His critics once saw him as an ally, but fear he’s pandered to extremists as he raises his national profile ahead of the 2028 presidential election
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Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) leaves the U.S. Capitol on March 13, 2024 in Washington.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleRep. Ro Khanna’s (D-CA) emergence as a leading Democratic party critic of Israel — while affiliating with and embracing individuals and groups that have been accused of antisemitism and support for terrorism — is creating divisions within the local Jewish community in his Silicon Valley-centered district.
While Khanna maintains unified support from Jewish elected officials in the district, other Jewish community leaders say they feel abandoned, ignored and even attacked by their congressman, whom they once saw as an ally, as he faces what could be his most credible primary challenge in years.
For some in the district, ties with the congressman have been strained for years, and were further inflamed by the March attack on two Israeli Americans in San Jose’s Santana Row shopping district.
Khanna strongly condemned the attack but some in the community said his words rang hollow after months of escalating anti-Israel rhetoric. Some Jewish leaders in the district say that they saw a direct connection between Khanna’s incendiary language condemning the Jewish state and attacks such as the one their community experienced.
Two days after the attack, Khanna posted about how he is “proud to stand” with Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, as well as to join far-left streamer Hasan Piker’s show, all of whom have faced criticism from the Jewish community — comments that prompted condemnation by Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.
Jewish leaders in the district who are now critical of the congressman said the community’s relationship with Khanna started out strong when he was first elected in 2016, but has significantly deteriorated over time, particularly in the past few years. Khanna’s Silicon Valley district includes substantial, concentrated Jewish and Israeli-American communities.
Tali Klima, a spokesperson for Bay Area Jewish Coalition Action, a local grassroots advocacy group, said that Khanna was “warmly welcomed” by the Jewish community when he was first elected and that many in the community had supported him.
Khanna traveled to Israel three times while in office, and has expressed support for the Abraham Accords, voted in 2019 to condemn the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, condemned calls to “globalize the intifada,” voted in early 2024 to condemn the slogan “from the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” and introduced a Holocaust education resolution in 2024. Amid rising antisemitism in recent years, he has touted appointing a point of contact for addressing antisemitism in the district on his congressional team.
But, Klima and other critics said, they’ve seen the congressman’s posture change over time.
“He’s become more and more divisive and more extremist in his views, that we never heard when he was first elected, especially since Oct. 7. It’s been a massive shift in the way that he communicates about things that we care about,” Klima continued.
“At this point, the community has really lost trust in him,” Klima said. “Much of the community is afraid of him, and much of the community is also very angry and feels betrayed by him.”
“Having participated in local town halls with Representative Khanna and spoken with him about various community concerns, I am thankful for his commitment to open dialogue and remaining accessible even when we disagree,” Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens said. “His dedication to peace and justice for all people and support for a two-state solution is laudable. He has been a leader for accountability and transparency with the Trump Administration, particularly with the bipartisan push for the release of the Epstein files.”
Khanna has frequently and repeatedly accused Israel of genocide, was among the first lawmakers to endorse calls for cutting off U.S. support for Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system and led an effort for U.S. recognition of a Palestinian state, among a range of other stances and votes, and has repeatedly faced scrutiny for his affiliations with groups and individuals condemned by the Jewish community.
Later this week, he’s set to offer an amendment to strip a provision advancing U.S.-Israel cooperative programs out of the 2027 defense bill. Though one former Biden administration called the provision “quite unremarkable” and in keeping with existing programs, Khanna called it a “fusion” of the U.S. and Israeli militaries to prevent scrutiny and accountability for U.S. aid to Israel.
Jewish elected officials supporting Khanna, in statements shared with Jewish Insider, praised the congressman for his support for a two-state solution and for engaging with local Jewish communities.
“Having participated in local town halls with Representative Khanna and spoken with him about various community concerns, I am thankful for his commitment to open dialogue and remaining accessible even when we disagree,” Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens said. “His dedication to peace and justice for all people and support for a two-state solution is laudable. He has been a leader for accountability and transparency with the Trump Administration, particularly with the bipartisan push for the release of the Epstein files.”
State Sen. Josh Becker added, “While Congressman Khanna gets a lot of ink for his criticism of Israel he gets less for his vocal support of a two state solution and Israel as a safe democratic Jewish state.”
Others, such as San Jose City Councilmember David Cohen, more broadly praised him for his work on local issues.
“The fact that an elected official like Khanna defends [people like Hasan Piker and Zohran Mamdani] and their dangerous antisemitic views is not only shameful — but it also actively endangers the lives of Jewish people both in his district and around the country,” Oleg Ivanov, executive director of StandWithUs Northern California, said.
“Times are very difficult these days in Washington D.C., and Congressmember Khanna remains a steady advocate for our region and economy. We need people who understand the tech industry and also who bring money back to our community from the federal budget,” Cohen said. “He has shown courage and has been willing to face his constituents at monthly town hall meetings ever since he was elected. While I don’t agree with every position he takes, I admire his thoughtfulness and transparency.”
Cohen declined to speak further on Khanna’s foreign policy work or his relationship with the local Jewish community.
But others in the community feel that their concerns aren’t being heard or listened to by the congressman. Daniel Klein, CEO of Jewish Silicon Valley, a Jewish nonprofit which runs a local JCC and other community programs and resources, said he’s communicated to Khanna directly that he thinks the legislator is out of step with his constituents.
“The fact that an elected official like Khanna defends [people like Hasan Piker and Zohran Mamdani] and their dangerous antisemitic views is not only shameful — but it also actively endangers the lives of Jewish people both in his district and around the country,” Oleg Ivanov, executive director of StandWithUs Northern California, said.
Ivanov also accused Khanna of spreading a “blood libel” in accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Oded Shekel, executive director of Bay Area Jewish Coalition Action, emphasized that members of the Jewish and Israeli community in Khanna’s district feel afraid, isolated and that they have to hide who they are, and don’t feel they’re getting the support they expect from their congressman.
Shekel said that he doesn’t necessarily think Khanna is personally or openly antisemitic, but that he is supporting and rationalizing extreme voices, to the point that has made many Jews like him feel that Khanna is the “strongest voice [that] hurts Jews in his district.”
Khanna joined a town hall in 2024 hosted by the Bay Area Jewish Coalition — a separate entity from Bay Area Jewish Coalition Action led by the same individuals — but the relationship has soured since then.
Sunnyvale Mayor Larry Klein, a Khanna supporter, said he’d attended the BAJC town hall, and met with Jewish community members alongside Khanna to discuss the challenges that Jewish high schoolers were facing from antisemitism in the district, and how the congressman could address them.
“Good to hear directly from High School Students and their parents on the district issues,” Mayor Klein said in a statement. “It was valuable to hear firsthand about the harassment that Jewish Students had endured.
Mayor Klein also praised Khanna’s “bipartisan approach to leadership” on issues including “working to halt reckless foreign intervention” and the release of the Epstein Files, saying that Khanna, “consistently puts principles over politics.” He also praised Khanna’s engagement with constituents more broadly and work on securing federal funding for the district.
Daniel Klein of Jewish Silicon Valley described Khanna’s stances and statements as hostile to the Jewish community. He said that the violent attack in Santana Row, and other similar incidents, are the “natural maturation” of the rhetoric Khanna has used and elevated.
“I appreciate the congressman being outraged” about the Santana Row attack, “but statements and what he normalizes and who he platforms before these incidents, and then who he chooses to stand with and platform and normalize after these incidents, makes the community feel unseen and unsupported by the congressman,” Klein said he told Khanna’s office in the wake of the attack.
Yet, Klein said, Khanna’s rhetoric does not appear to have shifted substantially since the March attack.
“I’m a big fan of Congressman Khanna,” Ben Linder, a J Street board member who lives just outside Khanna’s district, told JI. “The majority of the Jewish community is squarely behind him and very aligned with him,” Linder continued, emphasizing that he has seen Khanna speak on multiple occasions to busy synagogue audiences.
Klima echoed that, expressing frustration that Khanna’s condemnation of the attack was quickly followed by a return to his usual rhetoric and activity.
In addition to Jewish elected officials backing him, Khanna maintains support among segments of the local Jewish community. Ben Linder, a J Street board member who lives just outside Khanna’s district, told JI he continues to strongly support the congressman. J Street has endorsed Khanna, but Linder spoke to JI in a personal capacity, not on behalf of the progressive Israel advocacy group.
“I’m a big fan of Congressman Khanna,” Linder, who was born in Israel and moved to the U.S. in high school, said. “The majority of the Jewish community is squarely behind him and very aligned with him,” Linder continued, emphasizing that he has seen Khanna speak on multiple occasions to busy synagogue audiences.
He called critics “out of touch with the view of the majority of Jews right now” both in Khanna’s district and nationally, pointing to a Washington Post poll last year that found a majority of Jews are critical of the way the war in Gaza has been conducted.
He asserted that discontent with Khanna traces to a “vocal minority in the district, mainly led by right-wing Israeli expats that dislike Congressman Khanna” and are “out of touch with where our community is.”
“I consider Ro Khanna very pro-Israel. He is clearly anti-Netanyahu and anti- the policies of Israel’s right wing government, but so am I, and, I think, so are the majority of Jews in this district,” Linder said.
Critics of Khanna said that the congressman’s activity following the Santana Row attack matches a pattern they’ve observed repeatedly when Khanna is called out for conduct or statements they find offensive — Khanna will apologize, or offer targeted condemnations, but won’t substantially change his behavior, and ultimately continues doubling down.
They said this pattern ignores the way that Khanna’s own rhetoric is fueling antisemitism.
Klima emphasized that Khanna’s constituents have come to him on numerous occasions asking him to dial down his rhetoric. At this point, she said, his “symbolic condemnations” of antisemitism “ring very hollow.”
“He’s speaking out of both sides of his mouth, basically,” she said, adding that, as a longtime congressman, his comments “[legitimize] this rhetoric,” driving similar activity from other local officials as well.
Ivanov said it’s easy for Khanna to denounce antisemitic attacks or vandalism, “but as soon as he does that, he continues to spread the antisemitic conspiracy theories, to defend antisemitic speakers that are out there every day, fueling the antisemitism that leads to these actions.”
“We will not accept Khanna’s pro-forma denunciation of antisemitic incidents while he himself continues to fuel antisemitism and defend antisemites,” Ivanov said.
Linder, the Khanna supporter, argued that Khanna has made clear that he “will speak with anyone” and “dialogues with people he disagrees with, and I respect that.” Khanna has expressed similar sentiments to JI in the past.
Linder said he strongly disagreed with the notion that Khanna’s rhetoric is fueling violence, and emphasized that the Santana Row attack was not charged as a hate crime.
“I don’t believe there was sufficient evidence to show that it was hate-motivated,” Linder said. “The congressman came out very quickly and denounced that attack, denounced the violence, and I fundamentally am not a subscriber to the notion that criticizing Israel fuels antisemitism. I see a clear delineation between criticism of Israel and Jew hatred. I don’t believe the two are connected. As a matter of fact, I think some of the actions of Netanyahu and the Israeli government, the extreme right Israeli government foment antisemitism.”
Shekel, a Khanna critic, said that, during conversations with Khanna about antisemitism that community members are facing, Khanna has expressed sympathy while pivoting to emphasize his disputes with various Israeli government policies.
“We feel that he is fixated, obsessed with Israel,” Klima added.
“The organized Jewish community is telling you exactly where the majority of the Jewish community stands, and if you choose not to listen, it is not due to lack of knowing where your constituents are. It’s a choice,” Daniel Klein, CEO of Jewish Silicon Valley, said. “It’s a choice at that point, and then that begs the question of why the member of Congress is choosing to ignore the Jewish community while also at the same time saying he’s being responsive to the Jewish community. That’s a contradiction I don’t have the answer to.”
Klein said that some in the community see Khanna as not only ignoring their concerns but attacking the Jewish community for elevating those issues in the first place. He pointed to an incident in which Khanna shared on his X account a clip of Holocaust denying social media influencer Ian Carroll as one such instance.
Klein said he and representatives of the local Jewish Community Relations Council sat down in person with Khanna’s staff about the video — “not only the fact that this person was platformed, the person wasn’t taken down immediately, and instead of listening to the Jewish community’s concerns, at least publicly, he seemed to attack the Jewish community instead.”
Klein also characterized Khanna as deflecting the concerns of the local Jewish community in conversations, offering a variety of excuses, including pointing to national polling on Israel policy issues.
“The organized Jewish community is telling you exactly where the majority of the Jewish community stands, and if you choose not to listen, it is not due to lack of knowing where your constituents are. It’s a choice,” Klein said. “It’s a choice at that point, and then that begs the question of why the member of Congress is choosing to ignore the Jewish community while also at the same time saying he’s being responsive to the Jewish community. That’s a contradiction I don’t have the answer to.”
Critics in the district see a political motivation behind Khanna’s rhetoric and positioning.
Ivanov said that he first met Khanna several years ago, when Ivanov was working for the American Jewish Committee. The congressman at the time emphasized “the importance of maintaining progressive support for Israel in American society. That has obviously changed over the past few years, where he has embraced this tide of vilification of Israel as a way to appeal to the rising popularity of bashing Israel among certain voters,” Ivanov said.
Klima said that the “general sentiment” among members of the Jewish community is that Khanna’s stance is “opportunistic” and that he’s following anti-Israel trends for the sake of popularity, rather than any “deeply held view.”
“We feel like he’s throwing us, his constituents, under the bus for his political game, because he feels like this is a win for progressives,” she said.
The congressman is widely seen as preparing for a presidential campaign in 2028.
Khanna’s frequent commentary about the “Epstein Class” — he was one of the leading advocates in the House for releasing files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — has also set off alarm bells for Khanna’s critics.
Klima said that many in the Jewish community read those references as code for the Jewish community writ large, “because of our history with him, our recent history with him.” She said that Khanna’s pattern of rhetoric and actions has sowed distrust of him and his motives.
Khanna has dismissed the notion that the phrase is antisemitic, pointing to Jewish elected officials who have also spoken about the “Epstein Class.”
Critics in the district say that Khanna has a lot of work to do to repair his relationships with the Jewish community — and that it will take more than the pro forma condemnations of antisemitism that they feel he’s been offering over the past few years.
