and Russia, though he acknowledged that he lacks proof for that theory.
“I don’t believe all of these voices who have suddenly discovered that Israel is the source of all evil, that everything bad in the world was done by the Jews, that America is controlled by the Jews and that radical Islamic terrorists are really nice, wonderful people — I don’t think these people just arrived on this view organically and magically,” said Cruz.
“I think many of these influencers are cashing a check,” he added. “The people in this room could do an enormous service by documenting that. I don’t have the evidence right now to prove it, but Occam’s razor: the simplest explanation is usually the right one.”
Plus, Trump says Iran operation 'very complete'
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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks at the 62nd Munich Security Conference on February 13, 2026 in Munich, Germany.
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump praised Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for assisting the members of Iran’s women’s soccer team, who are in Australia competing in the Women’s Asian Cup, amid fears for their persecution should they be forced to return home.
The president had called for Albanese to grant the athletes political asylum, saying they would “most likely be killed” if they were repatriated to Iran, and later commended him for “doing a very good job having to do with this rather delicate situation,” with five athletes “already taken care of, and the rest are on their way”…
Trump disputed reports that the U.S. is preparing to deploy ground troops to secure nuclear material at the Isfahan enrichment site in Iran, telling the New York Post, “We haven’t made any decision on that. We’re nowhere near it.” He also told CBS News that “the war is very complete, pretty much,” and the U.S. is “very far” ahead of his initial four-to-five-week timeline…
Trump has communicated to aides that he would support the assassination of Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, if Khamenei does not acquiesce to U.S. demands, including ending Iran’s nuclear program, U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal…
The Lebanese government has requested direct negotiations with Israel, sending the message through U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, Axios reports. Washington and Jerusalem were reportedly skeptical about the idea, with Beirut thus far failing to disarm or rein in Hezbollah activities as the terror group continues to launch missiles into Israel…
NATO missile defense systems intercepted another Iranian missile heading for Turkey, a spokesperson announced today, the second time Iran has attempted to strike the NATO country’s territory…
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) threatened to impose “consequences” on Saudi Arabia for its unwillingness to join the U.S. campaign against Iran, as the U.S. evacuates its embassy in Riyadh and the kingdom continues to endure Iranian attacks, which have so far resulted in the deaths of two civilians and one U.S. servicemember. “Question — why should America do a defense agreement with a country like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that is unwilling to join a fight of mutual interest?” Graham wrote on X…
Talks to advance Trump’s 20-point peace plan in Gaza, including the issue of Hamas’ disarmament, have been at a standstill during the campaign against Iran, Reuters reports, as Gulf countries that pledged funds to help rebuild the enclave have come under fire and flight disruptions have prevented mediators from traveling…
The criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of New York today against the two Pennsylvania men who allegedly hurled improvised explosive devices toward a protest against New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Saturday stated that both men explicitly identified ISIS as their inspiration, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.
“This isn’t a religion that just stands when people talk about the blessed name of the Prophet [Muhammad],” Emir Balat, 18, told police, according to the charging documents. He also said he had hoped to pull off something “even bigger” than the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which he noted had caused “only three deaths”…
The White House moved today to designate the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity and announced plans to impose a Foreign Terrorist Organization designation on March 16, JI’s Matthew Shea reports, in the Trump administration’s latest crackdown against Muslim Brotherhood affiliates…
A new poll from the campaign of Rushern Baker, former executive of Maryland’s Prince George’s County, found him leading the crowded Democratic field seeking to succeed retiring Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD). Though a plurality of likely primary voters (28%) said they’re still undecided, Baker polled at 22% compared to former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn’s 15% and Hoyer-endorsed state Del. Adrian Boafo’s 3%…
Rep. Kevin Kiley of California officially switched his party affiliation from Republican to independent — he had filed for reelection as an independent, but said today he would leave the party for the rest of his term as well. The move narrows the GOP majority even further, 217-214, but Kiley said he’ll continue to caucus with Republicans, blunting the impact…
Politico looks at the flurry of independent candidates seeking to unseat congressional Republicans in GOP-leaning districts, clashing with local Democratic establishments in the process…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider — we’ll have a profile of Dario Amodei, the Jewish CEO of Anthropic, which sued the Pentagon today over its decision to label the AI company a “supply chain risk.”
The Senate Armed Services Committee is expected to receive a classified briefing on the status of the U.S. and Israeli campaign against Iran.
The Republican Jewish Coalition and conservative magazine National Review will hold a daylong symposium on antisemitism, with remarks from Sens. Jim Banks (R-IN), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Ted Cruz (R-TX); Noah Pollak, senior advisor at the Department of Education; Kenneth Marcus, founder of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law; Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the State Department’s antisemitism envoy; Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights; and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
Georgia’s 14th Congressional District will hold its special election to fill the seat vacated by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), with more than a dozen candidates on the all-party ballot. The district leans strongly Republican but the GOP field is split among nine candidates, raising the possibility that the Democratic front-runner — retired Army Brig. Gen. Shawn Harris — could slip into the April runoff.
Stories You May Have Missed
SCOOP
Zohran Mamdani’s wife liked social media posts celebrating Oct. 7 attacks
NYC First Lady Rama Duwaji showed support for far-left orgs applauding Hamas rampage
POWER PLAYER
The progressive operative nudging Democrats toward a hostile line on Israel
Ad maker Morris Katz has been instrumental in elevating Israel antagonists into office as part of a move to reshape the Democratic Party
Biss reportedly told the committee ‘the great majority of his Jewish friends in the Northwestern community had no concerns,’ contrary to comments from Jewish community members and groups
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Evanston, Ill. Mayor Daniel Biss on March 6, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois.
In a briefing for the House Education & Workforce Committee on his response to the anti-Israel protest encampment at Northwestern University in 2024, Evanston, Ill., Mayor Daniel Biss “severely downplayed” the situation on that campus and antisemitism across the country, the committee said.
The committee asked Biss, who is a congressional candidate in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), to brief them on his decision to withhold Evanston police support from Northwestern University when requested by the school to help clear the encampment.
The lack of external law enforcement support prompted Northwestern to make a deal, widely criticized in the Jewish community, with the encampment members to disband voluntarily, according to internal Northwestern communications released by the committee.
“In his briefing with the Committee today, Mr. Biss severely downplayed antisemitism at Northwestern after October 7th. He told the Committee that the great majority of his Jewish friends in the Northwestern community had no concerns about it,” a committee spokesperson told Jewish Insider.
That’s at odds with comments from Jewish Northwestern community members and local Jewish groups about the encampment.
“He further stated that Northwestern should not have received an F on the Anti-Defamation League’s college report card. He even accused the Committee of alarmism that is not warranted by the facts when it comes to antisemitism at the university after the October 7th attacks,” the spokesperson continued. “The countless Jewish Northwestern students, faculty, and community members that the Committee has interviewed would say otherwise.”
The school reached an agreement with the Department of Justice last year, paying $75 million and making policy changes to address antisemitism on its campus.
Biss, meanwhile, has dismissed the committee’s questioning of him as a smear campaign orchestrated by AIPAC and one of his primary opponents, state Sen. Laura Fine, to hurt his congressional campaign.
“From the start, this ‘briefing’ was a flimsy attempt to weaponize the very real threat of antisemitism to attack me and support my opponent. It failed,” Biss said in a statement.
“I’m proud of my record of protecting peaceful protest and combating antisemitism, including my decision to decline the unnecessary and undemocratic request to clear the Northwestern encampment in 2024. As the Trump administration increasingly attacks our fundamental democratic rights, it’s more important than ever to back our commitment to peaceful protest with action. I hope the committee learned something today.”
Biss’ campaign also noted that only House staff attended the briefing, rather than lawmakers themselves.
Plus, Kristi Noem gets the boot
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Reps. Thomas Massie, (R-KY), left, and Ro Khanna, (D-CA), conduct a news conference outside a Department of Justice office in NoMa on Monday, February 9, 2026.
Good Thursday afternoon,
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump announced he’s replacing Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary with Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), after Noem had rankled the president and some Republican members of Congress with her oversight of widespread turmoil at the agency, among other issues. Mullin still needs to be confirmed by the Senate to assume the post.
Mullin, if confirmed, would take the helm of DHS amid its continued partial shutdown, and as it has repeatedly come under fire for its handling of issues related to antisemitism from lawmakers and Jewish community groups. Noem, meanwhile, will become special envoy to a new security initiative for the Western Hemisphere being launched by Trump this weekend…
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and other GOP leadership called on Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) to drop out of his reelection race, after the lawmaker admitted yesterday to having an affair with a staffer who later committed suicide. Gonzales is headed to a May runoff with his primary opponent, social media influencer Brandon Herrera; if Gonzales does step aside, Herrera, who has a history of antisemitic posts about the Holocaust, is all but guaranteed the GOP nomination in a solidly Republican district…
Trump said he “[has] to be involved in the appointment” of the next Iranian leader, in an interview with Axios, “like with Delcy [Rodriguez] in Venezuela.” He called Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has emerged as his father’s likely successor, “unacceptable.” The president’s comments seem to widen the administration’s stated war aims, which have thus far focused on eliminating Iran’s naval, air and nuclear assets.
Trump also insisted in the interview that Israeli President Isaac Herzog issue a pardon for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “today,” as he wants Netanyahu “to focus on the war and not on the f**king court case. I want the only pressure on Bibi to be the fighting against Iran”…
Some Democratic lawmakers — including Sens. Jack Reed (D-RI), Gary Peters (D-MI), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) — told Politico they won’t “rule out” voting in favor of an emergency supplemental funding request to shore up the military should one come from the administration amid the campaign against Iran, despite widespread Democratic condemnation of the White House’s failure to consult Congress beforehand…
A vote on a war powers resolution to stop the military campaign in Iran failed in the House this afternoon 219-212, with two Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Warren Davison (R-OH) — crossing the aisle in support and four Democrats — Reps. Greg Landsman (D-OH), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Jared Golden (D-ME) and Juan Vargas (D-CA) — breaking with their party to oppose it.
Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) both changed their positions and voted in favor of the resolution, weeks after Moskowitz told Jewish Insider — before the campaign began — that its sponsors “should just rename [the resolution] the Ayatollah Protection Act because that’s what it does.” Asked by JI about the shift in his stance today, Moskowitz answered, “I didn’t flip at all. Circumstances have changed since my first statement”…
Antisemitic podcaster Tucker Carlson’s latest extreme rhetoric took aim at the Chabad Lubavitch movement, with sweeping conspiratorial language accusing the Hasidic sect of seeking to start a “religious war” amid the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Carlson argued in an episode of his show that dropped last night that Jews see the war against Iran as an opportunity to feud with Islam and to target Christians. Carlson’s remarks prompted outrage among Chabad’s backers, who pointed out that Chabad emissaries have for decades played a crucial role in connecting American Jews to their faith and to each other…
In a conversation with ABC News, Trump said this afternoon that Tucker “has lost his way. I knew that a long time ago, and he’s not MAGA. MAGA is saving our country. … Tucker is really not smart enough to understand that”…
In a discussion with the New York Post, Trump railed against European countries which have continued to oppose the campaign against Iran, calling Spain “a loser” and the U.K. “very disappointing.” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, meanwhile, said today that the Iran war is a “failure” of the international order, but would not “categorically rule out” Canada’s participation…
Iran’s indiscriminate attacks are bringing allies together worldwide: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he’s deploying specialists to assist the U.S. after Washington requested “specific support in protection” against Iranian Shahed drones, which Ukraine has been battling for several years as Russia has regularly deployed them, and the European Union and Gulf Cooperation Council held a joint meeting to discuss Iran’s “unjustifiable, unprovoked, and unlawful attacks”…
The New York Times profiles Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF’s chief of staff, as he helps lead Israel’s efforts in the campaign against Iran…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at Jack Cocchiarella, the progressive Gen Z podcaster who has made a name for himself hosting high-profile Democratic candidates — including California Gov. Gavin Newsom in New Hampshire tonight — and who has recently taken a turn towards bashing Israel.
Team Israel will play its first games of the 2026 World Baseball Classic on Saturday against Venezuela and on Sunday against Nicaragua.
Also Sunday, AJ Edelman, the Israeli Olympic bobsled team pilot, will speak in conversation with Neil Goldman at Chabad of West Village in New York.
Birthright Israel’s Excelerate26 summit is also taking place in New York this weekend, with keynote speeches on Sunday from Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots; Anne Neuberger, former deputy national security advisor during the Biden administration; and Sheryl Sandberg, former COO of Meta.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!
Stories You May Have Missed
MILITARY UPDATE
Day 6: Repatriation flights briefly delayed in the air as Iran shoots missiles at Israel
Tehran also attacked Azerbaijan for the first time, launching drones that injured two at Nakhchivan International Airport
ABOUT-FACE
Ruben Gallego transforms from pro-Israel moderate to face of antiwar opposition
The Arizona senator’s outspoken commentary has repeatedly placed blame for the military operation on Israel, leading one Jewish Democrat to pull her support
The podcaster’s claim that the Hasidic sect seeks to start a ‘religious war’ also raised concerns of physical safety
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Tucker Carlson speaks on stage on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 18, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Far-right podcaster Tucker Carlson’s latest extreme rhetoric took aim at the Chabad Lubavitch movement, with sweeping conspiratorial language accusing the Hasidic sect of seeking to start a “religious war” amid the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.
Carlson argued in an episode of his show that dropped late Wednesday night that Jews see the war against Iran as an opportunity to feud with Islam and to target Christians. He claimed that Jews seek to destroy al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and build the Third Temple on top of its ruins.
Carlson specifically called out the Chabad movement, saying the group’s goal is the rebuilding of the Temple — and he argued that Jews who seek to see the Temple rebuilt are at odds with Christians.
“Christians have a way of dying disproportionately in these wars, which tells you something about their real motives,” Carlson said. Rebuilding the Temple, which was destroyed in the first century by the Romans on the site that is now home to the al-Aqsa Mosque, “is totally anathema to Christianity,” said Carlson.
It is true that Orthodox Jews believe that the Temple will be rebuilt when the Messiah comes, a prophetic vision that has been a part of daily Jewish prayer for two millennia. But no mainstream Jewish denomination advocates for the destruction of the al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites, in order to hasten the rebuilding of the Temple, and current Israeli policy forbids Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.
“It’s not so subtle that the building of the Third Temple and the Messianic era is central not just to Chabad, but to all of Judaism as one of the 13 Principles of Faith,” Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone, Chabad’s social media director, wrote on X on Thursday. “Acts of destruction or the subjugation of other nations are an anathema to a time when good will flow in abundance and the occupation of the entire world, Jew and non-Jew alike, will be to know the divine.”
Carlson’s remarks prompted outrage among Chabad’s backers, who pointed out that Chabad emissaries have for decades played a crucial role in connecting Jews to their faith and to each other.
“This is so absurd. So ridiculously absurd. If you know anything about Chabad, they have one mission: encouraging Jewish people to practice Judaism,” Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman posted on X.
Karol Markowicz, a New York Post columnist, criticized Carlson for targeting “the warmest, kindest, most welcoming organization ever that does nonstop charity work.”
The rhetoric also sparked concern about the physical safety of sites associated with Chabad, particularly after a man repeatedly drove his car into Chabad’s Brooklyn headquarters in January. The NYPD said it would increase patrols at Jewish locations amid fears of antisemitism after the Iran attacks began last weekend.
Plus, Qatar rebuffs Iranian diplomacy
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) speaks with press in the Hart Senate Office Building on April 07, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Good Wednesday afternoon,
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
On the fifth day of the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the accomplishment of several key objectives, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports, including that “the leader of the unit” responsible for the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in November 2024 “has been hunted down and killed.”
Hegseth also revealed that an American submarine sank an Iranian warship by torpedo, the first time such a thing has been accomplished since World War II. Responding to concerns over whether the U.S. will be able to maintain enough munitions throughout the conflict, Hegseth dismissed “stories and speculation,” instead asserting: “Iran cannot outlast us”…
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called Qatar’s foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, to insist that Iranian drones and missiles attacking Qatar are really directed at U.S. assets and “not intended to target the Gulf state.”
Al Thani “categorically rejected” that claim, according to Qatar’s foreign ministry, “citing the civilian and residential areas inside the country struck by the attacks.” He told Araghchi that Iran’s actions do not “indicate any genuine desire for de-escalation or resolution” and are trying to drag Qatar into a war “that is not theirs”…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the White House Monday to ask about intelligence that indicated the U.S. might be communicating with Iran, Axios reports, which administration officials told him was false. A New York Times report found that Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence had indirectly sent a message to the CIA attempting to start negotiations to end hostilities…
NATO air defense systems shot down an Iranian missile that was flying through Iraq and Syria on its way toward Turkey, the Turkish defense ministry said this morning. It’s the first attack by Iran on a NATO country’s territory. The U.K. and France, also NATO countries, are sending additional planes and warships to the region after Iran targeted a British base in Cyprus…
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, asked about reports of the U.S. arming Kurdish militias to assist in regime change in Iran, told reporters that Trump has spoken to Kurdish leaders in recent days about the U.S. military base in northern Iraq, but “any report suggesting that the president has agreed to any such plan” about arming the Kurds “is completely false and should not be written”…
Leavitt also said that the U.S. is now coordinating with Spain on the military operation in Iran, after Trump threatened yesterday to cut off all trade with Madrid over its refusal to let the U.S. use military bases on its soil and its lack of defense spending. Spain categorically denied that it is cooperating with the U.S. or has changed its position at all…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio held phone calls with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani about the campaign against Iran. Turkey and Cyprus have both faced attacks by Iranian projectiles, while Italy summoned its Iranian ambassador to protest the attack on Cyprus…
Trump indicated he’s close to offering his endorsement to Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who beat expectations by finishing ahead of right-wing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in yesterday’s primary. While both Republicans are headed to a May runoff, a Trump endorsement would make Cornyn the clear favorite to win the Republican nomination — and alleviate a lot of GOP anxiety over the possibility that a scandal-plagued Paxton could lose to state Rep. James Talarico, the newly minted Democratic nominee…
In North Carolina, Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC) holds a narrow lead over her far-left opponent, Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam, who has indicated she will seek a recount. Foushee said in a statement that she would “welcome the opportunity” for a recount and is “confident that the Democratic voters of North Carolina will have nominated me to serve a third term”…
Hegseth will headline a fundraiser next week for Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA), after four servicemembers who were previously stationed in his district were killed by an Iranian drone in Kuwait on Sunday. Nunn, who has been a staunch ally of Israel in the House, is facing a competitive reelection race as Democrats target his seat in their attempt to take back the chamber…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a breakdown of the Senate’s consideration of the Iranian war powers resolution, led by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Rand Paul (R-KY), which is currently on track to fail on a procedural vote.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on “advancing national security through diplomacy” with Sarah Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy.
The Muslim World League will host an interfaith iftar gathering on Capitol Hill.
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IN THE CROSSHAIRS
Day 5: Israel vows to eliminate Khamenei’s successor
Also Wednesday, an Israeli F-35I fighter jet shot down an Iranian YAK-130 fighter jet over Tehran, marking the first time an F-35 jet shot down a manned fighter aircraft, IDF says
PUSHING BACK
After classified briefing, senators reject claims Israel forced U.S. into Iran war
Republicans and some Democrats insisted Trump made the decision, while other Democrats said that the timing of the onset of hostilities was impacted by Israel’s plans
Plus, Alex Soros boosts antisemitic conspiracy theorist
Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Friedrich Merz, Germany's chancellor, center left, and US President Donald Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.
Good Tuesday afternoon,
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
The Trump administration emphatically denied reports, based on partial comments made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday, that Israel forced the U.S. to launch the operation against Iran.
“If anything, I might’ve forced Israel’s hand,” President Donald Trump told reporters while meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office today. “You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they [Iran] were going to attack first.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth boosted the president’s comments, saying, “This is 100% correct,” while Rubio insisted his original remarks were misrepresented…
Trump continues to share optimistic assessments of the war’s progress: he told Politico that Iran is running out of missile launchers while claiming the U.S. has “a virtually unlimited supply” of weapons, saying, “wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies”…
The Israeli Air Force struck a building where senior clerics had gathered to elect Iran’s next supreme leader, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter told CNN, “and there’s a very good chance that the electors won’t be readily available for any further meetings”…
Trump is open to backing militias in Iran who will work to mount regime change, U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal, after he held phone calls with Kurdish leaders who maintain armed groups along the Iran-Iraq border.
Trump has wavered in recent comments on his vision for the future of Iran, saying today that “somebody from within” might be the best option to lead, rather than individuals like exiled former crown prince, Reza Pahlavi. At the same time, Trump told reporters, “Most of the people we had in mind are dead. And now we have another group, they may be dead also. Pretty soon we’re not gonna know anybody”…
Trump ordered the U.S. Development Finance Corporation to provide political risk insurance for all maritime trade traveling through the Gulf, as oil traffic has essentially halted and energy prices have soared. The U.S. Navy will also, if necessary, begin physically escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered his country’s assistance to the UAE, as the Gulf country has been targeted by over 1,000 Iranian drones and missiles since the operation began Saturday. Ukraine has become particularly skilled in combating Iranian Shahed drones, something the UAE has little experience with, as Russia has regularly used them in its attacks on Ukraine…
The U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia was struck with two Iranian drones, with no casualties reported; the embassy was closed, along with U.S. embassies in Kuwait and Beirut. The State Department ordered the mandatory departure of all non-emergency personnel in several countries and has begun “actively securing military aircraft and charter flights for American citizens who wish to leave” the region…
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that Iran’s underground Natanz nuclear enrichment plant was struck in the course of hostilities in recent days. Trump has claimed the site was rendered inoperable during the U.S.’ June 2025 strikes…
Alex Soros, one of the progressive movement’s most influential donors, boosted a social media post today about U.S. casualties in the war with Iran from Max Blumenthal, a prominent anti-Israel conspiracy theorist, Jewish Insider‘s Matthew Kassel reports.
Soros also praised Spain for its refusal to allow the U.S. to use joint bases on its soil, calling Madrid the “leader of the free world” and reprimanding other European countries for not doing the same…
After issuing a statement solely attacking the U.S. and Israel over the campaign against Iran — which provoked backlash from members of the Iranian dissident and diaspora communities — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani acknowledged the “systematic repression” of the Iranian people by the regime, while declining to criticize the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, JI’s Will Bredderman reports.
Even as he acknowledged Tehran’s bloody suppression of protesters, Mamdani did not directly answer a reporter’s question at a press conference today about whether the Middle Eastern nation was better off without the radical cleric who ruled for nearly 37 years…
Amazon Web Services operations are “significantly impaired” after three of its data centers in the Middle East were struck by Iranian drones — two directly hit in the UAE and one sustaining damage in Bahrain. The strikes “caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage,” AWS said…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at the results of today’s high-stakes primary elections in North Carolina and Texas and their implications for pro-Israel voters.
The Heritage Foundation will hold an event to launch its 2026 “Index of U.S. Military Strength” with remarks from Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) and Reps. August Pfluger (R-TX), Pat Harrigan (R-TX) and Matt Van Epps (R-TN).
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom will release its annual report tomorrow on Capitol Hill.
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SQUARING OFF
Mamdani allies, deep-pocketed donors mobilize millions for anti-AIPAC effort
A trio of Mamdani backers united with tech and real estate investors to boost anti-Israel candidates
PARTY PERSPECTIVE
Democrats argue eliminating top Iranian leaders increases dangers to Iranians, Israel, U.S.
Speaking at J Street’s national summit, Sen. Tim Kaine also said ‘virtually all’ Democratic senators now seek the group’s endorsement
Mayor Olivia Chow called the shooting ‘an unacceptable act of antisemitism and intimidation’ amid heightened concerns to Jewish communal safety
Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images
A Toronto police vehicle parks outside a Jewish school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on August 16, 2025.
A Toronto synagogue was shot at Monday night, causing damage to the building’s exterior, according to police.
Toronto Police Service said that there were several bullet holes in the front windows of Temple Emanu-El in North York. No injuries were reported.
The shooting occurred shortly before 11pm, as some people remained inside the building following a Purim celebration, a source with knowledge of the incident told Jewish Insider. Officers found “multiple shell casings at the front entrance of the synagogue, evidence of gunfire and damage to the building,” Toronto Police Deputy Chief Robert Johnson said during a Tuesday afternoon press conference. No information about the suspect or the type of firearm used has been confirmed, Johnson said.
“This is being investigated as a targeted incident” by the Integrated Gun & Gang Task Force and Hate Crime Unit, a police spokesperson told JI.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow called the shooting “an unacceptable act of antisemitism and intimidation.”
“We will not tolerate antisemitic hate in our city. Toronto Police are investigating and will increase their presence in the area to keep the community and congregants safe,” Chow said. “Toronto’s Jewish community has the right to practice their faith without fear, intimidation or violence.”
“The synagogue I attended as a boy and youth, where I was bar mitzvah’d and received my primary Jewish education, now under gunfire in once-peaceable North York, Ontario,” David Frum, senior editor at The Atlantic, wrote on X.
In response to the shooting, the Jewish Security Network of Greater Toronto, which is part of Toronto’s Jewish federation, said in a statement that it advises “the community to exercise heightened vigilance and awareness at this time.”
The shooting came as Jewish communities worldwide are on increased alert amid U.S.-Israeli operations against Iran. Earlier this week, security groups warned of potential risk to Jewish institutions globally by attackers motivated by the events.