Klein encouraged Khanna to “stop feeding the extreme left and the alt-right” on social media and called on him to apologize for “ignoring the Jewish community,” and “actually start listening to the organized Jewish community,” rather than the “fringes.”
Klima said that she is fed up with what she sees as “symbolic gestures” by the congressman.
“We feel like we’re just pawns in his political game, because the very next day, he’s back to the ‘genocide’ and his political obsession,” she said. “[He] is clearly hurting us and it needs to be something much deeper than just a statement.”
Plus, Huckabee says next MOU will end Israel aid
Marwan Naamani/picture alliance via Getty Images
Pro-Iranian Hezbollah supporters wave the party flags during a ceremony in a southern Beirut suburb on May 5, 2026.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump announced that Israel would not carry out strikes against Hezbollah in Beirut in exchange for the terror group halting its attacks on northern Israel, hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a statement instructing the IDF to strike Hezbollah targets in the Lebanese capital.
While Trump said he had a “very good call with Hezbollah” as part of the negotiations, the Lebanese Embassy in Washington later clarified that the message was relayed through Lebanese officials rather than communicated directly from the president to the terror group.
Netanyahu said after the announcement that he had informed Trump that “if Hezbollah does not stop attacking our cities and civilians, Israel will strike terrorist targets in Beirut,” while the IDF will continue hitting targets in southern Lebanon as planned…
The news came hours after Iranian state-linked media reported that Tehran had suspended negotiations with the United States and warned it could direct its proxies, including the Houthis in Yemen, to target shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait — another critical global trade route — in response to Israel‘s continued military operations against Hezbollah…
Trump disputed the reporting, writing on Truth Social this afternoon that “talks are continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” despite having told NBC News earlier in the day that he would welcome a pause in talks if the reports were accurate. “I think we’ve been talking too much, if you want to know the truth,” Trump told the outlet. “I think going silent would be very good, and that could be for a long time”…
Amid the diplomatic dance, military operations have escalated: The U.S. struck several sites in Iran over the weekend after Iran downed an American MQ-1 drone. U.S. forces also intercepted two Iranian ballistic missiles targeting American forces based in Kuwait last night, CENTCOM said…
Michael Makovsky, the president and CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, criticized the Trump administration’s recent handling of the U.S. war in Iran, telling Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs on Friday, before the events of this weekend, that the “U.S. has lost the plot on Iran” and that a deal with the regime now “wouldn’t be worth the paper it’s written on”…
Responding to claims from former National Counterterrorism Center head Joe Kent that U.S. aid to Israel does not confer benefits to America, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee defended the relationship and said the next U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding, after the current one expires in 2028, will end aid to Israel and “be based on trade”…
Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks celebrated his group’s role in ousting Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in his primary election earlier this month at the organization’s “America 250”-themed gala held last night in Manhattan, JI’s Haley Cohen reports.
“Being anti-Israel in today’s Republican Party is not — unlike the Democratic Party — a path to success,” said Brooks, who called defeating Massie a “critical victory” for the direction of the GOP and conservative movement…
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro told CNN that he believes Israel is being unfairly singled out for criticism as a Jewish state: “For those who do not want there to be a Jewish state, oftentimes they will predicate their views on this notion that being grounded in a religion and being a democracy can’t coexist,” he said.
“I think it’s important to point out the hypocrisy of that view when there are 46 majority Muslim nations, 23 of which have Islam as their official religion … and only one has Judaism as their official religion, and yet we’re focused on just the Jewish state,” Shapiro continued. (Important to note: While Israel has a Basic Law declaring it the nation-state of the Jewish people, the country does not have an official state religion)…
El Al announced it will restart nonstop flights between Israel and San Francisco on Oct. 25, citing high demand for the route between the tech hubs, which was paused in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The three weekly flights will be numbered LY49, in a nod to the San Francisco 49ers NFL team…
The Israeli Ministry of Defense said France has barred Israeli officials from participating in the Eurosatory defense show in Paris later this month. Israeli defense firms, which can participate but will not have a dedicated Israeli national pavilion, can only showcase air-defense systems and are prohibited from displaying offensive weapons systems…
⏩ 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 tomorrow’s key primary elections across the country — including House races in New Jersey, California, Montana, Iowa, New Mexico and South Dakota, California’s gubernatorial race and Montana’s open-seat Senate race — several of which will serve as a referendum on the Democratic Party’s progressive versus establishment divide.
On the Hill, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Appropriations Committee. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin will testify at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will speak at a House Appropriations Committee hearing. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will also hold a closed intel hearing.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog will attend a command change ceremony at Mossad headquarters to inaugurate Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman as the new head of the agency, after the Israeli High Court rejected petitions today calling for Gofman’s appointment to be annulled on ethical and procedural grounds.
The Israel Democracy Institute will kick off its two-day Eli Hurvitz Conference on Economy and Society in Jerusalem.
Stories You May Have Missed
ANGELENO AFFAIRS
The race features an embattled Mayor Karen Bass facing a spirited challenge from her right in reality TV star Spencer Pratt, and from her left in City Councilmember Nithya Raman
BIG SKY BATTLE
Two of the four Democrats in the race have also faced scrutiny over antisemitic activity online
Plus, Theo Baker schools Stanford
Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Spencer Pratt, from left, Karen Bass and Nithya Raman take part in the Los Angeles Mayoral debate at Skirball Cultural Center on Wednesday, May 6, 2026 in Los Angeles, CA.
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we spotlight the Los Angeles mayoral race, where Mayor Karen Bass is locked in a close three-way race against Republican Spencer Pratt and DSA-affiliated Democrat Nithya Raman ahead of tomorrow’s primary, and cover yesterday’s Israel Day on Fifth parade in New York City. We report on Rep. Josh Gottheimer’s trip to the United Arab Emirates last week, where he met with UAE National Security Advisor Tahnoun bin Zayed and Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed, and talk to Theo Baker about his new book about power structures at Stanford, where he’s a student. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Shmuel Ben Ezra, Ilan Shchori and Andy Baker.
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
- We’re keeping an eye on the escalation in Israel’s north and in southern Lebanon as the IDF and Hezbollah continue to exchange fire. Efforts to reach a ceasefire over the weekend following an hours-long meeting on Friday between Israeli and Lebanese security officials fell short, with Hezbollah rejecting a proposal from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the Iran-backed group end its missile and drone attacks against Israel in exchange for Israel agreeing not to resume attacks on Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut. The escalation comes amid a deeper Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon, and the IDF’s capture of the Crusader-era Beaufort Castle.
- On Capitol Hill, the House is expected to vote on war powers resolutions on both Iran and Lebanon later this week, while the Senate is likely to vote on final passage of an Iran war powers resolution that cleared a procedural vote before the Memorial Day recess.
- The American Jewish Committee’s annual Global Forum continues today in Washington. Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, author Dara Horn and historian Jonathan Sarna are slated to speak at this morning’s plenary, while JI Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar will address attendees this afternoon alongside Axios’ Barak Ravid and Kan’s Gili Cohen for a panel about the upcoming U.S. midterms and Israeli elections.
- The Israeli Embassy in Washington is holding a memorial this morning for slain staffers Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, who were killed in a terror attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum last May.
- This afternoon, the Israeli Embassy in Washington will host an event with Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on the Isaac Accords Fund.
- In Israel, the Knesset is holding its first reading of a bill to dissolve the body and trigger elections. The Michigan Democratic Party’s Jewish, Black, senior and faith caucuses are jointly holding a debate this evening for the state’s open Senate seat. Democrats Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and physician Abdul El-Sayed are all expected to participate.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR
The latest revelations that Graham Platner, the Democrats’ anti-establishment, far-left standard-bearer in the Maine Senate race, was sending sexually explicit texts to as many as a dozen women while he was married — an issue his wife raised to campaign staff as a potential liability — is another sign that the candidate’s extensive baggage may be too much for the party to handle. (As commentator Haviv Rettig Gur posted on X: “I’m starting to think that SS tattoo might have been a red flag.”)
Meanwhile, a New York Times interview, published over the weekend, with leading New Jersey Democratic congressional candidate Adam Hamawy about his past affiliations with Islamist extremists is going to raise more red flags for Democrats.
Asked about his travels with Omar Abdel Rahman, known as the “Blind Sheikh,” who was connected to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Hamawy downplayed the spiritual leader’s jihadist sermons. “He wasn’t preaching death and destruction all the time,” Hamawy said. “He had certain views that he spoke in certain forums, but that’s not what he did every single day.”
With the calendar now turned to June, it’s yet another reminder that Democrats are on the verge of nominating some truly radical and damaged candidates for congressional office as a critical mass of primaries take place this month.
Many of the races are taking place in safely blue seats, so Democrats haven’t raised that much concern over candidates such as Hamawy, whose terror ties (including volunteer work for what was later revealed as an al-Qaida front group) at the very least, raise questions about suitability for public office.
But others, such as Platner, are running in battleground Senate seats where the stakes couldn’t be higher. In California and Montana, candidates are running in swing districts where the battle for the House majority will be fought.
If May was the month that tested President Donald Trump’s power over the Republican Party (lesson: he’s still firmly in control of GOP voters), June will be the month that determines whether the Democratic Party is going to abandon its moderate moorings and nominate a roster of radicals.
The stakes couldn’t be higher — especially for Jewish Democrats, who have been among the leading voices alarmed by the rise of these candidates, who, not surprisingly, often hold virulently anti-Israel views and don’t have a problem mainlining antisemitic rhetoric.
ANGELENO AFFAIRS
In the closing weeks of the Los Angeles mayoral primary, the two candidates challenging incumbent Mayor Karen Bass — from both the left and the right — had a lot to say on areas of interest to Jewish Angelenos, which was particularly notable in a race in which those issues have, for much of the campaign cycle, not been front and center. The race features an embattled Mayor Karen Bass facing a spirited challenge from her right in reality TV star Spencer Pratt, and from her left in City Councilmember Nithya Raman, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Community issues: In a race that appears to have the three leading candidates bunched together in a three-way tie, the winning votes could come from anywhere, and recent outreach by Pratt to the Jewish community suggests he knows that winning over Jewish Democrats could help him make it to the general election. The Los Angeles metro area is home to roughly 560,000 Jews, although not all of them live in the city of L.A. That means that a pressing question facing moderate Jewish voters who have supported Bass, a liberal Democrat and former member of Congress, is whether taking a chance on Pratt is worthwhile.
PRIDE AND PROTECTION
As an estimated 50,000 New Yorkers stretched along Fifth Avenue waving Israeli and American flags and Hebrew music echoed through the streets, this year’s annual “Israel Day on Fifth” parade carried a palpable sense of relief. For the first time since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, attendees could swap out their hostage pins and “Bring Them Home Now” signs for simple flags — marking the first parade since the attacks in which all hostages held by Hamas have been released and Israel’s war in Gaza has ended, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Pulse check on Fifth: For the first time in more than six decades, the city’s mayor was notably absent from the bipartisan tradition. While Zohran Mamdani’s boycott was intended to make a strong statement, attendees appeared largely unfazed. Instead, attendees seemed focused on the notable figures marching — from politicians from both parties to social media influencers and the largest-ever delegation from the Knesset, including Speaker Amir Ohana and members of both the governing and opposition parties.
In the crowd: Spotted on the Jewish Agency’s float were Ronen and Orna Neutra, the parents of Omer Neutra, an Israeli American IDF officer killed during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. State Assemblymember Alex Bores, who is running in the Democratic primary for the 12th Congressional District, was in attendance, as were Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) and former New York City Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Eric Adams. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), flanked by city and Jewish communal leaders — including New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin and UJA-Federation of New York CEO Eric Goldstein — addressed attendees.
BOOKSHELF
In an interview with Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen, 21-year-old author Theo Baker discussed his new book, How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University, in which he reflects on his turbulent college years and lays bare an elite university corrupted by Silicon Valley’s pursuit of power. Weeks away from graduation, Baker spoke with JI about his past four years on campus, the role that technology plays in rising antisemitism — and what the future might hold for universities.
Turning point: “In fall 2022, I went home for Thanksgiving and said, ‘There’s so much antisemitism at Stanford.’ I was shocked by that … As soon as I arrived at Stanford — even in the first week — someone asked me, ‘Why are all Jews so rich?’ By the end of that year — and this is before Oct. 7 —- someone in my dorm, a kid who was Jewish, talked about being Jewish for the first time and someone put a bunch of swastikas and an image of Hitler on his door later that day. So Jewishness is an identity and not one I would have placed much investment in prior to coming to college … Certainly, I, like many college students in the last few years, have been made to feel more Jewish just by the circumstances around us.”
FOLLOW THE MONEY
A recently launched super PAC positioning itself as a progressive counterweight to AIPAC’s involvement in Democratic primary elections has accepted financial contributions from a number of individuals who have also donated to Republicans, campaign filings show. The financial support for American Priorities PAC, created in February, has come even as AIPAC and its super PAC have faced backlash from critics on the left who accuse it of meddling in Democratic primaries as a sort of front group for GOP-funded attacks against anti-Israel candidates in safely blue districts, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
PAC picks: American Priorities is investing significantly in New Jersey’s 12th District race on Tuesday on behalf of Adam Hamawy. The super PAC, in another race in California, is boosting Randy Villegas, a progressive critic of Israel running for a red-leaning seat held by Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), who is endorsed by AIPAC. Those investments have been fueled, most notably, by at least $525,000 from Hussein Mahrouq, a Texas businessman who has backed far-right Republicans including the recently ousted Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), both of whom have been accused of using antisemitic tropes about Jews and Israel.
TRIP TALK
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) visited the United Arab Emirates in his capacity as a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence last week, meeting with National Security Advisor Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Readout: “The United States and the UAE are close partners, and I am grateful for the warmth our hosts extended throughout this trip,” Gottheimer said in a statement to JI. “The UAE has stood firm throughout Iran’s relentless missile and drone attacks on Emirati cities and demonstrated the enduring strength of the Abraham Accords by engaging in a deeper partnership with Israel than ever before. We are completely aligned that Iran cannot continue threatening its neighbors.”