Canada has seen a particularly egregious rise in antisemitism since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel. So far in 2026, 22 antisemitic occurrences have been reported in Toronto, representing approximately 62% of all reported hate crimes, according to police.
Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism found a 670 percent increase in antisemitic incidents in the country in 2024.
Plus, Tehran takes aim at global energy
Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images
Smoke rises from the area after it was targeted in attacks as a series of explosions are heard in Tehran, Iran on March 01, 2026.
Good Monday afternoon,
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump and senior U.S. defense officials laid out an open-ended timeline for the ongoing bombing campaign against Iran in several press briefings and interviews today, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea and Emily Jacobs report.
Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth both declined to rule out a U.S. ground invasion of Iran, while Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine announced more American troops are en route to the region. “Every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it. I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary,’” Trump told the New York Post.
The president repeatedly said the operation is “ahead of schedule,” but added that the U.S. military is prepared to continue the campaign beyond his initial four-to-five-week timeline. Trump also told CNN that the “big wave” of strikes on Iran “hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon”…
On the American public’s perception of the strikes, Trump said, “I think that the polling is very good, but I don’t care about polling. I have to do the right thing. This should have been done a long time ago.” A new CNN poll found that 41% of Americans support the strikes against Iran, while 59% disapprove…
After Hezbollah jumped into the conflict by launching strikes on Israel overnight, prompting Israeli fire on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in return, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam banned the terror group’s “military activities,” restricting it “to the political sphere.”
Salam said the group’s actions are now “illegal” and called on the Lebanese Armed Forces to “prevent any attacks originating from Lebanese territory,” a long-awaited show of resolve from Beirut. The LAF has struggled to disarm Hezbollah forces since the signing of a ceasefire agreement with Israel in November 2024…
On a ground invasion of Lebanon, IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said, similarly to the U.S. position on Iran, “all options are on the table”…
U.S. casualties in the course of the operation increased today to six servicemembers…
Qatar’s Ministry of Defense condemned attacks by Iran on a power plant and an oil facility in the country, further indicating Tehran is setting its sights on civilian and energy infrastructure. The targeted energy plant, Ras Laffan, is responsible for around a fifth of all global natural gas production — Qatar halted production after the strike which, along with decreased passage through the vital Strait of Hormuz, sent oil prices soaring…
Iran continues to sustain heavy losses: The U.S. said it has sunk all 11 of Iran’s warships in the Gulf of Oman while Qatar shot down two Iranian SU-24 tactical bombers, which were developed by Russia; the UAE also intercepted around 150 Iranian drones and 15 missiles today in addition to hundreds over the weekend…
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer reiterated in an address to parliament today that Britain will not be joining the strikes on Iran but will allow the U.S. to use its bases for “defensive actions,” noting that Iran has already struck a military base in Bahrain that houses around 300 British troops. “France and Germany are also prepared to enable U.S. action to destroy Iran’s capability to fire missiles and drones from the source,” Starmer added.
Trump said he was “very disappointed” with Starmer in an interview with The Telegraph, saying the prime minister “took far too long” in deciding to allow U.S. forces to utilize its bases…
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte praised the campaign, calling it “really important … because it is taking out, degrading the capacity of Iran to get its hands on nuclear capability, the ballistic missile capability.” But, he said, “there are absolutely no plans whatsoever for NATO to get dragged into this”…
GOP lawmakers are pushing Democrats to agree to a funding deal for the still-shuttered Department of Homeland Security, as hostilities with Iran raise concerns about domestic terror threats…
The war is also making its way into some of the most heated primary races unfolding across the country: In North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District, anti-Israel activist Nida Allam, who is challenging Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC), put out a new campaign ad just before tomorrow’s primary slamming “Trump and Netanyahu’s reckless war.”
Allam accused the administration of using “our taxpayer dollars to bomb a school in Iran, killing over 100 elementary school children,” even though there has been no proof that the U.S. was responsible for the strike…
Some pro-Israel Democratic candidates in Illinois also took harsh stances against the Iran operation: state Sen. Laura Fine, running in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, called for Trump’s impeachment, while Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller, running in the 2nd District, and Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, running in the 7th District, called the strikes “reckless” and “immoral,” respectively…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a rundown of the high-profile primaries on the ballot tomorrow in North Carolina and Texas.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House for a conversation that was set to focus on negotiations between Russia and Ukraine but will likely be overshadowed by the ongoing operation against Iran. Germany joined the U.K. and France over the weekend in offering a supportive but cautious stance on the hostilities.
It will be a busy day on the Hill, where administration officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine will hold all-member briefings on Iran for the House and Senate. Rubio is briefing the Gang of Eight again this afternoon, and national security committees in both chambers were briefed over the weekend.
Elbridge Colby, the under secretary of defense for policy, will brief the Senate Armed Services Committee on the Pentagon’s National Defense Strategy; Colby has previously drawn bipartisan ire from the committee over a lack of consultation by his team and alleged rogue decision-making on a range of issues by his office.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on oversight of the Department of Homeland Security with testimony from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
The Capitol Jewish Forum will host its annual Capitol Hill Purim celebration, attended by a number of Jewish lawmakers.
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WEIGHING IN
As Iran war continues, Senate and House set for long-shot votes to cut it short
The resolutions are unlikely to pass; if they do, they will need two-thirds support to override an inevitable presidential veto
CLOSING RANKS
Arab states unite as Iran strikes every member of Gulf Cooperation Council
UAE and Saudi leaders spoke by phone; the GCC affirmed its ‘right to respond’
URJ’s Rabbi Rick Jacobs: ‘America’s Jewish congregations are diverse, filled with good, moral people who differ on complex issues’
Michael Brochstein/Sipa via AP Images
J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami speak at the 2022 J Street National Conference held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.
When more than 1,500 people gathered in Washington this weekend for J Street’s national conference, the progressive Israel advocacy group’s first major convening in four years, the gathering was billed as an opportunity to reflect on building regional peace in the Middle East in the aftermath of the Gaza war.
Instead, a major U.S. and Israeli military operation against Iran that began Saturday undercut the group’s pledge to focus on peace between Israelis and Palestinians and came to dominate the discussion. J Street quickly came out against the attacks.
The first speaker on the conference’s main stage on Sunday took an unusual departure from J Street’s dogma on diplomacy by noting that the organization’s positions are not the only ones that should be taken seriously in the Jewish community.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, kicked off the conference program by noting that J Street’s position, one of stark opposition to the attacks, sits alongside the views of others in the Jewish community who have cheered U.S. and Israeli military strikes seeking to bring about regime change in Iran.
“I’m certain that many in this gathering agree, as a matter of principle and foreign policy, with the J Street statement,” Jacobs said. “Many in our congregations might also agree. But America’s Jewish congregations are diverse, filled with good, moral people who differ on complex issues, as those raised by the Iran attacks.”
J Street’s leaders often make the case that greater nuance and complexity is required within the U.S. Jewish community, particularly making space for left-wing views on Israel within mainstream Jewish groups. Jacobs was making the argument in reverse: that people could also support the attacks in good conscience, and that neither view is superior.
“There are many in our congregations, in the Jewish community at large and in the broader American public who want to seek regime change for the sake of the people of Iran, for eliminating threats to America’s and Israel’s security, and to enhance stability in the region, who may well recognize that war is surely not the remedy for every global conflict, but feel there are times when military force is justified and believe a case can be made,” Jacobs continued.
Later, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami clarified where the group stands but said there is room in the organization for people who disagree.
“I made very clear J Street’s adamant and clear opposition to this war. It is a war of choice. It is a war without clear objectives. It is a war without a plan to achieve those unclear objectives. It is a war without constitutionally required congressional approval, and it is a war without public consent,” Ben-Ami said. “It is clear that in this room there is a mix of opinions. Not everyone in J Street would agree with the clear, articulated opposition to the war that I laid out.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) called the war “dangerous” and said it would make Americans less safe. British human rights lawyer Phillippe Sands compared the attack on Iran to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On the other hand, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Iran “needs to be punished.” In a video message recorded before the attacks began, Yair Golan, the leader of Israel’s liberal Democrats party, said that if war with Iran starts, “let us defeat those who seek our destruction.” Both Olmert and Golan are fierce opponents of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But while the convention main stage offered some room for nuance on Iran, most speakers were otherwise aligned on J Street’s messaging — that Israel’s government, led by Netanyahu, is not doing enough to make peace with Palestinians or to rein in violent settlers in the West Bank, and that the U.S., meanwhile, is not doing enough to safeguard Palestinians or provide oversight of Israel’s use of its military aid.
“There can’t be a continuing blank check when the Netanyahu government is operating in violation of American law, which they have repeatedly, or in violation of international law,” Van Hollen said.
Later in his speech, Jacobs, the URJ president, said the U.S. Jewish community must also learn to accept diverging opinions on Israel.
“It does not make one love Israel any less to be pained by the loss of life and suffering among innocents, and we must learn how to work amidst difference. Our Jewish community will not be safe only with more cameras and security protocols. Does anti-Zionism spill over into antisemitism? Yes. But not always,” Jacobs said.
J Street also plans to use the conference to spotlight its growing political influence in the Democratic Party, with a fundraiser on Sunday evening for North Carolina Senate candidate Roy Cooper, the former governor. Attendees will also be able to join a phone bank for Evanston, Ill., Mayor Daniel Biss, who is running for Congress in a contentious Democratic primary in Illinois where Israel has become a key issue.
Other congressional speakers slated to address the conference on Monday include Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Tim Kaine (D-VA), as well as Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Sean Casten (D-IL), Madeleine Dean (D-PA) and Sara Jacobs (D-CA). The executive director of the House Majority PAC, a Super PAC that supports Democratic congressional candidates, will be at the conference meeting with top J Street donors.
Podcaster Nate Cornacchia has said that Israel was behind John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the global war on terror
Sophie Park/Getty Images
Maine Senate Graham Platner speaks at a town hall at the Leavitt Theater on October 22, 2025 in Ogunquit, Maine.
Weeks before Graham Platner promoted an antisemitic conspiracy theorist in a now-deleted social media post on Thursday, the controversial Maine Senate candidate appeared on a popular YouTube show whose host has spread specious claims about Jews and Israel.
Platner faced blowback this week for boosting a social media comment about a looming war with Iran by Stew Peters, a neo-Nazi influencer who has frequently espoused antisemitic tropes and engaged in Holocaust denial. Platner’s team said the post was made in error and “immediately” removed it after learning it elevated a “despicable account.”
In late January, however, Platner sat for a lengthy online interview with Nate Cornacchia, a retired Green Beret who has also promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories. Near the end of their hour-long conversation, Platner, a fellow military veteran, called himself “a longtime fan” of Cornacchia’s YouTube channel, “Valhalla VFT,” and said it was “an absolute pleasure being” on the show.
Cornacchia, whose show claims nearly 500,000 YouTube subscribers, has in recent months helped stoke a burgeoning far-right conspiracy theory alleging that Israel was involved in the assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Two days before speaking with Platner, for instance, Cornacchia went on a podcast hosted by Jake Shields, a former mixed martial arts fighter who is now a prominent Holocaust denier, and pointed to what he described as “huge links” connecting Israel to Kirk’s killing. “The biggest one, the way I look at it, is because he was basically so important from the Zionist side to the young right wing, sort of that counter Nick Fuentes audience” that “Israel needs desperately,” he said.
“Charlie Kirk said that he was tired of being bullied by his Jewish donors” and that he “no longer could support the pro-Israel cause, and he was dead 48 hours later,” Cornacchia added on the show, where he also agreed with Shields’ assertion that President John F. Kennedy had “probably” been assassinated in a covert “venture between the CIA and Mossad,” the Israeli intelligence agency. “100%,” he replied.
In addition, Cornacchia has suggested that the global war on terror was conducted “on behest of Israel” and claimed Israel would benefit if another 9/11-style attack were carried out during the tenure of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, saying it would help to drum up Islamophobic sentiment and lead to another foreign military entanglement in the Middle East.
The Jewish state “got exactly who they wanted” in Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor whom the Israeli government has accused of antisemitism, he argued on his own show in November. “That’s their candidate, guys. You got to pay attention.”
The conservative YouTube commentator has also questioned why George Soros’ son Alex was seen posing for a photograph with Mamdani on the night of his election. “You may immediately be thinking, ‘Oh, well, of course, that’s because Soros funds all the socialists,’” Cornacchia said of George, a Jewish billionaire donor to left-wing causes and a Holocaust survivor who is often a target of antisemitic attacks.
“No, no, no, no, that’s surface level,” he told his viewers, claiming that the philanthropist “moves in coordination with our greatest ally,” a term he uses to sarcastically allude to Israel.
Platner’s interview with Cornacchia, which he promoted on his social media channels, did not touch on such topics. His team did not respond to a request for comment on Friday about Cornacchia’s antisemitic remarks.
The 41-year-old Senate candidate, who is running in a competitive Democratic primary to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), faced skepticism from critics last fall after he denied knowing a tattoo that was on his chest for years closely mirrored a Totenkopf, the skull-and-crossbones icon adopted by an infamous Nazi SS unit. A former acquaintance of Platner who spoke with Jewish Insider said he had identified the symbol as such more than a decade ago, a claim he has denied. He had the tattoo removed last October.
Still, even as he maintains a commanding polling advantage in the Maine Democratic primary against Gov. Janet Mills, Platner’s explanation of the tattoo — combined with past and recent online blunders — is raising questions about whether he can weather scrutiny in a general election that party leadership views as key to reclaiming the Senate majority.
Mills, for her part, strongly hinted at such doubts in a snarky X post on Friday. “For what it’s worth,” she wrote, “I don’t have any tattoos.”
And on the same day he was drawing backlash for amplifying a conspiracy theorist this week, Platner was fielding a combative call from a listener during an appearance on a podcast hosted by the comedian Tim Heidecker.
The caller cast suspicion on Platner’s claim that he did not know the tattoo represented a Nazi symbol until recently, citing his self-proclaimed knowledge of World War II history, and called on the candidate to apologize rather than “dodging around” the issue.
But Platner held firm. “I’m not going to apologize for something that I didn’t know about or do,” he insisted. “The moment that it was clear and I was putting it in that context I had it covered, because I don’t want that on my body.”
Plus, Mamdani makes surprise WH visit
Umman Foreign Ministry/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
Special Envoy Steve Witkoff (C) advisor Jared Kushner (L) meet with Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi (R), who is mediating between the parties in the third round of Iran-U.S. negotiations held in Geneva, Switzerland, on February 26, 2026.
Good Thursday afternoon!
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
U.S.-Iran negotiations wrapped up for the day in Geneva without a decisive result: Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said the sides had made “significant progress” while Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state media they negotiated “very seriously,” but no agreement was reached.
Araghchi said technical experts will meet on Monday in Vienna at the International Atomic Energy Agency and fourth round negotiations will take place later next week, after consultations in both capitals…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters yesterday that Iran “poses a very grave threat to the United States” and is trying to reconstitute its nuclear program. “After their nuclear program was obliterated, they were told not to try to restart it, and here they are. You can see them always trying to rebuild elements of it. They’re not enriching right now, but they’re trying to get to the point where they ultimately can.”
Beyond the nuclear issue, Rubio said, Iran also has “conventional weapons that are solely designed to attack America and attack Americans. … These things have to be addressed.” While the current talks are focused solely on Tehran’s nuclear program, “it’s also important to remember that Iran refuses to talk about ballistic missiles to us or to anyone, and that’s a big problem”…
House Democratic leaders said in a joint statement today that they plan to force a vote “as soon as Congress reconvenes next week” on a resolution blocking military action against Iran without congressional authorization, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Three Democrats have already indicated they will oppose the resolution, with other defections likely to follow…
U.S. forces raided a ship last month and seized cargo heading from China to Iran, officials told The Wall Street Journal, part of a broader effort to head off Iran’s covert arms purchases after the 12-day war last June. The cargo was reportedly intended for Iranian companies that procure weapons for the regime’s missile program…
The Journal interviews fighter pilots involved in the U.S. bombing campaign against the Houthis last spring, as military assets are once again amassing in the Middle East for a potential operation against Iran…
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner amplified a social media post today from a far-right conspiracy theorist well-known for viciously antisemitic commentary — before quickly deleting the statement, JI’s Matthew Kassel reports. In a comment on X, Platner approvingly boosted a remark opposing war with Iran from Stew Peters, who has said Judaism is “satanic” and a “death cult,” promoted blood libels and called for a “final solution” to mass-deport American Jews…
The issue is particularly sensitive for Platner, who earlier in his campaign faced scrutiny over a Nazi tattoo on his chest, which he has since had covered. He was pressed today on a YouTube call-in show about his knowledge of the tattoo’s symbolism because of his self-identification as a WWII history enthusiast.
“I was well aware that they [Nazis] used a similar-looking thing,” Platner said. “You have to admit it’s not a ‘similar-looking thing,’ it’s the same thing. … Anyone who’s remotely a WWII buff knows what that is,” the caller replied. Platner answered, “I’m not going to apologize for something that I didn’t know about or do”…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani made an unannounced visit to the White House to meet with President Donald Trump today. Among other issues, the two discussed housing and immigration activities…
The family of Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for Israel and the Palestinian territories, sued Trump and other administration officials yesterday in district court, alleging that the sanctions imposed on Albanese by the U.S. violate her First, Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights…
Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar attended an iftar meal to break the Ramadan fast hosted by UAE Ambassador to Israel Mohamed Al Khaja in Tel Aviv, where Herzog said that the “members of the Abraham Accords should be treated in an upgraded manner as they pursue the noble cause of peace.”
“And this I say especially,” Herzog continued, “when there are nations who are spreading hate, spreading blasphemy against nations who seek peace — against the Emiratis, against the Israelis,” ostensibly referring to Saudi Arabia…
As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrapped up his trip to Israel today, the two countries signed 16 memorandums of understanding to expand cooperation in fields including agriculture and AI. Modi also met with the cast of “Fauda”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a profile of Sam Bregman, the Jewish cowboy-hat wearing former district attorney running for governor of New Mexico.
ADL’s Desert Region will hold its annual conference at Arizona State University, with speakers including ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego and state Rep. Alma Hernandez.
J Street’s annual conference will kick off Saturday in Washington. Speakers will include former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Sean Casten (D-IL) and Madeleine Dean (D-PA). J Street’s PAC will hold an event with Roy Cooper, the former governor of North Carolina now running for Senate, and phone banking sessions for Evanston, Ill., Mayor Daniel Biss, running for the House.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!
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EDUCATION CONSTERNATION
Jewish groups file suit against California for widespread failure to address antisemitism in K-12 schools
The suit highlights several complaints from Jewish parents and children statewide, in school districts including Berkeley, Los Angeles, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Campbell Union, Fremont, Etiwanda and Oakland
PRAIRIE STATE DEBATE
Abughazaleh says she doesn’t support Iron Dome, dodges on Israel’s right to exist
The far-left influencer, running competitively in a Chicago-area district with a sizable Jewish constituency, debated primary rivals Laura Fine and Daniel Biss on Wednesday
The Maine Senate candidate quickly deleted his post, in which he approved of a message by neo-Nazi radio host Stew Peters
Sophie Park/Getty Images
U.S. senatorial candidate from Maine Graham Platner speaks at a town hall at the Leavitt Theater on October 22, 2025 in Ogunquit, Maine.
Graham Platner, a far-left Senate candidate in Maine, amplified a social media post on Thursday from a far-right conspiracy theorist well-known for viciously antisemitic commentary — before quickly deleting the statement.
In a comment to X late Thursday morning, Platner approvingly boosted a remark from Stew Peters, an extremist radio host who has frequently promoted antisemitic tropes and engaged in Holocaust denial, calling a war with Iran “the only thing Republicans and Democrats have both given a standing ovation for.”
“As always, there’s one thing that brings Republican and Democratic politicians together: sending other people’s children to die in stupid wars in the Middle East,” Platner, a 41-year-old Marine veteran turned oyster farmer who has sharply criticized U.S. military engagement abroad, wrote in his own post.
He deleted the post an hour or so after it had been flagged by online observers who noted that he was elevating a problematic figure with a long record of hostile rhetoric toward Jews.
The Anti-Defamation League has described Peters as a “prolific antisemite” who blames “‘the Jews’ for everything he believes is wrong with society,” while the Southern Poverty Law Center has said his radio show has “become a central hub for antisemitic and conspiratorial content.”
He has said Judaism is “satanic” and a “death cult,” promoted blood libels, called for a “final solution” to mass-deport American Jews and questioned the existence of gas chambers that exterminated Jews during the Holocaust, among other conspiratorial assertions.
In a statement to Jewish Insider, a spokesperson for Platner said the post had been published due to an oversight. “We were reposting a C-Span clip of Trump speaking about the potential war with Iran and didn’t realize that the video had been posted by a despicable account,” the spokesperson said. “When we learned who the poster was we immediately deleted the post.”
The social media blunder is a particularly sensitive issue for Platner, who earlier in his campaign faced scrutiny over a Nazi tattoo on his chest, which he had covered up last October. He has insisted he was not aware the tattoo closely mirrored a Totenkopf, a skull-and-crossbones icon used by an infamous Nazi SS unit, even as a former acquaintance told JI that he had years ago specifically identified it as such. He has denied such claims.
“I am not a secret Nazi,” Platner said in a podcast interview last year, while calling himself “a lifelong opponent” of “Nazism and antisemitism and racism in general.”
Despite such baggage, polling has shown Platner holds a commanding lead in the Maine Democratic primary race, where he is facing Gov. Janet Mills to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who is one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents up for reelection in the midterms.
A notable takeaway was just how different the preferences of Boomers and Gen Zers were — even among those affiliated with the same party
Campaign website
James Fishback
A pair of new polls — one in a Democratic Senate primary in Maine and one in a Republican gubernatorial primary in Florida — should sound alarm bells about the political and ideological trajectory of Gen Z voters, and the younger generation’s creeping tolerance of antisemitism that transcends party ID.
While the top lines from the polls generated the most headlines, the more notable takeaway was just how different the preferences of Boomers and Gen Zers were — even among those affiliated with the same party. The younger voters gravitated toward the candidates with checkered (at best) records on antisemitism.
James Fishback, a 31-year-old Republican investor who made a name for himself with incendiary social media posts attacking Israel and invoking antisemitic tropes, is barely winning a following among most Florida Republicans as he runs for governor. But among younger Republican voters, he appears to be building a growing base of support.
Graham Platner, an anti-establishment oyster farmer who for years had a skull-and-bones Totenkopf tattoo on his chest, a symbol adopted by a Nazi SS unit, is barely facing any backlash from Maine voters in his outsider Senate campaign. (He had the tattoo covered up during the campaign, amid widespread controversy.) Indeed, he may soon become the favorite to win the Senate seat in Maine, fueled by near-universal support among younger Democratic voters.
The polling underscores the dramatic generational disconnect.
In the University of North Florida poll, Fishback only received 6% support among Florida Republican voters, badly trailing front-runner Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), who is 47, by 25 points. But among voters 18-34 years old, the little-known Fishback is dominating Donalds, 31-8%. (It’s worth noting the subsample of young voters is small, but the polling is consistent with anecdotal reporting that Fishback has built a base of support among younger right-wing voters.)
Meanwhile in Maine, a Senate poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire found Platner, 41, not only holding a commanding primary lead over the state’s 78-year-old sitting governor, Janet Mills, (64-26%), but comfortably leading Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in a potential general election matchup. His support is fueled by Gen Z Democrats, who back him over Mills overwhelmingly, by a 73-point margin (84-11%). Those 65 and older preferred Mills, who is 78, by a four-point margin, 49-45%.
At the very least, these polls underscore that experience and credentials — no less the policy knowledge and credibility typically required of governors and senators — are barely valued by younger voters.
At worst, it’s an indicator that radicalism is actually a selling point for young voters, who are getting most of their information from social media sites whose algorithms promote polarization and extremism, and very little from reliable, trusted sources.
As we’ve noted before, it shouldn’t be a surprise that given the incentive structure on social media, antisemitism is thriving. If you build even artificial demand for extremism, the supply of hateful influencers — and eventually like-minded political candidates — will follow.
The suit highlights several complaints from Jewish parents and children statewide, in school districts including Berkeley, Los Angeles, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Campbell Union, Fremont, Etiwanda and Oakland
Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Members of the Oakland Unified School District School Board during a public school board meeting in Oakland, California Wednesday August 24, 2022.
Jewish legal groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the State of California over an alleged failure to address antisemitism — some of which is stemming from teachers’ unions — in K-12 public schools across the state.
Filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center For Human Rights Under Law and StandWithUs, with outside counsel from veteran California plaintiffs’ attorney Michael Sherman, the suit also names the California State Board of Education, the State Department of Education and Superintendent Tony Thurmond.
It highlights several complaints from Jewish parents and children statewide, in school districts including Berkeley, Los Angeles, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Campbell Union, Fremont, Etiwanda and Oakland.
In the Berkeley Unified School District, which has been a hotbed for antisemitic incidents since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, a ninth grader said his art teacher displayed a Star of David with a fist punching through it. The same teacher promoted a walkout filled with chants that included, “F*ck the Jews,” according to the complaint, which states that when the student’s mother reported the teacher’s conduct, the school’s solution was to separate the Jewish student from his class in the library and health center.
The lawsuit comes two months after the House Committee on Education and Workforce opened an investigation into three school districts around the country, including BUSD, which has 9,400 students and had already been placed under federal investigation for an alleged failure to address antisemitism since Oct. 7.