Worthy Reads
The Ties That Fray: Matthew Schmitz, the religion editor of The Washington Post’s opinions page, warns that “Democrats’ traditional Jewish alliance is fraying as never before” as anti-Zionist activism has crossed boundaries into antisemitism. “Antisemitism is rising on the left and the right, but its presence in the Democratic Party is particularly jarring. Jewish support for the Democratic Party was sealed during the New Deal era, when Jews rallied to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Jonah Goldstein, a leader in New York’s Jewish community who made the mistake of running for mayor as a Republican in 1945, joked in Yiddish that Jews had three veltn, or worlds: di velt (this world), yene velt (the other world) and Roosevelt.” [WashPost]
Calling on Congress: In Fox News, Ruby Chen, whose son, Itay, was killed during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and his body held in captivity, calls on Congress to create a bipartisan committee to investigate the attacks, in which dozens of Americans were killed. “We are seeking justice, but not only for those who carried out the murders. Also for those who financed, enabled and armed them as well. … When Americans are killed in a war zone, Congress has a duty to determine what happened, why it happened and who bears responsibility. That duty does not disappear because geopolitics are complicated. It does not pause because allies may be implicated. American lives cannot be subject to selective accountability. For decades, the United States has operated on a clear standard: kidnapping and killing Americans must carry consequences.” [FoxNews]
MBS’ Brotherhood Two-Step: In Alhurra, Abdulaziz Alkhamis observes Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s opposition to Muslim Brotherhood elements inside Saudi Arabia while backing Muslim Brotherhood offshoots in conflicts in the region and in Africa. “When the state wages war on the Brotherhood’s discourse at home while aligning with its affiliates abroad, it hands critics a potent argument: Why is political Islam considered a threat in Riyadh but a necessary partner in Yemen or Sudan? That question alone is enough to complicate Saudi Arabia’s new national narrative, weaken the rhetoric of the modern state, and create an opening for advocates of ‘reconciliation,’ ‘accommodation,’ and political reintegration.” [AlHurra]
Syria As the New Strait: In Foreign Policy, the Middle East Institute’s Charles Lister looks at Syria’s efforts to position itself as a “transformational corridor” and logistics hub in the region amid the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz. “Syria could become one alternative overland artery in a network of new ones, spanning from the Gulf, to Egypt, to Jordan. This would be of enormous global significance — to regional states and Gulf energy producers, to customers in Europe, and, of course, for Syria itself. Iran’s shuttering of the Strait of Hormuz has also surged maritime shipping insurance rates, which, even if peace returns, are not expected to return to pre-conflict levels, thereby making overland transit structurally competitive.” [FP]
Word on the Street
The U.S. struck several sites in Iran over the weekend after Iran downed an American MQ-1 drone, while Kuwait said early Monday that it was being targeted by missiles and drones that triggered sirens across the Gulf nation…
U.S. officials told The New York Times that American forces had helped some 70 vessels transit through the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks as the key waterway remains largely closed amid stalled talks between Tehran and Washington…
The report comes days after President Donald Trump reportedly asked senior officials to make some changes to a draft ceasefire proposal with Iran, prompting a new back-and-forth with Tehran over the reworked items, which largely focus on Iran’s nuclear program…
The Financial Times spotlights Operation Jailbreak, a recent hackathon convened by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll during which defense firms and startups worked to build inter-operative weapons systems; FT reports that Driscoll wants to send some of the solutions from the hackathon to CENTCOM’s areas of operations in the Middle East within the next month to assist in countering Iranian drone threats…
The office of Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa said that the Syrian leader spoke by phone to Trump on Sunday about regional developments and the Syrian economy…
Reps. Jefferson Shreve (R-IN) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) introduced legislation to prohibit funding for UNIFIL, which has faced criticism for its inability to deter Hezbollah in Lebanon’s south, after Oct. 1, 2027…
Reps. Danny Davis (D-IL), Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Jim Clyburn (D-SC) introduced legislation to establish a National Park honoring Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald and the network of schools for Black students that he founded…
Politico reports that the New York chapter of the Working Families Party declined to endorse Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) in his reelection bid over his failure to support the Block the Bombs Act as the New York Democrat faces a primary challenge from democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier…
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican, signed an executive order requiring the state’s public schools and universities to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism in investigating complaints and directing the state’s Board of Education to provide educational materials about antisemitism, Israel and American Jewish history…
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul formally signed the state’s buffer zone bill, which enacts a 50-foot security perimeter around religious institutions, into law on Sunday at the Met Council’s annual legislative breakfast…
PBS interviews the father of slain Israeli Embassy staffer Yaron Lischinsky on the anniversary of the Capital Jewish Museum shooting in which Lischinsky and his partner were killed, about how he plans to honor his son’s legacy…
The Washington Post spotlights the “enduring mystery” of the post-World War II lives of Louis “Speedy” Weber and his wife, Frances, whose letters to each other while Louis was stationed in Europe during the war were recently digitized by the USO…
In The Wall Street Journal, Gil Troy reflects on the origins of anti-Zionism on the 81st anniversary of Iraq’s Farhud, the pogrom that marked a turning point for Iraqi Jews and initiated the mass exodus of the country’s Jewish community…
Far-left streamer Hasan Piker and Young Turks co-founder Cenk Uygur said they were both banned from the U.K. ahead of their scheduled upcoming appearances at London’s SXSW convening; Piker accused London of acting at “the behest of Israel,” while Uygur, who is Piker’s uncle, said the U.K.’s Home Office called him a “serious risk to the public order”…
Italian authorities canceled a Kanye West show scheduled for July in Emilia-Reggiano — as well as a concert by rapper Travis Scott slated for the following day — amid concerns from the country’s Jewish community over West’s past antisemitic rhetoric; West was previously slated to perform in the U.K., France, Switzerland and Poland at concerts that have since been canceled, with some countries revoking his entry visa…
Paris Saint-Germain beat Arsenal 4-3 in the UEFA Champions League match on Saturday night in Budapest, Hungary, the second year in a row the Qatar-owned team has won the league’s championship…
Australia’s royal commission investigating antisemitism in the country rejected an effort by the government to keep confidential official minutes from Cabinet meetings between 2020-2025 that pertain to the government’s budget for counterterrorism enforcement…
Far-right attorney Abelardo de la Espriella will face off against far-left activist Ivan Cepeda in Colombia’s presidential runoff next month after Sunday’s election in which no candidate reached the requisite 50%…
The Financial Times profiles Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed, the son of UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed who is being groomed to lead the Gulf nation…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the appointment of Shmuel Ben Ezra to serve as national security advisor and head of the country’s National Security Council; Ben Ezra, who oversaw the development of Israel’s Arrow 3 missile-defense system, will replace Gil Reich, who had been in the role in an acting capacity since October 2024 after Netanyahu fired Tzachi Hanegbi from the position…
Historian Ilan Shchori was named the senior vice president of B’nai B’rith International; Shchori, who is based in Tel Aviv, will also serve as the organization’s lead historian…
Longtime Newsday journalist Cara Trager died at 71…
Marion Miliband, a Holocaust survivor whose sons, David and Ed, went on to become leading figures in U.K. politics, died at 91…
Pic of the Day
Rabbi Andrew Baker, who is retiring as the American Jewish Committee’s director of international Jewish affairs after 47 years with the organization, was honored by AJC Board of Governors Chair Melanie Nelkin at last night’s plenary session at the AJC Global Forum in Washington.
Birthdays
Comedian, writer, actor, director and producer, Amy Schumer turns 45…
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, pianist and conductor, he has taught at Yale, SUNY Purchase, Cornell, Brandeis and Harvard, Yehudi Wyner turns 97… Holocaust survivor as a child, he served as the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel for 10 years and twice as chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau turns 89… NYC-based attorney, author of two books regarding the history and operations of El Al, owner of 40,000-plus pieces of memorabilia related to El Al, Marvin G. Goldman turns 87… Grammy Award-winning classical pianist, Richard Goode turns 83… Former member of the Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Shimon Ohayon turns 81… Retired attorney in Berkeley, Calif., Thomas Andrew Seaton… Pediatrician in the San Francisco Bay area, longtime AIPAC activist, Elliot Charles Lepler, MD… Former member of the Knesset for the Shinui and the Hilonit Tzionit parties, Eti Livni turns 78… Founding editor of The American Interest, a bimonthly public policy magazine that is on hiatus since 2020, Adam M. Garfinkle turns 75… Former editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News and co-author with Michael Bloomberg of Bloomberg by Bloomberg, Matthew Winkler turns 71… Senior business editor at NPR for 25 years until his scathing review of liberal bias at the network in 2024, now a contributing editor at The Free Press, Uri Paul Berliner… Founding rabbi of Congregation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, N.Y., Rabbi Moshe Weinberger turns 69… Former IDF officer and now a London based political scientist and journalist, Ahron “Ronnie” Bregman turns 68… Member of the Knesset for the Shas party for 16 years ending in 2015, Amnon Cohen turns 66… Owner of MLB’s Athletics, his parents were the co-founders of Gap, Inc., he is a board member of the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) Foundation, John J. Fisher turns 65… Poet, performance artist and essayist, Adeena Karasick turns 61… Founding editor and publisher of the Dayton Jewish Observer, Marshall J. Weiss… Television personality and matchmaker, Sigalit “Siggy” Flicker turns 59… Actor, voice actor and film director, Danielle Harris turns 49… Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and writer, Spencer J. Ackerman turns 46… Partner in Oliver Wyman, a global management consulting firm, Daniel Tannebaum… President and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Yael Eckstein turns 42… Musician, songwriter, author, actor and blogger, Ari Seth Herstand turns 41… Former CEO of The Good Food Institute, Ilya Sheyman turns 40… Political reporter for NBC News until last year, now a newspaper editor in Maine, Alex Seitz-Wald… Senior writer at Barron’s covering the Federal Reserve, Nicole Goodkind… Head of responsible AI policy at Palantir, Naomi S. Kadish… Executive business partner at Lyft, Isabel Keller… NYC-born Israeli pair skater, she competed for Israel at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Hailey Esther Kops turns 24…
Discussing his new book 'How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University,' Baker revealed to JI details about his turbulent and impactful college years
Theo Baker describes himself as “an accidental journalist.” But at just 21, his writing has already sent shockwaves through the academic world.
As a freshman at Stanford University in 2022, he exposed then-President Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s decades-long pattern of manipulated data and research in scientific papers he co-authored or supervised, ultimately leading to his resignation. Baker, the son of New York Times reporter Peter Baker and New Yorker columnist Susan Glasser, became the youngest recipient of the George Polk Award for his reporting on Tessier-Lavigne.
During his sophomore year, Baker published a much-discussed essay in The Atlantic called “The War at Stanford,” exploring campus culture following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel. He called college “a factory of unreason” and argued that anti-Israel demonstrations and rhetoric had created a pervasive climate of fear, accusing Stanford of failing to adequately condemn the attacks or protect Jewish students, all while training the next generation of tech and industry leaders.
Baker reflects on his turbulent college years in his new memoir and exposé, How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University, published earlier this month. The book lays bare an elite university corrupted by Silicon Valley’s pursuit of power, all while Stanford saw a historic rise of antisemitism.
Whether it was navigating the release of ChatGPT or grappling with the impact of the Oct. 7 attacks, Baker said every year of his experience at the elite Palo Alto, Calif., university presented a unique challenge. Weeks away from graduation, Baker spoke with Jewish Insider about his past four years on campus, the role that technology plays in rising antisemitism — and what the future might hold for universities.
Jewish Insider: You’ve described yourself as coming from a home with “just a tiny bit of cultural Judaism.” How has covering antisemitism changed your Jewish identity? What about your relationship with Israel?
Theo Baker: In fall 2022, I went home for Thanksgiving and said, “There’s so much antisemitism at Stanford.” I was shocked by that. It’s not something I really countered growing up. As soon as I arrived at Stanford — even in the first week — someone asked me, “why are all Jews so rich?”
By the end of that year — and this is before Oct. 7 —- someone in my dorm, a kid who was Jewish, talked about being Jewish for the first time and someone put a bunch of swastikas and an image of Hitler on his door later that day.
So Jewishness is an identity and not one I would have placed much investment in prior to coming to college. It was something that I knew about myself but was not particularly salient. Certainly, I, like many college students in the last few years, have been made to feel more Jewish just by the circumstances around us. It was certainly interesting to be here on campus as a reporter when the biggest story happening was something that also intersected with my own background.
I have not taken trips to Israel [in college] but I lived in Israel briefly when my dad was the Jerusalem correspondent for The New York Times. I’ve tried to center my reporting on the things I have expertise on. Stanford is 7,000 miles away from Israel. It’s so fascinating that it became such an important issue for people, and then disappeared seemingly so quickly from the public conversation.
JI: You wrote that extremism had made it “normal for students to be harassed and intimidated for their faith, heritage, or appearance.” You described a campus environment where to get into a party you had to say things like “f**k Israel” at the door. Do you think campus culture has improved since then? Do you expect other issues to eventually overshadow the fixation with Israel on campuses? How come the Iran war didn’t spark as many protests?
TB: Certainly the focus has shifted dramatically. Stanford has not been a real hub of activism. It’s been a place where people have been more focused on their dorm-based startups. For one year, things were very different. Pretty quickly that [anti-Israel protests] dissipated come fall 2024. The tensions are still there, yet they’ve become far less visible. This all-consuming fixation with Israel is still certainly a thing for some quadrants of campus but is no longer the dominant narrative.
Many of the protests were fashionable because you could join them as a pregame to a party — literally. The vast majority of students didn’t come into 2023 with the Middle East being their focus and at this point I don’t think it is either for most of them.
Higher ed and academia perceives itself as under attacks from the federal government at the moment. A lot of attention has been focused on that, obviously a closer-to-home thing than Israel. But I also think people became less interested.
JI: Do you think elite universities can fix this problem and what would it take? Has the threat of losing federal funding has actually changed anything?
TB: Universities have become so sprawling that they’ve lost a sense of cohesive identity.
Yes [the threats made an impact but] it’s a mixture of things.
JI: Your Atlantic piece on Stanford antisemitism made you a target — you’ve described receiving death threats and messages saying you should be “cooked alive.” Are you expecting similar backlash from this book or do you think the current moment is less tense?