The Brandeis Center also previously filed a Title VI complaint in 2024 with the Justice Department’s Office for Civil Rights that stated that Berkeley administrators had ignored parent reports, including a letter signed by 1,370 Berkeley community members to the district’s superintendent and Board of Education, while knowingly allowing its public schools to become hostile environments for Jewish and Israeli students.
The Oakland Unified School District, meanwhile, saw at least 30 Jewish families move their children to neighboring school districts in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks because of “systemic” antisemitism, eJewishPhilanthropy reported in 2024.
The lawsuit also spotlights multiple instances in which teachers or unions allegedly facilitated the spread of antisemitism into California classrooms. Members of the Oakland Education Association created an unapproved curriculum that recycles “antisemitic propaganda and age-old antisemitic tropes,” the suit states.
The curriculum featured, among other things, a children’s book for Oakland’s transitional kindergarten through third grade students that proclaims, “I is for Intifada,” a word defined benignly as “rising up for what’s right.” Another one of the materials asks children to draw a picture of “The Zionist leaders of Israel receiv[ing] money and support to conduct” a “two-tiered (unfair) system where Palestinians are mistreated and attacked.”
Last October, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 715, a law aimed at combating antisemitism in K-12 schools by establishing state prevention coordinators, adding to anti-discrimination policies and addressing the surge in incidents.
Local Jewish leaders expressed support for the lawsuit, claiming that existing laws have not been adequately enforced.
“California has some of the strongest laws and policies aimed at protecting Jewish residents from antisemitism, yet enforcement remains sparse, inconsistent and lacks accountability,” Robert Trestan, vice president of Anti-Defamation League West, said in a statement. “Jewish students are increasingly targeted because of their identity and exposed to lesson plans containing antisemitism and anti-Israel narratives. It is time for California officials to deliver on their promise of schools and classrooms that are free of hate. Our children cannot afford to wait any longer.”
More than half a million students attend LA public schools, including 50,000 Jewish children. Rabbi Noah Farkas, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation Los Angeles, said that “rising antisemitism in our classrooms is leaving some students unsafe and unprotected. California already has strong laws to prevent hate and discrimination — now they must be enforced consistently so every child can learn in safety with dignity. When any child experiences hate unchecked, it threatens the safety and moral integrity of our entire public education system.”
The state’s universities are similarly facing antisemitism allegations.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a suit against the University of California system, alleging that its Los Angeles campus failed to protect Jewish and Israeli faculty and staff in accordance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination.
Plus, Witkoff calls for indefinite Iran nuclear deal
Mario Tama/Getty Images
An attendee wears a jacket at an Iowa caucus watch party organized by Metro D.C. Democratic Socialists of America, on February 3, 2020 in Washington, DC.
Good Wednesday afternoon!
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Ahead of the third round of U.S.-Iran negotiations taking place in Geneva tomorrow, Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that President Donald Trump “has a number of other tools at his disposal” besides diplomacy to ensure “the craziest and worst regime in the world” does not obtain nuclear weapons, following on the president’s remarks during last night’s State of the Union calling Iran “the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror”…
In response to Trump’s comments, where he also said Iran was developing advanced ballistic missiles and had killed 32,000 protesters, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei tied Trump to the “law of propaganda coined by Nazi [chief propagandist] Joseph Goebbels.”
“This is now systematically used by the U.S. administration and the war profiteers encircling it, particularly the genocidal Israeli regime … Whatever they’re alleging in regards to Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January’s unrest is simply the repetition of ‘big lies,’” Baghaei wrote on X…
White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who is leading Iran negotiations alongside Jared Kushner, reportedly told AIPAC members at the group’s summit in Washington yesterday that any deal reached with Iran should not have a “sunset clause,” as the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was criticized for.
“We start with the Iranians with the premise that there is no sunset provision. Whether we get a deal or not, our premise is: you have to behave for the rest of your lives,” Witkoff told the group, according to Axios. He said talks are currently focused only on the nuclear issue, but if they are successful, the administration would look to hold additional talks on Tehran’s missile program and support for terror proxies…
Satellite photos analyzed by the Associated Press appear to show U.S. ships that typically dock in Bahrain as part of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet have moved out to sea. The 5th Fleet similarly scattered its ships during the U.S. strikes in Iran last June…
Dutch airline KLM announced a suspension of flights between its hub in Amsterdam and Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport starting March 1 until further notice, saying in a statement that it is currently “not commercially or operationally feasible for KLM to operate flights to Tel Aviv.” It’s the first airline to pause flights amid the current unrest with Iran…
On the campaign trail, Washington, D.C., mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George vowed to reject the “Zionist lobby” in a questionnaire seeking the endorsement of the Metro D.C. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports, a category that the DSA said includes AIPAC, Democratic Majority for Israel, Christians United for Israel and J Street.
Referencing her appearance at an event with the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington in December, Lewis George assured the DSA she “disagree[s] with the JCRC on a number of issues,” including its opposition to describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide and its “definition of antisemitism that criminalizes dissent, and their attacks on activists.”
Ron Halber, CEO of the JCRC, told JI, “As far as I’m concerned, [the DSA’s questionnaire] is an antisemitic manifesto. They are making the price of their endorsement the social exclusion of Jews”…
Illinois state Sen. Laura Fine, a Democrat running for an open Illinois House seat, unapologetically championed her backing for Israel in a position paper obtained by JI’s Marc Rod, amid attacks from anti-Israel activists and groups over her support for the Jewish state and backing from pro-Israel supporters.
Fine described Israel in the paper as “more than just a strategic ally, it is a beacon of democracy in one of the world’s most volatile regions,” as she and some of her primary opponents, including Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss and far-left activist Kat Abughazaleh, are set to participate in a televised debate tonight…
The U.S.-led Board of Peace released a video today laying out its vision for Gaza. The board’s goal by Year 3 is to fully rebuild the southern Gazan city of Rafah and have Gaza “connected to the world through an Abrahamic gateway, linking it with Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and extending to India and Europe.” By the board’s 10th year, it said, Gaza will be “self-governed,” without specifying who will oversee the enclave and how Hamas will be removed from power…
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana awarded Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the newly established Medal of the Knesset, the highest honor of the body, after Modi’s address there today. His remarks were warmly received by members of Knesset and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was also in the chamber…
Following Israel’s recognition of Somaliland’s independence in December, Jerusalem accepted the appointment of Mohamed Hagi as the first Somaliland ambassador to the Jewish state (and its first fully accredited ambassador anywhere in the world). Hagi “was a member of the inner circle of officials who promoted the establishment of relations between Israel and Somaliland,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said, and vowed that a reciprocal Israeli ambassador “will soon be appointed”…
Former Harvard President Larry Summers will remain on leave from his teaching position at the Ivy League school for the duration of the academic year, at which point he will retire, Harvard announced today, after files released by the Department of Justice showed Summers maintained a relationship with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein after the financier had been convicted of prostitution involving a minor…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a preview of Fox Nation’s new docudrama on King David, offering a dramatic reenactment of the biblical coming-of-age story of the Jewish leader.
White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will hold discussions with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva, mediated by Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi.
California Jewish groups including the JCRC Bay Area, the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles and Jewish California, which rebranded today from its previous name of JPAC, are hosting a forum for candidates running for governor, as Gov. Gavin Newsom reaches his term limit. Participating candidates include former presidential contender Tom Steyer, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, all of whom are Democrats, as well as Republican commentator Steve Hilton.
Stories You May Have Missed
PUSHING BACK
Moderate Democrats mock notion that Kamala Harris lost because she wasn’t tougher on Israel
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, representing a swing district: ‘The idea that the vice president lost every swing state because she wasn’t more extreme on this issue is laughable’
CAPPELLO’S CAMPAIGN
Democrat John Cappello brings military experience in Israel to race against Mike Lawler
The Air Force veteran, who served for six years at the U.S. Embassy in Israel, said Israel should continue to make efforts toward peace
The department’s deputy commissioner acknowledged the City Council bill will formalize, not change, police policy
Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images
NYPD officers set up barricades separating pro-Israel and anti-Israel protesters on Sept. 25, 2025 in New York City.
The NYPD — part of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration — declared before the City Council on Wednesday that it has “no objections” to Council Speaker Julie Menin’s proposal compelling the department to develop a policy for establishing “buffer zones” outside houses of worship during protests.
The legislation formed the core of a suite of antisemitism-battling legislation that Menin, the body’s first Jewish speaker, rolled out in January. The bill, which obligates the NYPD to codify protocol for ensuring worshippers can enter and exit religious facilities without obstruction or harassment, initially contained language that would set the range of police barricades or tape at “up to 100 feet.”
However, an updated iteration of the legislation released Monday night eliminated any specific reference to distance, in response to objections that such language could actually constrict the NYPD’s range of protective activity. As a result, the department announced before a hearing of the Council’s Committee to Combat Hate that it has no issues with the bill, following the mayor’s previous allusions to unspecified concerns he and his NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch had with the proposal.
“We greatly appreciate that dialogue and collaboration,” said NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Legal Affairs Michael Gerber, who explicitly stated he was providing the opinion of Tisch. “The result is a bill that is consistent with the NYPD’s ability to protect people entering and leaving places of worship, as well as our commitment to facilitating First Amendment activity.”
The Menin bill is distinct from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s push for 25-foot buffer zones around houses of worship, which would subject violators to criminal penalties. Despite the controversy over the Council proposal, which inspired dueling rallies in opposition and support prior to the hearing, Gerber noted that the law would not impose new policies upon the NYPD but simply require Tisch to formalize and publish their procedures.
“To be clear, the policy will not alter our practices but rather will articulate and describe what we are already doing,” Gerber said. “I think the bill fosters transparency.”
A corollary piece of City Council legislation, introduced by Councilmember Eric Dinowitz — chair of the body’s Jewish Caucus — would apply the same standards to educational facilities. Gerber said his department could not offer the same carte blanche support for this proposal, because it would set uniform standards for police conduct on both public and private property.
Menin pressed Gerber regarding the NYPD’s failure to set up a clear path of access and egress to Park East Synagogue in Manhattan amid an anti-Israel protest in November spearheaded by openly pro-Hamas activists. Gerber reiterated a statement of regret that Tisch, a scion of one of the city’s most prominent Jewish families, also made at the time.
“We got that one wrong,” said Gerber. “We didn’t have the appropriate frozen zone at the entrance, and that led to a situation that should not have happened.”
But the deputy commissioner stressed that the NYPD must guarantee the right of protesters to demonstrate in sight and earshot of their targets, even if their message is hateful and even if the targets are entering or exiting a house of worship.
“The NYPD must protect the First Amendment rights of protesters,” said Gerber. “If individuals choose to protest against those entering a place of worship, the NYPD will ensure that they have sight and sound to the entrance of that location, consistent with the First Amendment. At the same time, the protesters will not be permitted to obstruct, impede or interfere.”
Several left-wing members of the Council pressed Gerber for statistics and responses to hypothetical scenarios, and to make a straightforward declaration of support or opposition to the measure.
Other council members shared their view that the bill does not go far enough. “My concern is that we’re putting forward a symbolic bill that doesn’t really address the real concerns and fears that are being expressed today,” said Councilmember Sandy Nurse.
Menin’s proposal now has 27 co-sponsors, two more than the needed majority of the Council’s 51 members — though seven short of the number required to override a mayoral veto. Mamdani has so far declined to say whether he would sign the bill if it reaches his desk.
The Air Force veteran, who served for six years at the U.S. Embassy in Israel, said Israel should continue to make efforts toward peace
Campaign Website
John Cappello
Democrat John Cappello, an Air Force veteran, brings experience as a senior U.S. military official in Israel to the crowded race to take on Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) in New York’s 17th Congressional District.
But, entering the race later than most other competitors and lagging behind in fundraising, he has significant ground to make up before the June primary.
Cappello spent six years working as a military official in the U.S. Embassy in Israel, from 2010- 2016, first as the Air Force attache and later on missile-defense issues. After his time in the military, Cappello was tapped as a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, before going on to found his own foreign policy-focused groups.
“I always understood, being a student of history and of politics, that the United States’ relationship with Israel was a very unique one and a very close one,” Cappello said in an interview with Jewish Insider. “But to be able to be there to see it and to be part of both nurturing it and building it was an honor.”
During his first three years at the embassy, Cappello worked under then-U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, helping to set up and escort delegations of American military officials and business leaders; in his second three years, he helped run the Missile Defense Agency liaison office.
While in Israel, he also took classes in Middle East Studies at Tel Aviv University.
He said he was on the ground in a period in which “the challenges towards Israel were morphing and were changing dramatically” — including an increase in rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel.
Cappello said that the U.S. and the world need to stop “kicking the can” on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and that the current cycle of “mow[ing] the grass” with a new war every few years is not a viable long-term solution for Israel’s prosperity.
But he also acknowledged the concerns in Israel about trying to reach peace, after previous efforts have gone unreciprocated.
“It’s complex because the Israelis see it that they’ve continually extended a hand, continually tried to compromise,” Cappello said. “How many times do your neighbors attack you, you defeat them, and then you’re still expected to somehow compromise and give back?”
But he said that, with U.S. support, Israel has “never been more powerful” and that there is “room for them to accept risk,” but only with a guarantee that the U.S. and the Western world have its back.
He said moving toward peace will require strong leadership on all sides — including an end to Palestinian incitement and hatred against Jews and Israel — and backing from the U.S., the Europeans and the Arab states.
He added that the events of and since Oct. 7, 2023, while tragic, have “opened a door, in a way,” with Hamas and Hezbollah weakened, the fall of the Syrian regime and the weakening of the Iranian regime.
“I think the United States needs to play a leadership role, and an aggressive leadership role — not about building hotel complexes and luxury resorts in Gaza, but actually working towards development that will provide the Palestinians the opportunity to live in partnership with their neighbors, because all of the countries in that region can benefit from what the Israelis have done,” Cappello argued.
Cappello rejected the idea of conditioning U.S. aid to Israel and said that, while Israel is “an imperfect democracy” and deserving of criticism for some of the way it handled the war in Gaza, “it is a democracy, it is an important partner.”
“The Israelis have legitimate concerns to defeat an enemy that’s bent on destroying it. They also have a responsibility … to do everything they can to limit civilian casualties,” Cappello said.
He said the U.S. should “use our partnership, our leverage, in a way that allows Israel to defend itself, but to do so in a manner that fits the democratic values it espouses.” He said that cutting off weapons sales would not reduce conflict because Israel would still need to find ways to defend itself.
He emphasized that Israel does have stringent targeting procedures to limit civilian casualties and that the war in Gaza was a pursuit of “legitimate military goals” but these are complicated by Hamas militants intermingling with civilians.
“The Israelis have legitimate concerns to defeat an enemy that’s bent on destroying it. They also have a responsibility … to do everything they can to limit civilian casualties,” he said.
Cappello said that the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear program sent an important message in punishing the regime for its ballistic missile strikes on Israel and set back nuclear efforts, but did not fulfill the administration’s initial claims of fully obliterating the nuclear program.
“The lack of seriousness and planning and strategic foresight, I think, is a real problem,” he said.
Cappello also said that it would be “irresponsible” if the U.S. repeatedly promised protesters in Iran that help was on the way, “unless we are really going to back it up.” But he said that any further strikes on Iran need to be based on specific goals and objectives that can be achieved.
“I’ve talked to a lot of young people, and this topic has come up a couple of times, about Israel, support for Israel. Smart, intelligent young people that have graduated from university — but they have this misguided notion because they’re being fed information. They see it on their feed, this is what they read,” Cappello said.
“What is the objective here? I don’t know — and so in the absence of knowing, I’m reticent to use military force because it has other ramifications, not the least of which is putting American service members in harm’s way,” he continued. He said other nonmilitary responses include continued and increased sanctions targeting Iranian officials.
He tied the antisemitism crisis in the United States to a failure of leadership — with leaders failing to call out antisemitism and distortions of history and indulging in antisemitic narratives themselves. He said that education about antisemitism is also critical.
“I’ve talked to a lot of young people, and this topic has come up a couple of times, about Israel, support for Israel. Smart, intelligent young people that have graduated from university — but they have this misguided notion because they’re being fed information. They see it on their feed, this is what they read,” Cappello said.
Asked about New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s record, he said that he “understand[s] the concerns and he has a responsibility to address the things that he said in the past,” adding that he wants to see Mamdani admit mistakes he has made and change.
“Just because the voters voted [for] him doesn’t mean we accept racism or antisemitism or any of those, but, I think he is a work in progress, and let’s see,” Cappello said. “He should be held accountable. He has a responsibility to continue. He said he’s ‘the mayor for everyone’ … now he’s got to step up.”
Facing a wide field of competitors in the Democratic primary, Cappello argued that his service to the country and experience dealing with national and international challenges would make him a strong leader for the district.
But he also acknowledged that he entered the race later than most other candidates, and that he needs to work to introduce himself to voters. He argued that most voters aren’t paying attention to the race yet, so there is still plenty of time for him to make that outreach.
“The thing that keeps me going, despite the crazy local politics and the disgusting amount of money we have to raise, is when I talk to people, people do want change,” Cappello said. “They want to believe that we can do politics differently.”
Cappello has raised $53,000 since entering the race and closed out 2025 with just $20,000 on hand, making his total fundraising haul less than one-fifth of the next closest competitor’s. But several others closed out the quarter with similarly depleted war chests.
The ADL condemned the comments from the executive director of CAIR’s Ohio chapter as ‘hateful, utterly false’ rhetoric
Paul Sancya/AP
Khalid Turaani, co-chair of the Abandon Biden campaign in Michigan, speaks at the Islamic Center of Detroit in Detroit, Friday, Jan. 26, 2024.
Jewish groups condemned testimony by the executive director of the Ohio branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations at a recent state Senate Judiciary Committee hearing during which he accused Israel of harvesting skin from deceased Palestinians.
Khalid Turaani testified on Feb. 18 against Senate Bill 87, which would see Ohio adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, asserting that “Israel has the largest human skin bank in the world.”
Turaani claimed as his evidence a report by Israel’s Channel 10 from March 2014, though no such report exists. The conspiracy theory of Israeli organ harvesting originated in 2009, when a Swedish tabloid published falsehoods that the IDF kills Palestinians to provide organs to Israeli hospitals, and has been repeated by Palestinian media for years.
The claim, which reemerged in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, also plays on the blood libel trope, an antisemitic conspiracy accusing Jews of murdering Christians to use their blood, that dates back to the Middle Ages.
“Where do you think they got all this skin from?” Turaani continued. “They have more human skin than China and India. They are literally skinning the dead bodies of my brothers and sisters in Palestine,” he said, without offering evidence. “And if I call them Nazis, your law is going to punish me.”
Greg Miller, board chair of Ohio Jewish Communities, which represents the state’s eight Jewish federations, told Jewish Insider that the “false, abhorrent and libelous statements made during this testimony are the kind that have been inciting hatred and violence against Jews for thousands of years.”
Miller said the testimony “only reinforces the need for passage of this bill that provides absolute clarity that those statements are antisemitic. By codifying the IHRA definition, such statements aren’t criminalized but makes it obvious to be condemned by all Ohioans as the blind hatred that inspired them.”
Lee C. Shapiro, the American Jewish Committee’s Cleveland regional director, told JI that while there is “room for reasoned discussion about the IHRA definition,” Turaani “chose to ignore facts and instead propagated hatred and easily dispelled lies. It’s an insult to Ohioans and a disservice to the public square.”
The Anti-Defamation League’s Ohio River Valley office said it was “appalled” by Turaani’s testimony. “The antisemitic organ harvesting myth plays on the blood libel trope, which has spurred the torture, murder, and expulsion of Jews for centuries,” the statement continued. “It continues to fuel violence against Jewish communities today. Such hateful, utterly false rhetoric has no place in our state capitol. We call on Ohio’s leaders to join us in condemning these remarks and standing firm against antisemitism in all its forms.”
Leaders and senior officials of CAIR have on numerous occasions in recent years drawn ire from the Jewish community over comments relating to Israel and antisemitism.
Turaani himself moderated an event in October featuring a Hamas official designated as a terrorist by the Treasury Department, as well as other Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members.
And as Hamas was conducting its rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, Hussam Ayloush, the executive director of CAIR-LA, praised the attacks, tweeting a prayer for Allah to “grant relief, freedom, and victory to the people of Gaza.” Weeks later, Nihad Awad, the executive director of CAIR, said at a conference that he was “happy to see people breaking the siege” on Oct. 7, describing the attacks as an act of self-defense.
Plus, Trump says Iran won't rule out nuclear weapons
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Protestors gather after police cleared a new encampment on the UCLA campus on May 23, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
Good Tuesday afternoon!
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Previewing his State of the Union address tonight, where it remains to be seen if he will make any announcements on Iran, President Donald Trump told reporters, “Iran wants to make a deal more than I do, but they just won’t say the sacred phrase: ‘We won’t build nuclear weapons,’” signaling that the two sides are still at an impasse ahead of the third round of negotiations scheduled for Thursday…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed the congressional Gang of Eight, the bipartisan set of leaders advised on classified matters by the executive branch, this afternoon to provide an update on Iran, with CIA Director John Ratcliffe reportedly joining the discussion. The White House did not brief the group before striking Iran last June, drawing ire from Democrats…
Ahead of the meeting, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told C-SPAN about potential Iran strikes, “Closed-door briefings are fine, but the administration has to make its case to the American people on something as important as this”…
Around a dozen U.S. F-22 stealth fighter jets departed from the U.K. today to be deployed at an Israeli Air Force base in the south of the country, as over 150 aircraft are being moved to the region. Military experts told The Washington Post that the “assets being assembled are indicative of a multiday campaign without a ground invasion”…
The Coast Guard is investigating a swastika drawn at its primary recruit training center in New Jersey, where Coast Guard commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday quickly flew to address recruits and staff about the incident. Lunday recently came under fire from Congress, and had his confirmation delayed, over a change in Coast Guard policy that downgraded the swastika from a prohibited hate symbol to “potentially divisive,” which was eventually walked back.
Regarding the recent incident, Lunday said in a statement to The Washington Post, “Anyone who adheres to or advances hate or extremist ideology — get out. Leave. You don’t belong in the United States Coast Guard and we reject you”…
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) is pushing for legislation to require an affirmative congressional vote prior to the U.S. reaching any nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports, following a notification from the administration to Congress indicating that it is moving toward a deal that could allow Riyadh to enrich uranium for civilian purposes.
The notification procedures, which do not include specific terms of a potential deal, suggest that Saudi Arabia will not be required to agree to more intrusive International Atomic Energy Agency inspections or “gold standard” safeguards — which would require Saudi Arabia to agree not to enrich or reprocess nuclear material — used for the U.S. nuclear cooperation agreement with the United Arab Emirates…
The Justice Department sued the University of California today under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination, alleging that the UCLA campus created a “hostile work environment against Jewish and Israeli faculty and staff.”
During campus anti-Israel protests in 2024, the DOJ said, “the University allowed antisemitic harassment to continue unabated for days” and “has ignored, and continues to ignore, gross and repeated violations” of time, place and manner restrictions on student protest. The department further claimed Jewish and Israeli faculty at the school have been physically threatened, ostracized, harassed, forced to take leave and assaulted…
The New York Times details efforts by New York’s business community and Democratic establishment to organize and promote the moderate wing of the party in response to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rise to power. Some of the individuals involved, including former Gov. Andrew Cuomo allies Phil Singer and Steven Cohen, are considering forming PACs, watchdog groups, lobbying campaigns and more…
New York’s Working Families Party endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to replace retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) yesterday over Mamdani’s objections. The mayor has been backing Assemblymember Claire Valdez, who, like Mamdani, is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and a vocal critic of Israel, and he had lobbied the WFP to endorse her or to stay out of the race. WFP’s director, Jasmine Gripper, told the Times, “At the end of the day, Zohran is an individual who gets to weigh in as an individual”…
A new poll from the University of New Hampshire found oyster farmer Graham Platner with a commanding lead among likely Senate Democratic primary voters, outdistancing Gov. Janet Mills by 34 points, with the primary less than four months away. In a general election matchup with incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Platner leads Collins by 11 points, while Mills and Collins are neck-and-neck…
Khalid Turaani, executive director of the Ohio branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), testified at the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee last week against a bill to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, where he claimed that Israel operates the world’s largest human skin bank and harvests the skin from deceased Palestinians. “And if I call them Nazis,” Turaani continued, “your law is going to punish me.”
The Anti-Defamation League’s Ohio River Valley office condemned Turaani’s speech, saying that the “antisemitic organ harvesting myth plays on the blood libel trope, which has spurred the torture, murder, and expulsion of Jews for centuries”…
The U.S. Embassy in Israel announced that, as part of the government’s “efforts to reach all Americans,” the embassy will be providing consular services for one day only at several locations across Israel and the West Bank, including Ramallah and the Jewish settlement of Efrat…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for the highlights from President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, taking place at 9 p.m. ET tonight, as all eyes are on possible U.S. military action against Iran.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Israel tomorrow, where he will be greeted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before addressing the Knesset. In the evening, the two leaders will have dinner at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel. Read JI’s interview on Modi’s visit with Israeli Ambassador to India Reuven Azar.
The New York City Council will hold its first hearing on Council Speaker Julie Menin’s bill aiming to create “buffer zones” around houses of worship to protect from disruptive protests. The bill’s language was updated last night to remove the original 100-foot figure, which had reportedly emerged as a point of concern for the NYPD.