TB: There are a range of reactions, as you might expect. I’m grateful that both with that piece and this book there are people who care about these conversations and reasonable people can have differing interpretations.
Sophomore year I had events canceled because of “security threats.” I did an event at Stanford for the book [last week] and no one shouted at me. So that’s a little different. I haven’t gotten as many death threats. Higher ed right now, though, is a very charged landscape so people have different reactions to things they perceive as a critique.
JI: What reaction have you gotten from the Jewish community to the book? Who is the target audience? What should Jewish students reading this book take away from it?
TB: I hope different people can find different things of value in this book. The Jewish community on campus is very engaged. A lot of organizers belong to the Jewish community and some of them have opened up to me about their own experiences in relation to the book.
What I’m describing at Stanford is an inner world that is necessarily exclusive, necessarily kept obfuscated from the rest. That matters because these are the future masters of the universe who are going to assume their rightful place among the tech masters of the world. So understanding how they are being trained — all too frequently trained to cut corners to get ahead — that has a real salience for all our lives given the sheer dominance of technology.
JI: Your reporting on President Tessier-Lavigne, which led to his resignation, demonstrated the power of students holding institutions accountable. Do you believe student journalists have generally succeeded in covering campus antisemitism fairly and making a meaningful impact since Oct. 7, or have they fallen short?
TB: The student journalism community is a wonderful one. The past few years have been really tough for student journalists, the same we’ve seen for professionals doing this work in the “real world.” Sometimes that’s magnified on campus because you’re reporting on your peers. The number of threats and doxxing that has been targeted at journalists just doing their jobs is horrifying.
Institutions have arrested journalists just for covering college protests. A lot of student journalists have done important work in the last few years to document this important cultural story from the ground, from the campuses where these fights are breaking out.
JI: Your book describes Stanford as a place training kids to “rule the world.” What does it mean for American Jewish life — and American values in general — that so many future tech and political leaders are being educated in environments where antisemitism is largely unchecked?
TB: In addition to antisemitism, one of the major trends we’ve seen on college campuses in the last few years is a lack of engagement with high-quality information. This is a huge problem. The way students have come to grapple with the world is often filtered with unreliable sources that are intentionally distorting the facts and events of the world. One of the results of that is the rising surge of antisemitism, clearly prevalent among my generation. The overt antisemitism, expressed explicitly in polls, is significantly higher among people my age than even 10 years older. A big part of that technology and social media.
The people building those echo chambers are the same ones who are being trained on this campus to learn that getting ahead at any cost means putting yourself first.
JI: Do you think this is a Gen Z problem specifically, or is it more about the ideological framework that’s taken hold on elite campuses that your generation inherited?
TB: Our [Gen Z’s] manifestation of antisemitism is unique. So much of antisemitism is the denial of antisemitism, like Holocaust reductionalism and the anti-victim narrative refusing to allow Jews to be victims of a hate crime because they are somehow seen as a category you’re punching up at. That’s a big thing on college campuses. Part of that is how people grew up on the internet.
JI: A 2024 report from a Stanford committee focused on addressing antisemitism stated that although antisemitism manifested itself in classrooms, campus protests and among friend groups, “no venue has provided a wider and more uninhibited berth for the expression of hostility toward Jews and Israelis than social media.” How have you seen social media and AI exacerbate antisemitism — especially at Stanford which is a leader in technology?
TB: ChatGPT arrived two months after [my freshman year class arrived]. Already there’s a huge gap between what the freshmen coming in now who had ChatGPT throughout high school are like versus the kids who were seniors when we were freshmen.
Stanford is a vanguard of a lot of trends we see sweeping higher education — the same way Silicon Valley trends tend to filter out into broader society, the same thing is true for Stanford. It was true of the patent licensing program and corporate partnership programs. One of the biggest trends we’ve seen here in the last few years — and certainly we’ve seen filter out into the rest of higher ed — is this corporatization of the university, where students are no longer just people or teenagers, but they’re commodities that have to be both protected and buttered up. Something you can make your riches off of.
JI: The book examines how power operates at elite universities, particularly regarding who receives institutional protection and who is left vulnerable. Based on your reporting, did you find a direct link between the donor and venture capital influence you document and how these schools manage concerns raised by Jewish students?
TB: The most important thing to understand is that the attitudes of these institutions are shaped by their relationship to money and power. Stanford likes to think of itself as an underdog institution, a place where renegade outsiders build for the sake of it and that is what has created all the innovation and fortune that has followed. Stanford is very far from an underdog right now. It’s annual budget is higher than [more than 100] countries. The result of that is governance by corporate structure — this is a place with more administrators than undergraduate students.
You see that reflected in all facets of student life [including how] the administration is going to respond to antisemitism. Everything is filtered through the lens of donors and protecting the ability to fundraise at the level of billions of dollars Stanford has historically been at. Everything is filtered not as seeing students as going through a formative experience, but as commodities that have to be protected and preserved just as products of any business are seen.
JI: Jewish Insider spoke with you in 2024. Now that you’re about to graduate and have the perspective of all four years — what has changed for you? Do you think what happened at Stanford after Oct. 7 was unique in any ways or just part of a broader and systemic trend across elite institutions?
TB: Certainly very few of the things that happened at Stanford after Oct. 7 are unique to Stanford. Individual circumstances and behaviors may be, but the broader trends are all completely reflective of what we saw at basically every major institution.
Now with a couple of years of perspective, it’s still a hard thing to explain to some degree.
Everything was intense and quickly faded to the background. Universities got themselves into trouble by setting a standard for themselves that they weren’t equipped to hold onto when it came to the Middle East. They adopted the path of least resistance. In that sense, nothing has changed even if the words being uttered are different ones. The primary motivation isn’t an ideological one for why these universities were making statements on political causes routinely that aligned with the liberal perspective in the past, or why they are making statements now that appear to be in favor of academic freedom. For the most part, all of that is still guided by political expediency regardless of what the actual politics are.
JI: What would you advise a Jewish student considering attending Stanford or another elite university today?
TB: Universities for the most part are about finding your people. It’s still very much possible to do that. It’s important to keep your eyes open and observe the things happening around you because so much of what we’re seeing on college campuses right now is a representation of these broader national trends in terms of our politics, culture and technology that are important to understand and reckon with. I don’t think we properly understand the implications of having such a rancorous political climate, what it looks like to have these new technologies like ChatGPT taking on such an important role in our lives.
Every person going to college right now is well positioned to observe things that are important for our society going forward, and the lessons we draw from that have a huge impact and influence on everything.
I hope Stanford is a hyperconcentrated version of the modern university. It takes everything and turns the dial up to 11. It’s an interesting sociological experiment to look at what is happening here and see how that is reflected in what is happening in the rest of higher ed.
‘What is astounding to me is the cavalier way in which so many public voices so freely spread dangerous lies about Israel and the Jewish people,’ the AJC CEO told JI
Aryeh Schwartz/AJC
Ted Deutch
Ahead of the American Jewish Committee’s annual Global Forum conference, which begins in Washington on Sunday, the group’s CEO, Ted Deutch, is reflecting on a significantly transformed landscape — in which, he said, antisemitism has become mainstream in politics and circles of power in alarming ways that seemed to leave the longtime former congressman stunned.
But he also said that AJC has been working on a comprehensive new plan to address the changing manifestations of antisemitism in the current social environment, which it plans to unveil at next week’s conference.
“Antisemitism is unfortunately no longer just on the fringes, but it’s become instrumentalized, it’s become institutionalized in so many ways and amplified in mainstream politics and media and online and at international institutions,” Deutch said during an interview with Jewish Insider in AJC’s Washington offices on Thursday. “The threat of antisemitism has evolved, and I think our response has to evolve as well.”
The former Democratic congressman expressed a sense of frustration and astonishment with the spread and proliferation of antisemitism in recent years, particularly its mainstreaming in political circles and discourse.
“What is astounding to me is the cavalier way in which so many public voices so freely spread dangerous lies about Israel and the Jewish people,” Deutch said.
Deutch said he’s been reflecting on a speech he made on the House floor in 2019 condemning then-newly elected Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for employing antisemitic tropes.
He said it was “frustrating” at the time to have to explain to colleagues the history of antisemitism “and why the Jewish community gets to define what they feel threatened by, why others don’t get to impose that on us, and why the use of those tropes over millennia have led to the Jews being attacked and chased out of countries and put in ghettos and the attempted annihilation of the Jewish people.”
Seven years later, Deutch said, “serious political figures” across multiple states in both parties are employing those same antisemitic tropes and worse — spreading conspiracy theories about antisemitic attacks, employing dual loyalty tropes, calling support for a Jewish state inconsistent with American values, sporting a Nazi tattoo, justifying an attack on a synagogue preschool or openly espousing antisemitism — and have constructed a narrative that these are all simply criticism of Israel.
He said that the discourse in mainstream circles has gone well beyond critique of the Israeli government, crossing over into “opposition to the very existence of Israel.”
Deutch said that social media algorithms have played a significant role in mainstreaming hatred, but elected officials are responsible for their own rhetoric and decisions, and have a responsibility to reject antisemitic tropes, rather than playing into them. He pointed to the killings of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside an AJC event in Washington, D.C., a year ago as a consequence of such rhetoric.
“People in public life have a responsibility to understand that the language that they use has real world implications,” Deutch said. “When everyone defaults to accusations of genocide against Israel, that becomes just a political talking point to them. But to people who hear this over and over, and then decide that they’re going to go shoot at and … kill people at Jewish events — they need to think about it in those terms.”
Political leaders, he continued, have a responsibility to create and enforce guardrails for their coalitions as well. He said leaders tolerating antisemitism in the interest of a political “big tent” is unacceptable.
“Whoever is creating the big tent has to be clear about views that are acceptable within the tent, and those that are outside the tent,” Deutch said. “This is not about policy differences. … For thousands of years, we’ve seen what happens when you allow antisemitic tropes to just become part of accepted conversation. We need leaders to speak out against that.”
Those who are only willing to call out antisemitism among their political enemies are “trying to use Jewish fear for political gain,” he added.
Jewish members of Congress, he added, now face legitimate threats to their lives far more frequently than they did when he was in office. “That doesn’t come in the form of some criticism of Israel. These are violent threats against Jews.”
In recent months, calls to end U.S. financial aid to Israel for missile-defense systems have rapidly become mainstream, particularly among Democrats. Deutch argued that that stance reflects a fundamental “hatred of Israel for, sadly, a growing number of elected officials,” emphasizing that the Iron Dome system saves the lives of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians.
He also highlighted the “litmus tests” that political leaders are facing, offering as an example the attacks this week on Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) and calls to exile him from the Democratic Party over Auchincloss’ criticism of Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s now-covered tattoo of a Nazi Totenkopf.
“We need a strong democracy where no one is shunned because they have the belief that they should be able to live their lives freely, safely, that they can support the State of Israel without being shunned by others in politics,” Deutch said.
Deutch noted that this year’s Global Forum coincides with both the 120th anniversary of AJC but also the 250th anniversary of the United States. AJC, he said, was founded to pressure the U.S. government to address attacks on Jews in the Eastern European pogroms, and these landmark anniversaries come at a new time of crisis for the Jewish people.
He teased plans for an announcement at the AJC conference of a “significant new initiative” to combat antisemitism that “recognizes the moment we’re in and how antisemitism has evolved,” which has come about as a result of meetings with leaders across various sectors of society in the past year to understand and address antisemitism.
“It’s going to talk about all of the ways that antisemitism manifests itself today, and the institutions that are providing cover for it, the way that politics and politicians have in some cases not only referred to it, utilized it, but leaned into it in ways that are extremely dangerous,” Deutch explained. “More than anything, we’re going to be making the point that security alone isn’t enough, that we have to address the culture and the ideology that are driving antisemitism today.”
Deutch praised legislation by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Mike Lawler (R-NY) condemning antisemitic social media influencers on the fringes of both parties as simple and common sense — and lamented that the resolution hasn’t received stronger support. He also praised Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) for their new wide-reaching legislation to help protect the Jewish community.
Looking toward the war in Iran, Deutch said that there should be several key red-lines for U.S. negotiators, who are reportedly close to finalizing a deal with Tehran: no enrichment of uranium, no nuclear weapons, an end to Iranian support for regional terrorism, human rights for the Iranian people and no sanctions relief as long as Iran continues its ballistic missile program.
He said that the administration should not accede to an “agreement by Iran to enter into negotiations” that the regime can then drag on for months and years. Until the next steps are clear, he said, it’s too early to render a verdict on the war and its results.
“Just because there has been this sharp partisan divide over this war doesn’t mean that we should then let Iran off the hook for all of the ways that it has destabilized the region and put so many people, millions of people, at risk,” Deutch continued. “There’s no one who could think that a good outcome here is to simply accept the fact that they’re going to advance their ballistic missile program without any repercussions.”
He said that discussions of congressional war powers were appropriate, but “what’s been missing” from conversations about the war “has been the longstanding bipartisan acknowledgement that we have to stand together” against Iran’s destabilizing activities and violations of its own citizens’ human rights.
In addition to the new plan for addressing antisemitism, Deutch said the Global Forum will focus on education and what the higher education system in the United States should look like, emphasizing that the treatment and silencing of Jewish Americans on campus undermines “the very essence of education in America,” and creates dangerous downstream effects in the next generation of leaders.
He said that, in recognition of the United States’ 250th anniversary, the forum will also highlight the role and contributions of Jewish Americans across the country’s history, and reflect on the future of America and the Jewish people’s place in it.
The Global Forum is set to include representatives from more than 70 countries, a sign that the Jewish community “is not going to withdraw, that the Jewish community is going to stand up and proudly be who we are,” Deutch said.
Anticipated speakers include Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Dave McCormick (R-PA), Vanderbilt University Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, the parents of murdered Israeli Embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, former Israeli hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel, ambassadors from the European Union and Argentina and Jewish leaders and experts from around the country and around the world.
In addition to the new plan for combating antisemitism, AJC will announce a program to provide more opportunities for leaders to visit both Israel and the UAE together, to understand the promise of a more integrated region, Deutch said.
Deutch also emphasized that the Jewish community can’t allow itself to be defined by antisemitism, highlighting plans for new leadership development programs to build and bring together the next generation of Jewish leaders from around the world.
And the group will announce plans to help build upon the relationships between Latin American countries and Israel, ahead of a summit that is set to bring Jewish leaders from across the region together in Costa Rica later in the year.
Two of the four Democrats in the race have also faced scrutiny over antisemitic activity online
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Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) arrives for the House Republican Conference caucus meeting at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington on Wednesday, May 13, 2026.
In the contentious Democratic primary in Montana’s 1st Congressional District, Israel and antisemitism have become flashpoints in ways that members of the local Jewish community say they find concerning and potentially dangerous.
Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), who currently represents the seat, is retiring at the end of his current term, and Democrats view it as a potential pickup opportunity in a favorable midterm climate. Former Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) narrowly won the district in 2024, despite losing statewide. However, the Cook Political Report rates the district as “Likely Republican,” and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee hasn’t put the district on its target list at this point.
Though the district leans Republican, that hasn’t stopped a majority of Democrats in the field from racing to the left on Israel policy, a dynamic that was on clear display at a recent debate.
Ryan Busse, a businessman and author who is the top fundraiser among the Democratic candidates, declared that the U.S. has been “forced into a war by another country,” alleging that Israel dragged the U.S. in its military campaign against Iran.
“This war that we’re fighting, that you’re funding, that your tax dollars are funding, is largely a war propagated by Israel,” Busse said. “I’m not taking any AIPAC dollars, wouldn’t dream of it. I think we should be really wide-eyed about the degree to which Israel has too much influence over our foreign policy. “
He also declared that Israel is not a “functioning democracy” and said that Israel is committing war crimes with American tax dollars and that he would fight to stop that aid in Congress.
Russell Cleveland, a Navy veteran and entrepreneur, said that Israel “has a right to exist without fear, but that doesn’t mean that those rights can infringe on other countries’ rights or other people’s rights to exist without fear as well” and said that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.
He asserted that Israel is being held to a different standard than other countries and is effectively controlling U.S. policy.
“We have hitched our wagon so hard to Israel in turning a blind eye to their actions on a national stage that we’re willing to disregard what we would hold to account any other country for the same exact violence and war crimes and violations of international law,” Cleveland said. “We cannot allow another country to have that type of control on not only what we’re doing in terms of sending armaments and money, but also that’s an ally to the United States, so everything that they do, we too are responsible for.”
Sam Forstag, a wildland firefighter and union leader with the backing of prominent national progressives and D.C.-based groups, said that he agreed with Busse and Cleveland, also disavowing AIPAC support while blaming U.S. support for Israel for a lack of services and government assistance at home.
“We need to have strict enforced humanitarian requirements on any aid that we are providing countries overseas,” Forstag said. “That needs to apply to Israel, that needs to apply to any country, because if we cannot afford to feed our hunger, if we cannot afford to make sure that the elderly in this country are not living on the streets, we sure as hell cannot afford to rain cruelty in chaos overseas, Israel or Iran.”
Matt Rains, an Army veteran, rancher and photographer, was the only one of the four Democratic candidates to stake out an opposing view and offer a defense of the U.S.-Israel relationship.
He emphasized that he has spent time in the region, and that he understands “we need to value our alliance with Israel, and I am in support of that because I am against hatred, I’m against racism, I’m against antisemitism, I’m against terrorism.”
Rains said that actually working toward a two-state solution requires people who have firsthand experience and understand the situation on the ground, arguing that many draw incorrect conclusions from news reports.
Busse has been the top fundraiser in the field, pulling in $529,000, followed by Forstag with $448,000, Cleveland with $325,000 and Rains with $125,000. Cleveland, however, trails the rest of the field in cash-on-hand.
Antisemitic activity online has also cast a cloud over two of the candidates in the race.
Cleveland liked an antisemitic Instagram comment that read, “I wouldn’t vote for anybody who takes money from those stinking Jews,” on a post endorsing him.
Cleveland denied any knowledge of the post and disavowed it. He told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle that his campaign “incidentally liked [this] comment” and that “My team and I do not condone these types of antisemitic comments, nor support them. … This is antisemitic. I don’t approve of that comment. I wouldn’t have liked it intentionally.”
Busse’s son Lander has also landed in hot water over a series of controversial social media posts which included a spat with a local rabbi.
The younger Busse responded to a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring that “Free Palestine is today’s version of Heil Hitler” with a gif of a “Breaking Bad” character saying, “Well, Heil Hitler b****.”
He also demanded that a local Chabad rabbi, Chaim Bruk, acknowledge that Israel is an apartheid state and conducting a genocide. When Bruk declined to do so, the younger Busse responded “aight then f*** you.”
He also said in another post “F*** ISRAEL.”
The elder Busse told the New York Post, “I don’t condone any language or actions that minimize the very real tragedy of the Holocaust, and I don’t condone any antisemitic behavior or language.”
He said he opposes antisemitism and that his son is “definitely not antisemitic in any way shape or form,” but denied having seen his son’s social media posts, which were subsequently deleted.
Bruk, the longest-serving rabbi in Montana, told Jewish Insider that he felt it was necessary to engage with Lander Busse as the son of a person running for office, when the younger Busse was spreading comments that could prompt hate against the Jewish community.
Bruk said that he also wanted to give the elder Busse “an opportunity to reach out and see if he has a very different opinion than his son — which he has not done as of today.”
Bruk argued that he’s seen little evidence that Busse’s own opinions differ from those of his son, noting that, while they haven’t engaged in the same sort of vulgarity, Busse, Cleveland and Forstag had all made concerning comments about Israel and Jews.
“I have always strongly opposed antisemitism and will continue to do so unequivocally. I am deeply troubled by the rise in antisemitic activity and rhetoric across our country, and I stand firmly with Jewish communities,” Busse said in a statement to JI. “At the same time, I am troubled by the current Israeli government’s policies and leadership. In my view, criticism of a government’s actions and policies should not be conflated with prejudice against an entire people or faith. We should be able to reject antisemitism in all forms while also engaging in honest and thoughtful discussion about the actions of governments, including Israel’s.”
But Bruk said he takes Cleveland at his word that he did not personally or intentionally like the antisemitic Instagram post.
Cora Neumann, a Jewish state senator who was a previous Democratic nominee for the 1st District seat, said she feels that many of the candidates for the seat are “getting pulled into national issues that don’t impact us, just to posture and play political games,” particularly when it comes to Israel.
She said she has found the attacks on AIPAC, which come despite the fact it hasn’t been involved in the race, “very problematic,” and has been concerned by candidates blaming Israel for the war in Iran. She said she has reached out to several of the candidates to share her perspective.
But she said she hasn’t seen many of the candidates in the race “take pause and think twice about the way you speak” about Israel, even after being warned that their rhetoric might fuel antisemitism, “which shows a disregard for a vulnerable population in the U.S. and around the world.”
“I think this is a poison that has taken hold in our party and it has made my family less safe, and there has been little to no action taken to combat it, locally or nationally,” Neumann told JI. “Democrats need to reflect on our values and who we are and if we really feel that this is acceptable. … Democrats need to seriously reflect on why they’ve let it get so out of hand.”
Asked about concerns from members of the local Jewish community about the way Israel and AIPAC have been invoked in the race, Cleveland said in a statement to JI that, “Being critical of the actions of Israel with regard to its military aggression and violation of international law is not antisemitic.”
“We cannot simply label criticism of any one country as prejudice just because many of us oppose more war, death and destruction. The best possible outcome in the region is one where all people, no matter whether they are from Israel, Palestine, or Lebanon, are treated equally and without prejudice,” Cleveland said. “I want peace for the people of Israel, just as I do for those in any other country or territory. I believe this can be achieved through application of freedom of religion, coexistence, and seeking strength through diversity. This, however, can only be achieved through strict adherence to international law and practice of equal rights of all people.”
In an interview with JI, Rains, an Army captain who served in Iraq and traveled throughout the world in that role and a subsequent one as a photojournalist, said that he has a “vital perspective” of understanding the dynamics in the region firsthand, rather than being “told by other people how to think and believe” on the internet.
His travels took him throughout Israel and the West Bank, and he said that he found many of the media narratives that people in the United States hear about Israel and the conflict to be exaggerated.
He said he feels that the other candidates in the race are “jumping on [the anti-Israel] bandwagon” without a proper understanding of the situation. “You just want to scream because it’s truly a lack of understanding and knowing what is reality and what you’re just being fed through the internet and buying into.”
He said that growing animosity toward Israel and calls to cut off aid are jeopardizing a critical alliance, which will ultimately make the United States less safe and lead to more regional instability and more wars.
He said that he’s also been stunned by what he has seen as an embrace of antisemitism in the United States, pointing significant blame toward the Trump administration for spreading and normalizing “comments that are there to rile up people.” He said that he would be vocal as a member of Congress in emphasizing that antisemitism is not acceptable.
He called the spread of antisemitic rhetoric in the primary race “one of the most shocking things of this campaign.” He said he didn’t anticipate that the issue would be one that he would campaign on, but said he felt a responsibility to not “let hatred creep in” in his own party.
Rains’ photojournalism work also brought him to Myanmar, where he said he was the first photojournalist on the ground documenting the Rohingya genocide in the early 2010s. Having seen such atrocities firsthand — and encountering fierce police resistance to documenting them — he called the accusations of genocide against Israel “absolutely frustrating,” and criticized those in his party who have spread that narrative.
Having worked on strategic planning matters in Iraq, Rains said that he’s been frustrated by what he saw as a failure of proper planning in the U.S. operations in Iran. “The threat of the regime [was] horrific,” Rains said, but he doesn’t have faith in the Trump administration to ensure that Iran is more stable and has better governance at the end of war.
“My biggest frustration is there’s a risk — kind of what happened in Afghanistan when we left there — for a worse government to backfill and make it more hostile than it was,” Rains said.
Bruk and Neumann both spoke positively of Rains’ stance on issues of concern to and of his engagement with the Jewish community.
Bruk said Rains is the only one of the four Democratic candidates who has visited the local synagogue and Chabad center and “made it clear that he stands with the Jewish people and he stands with the people of Israel and their right to their own nation.” He said Rains and his campaign had reached out to visit the synagogue of his own initiative.
Bruk said it’s important to him that the growing Montana Jewish community has a representative who cares about them and who “isn’t ready to throw them locally under the bus because of some international issue with which they agree or disagree” — regardless of potential policy differences on Israel.
Neumann said that she’s also been impressed by the “moral clarity” Rains has shown on the issue and others.
“I think to be able to stand up against the intense headwinds and national pressure to speak on Israel, even if it’s not relevant to your constituents, to be able to stand up against that pressure shows incredible moral character, and that’s what I look for in candidates,” Neumann said.
Bruk said he’d also had a conversation with Forstag and was optimistic that his rhetoric would change going forward. “I think he genuinely didn’t realize that it’s not just about some lobbying PAC that gives, you know, very little money to Montana at all, but it ends up creating an environment in which Jews become fair game,” Bruk said.
He said that he felt from their conversation that Forstag didn’t realize that AIPAC had had little to no involvement in politics in the state. Bruk said he emphasized to Forstag that invoking AIPAC on the campaign trail can increase the dangers to the Jewish community.
“I don’t think he realized the practical ramifications,” Bruk said, and said he was comforted to see Forstag’s rhetoric seemingly shift since then.
Neumann said she also found Forstag to be “receptive and sensitive to feedback on how problematic this disproportionate focus on Israel is.”
Plus, Jill Biden's advice to Joe on Bibi
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Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter
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Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Despite recent clashes between the U.S. and Iran — including Iranian missile and drone attacks around the region last night — negotiators from both countries have reportedly agreed to terms for a 60-day ceasefire with continued negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, U.S. sources confirmed to the White House press pool.
President Donald Trump has not yet given his stamp of approval to the deal, Axios reports, and has told mediators he wants a couple of days to consider it…
In the meantime, Iranian state media reported a renewed exchange of fire in the Strait of Hormuz this afternoon, as Iranian forces were said to have fired “warning shots” at four vessels and engaged air defenses against a “hostile aircraft”…
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that the U.S. “will not tolerate any effort to impose a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz,” specifically cautioning Oman that the Treasury Department will “aggressively target” any actors involved in facilitating such tolls. Bessent said during a press conference this afternoon that he spoke with the Omani ambassador to the U.S. this morning who assured him Muscat has no plans to do so…
In an excerpt of her forthcoming memoir, View From the East Wing, shared with The Atlantic, former First Lady Jill Biden recalls leaving her husband notes on the bathroom mirror during his time as president, including her views on Israel’s war in Gaza. “Net has to stop,” she once wrote, in a reference to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Before a phone call between him and President Joe Biden, she advised, “Be strong. Don’t let BN use your goodness”…
A week after describing J Street as “a cancer within the Jewish community,” Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter doubled down on his critique of the organization, stating that the liberal advocacy group’s recent actions are “decidedly not pro-Israel,” Nira Dayanim reports for Jewish Insider.