Congressional candidates from Illinois’ 9th District, where pro-Israel spending is boosting state Sen. Laura Fine and attacking Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, will hold a debate on local news.
Stories You May Have Missed
SHIFTING STANCE
Sue Altman pivoting on Israel as she runs in safely Democratic N.J. district
The progressive activist ran as a pro-Israel candidate in a neighboring swing district, but is now walking back her support as she runs to succeed Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman
PRAIRIE STATE OF PLAY
Raja Krishnamoorthi emerging as the strongest ally of Jewish voters in Illinois Senate race
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton seems to be running to the congressman’s left on Israel, even as Rep. Robin Kelly is the most outspoken critic of Israel in the race
The lawsuit accuses UCLA of permitting harassment against Jewish and Israeli faculty
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Royce Hall building on University of California (UCLA) campus in Los Angeles, California, USA - May 28, 2023.
Building on a monthslong battle between the Trump administration and the University of California, the Department of Justice filed a suit on Tuesday against the university system, alleging that its Los Angeles campus failed to protect Jewish and Israeli faculty and staff in accordance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination.
The 81-page DOJ complaint, filed in California’s Central District, alleges that since the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks in Israel, UCLA “has ignored, and continues to ignore, gross and repeated violations of viewpoint-neutral time, place, and manner restrictions. Jewish and Israeli faculty have been physically threatened, had their classrooms disrupted, and had their workplaces papered with disturbing images.”
“Numerous Jewish and Israeli employees have been forced to take leave, work from home, and even leave their jobs to avoid the hostile work environment,” the suit alleges.
In a statement to Jewish Insider, Mary Osako, UCLA’s vice chancellor of strategic communications, said the university has “taken concrete and significant steps to strengthen campus safety, enforce policies, and combat antisemitism in a systemic and sustained manner.”
Osako said those efforts have included hiring a Title VI/Title VII officer “to ensure professionalized oversight and accountability” and strengthened time, place, and manner policies “to protect both free expression and campus operations.”
The federal suit is a significant escalation of the government’s crackdown on what it alleges are failures across the University of California system to address antisemitism. Multiple civil rights investigations have been launched into the system and individual campuses.
The lawsuit comes seven months after UCLA settled a federal lawsuit with Jewish students who alleged that the university permitted antisemitic conduct during the spring 2024 anti-Israel encampments on the campus.
Yitzchok Frankel, then a second-year law student at UCLA, filed suit against the university in June 2024, claiming that he was “harassed and blocked from approaching the encampment by antisemitic activists, all with the assistance of UCLA security.” Two other Jewish UCLA students and a UCLA medical school professor later joined the suit. As part of the settlement, UCLA agreed to provide support to community organizations engaged in combating antisemitism.
Last year, the Trump administration sought more than $1 billion and a range of concessions from the university in order to restore funding frozen over alleged antisemitism, which was never paid — even after some research money was restored.
A federal judge in San Francisco ruled in November in a preliminary injunction that the Trump administration could not fine the University of California or cut the school system’s federal funding over claims it allows antisemitism or other types of discrimination.
The government did not offer a specific financial demand of UCLA in Tuesday’s lawsuit, but it suggested “awarding damages” to “aggrieved Jewish and Israeli UCLA employees.”
City Council legislation to shield synagogues and other religious institutions pits Jewish groups against progressive activists — and sets up a potential fight with the Mamdani administration
Selçuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images
Anti-Israel demonstrators gather at 'No Settlers on Stolen Land' protest against a Nefesh b'Nefesh event at the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan in November 2025.
A bill introduced in the New York City Council in response to pro-Hamas demonstrations outside New York synagogues has sparked a battle between mainstream Jewish advocacy organizations and protest groups and their allies — and leaves New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the NYPD in an awkward spot.
At the center of the agenda to counter antisemitism that Council Speaker Julie Menin unveiled in January was her proposal directing the NYPD to establish a plan for “security perimeters,” demarcated with police barriers or tape, up to 100 feet from entrances and exits at religious facilities to prevent protesters from obstructing or harassing people attempting to enter or exit.
In response to feedback from the police department, the speaker’s office stripped out any specific reference to distance, and a new draft of the bill simply compels Commissioner Jessica Tisch to propose her own plan for “buffer zones” of sizes she deems appropriate “to address and contain the risk of injury, intimidation, and interference, while preserving and protecting protest rights.” Like the previous bill, the zones in the updated legislation could extend from both doorways and driveways.
The measure faces its first hearing in the council on Wednesday, but it has already accentuated and even deepened the split between long-standing Jewish institutions and the activist forces that elevated Mamdani to power last fall.
“Access to religious institutions must be protected so that people can enter their houses of worship without fear of harassment or intimidation,” said Eric S. Goldstein, CEO of the UJA-Federation of New York, which has sought to organize Jewish communal support for the bill. “Speaker Menin’s proposal advances that goal through a carefully designed framework that appropriately balances First Amendment rights with safety and prevention,” Goldstein said.
By contrast, a bevy of far-left groups — Jews For Racial & Economic Justice, the American Council for Judaism, Jewish Voice for Peace-New York City and IfNotNow NYC — several of which have ties to the mayor, collectively denounced Menin’s legislation earlier this month.
“The right to protest in this country is sacrosanct and must be protected,” the organizations said in a joint statement, arguing that the synagogues at the center of recent demonstrations had hosted “non-religious political events” — namely, for groups encouraging and facilitating immigration to Israel — that made them legitimate targets. “We urge our city leaders to take seriously that a free and open democracy is essential towards ensuring the safety of all New Yorkers, including Jewish communities.”
The Menin bill is distinct from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s push for 25-foot buffer zones around houses of worship, which would subject violators to criminal penalties, or from calls for similar actions on the national level. A corollary piece of City Council legislation, introduced by Councilmember Eric Dinowitz, would establish similar perimeters around educational institutions.
Alyza Lewin, president of U.S. affairs for the Combat Antisemitism Movement, noted that the Supreme Court had upheld electioneering laws barring campaign activity within 100 feet of polling places.
“It really shouldn’t be so controversial,” Lewin told JI. “They determined that setting up a 100-foot zone around the polling place did not impermissibly interfere with the speech rights of those campaigning. You have a similar situation here. And here you’re talking about a constitutionally protected right to the free exercise of religion.”
The speaker’s office acknowledged it had looked to the high court precedent Lewin cited while crafting the legislation. But Menin’s team stressed to Jewish Insider that the bill would not prohibit protesting within the buffer zones.
Menin’s office maintained that the legislation would compel the police department to have an official, public protocol for ensuring access and egress at places of worship during demonstrations.
“It does not limit protest activity,” said Menin spokesperson Henry Robins. “The bill directs the NYPD to develop and publish a plan to ensure individuals can safely enter and exit these institutions without harassment or obstruction, while fully respecting First Amendment rights.”
Mamdani has declined to express his opinions on the proposal from Menin, a Manhattan Democrat and the first-ever Jewish council speaker, frequently seen as representing moderate elements of the party that opposed his election. He has instead alluded to vague “concerns” with the proposal from Tisch, a scion of one of the city’s most prominent Jewish families and a holdover from his predecessor’s administration.
However, multiple sources asserted that concerns from the NYPD were not constitutional but logistical.
Moreover, former Mayor Eric Adams signed an executive order in December that directed the NYPD to consider instituting zones limiting protest from 15 to 60 feet from the doorways of religious facilities. Moshe Davis, who headed the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism under Adams, said his team developed this directive in concert with the NYPD and the city Law Department, which have not changed under the new administration.
Mamdani repealed Adams’ order, along with others the outgoing mayor signed just before his term ended, his first day in office — but then signed an identical decree into effect. His office did not respond to requests for comment from JI.
Menin’s bill currently has 20 co-sponsors, six short of the majority needed for passage. However, 34 of the 51 members of the council would need to back the bill to override a mayoral veto.
Speaking to Jake Tapper on CNN Monday night, Mamdani said he would reserve comment until his administration had conducted a legal review.
Candidate Anthony Driver Jr. said he would return donations by philanthropist Michael Sacks over his ties to AIPAC; Sacks called it ‘truly sad’
Vernon Yuen/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Michael J. Sacks at the Global Hong Kong Global Financial Leaders Investment Summit on October 8, 2023 in Hong Kong, China.
A prominent Jewish Chicago-area Democratic donor and philanthropist lamented rising anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism after a progressive Illinois congressional candidate issued a public statement saying he would reject the donor’s contribution to his campaign due to his ties to AIPAC.
Union organizer Anthony Driver Jr. is running in Illinois’s 7th Congressional District, on a platform critical of Israel and in opposition to AIPAC. He said in a statement that he would return a contribution by Michael Sacks, a local Jewish, pro-Israel philanthropist and Democratic donor who had been a prominent supporter of former President Barack Obama and close ally to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Sacks also chaired the 2024 Democratic National Convention host committee and raised nearly $100 million to put on the convention.
“Michael Sacks has supported community violence intervention work in Chicago for years. I served nearly four years as President of the Chicago Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, helping advance real public safety reform,” Driver said. “The first time I heard about any link between Michael Sacks and AIPAC was on the debate stage. As I said on that same stage, I will return the contribution.”
Sacks, in response, pointed to public anti-Israel and antisemitic currents as pushing Driver, who has been endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, to take such a position.
“It is truly sad there is so much anti-Israel sentiment and outright Jew hate that Anthony found himself in this position,” Sacks said in a statement to the Chicago Tribune. “I can only hope that the electorate rejects hate in all forms.”
Sacks said he asked Driver to contribute the donations to a community violence prevention group of his choosing, calling Driver a “pragmatic [progressive]” and praising his work on violence reduction.
On the campaign trail, Driver has railed against AIPAC and spending by its super PAC, supporting one of his rivals, Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin. Conyears-Ervin faced attacks by several of her opponents about her support from AIPAC’s super PAC during a candidate forum last week.
Driver also states on his campaign website that he supports efforts to restrict offensive weapons transfers to Israel, including the Block the Bombs Act, and the recognition of Palestinian right of return.
Driver’s unwillingness to even accept support from a pro-Israel donor underscores the deepening hostility to Israel and its supporters in certain Democratic circles. As part of their anti-Israel campaign, progressives are working to make campaign contributions from individuals who have supported pro-Israel causes unacceptable — even if they haven’t been directly connected with AIPAC.
Plus, major Dem donor calls out 'Jew hate' in party
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President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House on September 25, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Good Monday afternoon!
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
As rumors abound about the possibility and timing of U.S. strikes on Iran, the State Department ordered the evacuation of non-essential personnel and their families from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. “Based on our latest review, we determined it prudent to reduce our footprint,” a State official told Fox News…
Nearby, amid the buildup of U.S. military assets in the region, American refueling and cargo planes were spotted at Ben Gurion Airport…
President Donald Trump denied reports that Pentagon officials, namely Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, are raising concerns about striking Iran, writing on Truth Social this afternoon, “General Caine, like all of us, would like not to see War but, if a decision is made on going against Iran at a Military level, it is his opinion that it will be something easily won.”
“He has not spoken of not doing Iran, or even the fake limited strikes that I have been reading about, he only knows one thing, how to WIN and, if he is told to do so, he will be leading the pack,” Trump said of Caine, while alluding to the potential breadth of military action against Iran…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed back his visit to Israel, originally scheduled for this weekend, to March 2, The Jerusalem Post reports, days after the next round of U.S.-Iran negotiations in Geneva on Thursday…
Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), a leader on foreign policy among Democrats in Congress, told Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs that he heard “pretty stark early warning signs of some challenges where core allies do not share our priorities” on a potential Iran strike during his recent trip t0 Europe, which included stops at the Munich Security Conference, along with meetings in Ukraine and Moldova with top European diplomats.
Coons laid out what he hopes to see from the president: “A) Consult Congress. B) Make a case to the American people about why this is in our national security interest. C) Clarify what on earth he’s planning with this Board of Peace … And D) If he’s going to work with close allies to ramp up pressure to try and achieve something at the negotiating table, he should work with close allies”…
Anthony Driver Jr., a union organizer and candidate in Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, doubled down on his recent repudiation of AIPAC, despite previously having little public record on Israel policy issues. Following a press conference last week where Driver, who is running against AIPAC-backed Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, denounced the pro-Israel group, he returned donations from major Democratic Party donor Michael Sacks over the finance executive’s ties to AIPAC.