Speaking today at the Re-Charging Reform Judaism summit at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan, Leiter was resolute, but more measured in his criticism: “I believe the tent, as we call it, should be wide and as inclusive as possible. But it cannot be inclusive to those who are contributing to the efforts of those seeking the collapse of the tent,” he said…
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) announced today that he would seek reelection in a new South Florida House district recently drawn to favor Republicans, after his own was largely erased, JI’s Matthew Kassel reports, setting the stage for what is expected to be a costly and competitive race…
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) met with UAE National Security Advisor Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi today, where the two “reviewed the distinguished strategic relations” between the UAE and U.S…
Kip Talley, the chief of staff to Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) — who is currently the front-runner for the GOP runoff in Georgia to take on Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) — used his position to push to free Charles Johnson, a notorious Holocaust denier who was jailed for contempt of court, according to text messages reviewed by Slate. Talley sent the messages in a group chat that also included neo-Nazis Nick Fuentes and Richard Spencer…
A new Democratic super PAC called Project 218 dropped nearly $400,000 in support of progressive organizer Sue Altman in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District Democratic primary, just days ahead of the election next week. The paid ads are intended to counter the nearly $1.5 million spent by the anti-Israel American Priorities super PAC in support of Altman’s opponent, Adam Hamawy, who has faced scrutiny over his work with a group tied to Al-Qaida…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is considering endorsing democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier in her insurgent bid to unseat Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), according to The New York Times, changing course from his pledge to back Espaillat, which came after the congressman endorsed Mamdani in the mayoral general election…
UJA-Federation of New York purchased 20,000 bags of Bamba peanut snacks in response to the Park Slope Food Coop’s decision to boycott Israeli-made products, which the federation intends to distribute at the Israel Day parade in the city on Sunday…
Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, seen as a potential presidential contender, ruled out a run for the White House in the next election, telling a local Fox outlet, “I think there will be a robust group of people running for president. I will not be one of them in 2028”…
CBS Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss tapped former New York Times and Vanity Fair contributor and documentarian Nick Bilton as executive producer of “60 Minutes,” after the former head of the program, Tanya Simon, was fired today amid disagreements over issues including editorial independence of the top-rated weekly news program…
Mutra, a high-end kosher restaurant in North Miami run by Israeli chef Raz Shabtai, received a Michelin star today, which the restaurant said makes it the first fully kosher establishment to do so…
⏩ 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 Israel and antisemitism have become a flashpoint in the Democratic primary for Montana’s 1st Congressional District. A sneak peek:
“Though the district leans Republican, that hasn’t stopped a majority of Democrats in the field from racing to the left on Israel policy, a dynamic that was on clear display at a recent debate.”
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) will host his annual Famous Fish Fry tomorrow in Columbia, S.C., an event that has evolved into a key stop for Democratic presidential hopefuls. Among those with an eye on 2028, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear are expected to attend the gathering.
Israeli and Lebanese military representatives are expected to hold discussions at the Pentagon tomorrow, Israeli media reports, without diplomatic representation.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is in Singapore, where he will deliver remarks at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a high-level defense summit, on Saturday.
The annual “Israel Day on Fifth” parade will take place in New York City on Sunday, with organizers predicting “one of the biggest turnouts ever” as well as the largest-ever Knesset delegation, JI’s Will Bredderman reports. Breaking with 61 years of tradition, Mayor Zohran Mamdani will skip the festivities, while NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch will serve as grand marshal.
Elsewhere in the city on Sunday, the Republican Jewish Coalition will hold its gala celebrating the forthcoming 250th anniversary of the United States with speakers including U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) and Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who is running for New York governor.
In Washington, the American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum kicks off on Sunday with a plenary featuring former Israeli hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel, Vanderbilt University Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and AJC CEO Ted Deutch.
We’ll be back with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!
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‘The Nazis may have the right to post, but also the Nazis are bad and sick and stupid,’ Rogers told JI
Meanwhile, Rep. Haley Stevens avoided a question about receiving support from pro-Israel donors, while Abdul El-Sayed blamed rising antisemitism on white supremacy
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Mallory McMorrow, a candidate for U.S. Senate, campaigns at the Michigan Democratic Nominating Convention
State Sen. Mallory McMorrow offered a straightforward answer when asked at a debate on Thursday, alongside the other two Democrats vying for an open Senate seat in Michigan, whether there is an antisemitism problem in the Democratic Party.
“There is,” said McMorrow. She told the story of an attendee at last month’s Democratic Party convention in Detroit who yelled an antisemitic slur at her Jewish husband, in front of their young daughter.
“That is terrifying. We need to be able to state very clearly that what the Netanyahu government is doing is wrong, that the violence needs to end, that we need to bring about long-term peace and security for Palestinians and for Israelis, and that turning that into not an anti-Netanyahu, but an anti-American Jewish message is dangerous,” McMorrow said, earning applause from the room.
The other two candidates — Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and former public health official Abdul El-Sayed — did not directly address the question about Democrats.
Stevens condemned “rising political violence and extremism,” including the attack at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, in her district, which she said was carried out by a “homegrown terrorist.” She described herself as a lawmaker who is “leading on combating antisemitism in a bipartisan way. That does not have to be a partisan thing.”
El-Sayed said he understands discrimination because he has faced it himself. He blamed antisemitism in the U.S. on white supremacy.
“I know that antisemitism and Islamophobia tend to go hand in hand, and the real issue when it comes to either of them is the scourge of white supremacy,” he said, while arguing that respecting American Jews does not require supporting Israel.
The Democratic primary for the open Senate seat in Michigan is one of the most contentious in the country, and antisemitism has become a major issue, alongside U.S. foreign policy and support for Israel. It is perhaps the most high-profile seat where debates about the role of AIPAC might actually have an impact on the outcome.
Stevens, a longtime ally of the pro-Israel group, was the early frontrunner in the race but has faced attacks from her opponents for not criticizing AIPAC.
Presented with an opportunity on Thursday in a primary debate to help voters understand why she continues to receive support from the pro-Israel advocacy group, Stevens chose not to speak about the group at all.
“You take money from AIPAC. Walk us through what that money means and what it buys, and maybe what it doesn’t,” one of the debate’s moderators asked Stevens, as part of a question about how much influence individual donors have over their decisions.
“Michiganders are frustrated because we have not done comprehensive campaign finance reform. Mike Rogers will not vote for comprehensive campaign finance reform like I have in the House of Representatives,” Stevens said, referring to former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), the expected GOP nominee for Senate. “We squarely need to put people at the front of our agenda.”
She also said she is “deeply proud to have grassroots support coming from grocery clerk workers to retired teachers to factory workers and the like,” and named some of the politicians who have endorsed her, including former Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-MI), former Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and former Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
When asked about her views on foreign policy, Stevens attacked President Donald Trump for the “harmful and ridiculous” steps he took to pare back U.S. humanitarian aid abroad, and pledged to focus on peace.
“We need to see the United States work with our allies to achieve lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine, between the people of Israel and Palestine and of course between China and Taiwan,” said Stevens. “But when you remove the tools from our tool kit, you fail this country and you fail us, to allow us to work alongside our allies.”
Both McMorrow and El-Sayed used Thursday’s debate to remind voters that they do not accept donations from AIPAC. (AIPAC has not made an endorsement in the Senate race, but it has encouraged its supporters to donate to Stevens’ campaign.)
“I have not taken a dime of corporate PAC donations. I have not taken a dime of AIPAC donations,” said McMorrow, who is endorsed by the progressive Israel advocacy group J Street.
El-Sayed, who regularly accuses Israel of genocide and has said he struggles with the question of whether Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state, slammed Stevens for taking AIPAC supporters’ donations.
“Let me tell you what absolutely would not shape my perception [of foreign policy]: it’s AIPAC money,” said El-Sayed.
Plus, Lasher sits out buffer bill victory lap
GPO
Bahrain Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump, and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan during the Abraham Accords signing ceremony at the White House on Sept. 15, 2020.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Speaking at a Cabinet meeting today at the White House, President Donald Trump signaled that he may not agree to a deal to end the war with Iran if Middle East countries including Saudi Arabia and Qatar do not join the Abraham Accords. “I think those countries owe it to us,” he said, adding, “I’m not sure we should make a deal if they don’t sign.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was vague about the prospects and timeline for such an agreement with Iran, saying, “I think there’s been some progress and some interest, and we’ll see over the next few hours and days whether progress could be made”…
The White House also denied reports from Iranian state media about the contents of an apparent draft agreement, calling it a “complete fabrication.” Among other details, the deal would have seen Iran maintain some control over the Strait of Hormuz in conjunction with Oman; at the Cabinet meeting, Trump said about the prospect, “Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up”…
Sarah Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy, maintained in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs that the Trump administration’s commitment to free speech, including for extreme views, does not take away from its opposition to antisemitism, claiming that “the Nazis may have the right to post, but also the Nazis are bad and sick and stupid”…
Reps. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) and Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ) met today in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, where they discussed regional issues including Lebanon and Syria. Both lawmakers are active on issues of Middle East policy in Congress and were some of the first members to visit Syria, where Hamadeh’s family is from, after the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad…
Despite publicly billing himself as the candidate most critical of Israel in the race for New York’s 12th Congressional District, Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg told a group of supporters at Manhattan’s exclusive Harmonie Club earlier this month that he has “been a stronger supporter of Israel than I ever thought I would be standing here today with you, because of educating myself on the issue,” according to a recording obtained by Politico. “I probably would have continued funding Israel’s offensive weaponry within the years following Oct. 7,” he told the group.
Schlossberg denied that the comments mark a change from his previous stances, and said that he has consistently opposed all weapons sales to Israel while supporting funding for the Iron Dome…
Several Jewish New York state legislators, including Assemblymembers Sam Berger, Simcha Eichenstein, Nily Rozic, Kalman Yeger and Aron Wieder and Sen. Sam Sutton, released a statement applauding the Legislature’s passage yesterday of a bill establishing a 50-foot buffer zone around religious institutions, calling it a “strong message to the Mayor that the Jewish community is not afraid to stand up.”
Assemblymember Micah Lasher, who was a sponsor of the bill and is running for Congress in the 12th District, did not sign on…
The Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan announced the appointment of former federal prosecutor Tali Farhadian as its new CEO, with her term set to begin on Sept. 8. A Persian Jew born in Tehran, Farhadian has had a storied legal career including clerking for the late Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, serving as counsel to former Attorney General Eric Holder and teaching at NYU and Columbia law schools…
Far-right activist Bo French won the Republican nomination for a spot on Texas’ powerful oil and gas regulatory commission in yesterday’s primary runoff, heading to a general election against Democratic state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, the only Jewish member of the Texas state Legislature (who also identifies as agnostic and “multireligious”)…
Harvard has selected four new Radcliffe Fellows for the 2026-2027 academic year who have histories of anti-Israel activism, The Washington Free Beacon reports, including an English professor from Gaza’s Al-Aqsa University, which has ties to Hamas…
The Heritage Foundation added four new members to its board, including Israeli American conservative political theorist Yoram Hazony, after several members resigned in the aftermath of Heritage President Kevin Roberts’ defense of Tucker Carlson over his interview with neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes…
⏩ 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 Trump administration’s decision to keep many ambassador positions vacant, as the clock ticks down for any potential nominations before the end of the current Congress.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee will deliver the commencement address at Yeshiva University’s graduation ceremony at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, N.Y.
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‘The Nazis may have the right to post, but also the Nazis are bad and sick and stupid,’ Rogers told JI
Screenshot
Sarah Rogers, under secretary of state for public diplomacy, speaks at the Hudson Institute on May 20, 2026.
Sarah Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy, maintained that the Trump administration’s commitment to free speech, including for extreme views, does not take away from its opposition to antisemitism, telling Jewish Insider in a wide-ranging interview that “the Nazis may have the right to post, but also the Nazis are bad and sick and stupid.”
The senior U.S. diplomat acknowledged the tension between allowing hateful views on social platforms and concerns about rising rates of antisemitism globally, though she maintained that the path to successfully responding to Jew hatred requires support for free speech protections, and said that she looks forward to visiting Israel in the future.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Jewish Insider: You have been unequivocal in your public statements about the rise of antisemitism globally being a serious problem, while also maintaining your position on free speech protections. How do you draw that line between promoting free speech culture while ensuring you have the tools to fight antisemitism?
Sarah Rogers: I don’t see this as a line-drawing exercise between opposed priorities. There’s really no conflict between opposing antisemitism on the one hand and opposing censorship on the other. America has a proud history of opposing both. Censorship has not kept antisemites out of power, it has been deployed by antisemites who gain power.
[Supreme Court Justice] Oliver Wendell Holmes was the first to say that freedom of speech really means freedom for the thought that we hate. You can guard that principle while still saying, “Okay, there are some thoughts that we hate, and we’re going to speak against them, and we’re going to explain why these people are wrong, and we’re going to fight that battle in the marketplace of ideas.” I think every free speech advocate makes normative judgments about the speech that’s on offer, and a normative judgment I’ve always made is that the Nazis may have the right to post, but also the Nazis are bad and sick and stupid.
JI: How do you, or the State Department more broadly, view efforts to counter foreign operations and propaganda campaigns, especially with regard to media where the location of origin is often hidden?
SR: Countering what is called in the [State Department] statute “foreign malign influence” is part of my statutory mandate, and we take it seriously. There are a whole bunch of tools in what you might call the counter-propaganda toolbox.
This is an information environment where legitimacy and trust are more important than ever. Right now, we’re in this liminal zone. I think technology will refine this landscape a bit, but we’re in a zone where any image or any video can be fake, and so it is more important than ever if we were trying to persuade the global public that they can trust us.
What I’m looking for ways to do now, and what the State Department wants to do now, is to counter these kinds of influence operations chiefly through exposure and through counter speech. We can expose the foreign providence of a lot of information and the inauthentic nature of some of the behavior. That doesn’t mean we have to reach out behind closed doors to Twitter or Facebook and urge them to censor anyone concurring with a particular narrative. We don’t have to do that. It is not my job to dictate what Americans can say or see online, but I can tell Americans what we and our partners are seeing online and let them make up their own minds.
One thing that my office has done in the past also is try to promote technologies that improve the information environment and make that environment one in which we can more easily communicate about American priorities.
I don’t want to fund tools that put a centralized thumb on the scale of permissible opinion, or that try to choke off permissible opinion before it gets to the public sphere. What I’d rather do is prospect and promote tools that respect and empower the audience to discern true and authentic information and have the kinds of conversations they want to have.
Both X, formerly Twitter, and Meta have started rolling out the “Grok, is this true?” feature. It’s kind of interesting. Everyone knows the LLMs are trained on a consensus model of available opinion. A lot of them have gobbled up like most books ever written. They’ve scoured social media. When these models first debuted, they were pretty clunky. There was a whole genre of AI discourse that just consisted of people making their LLM say insane, woke, Kafkaesque things, but the models have gotten better. They’ve gotten better to the point where most people, even people with unpopular opinions, trust them to kind of collate facts.
There are now some early scientific studies showing that, as a result, interacting with AI chatbots depolarizes people politically. It is conducive to lessened political extremism, and I think making that kind of tool available is an example of something we can do that doesn’t make people feel coerced or condescended to, it doesn’t spark that kind of oppositional, anti-institutional reflex, because you’re just letting them have access to something that they want and they enjoy. We’ve also seen those exact tools used to push back on antisemitic propaganda online.
JI: Can you speak to how private industry and social media companies have responded to your engagement on these issues?
SR: I’ve had a lot of congenial interactions with the tech sector. I’ve been accused by critics, including in Europe, of essentially being too staunch an advocate for the tech sector, which is ironic because I started my free speech activism career as a thorn on the side of Big Tech. When we’re advocating for the freedom of our companies not to censor, then of course they’re grateful. I also think, though, that within Silicon Valley, within the investor class and the executive class, and then the user bases of these companies, there is a real organic demand for ways to harness the powers of invention to make the information environment better.
I have intentionally avoided having any interactions with tech companies that could reasonably be expected to result in the removal of content. If I ever had reason to do that, like if there was a tweet with the nuclear codes in it or something like that, I would try to make sure that I disclosed that to the public, but I avoid it as a matter of practice. Still, I have conversations all the time with people in the tech industry who are interested in how we discern content provenance, how we can help people integrate AI in ways that are less conducive to kind of AI psychosis type outcomes, how we can promote truthful information.
The only reason the information environment feels so new and different is because Americans are so good at innovating things that spread like wildfire and change the world. That’s fundamentally good. Now we’re in this new information environment, and you’ve probably heard me say this before, that this is on par with the invention of the telegraph or the film strip, and so there’s going to be some shudders and spasms as we adjust, but we can use the power of innovation and invention to make our environment better, not worse. I think tech is very receptive to that, especially because there’s all this kind of almost superstitious anti-tech discourse right now, and so there’s a natural appetite to prove that chorus wrong.
JI: With that in mind, how would you describe your role in terms of responding to this growing threat of foreign disinformation and the outgrowth of antisemitism that such propaganda efforts cause? Do you see your role as more of a behind the scenes dealmaker or something else?
SR: I would not say my role principally consists of brokering informal understandings with tech companies. I think because my role has a tech component of its portfolio, it’s just natural that I have some conversations and relationships with tech companies, but zooming out, my role is public diplomacy. That includes civil society grant making, it includes a lot of public advocacy, it oversees educational and cultural affairs, so I have a really broad umbrella of stuff I can do to interact with the information environment generally.
On antisemitism, we have funded interfaith cultural restoration projects and educational projects to promote cross-cultural understanding and diffuse hatred. We are trying to promote tools like AI to rationalize and depolarize the information environment. We’re doing all that stuff, but the information environment part is only part of it.
We are looking for more opportunities to publicly and candidly communicate on trends we’re seeing in the information environment, and we want to do it in a way where it doesn’t sound like we’re scolding the audience and telling them what not to believe. We just want to credibly share aggregated statistics and facts about what we’ve observed, and I want to make sure that we get that right.
That means number one, I’ve actually instructed my staff, like whenever we operate on this issue, we need to literally or figuratively make a commitment to not censor American speech or censor anybody. We want to do the counter speech and exposure, and I think you’re going to see more of that.
I’ve collaborated a lot on the antisemitism issue with Rabbi [Yehuda] Kaploun, who’s our special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism. We have participated in the Shabbat dinners with him. We had Rabbi Kaploun organize a Shabbat with officials from Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, and with a bunch of members of the administration. It was a really powerful coming together around this issue, and I think you’re gonna see more of those kinds of activities that my office is proud to be involved with, too.
JI: Do you coordinate with other agencies and other departments to ensure that these efforts don’t overlap or contradict each other, be it about antisemitism or free speech or anything else that you’re doing?
SR: So one thing that I’ve done is I’ve encouraged my public diplomacy staff, who do kind of overt messaging for the State Department, to make sure that they are coordinated with other parts of the government, including, for example, the Department of War, who are engaged in messaging activities of overlapping topics in the same region. That’s just common sense, so we want to make sure that all of our messaging activities are aligned, or at least not at odds with each other.
I think a great thing about this administration compared to the first one is that when President Trump staffed his first administration, he was kind of newly triumphant and his coalition was still consolidating, so there wasn’t this existing infrastructure and existing talent pool of people who were aligned with the administration’s foreign policy vision, and now there are. Because of that, I have great relationships with counterparts at other agencies, and it’s very easy for us to have these conversations, though all conversations you have in the government take longer and are more kind of bureaucratically ritualized than they should be.
JI: Have you made any efforts in your role promoting public diplomacy to highlight the U.S.-Israel relationship?
SR: The answer is yes. I was actually just in close touch with the Israeli Embassy about some America 250 commemorative activities that we were going to undertake, including “America Day” celebrations at three university campuses in Israel. We’ve done a lot of interfaith and church restoration activities in the Middle East that Israel is very supportive of.
I also hope to visit Israel when scheduling considerations permit.
JI: Looking toward Europe, you and Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) both spoke at the Hudson Institute last week about the free speech conversations we’re seeing across the Atlantic. What we’re also seeing are sharp rises in antisemitism across the continent. Do you connect the two? And if so, what do you see as the prescription for solving both issues?
SR: I absolutely connect the two. It’s interesting, another thing I always say when people ask me about this sort of tension between antisemitism and free speech is that I had my staff run numbers on this. When it comes to actual antisemitic hate crimes, not speech crimes, but crimes where someone gets hit or synagogues vandalized, the per capita rate of those in continental Europe and elsewhere in the Anglosphere is much higher by orders of magnitude than it is the United States, even though we have open season free speech, and they all reportedly have laws against antisemitism.
There was this incident in London a few years ago where a caravan of pro-Palestine protesters drove through a reputedly Jewish neighborhood in London, screaming through a megaphone, “F*** Jews. Rape their daughters. Free Palestine.” There were no hate crime charges. I think London police claimed there wasn’t enough evidence that they’d done it, even though it’s on video. So who does get prosecuted under these hate crime laws?
There is this famous Nazi hunter in France, Serge Klarsfeld. He’s one of the most famous Nazi hunters. He has a son, Arno Klarsfeld, who’s a well-regarded French jurist who actually helped prosecute some of the Nazi collaborators. Arno Klarsfeld was pursued by French authorities under French hate speech laws for basically saying that France should do mass deportations of people who’d already had their asylum hearings and were adjudicated as deportable. He was basically advocating for the same kind of policy that President Trump has tried to use to mitigate antisemitism in the United States.
You have this decorated French Jewish antisemitism jurist being threatened with legal punishment just for advocating a deportation policy, so that’s an obvious nexus, and I’m not saying it’s the only one, but it’s an obvious nexus between censorship law and antisemitism.
After the Bondi Beach massacre in Australia, you had a proposed hate speech law in response that would have had an exemption for any speech that’s religious. Well, if you were an ISIS jihadist, your speech was religious, so you’re basically carving out the exact ideology that appeared to have motivated that attack. So that’s how I see these issues in relation to one another.
JI: Is there anything else about Europe’s broader handling of antisemitism that concerns you?
SR: I think often there’s a sense that if you ban antisemitism legally then you have done the work required to oppose it, and I don’t think that is the story that the crime statistics tell. I don’t think it is the story that the political landscape tells. I’ve had many conversations with earnest European interlocutors who genuinely oppose antisemitism and want the best for the Jewish people in their countries, and so I don’t think bad faith is to blame. I just think that these laws are not the answer.
JI: One last question. I want to ask about Germany, specifically the far-right Alternative for Germany party. You’ve met with some of their officials and praised them specifically on free speech issues. AfD is a far-right ultra-nationalist party whose leaders have espoused antisemitic and pro-Nazi sentiments. Do you see these parties as antisemitic, and do you think the same free speech principles should apply to them despite their historical legacy?
SR: I had one meeting with one AfD official and immediately was lambasted for purportedly being pro-Russia. The point I made at the time was that if this guy were really a Russian asset, he’s a pretty bad Russian asset, because he condemned censorship in that meeting and Russia’s a big fan of censorship. I also stand by what I also said at the Hudson Institute, which is that European policymakers don’t need to give right-wing parties a monopoly on common sense when it comes to mass migration or things like internet regulation. In fact, it would be healthy to have a democracy where multiple parties are against destructive mass migration, for example.
In terms of Germany and its specific legacy on Holocaust denial laws, what I would say is this: I come from an American First Amendment tradition, so I would not want to see laws in the United States like that, but if the only thing these European countries were prohibiting was actual Holocaust denial or actual rank incitement of genocide against Jews, then I don’t think you’d be seeing as many arguments between, for example, European authorities and American internet platforms.
We didn’t sanction [Former European Commissioner] Thierry Breton for asking that X take down a Holocaust denial post — that post would be protected under the First Amendment, but that didn’t lead to the sanctions. What we sanctioned Thierry Breton for doing was threatening an American company with European regulatory penalties for allowing an American politician, President Trump, to speak on an American platform, so our laws do differ there, but if that were the only difference, I don’t think you’d be seeing these flare-ups. The differences are far greater than that.
Moore, to Politico: ‘I think that the state of Israel has a right to exist, but I also think that so do the Palestinian people’
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Maryland Gov. Wes Moore participates in a discussion on bipartisanship at the National Press Club on September 04, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a recent interview with Politico, arguing that the Israeli premier has committed war crimes and that his actions make American Jews less safe.
Moore, a Democrat with close ties to Maryland’s Jewish community, reiterated his support for Israel’s existence. But he strongly criticized Netanyahu’s leadership.
“I think that the State of Israel has a right to exist, but I also think that so do the Palestinian people,” Moore said, when asked if he considers himself a Zionist. “From what we’ve seen from Bibi Netanyahu, I just do not know, and nor believe, that he is putting the same measure of focus on Palestinian lives as he does on Israeli lives.”
Moore declined to say whether he believes Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to a genocide, saying instead that the matter will be left to international courts to decide.
“I think that it’s going to have to be international tribunals [that] figure that out, but I do think this,” Moore said. “I know as a military person that you cannot use food as a negotiating tool. That is a war crime, and I think Bibi Netanyahu has committed war crimes.”
When asked whether Netanyahu should be in prison, Moore dodged the question.
“Look at it this way. First of all, he’s actually under investigation and indictment already right now,” said Moore. “But also if you look at what’s happened in Lebanon, even just since the start of the Iran war, he’s annexed and taken over 10% of Lebanon. That, again, is a war crime. I just don’t know how we can continue tolerating these types of actions by Bibi Netanyahu.”
Further, Moore continued, Netanyahu’s actions put Jews in Israel and America at risk, and complicate efforts to combat antisemitism.
“He’s not making Jewish people safe. He’s not making Israelis safe. He’s not making Jewish people in this country safe. We’re dealing with such a rise in antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Black. We’re dealing with such a rise of hate,” Moore said. He referenced a recent incident of antisemitic graffiti at an elementary school in Olney, Md., outside of Washington.
“This is real, and we have to be able to deal with this rising level of hate,” said Moore. “But the challenge that I have is I don’t know if Bibi Netanyahu actually believes that there should be Palestinian safety or Palestinian peace.”
Plus, the IDF targets Hamas' succession plans
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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Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
No agreement has materialized between the U.S. and Iran today, as the Iranian Foreign Ministry denounced U.S. strikes in the country last night as a sign of “bad faith and unreliability” and warned Tehran “will leave no act of aggression unanswered”…
The IDF carried out a strike against Mohammed Odeh, Hamas’ new military commander in Gaza and one of the “architects” of the Oct. 7 attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement, days after Israel killed his predecessor, Izz al-Din al-Haddad…
The IDF has also expanded its military campaign against Hezbollah beyond the security zone established in the ongoing Israel-Lebanon ceasefire, in an effort to combat drone attacks by the terror group on Israel’s northern communities. Netanyahu said at the start of a Security Cabinet meeting today that Israel is “operating with significant forces on the ground and taking control of strategically dominant positions” in Lebanon.
U.S. officials reportedly approved of the plan but warned Israel “not to bring down buildings in Beirut,” for fear of impacting talks with Iran…
Iran has begun restoring some internet access for its citizens, an Iranian official and watchdog groups said today, curbing what is reportedly the longest nationwide internet shutdown in history at nearly three months long…
Mike Needham, a close advisor to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, will transition from the State Department, where he serves as counselor and head of policy planning, to deputy national security advisor and assistant to the president at the White House…
Netanyahu is considering appointing his advisor Caroline Glick to the position of Israeli consul in New York, according to Israel’s Channel 12. Glick has drawn scrutiny for her repeated criticisms of the Reform and Conservative movements as well as liberal Israel advocacy groups…
CENTCOM denied reporting by The Wall Street Journal that it has restarted “Project Freedom” and said U.S. forces are “not currently escorting commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.”
And the State Department called reports that the U.S. and Israel are working to strip Jordan of its custodianship of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem “categorically false”…
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro warned in an interview with Politico that efforts within the Democratic Party to single out AIPAC as “toxic” could be seen as silencing Jewish voices in the American political system.
“Do I agree with every political decision they’ve made, every endorsement they made? Of course not,” Shapiro said of the pro-Israel group. “I think what we have seen is a weaponization of that. … When you have people who are advocating for issues that they feel strongly about and they are having their voices silenced, I think that’s a problem in our system”…
In a letter sent to Trump today, more than 90 House Republicans, led by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), called for the administration to “fully dismantle” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and to rethink its operations “not only in Gaza, but across the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria,” Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
UNRWA has “perpetuated the refugee crisis and reinforced the conditions that have allowed terrorism to persist,” the lawmakers wrote, arguing that in serving as the primary provider of public services in several countries, the agency “has reduced incentives for host governments to pursue long-term solutions”…
The Justice Department sued UCLA today for allegedly violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act due to its “deliberate indifference to race and national origin discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students”; it’s the Trump administration’s latest move in its legal campaign against the school, as it also pursues a Title VII lawsuit alleging UCLA discriminated against its Jewish and Israeli employees…
The final version of a New York state “buffer zone” law will make it a Class B misdemeanor — one of the lowest levels of criminal offenses — to “knowingly” infringe on the right of access or egress to a religious institution, or to cause those entering or exiting to fear for their safety from a distance of less than 50 feet, JI’s Will Bredderman reports.