Sacks, who was a major backer of former President Barack Obama and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, said in his reply, “It is truly sad there is so much anti Israel sentiment and outright Jew hate that Anthony found himself in this position. I can only hope that the electorate rejects hate in all forms”…
As more details emerge about Rep. Tony Gonzales’ (R-TX) alleged affair with a staffer who later committed suicide, a poll commissioned by the campaign of Brandon Herrera, Gonzales’ opponent, shows the congressman trailing Herrera by a whopping 24 points among likely GOP primary voters. The story, which entered the news cycle right as early voting kicked off, could catapult Herrera, a social media influencer with a history of antisemitism, to the Republican nomination and on to Congress…
Investigators at the cryptocurrency giant Binance found last year that about $1.7 billion had been sent from two accounts to Iranian entities with links to terror groups, The New York Times reports, even after Binance pleaded guilty to violating anti-money laundering laws in 2023 and vowed to prevent sanctioned actors from accessing its platform. Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who was jailed for his role in the saga, in October 2025…
The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival backtracked in its defense of a juror selected for a judging panel who had posted antisemitic and anti-Israel content online, whom it had stood behind even after the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta announced it was withdrawing its funding and support of the event over the pick.
The festival changed its tune yesterday, saying it is “first and foremost, a Jewish institution” and has “a responsibility, particularly at this fraught time, to stand firmly against antisemitism and to affirm the Jewish people’s right to self-determination.” It said it would review its “organizational processes and policies, including those related to antisemitism, BDS, and cultural boycotts”…
The French Foreign Ministry has moved to block U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner’s access to government officials after he declined to appear for a summons by Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot today, which was issued after the U.S. Embassy reposted comments by Trump about a far-right French activist who was killed in a clash with far-left protesters. It was Kushner’s second summons, after his first last year when he accused the French government of not adequately combating antisemitism…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at Sue Altman’s shifting views on Israel as the formerly pro-Israel congressional candidate is now running in New Jersey’s more heavily Democratic 12th Congressional District.
We’ll be watching for mention of President Donald Trump’s thinking on Iran as he delivers the annual State of the Union address tomorrow night. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will deliver the Democratic response.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on “advancing national security through commercial diplomacy” with Jacob Helberg, under secretary of state for economic affairs, who recently told JI that he hopes the Pax Silica initiative, which he leads, “will pave the way for peace and economic integration” in the Middle East.
Australia’s royal commission on antisemitism, formed after the Hanukkah terror attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, will hold its first public hearing, though no testimony or evidence will be heard.
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OVERTON WINDOW
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BIG TENT SHABBAT
State Dept. Shabbat dinner draws UAE, Saudi ambassadors and senior Trump officials
The dinner was hosted by Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the U.S. antisemitism special envoy
The dinner was hosted by Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the U.S. antisemitism special envoy
Alex Kent/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The US Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025.
Several dozen diplomats, senior Trump administration officials and Jewish communal leaders gathered at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace on Friday night for a Shabbat dinner hosted by Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the U.S. antisemitism special envoy, according to a source who attended the dinner.
A day earlier, that same space had hosted the inaugural Board of Peace meeting.
The gathering brought together a coterie of Washington officials, including Princess Reema, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S., and United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba, even though ties between the two Gulf nations have been strained in recent months. Other diplomats in the room came from France, Germany, Poland, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Lebanon and Jordan, according to the source.
Kaploun, who started at the State Department in December after being confirmed by the Senate, spoke at the event. He had recently returned from his first overseas trip, with stops in London, Switzerland and the Munich Security Forum. Reed Rubinstein, the State Department legal advisor, also spoke, as did Princess Reema. The Saudi diplomat talked about how close Israel and Saudi Arabia were to normalization before the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel and that she hoped to get back to that point, although normalization efforts have stalled.
“Kaploun hosting Arab and European diplomats for a traditional, family-style Shabbat and watching them love every minute of it is one the most clever displays of soft diplomacy I’ve ever seen,” the attendee, who requested anonymity to discuss an off-the-record event, told Jewish Insider. “The Saudis called for normalization. Who saw that coming?”
Most attendees were either diplomats or Trump administration officials, but Republican donor Miriam Adelson was also in the room. Combat Antisemitism Movement founder Adam Beren and board member Arie Lipnick, Conference of Presidents Chair Betsy Berns Korn and Jewish Federations of North America Chair Gary Torgow were also in attendance.
“Diplomats and leaders from across our country and across the world gathered together in a comfortable setting in our nation’s capital and shared a meaningful meal,” Korn told JI. “Ambassador Kaploun explained the importance of Shabbat as well as a heartfelt speech about the dangers of hatred. His powerful message of peace and community resonated throughout the room. We need more of this diplomacy.”
Guests noshed on Shabbat fish, potato kugel, matzah ball soup and more, along with Mediterranean desserts in honor of iftar for the Muslim diplomats in the room, according to the source.
Jeremy Lewin, the acting under secretary of state for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs and religious freedom, attended the dinner, as did Sarah Rogers, under secretary of state for public diplomacy, and Pierre Gentin, general counsel at the Commerce Department.
Kaploun said at the event that he plans to host more Shabbat dinners in the future.
ADL will integrate the symbol into its educational and interfaith materials
Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Anti-Defamation League/Lester Cohen/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft
The Anti-Defamation League and Blue Square Alliance Against Hate are joining forces in a new partnership to combat the spread of antisemitism, Jewish Insider has learned.
ADL said it will integrate the blue square symbol, which has become popularized by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s group, into its educational programming such as tool kits and content for synagogues as well as materials and content distributed to other faith communities.
“We are proud to embrace the blue square campaign as we seek to build empathy for the Jewish people and to expand understanding about the root causes and consequences of antisemitism,” said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.
“The blue square serves as a universal symbol for unity and solidarity. It’s a call to action that
demonstrates we are strongest when we stand together, arm in arm as sisters and brothers, united by our shared values,” said Kraft, founder of the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate, which rebranded last year from the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.
“At a time when there is far too much divisiveness in our country, this is when we need the unity that the blue square represents most. By partnering with the ADL, we are amplifying our mission to stand up to Jewish hate and all hate and are expanding the reach of the blue square to reach more Americans in communities across our country in order to fight hate together,” Kraft continued.
Blue Square and the ADL have a history of collaboration: Earlier this month, ADL conducted a survey on reactions to the Blue Square Alliance’s Super Bowl commercial amid a political debate over its impact. The antisemitism watchdog plans to honor Kraft at its annual conference next month in New York City.
The partnership comes as antisemitism is surging in France, leading many French Jews to emigrate to Israel
Courtesy
American Jewish Committee William Petschek Global Jewish Communities Department Director Alexandra Herzog, AJC CEO Ted Deutch, Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France ( CRIF) President Yonathan Arfi and AJC Europe Vice President Anne-Sophia Sebban-Bécache, after AJC and CRIF signed a partnership agreement in Paris to deepen transatlantic cooperation in fighting antisemitism.
The American Jewish Committee and Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France (CRIF), the umbrella organization representing French Jewry, announced a new partnership on Friday aimed at combating an increase of antisemitism that has caused many French Jews to consider leaving the country.
The agreement was formalized at the CRIF’s 40th annual dinner in Paris on Thursday. According to the groups, the partnership will bring together Jewish leaders and antisemitism experts from the U.S. and France to strengthen ties between the communities in their respective countries. It builds on existing collaborations between AJC and CRIF, including a conference last year titled “On the Frontlines: French-American Forum on Antisemitism,” which focused on youth engagement, education and transatlantic cooperation.
France, which is home to Europe’s largest Jewish community, has seen a “dramatic rise of antisemitism,” as the country’s U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner described it in an open-letter to French President Emmanuel Macron in August.
In the letter, which was published in The Wall Street Journal, Kushner wrote that since Oct. 7, 2023, “pro-Hamas extremists and radical activists have waged a campaign of intimidation and violence across Europe.” He also raised concerns that in France, “not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalized,” citing statistics shared by the country’s Interior Ministry regarding the rise in antisemitic incidents.
Robert Ejnes, executive director of CRIF, wrote in August, “I don’t know a family that is not speaking about” emigrating to Israel.
“AJC and CRIF are focused on shaping a future in which Jews are safe and thriving,” said Ted Deutch, CEO of AJC. “By formalizing our collaboration, we are strengthening our ability to act together to confront antisemitism and defend democratic values at a moment when Jewish communities are under threat.” AJC’s Europe headquarters has been located in Paris since 2015.
“AJC and CRIF have built a strong foundation of trust, shared leadership and concrete achievements,” said Yonathan Arfi, president of CRIF. “This agreement reflects the reality of a relationship that has existed and thrived for many years.”
Plus, Trump's kind words for Qatari PM
Alex Wong/Getty Images
A visitor holds an AIPAC folder in an elevator in Rayburn House Office Building on March 12, 2024 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
Good Thursday afternoon!
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump used the occasion of the first meeting of the Board of Peace in Washington today to announce significant monetary and troop commitments from the U.S. and other countries to stabilize Gaza, as well as lay out a timeline for military action against Iran, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
The pledges included $10 billion from the U.S. and $7 billion from several Middle Eastern countries for Gaza’s reconstruction, as well as commitments to provide troops and police to the U.S.-led International Stabilization Force. (The Guardian reports the White House is currently exploring plans to build a 5,000-person military base to house the ISF in southern Gaza.)
On Iran negotiations, Trump said in his remarks, “Now we may have to take it a step further or we may not. Maybe we are going to make a deal [with Iran]. You are going to be finding out over the next probably 10 days.”
He later told reporters on Air Force One, “Ten, 15 days, pretty much maximum.” Remember: Last June, Trump said he would decide whether to take action against Iran within two weeks, and carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities two days later…
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has reportedly not given approval to Washington to use the joint U.S.-U.K. base on Diego Garcia island for a strike on Iran, as Trump said yesterday he is considering. London is concerned that a U.S. strike from the shared base, which the U.K. must grant permission to use, could implicate it in violating international law…
Trump also offered praise for Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, during his Board of Peace remarks, despite widespread criticism of Doha’s backing of Hamas and platforming of anti-Israel actors.
“His excellency, Prime Minister Al Thani of Qatar, just a great and highly respected man,” Trump said. “I always say he needs a public relations agency because you do so much good, and they have you down as evil, and you’re not evil. You help us so much and you’re such a good ally”…
Meanwhile, Hamas is entrenching itself further in Gaza, repositioning its loyalists in government and paying salaries across the enclave, according to Reuters. Hamas has said it is willing to hand power over to the Palestinian technocratic committee established by the U.S. and led by former Palestinian Authority official Ali Shaath, but as one Palestinian source told the outlet, “Shaath may have the key to the car, and he may even be allowed to drive, but it is a Hamas car”…
Former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), who recently lost the Democratic primary for New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, called AIPAC’s attacks against him in the race “bizarre in several ways,” writing in an op-ed today that he has “no problem identifying as a Zionist” and calling on Democratic leaders to collectively “refuse [AIPAC’s] support, instead of letting it pick off candidates one by one”…
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) withdrew her endorsement of Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller, the front-runner in Illinois’ 2nd District Democratic primary, over Miller’s backing by groups that are reported to be affiliated with AIPAC, though the pro-Israel group hasn’t endorsed her and neither AIPAC nor its super PAC are publicly spending any money in the district.
“Illinois deserves leaders who put voters first, not AIPAC or out-of-state Trump donors,” Schakowsky told the Chicago Sun-Times. “I cannot support any candidate running for Congress who is funded by these outside interests”…
Ahead of a hearing next week on New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin’s proposed 100-foot ban on protests around houses of worship, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said today that he had the NYPD review the legality of the measure, “and I can tell you, my police commissioner has expressed concerns about that proposal”…
Three officials appointed by Mamdani to administration posts are co-founders of a group that blamed Israel for the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks two days after they took place, the Washington Free Beacon reports.
The group, the Muslim Democratic Club of New York (MDCNY), was founded by Faiza Ali, now commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs; Aliya Latif, now executive director of the mayor’s Office of Faith-Based Partnerships; Ali Najmi, tapped as chair of the mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary; and anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour.
On Oct. 9, 2023, the MDCNY posted on X, “Many NYers are feeling pain, fear, and anger after the horrific events in the Holy Land this weekend. Especially as the Israeli apartheid regime have forced millions of Palestinians in Gaza to live under occupation for decades and an open air prison since 2007.” The group went on to condemn “elected officials offering support for Israeli occupation’s rampant violence as it openly declares & enacts its intent to engage in mass violence and genocide against Palestinians,” well before Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza had begun…
The Forward profiles Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman as she runs for mayor with a unique ideology: Raman is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, but has also been vocally supportive of Israel. She called DSA’s statement blaming Israel for the Oct. 7 attacks “unacceptably devoid of sympathy” and rejects the BDS movement, but was also condemned by the local Jewish community for introducing a ceasefire resolution in June 2023…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a preview of the AIPAC Congressional Summit, which is kicking off Sunday amid the group’s increasing involvement in midterm election races.
President Donald Trump is expected to meet with governors at the White House tomorrow, though the meeting will no longer be held under the auspices of the National Governors Association, as is done annually, after the White House declined to invite Democratic Govs. Jared Polis of Colorado and Wes Moore of Maryland to a black-tie dinner on Saturday.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!
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TEXAS TROUBLE
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