The bill, which is expected to pass as part of a package around the state budget, is less punitive than the original legislation endorsed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, which would have charged such obstruction as a felony, but doubles the buffer zone from its original distance of 25 feet…
The Park Slope Food Coop, a high-profile progressive Brooklyn institution with around 17,000 members, is set to vote this evening whether to enact a BDS policy against selling Israeli-made products, an issue that has ignited a political flashpoint among New York Democrats and caused the vote to go virtual, with organizers citing security concerns.
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) has encouraged members to oppose the measure, while his congressional primary opponent, former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, said he would vote against it if he was a member but would not tell others to do so. City Council Speaker Julie Menin said in a statement today that the “proposed boycott serves to further divide New Yorkers” and that she hopes the co-op will reject the effort…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani declined, in an interview with a local news outlet, to endorse a candidate in New York’s 12th Congressional District — where he noted he is a constituent — calling it a “pleasure” to serve with both Micah Lasher and Alex Bores in the state Assembly…
After doubling down on his claim that presumptive Maine Senate Democratic nominee Graham Platner’s tattoo of a Nazi Totenkopf is “disqualifying,” Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) reiterated today that he still will not endorse Platner’s opponent, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME): “Susan Collins is a rubber stamp for the worst admin in history. Claims that I would endorse her, implicitly or otherwise, ignore my track record supporting Democrats to take back both chambers. … Regardless of what happens in Maine, Democrats need to take back the Senate and I’ll keep working hard to make it happen”…
Jeremy Burton, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, condemned as “crazy and disgusting” a video of a man in the city dressed as Adolf Hitler stomping on an Israeli flag…
⏩ 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 results from today’s primary runoff elections in Texas, where we’re tracking the races between Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Trump-endorsed Attorney General Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate; antisemitic conspiracy theorist Maureen Galindo and establishment-backed sheriff’s deputy Johnny Garcia for the Democratic nomination in the 35th District; and Reps. Al Green (D-TX) and Christian Menefee (D-TX) in the member-on-member primary for the newly redrawn 18th District.
Trump will convene a Cabinet meeting tomorrow at the White House — relocated from the historic Camp David in Maryland due to weather — where the issue of negotiations with Iran is expected to feature prominently on the agenda.
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Shapiro, to Politico: ‘When you have people who are advocating for issues that they feel strongly about and they are having their voices silenced, I think that's a problem in our system’
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.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro warned of the dangers of efforts within the Democratic Party to single out AIPAC, telling Politico in a new interview that painting the pro-Israel group as “toxic” could be seen as silencing Jewish voices in the American political system.
“I think it’s been used cynically by some to try and silence certain voices, to try and say that certain people participating in politics shouldn’t count, or should be viewed in a toxic way,” Shapiro said in the interview, which was released on Tuesday.
Where some Democrats have recently distanced themselves from AIPAC, Shapiro declined to do so.
“Do I agree with every political decision they’ve made, every endorsement they made? Of course not,” said Shapiro. “I think what we have seen is a weaponization of that. And I think that is a danger for our system. When you have people who are advocating for issues that they feel strongly about and they are having their voices silenced, I think that’s a problem in our system.”
Shapiro, a potential 2028 presidential contender, declined to say whether he would accept support from AIPAC, which does not get involved in state or presidential races, nor did he address AIPAC’s tactics or its involvement in any particular race.
He cautioned that efforts to vilify the group have sometimes crossed a line into targeting American Jews’ political advocacy, noting that sometimes Jewish donors who currently or have in the past supported AIPAC are tarred just for being part of the political process.
“I think it does get blurred because now what you are seeing is not ‘AIPAC money,’” said Shapiro, “but you’re getting the Jews who give to that candidate who also support AIPAC. I think it’s very dangerous in our system, if you are trying to silence certain voices based on their race, based on their faith, based on their particular ideology.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is warning about the dangers of efforts within the Democratic Party to single out AIPAC.
— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) May 26, 2026
“I think it’s been used cynically by some to try and silence certain voices, to try and say that certain people participating in politics shouldn’t count, or… pic.twitter.com/uighmwoMgu
Shapiro, who is one of the most prominent Jewish politicians in the U.S., described a “dramatic spike in antisemitism across this country.” He condemned the Islamophobic attack on a mosque in San Diego last week in which three people were killed while also pointing out that, overall, antisemitism is a much larger problem than other forms of hate.
“There is rising hatred and bigotry targeting people across the board, but it is also undeniable, and no one’s pain is greater or more important than others, but from a data perspective, there has been a dramatic spike in antisemitism that is unmatched elsewhere, and that’s a problem,” said Shapiro.
Asked whether he plans to run for president, Shapiro declined to answer. But he said his family had to consider whether he should run for reelection this year in Pennsylvania after an arson attack on the governor’s mansion last year on the first night of Passover.
“My family and I spent a bunch of time thinking about running for reelection. It is hard for me as a dad to know that doing this job I love, this job I find great purpose in where I get to help people, puts my kids’ lives at risk,” said Shapiro. “I’m not going to cower. I’m not going to be fearful.”
Plus, see JI's summer reading list recs
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Committee members wait for the beginning of a meeting of the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaw Committee in Washington, DC
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch has compiled our team’s summer reading list to kick-start the long weekend. Take a look at the new releases we’re recommending from this spring, as well as books we’re looking forward to in the coming months…
President Donald Trump struck a confident note on the U.S.’ ability to secure Iran’s already enriched uranium, telling reporters in the Oval Office today, “We will get it. We don’t need it, we don’t want it. We’ll probably destroy it after we get it, but we’re not going to let them have it.” He’s also still hinting at renewed military operations: “We’re going to either make sure they don’t have a nuclear weapon or we’re going to have to do something very drastic,” he said…
Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander — who polls show running well ahead of Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) in next month’s Democratic primary — broadened his already sweeping criticism of Israel in a speech to a Queens mosque earlier this month, suggesting the country’s actions against Hezbollah in Lebanon could constitute genocide, JI’s Will Bredderman reports…
More than 2,000 New Jersey rabbis and lay leaders signed a petition to New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill and state lawmakers urging them to take prompt action to implement the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism in the state, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
“We were deeply dismayed that legislation to adopt the IHRA definition was recently shelved for political reasons, despite broad support in the legislature and clear evidence of rising antisemitism,” the letter, which was organized by the Jewish Majority, reads, referencing former Gov. Phil Murphy’s efforts to quash the bill last year…
Critics of Qatari funding of American universities are watching Northwestern University’s incoming president, Mung Chiang, to see how he handles the school’s upcoming contract renewal for its satellite campus in Doha, JI’s Haley Cohen reports.
Northwestern’s contract to operate its campus in Qatar (NU-Q) is set to expire at the end of the 2027-2028 academic year. Interim President Henry Bienen said earlier this month that the NU-Q review process is “ongoing” and would be left up to the university’s new leadership…
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin released the DNC’s long-awaited 2024 election “autopsy” today, ending months of pressure from activists demanding answers for the party’s losses last year; the 192-page document, the contents of which Martin disavowed, does not mention the party’s policies on Israel, Gaza or the Middle East, which critics had alleged sank Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid…
A new poll conducted for the Jewish Voters Resource Center found American Jewish voters’ top priorities in the midterm elections are the “future of democracy” and cost of living, with antisemitism ranked as the third most important issue, though it was the No. 1 “dealbreaker” that would cause a candidate to lose their vote. Israel ranked fifth among most important issues, while the Iran war — which 62% of American Jews disapproved of — ranked nearly last.
Ninety percent of respondents said they were concerned about antisemitism in the U.S., including 63% who said they were very concerned. Only 16% of respondents said they think Israel’s war in Gaza was a success, while the rest were nearly split in considering it a failure or being unsure…
Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog said today that he does not view J Street, the progressive Israel advocacy group, as a pro-Israel organization, JI’s Marc Rod reports, weighing in on the escalating war between his successor, Ambassador Yechiel Leiter, and J Street.
“To me, to be pro-Israel is to draw a clear line between criticizing Israeli government policies — and supporting anti-Israel agendas and libels de-legitimizing the State of Israel,” Herzog said on X…
The Senate abruptly departed for its Memorial Day recess, not set to return until June, without taking up the partisan reconciliation bill to fund immigration enforcement and security for the White House ballroom; the primary source of the delay is opposition from Republicans to the administration’s proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, expected to give payouts to Jan. 6 defendants and other Trump allies. The House is also set to depart a day earlier than anticipated…
Board of Peace head Nickolay Mladenov published in a series of posts on X a 15-point plan to “complete the implementation” of Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan. Hamas’ disarmament, Mladenov said, would not be “unilateral” or require “immediate surrender”; instead, it would be a “phased, Palestinian-led and internationally verified process” that would see arms transferred to the Palestinian technocratic committee governing Gaza rather than Israel…
The State Department’s Office of the Inspector General is conducting an investigation into the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to the Financial Times, focused on how the now-defunct aid organization spent a $30 million federal grant it received last June…
The Atlantic’s David Frum argues that rising antisemitic violence in the West — such as the attack on his hometown synagogue in Toronto when a gunman fired 20 bullets at its exterior — makes recent media coverage of Israel especially dangerous, criticizing Nicholas Kristof’s dubiously sourced New York Times column alleging systemic sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli officials as “the new blood libel”…
⏩ 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 results of this afternoon’s expected Iran war powers vote in the House, which could pass, depending on attendance. Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), until now the lone Democratic holdout, is expected to flip his vote in favor.
President Donald Trump is expected to deliver remarks tomorrow in Rockland County, N.Y., at a campaign event for Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), as the congressman faces a competitive reelection in his swing district.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Sweden tomorrow to attend a meeting of NATO foreign ministers; from there, he will embark on a three-day visit to India, stopping in several cities for meetings on energy security, trade and defense cooperation.
On Sunday, the left-wing “Pod Save America” will host a Michigan Senate Democratic primary forum with candidates Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and far-left Abdul El-Sayed, who has been championed by the podcast’s hosts.
In observance of Shavuot and Memorial Day, we’ll be back with the Daily Overtime on Tuesday. Chag sameach!
Stories You May Have Missed
LIBRARY LOOK
The new presidential center, scheduled to open June 19 in Chicago, highlights Obama’s ‘strategic engagement with adversaries’
FACING THE HEAT
The anti-Israel account rescinded its endorsement of Maureen Galindo, who called to imprison Zionists, after a groundswell of Dem condemnation
A cardiology fellow lamented that his union is engaging in systemic discrimination against Jews and Israelis, while he’s forced by federal law to help fund it
SCREENSHOT
Dr. Jacob Agronin speaks at the House Education & Workforce subcommittee hearing on May 20, 2026.
Speaking at a House Education & Workforce subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, a doctor accused his union of engaging in systemic discrimination against Jewish and Israeli health providers, supporting terrorist sympathizers and making “its obsession with a single geopolitical conflict a defining future of its identity” — all while he’ll be forced by federal law to fund it.
Dr. Jacob Agronin, a cardiology fellow at a major medical institution in Philadelphia, testified alongside several other experts on antisemitism at a hearing focused on anti-Jewish hate in the medical field — which both Jewish medical providers and patients report as a growing problem since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.
The hearing focused in particular on the role of healthcare worker unions, such as the Committee of Interns and Residents, of which Agronin is set to be a member, in spreading antisemitism and their failures to stand up for Jewish union members.
CIR has adopted a series of resolutions condemning Israel for genocide and calling for divestment from Israel, including “human capital.” The organization has also offered its institutional support for a physician who expressed support for Hezbollah and for anti-Israel Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil.
“CIR has formally recommended that hospitals exclude my Israeli colleagues from employment, and then compels dues from those same colleagues to fund that position,” Agronin said. “If any employer in this country adopted that policy, we would call it what it is: discrimination.”
He said that members of the union feel afraid to speak out. Agronin also emphasized that his salary, which will help fund the union, comes in part from Medicare graduate medical education funding.
Eveline Shekhman, the CEO of the American Jewish Medical Association, said that her organization is encountering a new era in which “Jew hatred hides behind the guise of anti-Zionism.”
“We are seeing calls to fire Jewish doctors, the praising of terrorist groups in and outside of clinical settings, the refusal to treat patients because of their faith, national origin or Zionist identity, and the demand that Jewish colleagues renounce Israel as a condition of workplace acceptance,” Shekhman said. “This is antisemitism, this is discrimination, and it is a distraction. It has no place in medicine.”
Any disruption to the clinical environment can impact patient care, she said.
She added that employees should be able to rely on their unions to support them when their employers fail to do so in such an environment, but that many unions themselves “have created an environment where Jewish professionals no longer feel welcome” and where they are forced to fund such activities with which they disagree.
In addition to CIR, Shekhman said the National Nurses Union has also been advancing anti-Israel activity, including providing a guide for members to bring anti-Zionism into the clinical setting, where Shekhman argued such activity is irrelevant and has no place.
Deena Margolies, an attorney for the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, said that efforts like these from healthcare unions place Jewish and Israeli professionals “in an impossible position: The union that is supposed to represent them is also helping to create the hostile work environment they must endure.”
“Antisemitism can be dressed as labor solidarity or political language, but the effect is the same. Jewish and Israeli healthcare professionals and patients are treated as morally suspect and unable to participate fully yet equally in clinical settings,” she continued.
Agronin told Jewish Insider after the hearing that there is a “fairly silent majority” that opposes the actions the union is taking but is afraid of backlash if they speak out.
Shekhman told JI that she appreciated that all of the lawmakers expressed concern about the trend of antisemitism in healthcare, and said that that is a promising sign of possibilities for progress going forward.
She said that lawmakers’ support can be helpful when working with institutions to address these issues, and said that the hearing can be the first of “a lot more conversations that need to be had.”
Agronin emphasized that “it’s not just a Jewish issue. This is really an issue that affects all Americans.”
“This is discrimination, as it would be for any other group of people by race, sexual orientation, national origin, anything,” he said. “None of us want to be forced to pay even a single dollar to this organization, especially when it … certainly doesn’t serve our interests — actually quite the opposite. So, I’d hope that there’s some solution to have an option for those that want nothing to do with unions.”
Throughout the hearing, Democrats questioned the motivation of the inquiry, accusing Republicans of weaponizing antisemitism as a cudgel against union organizing generally.
“It is irresponsible and unproductive to take the words and actions of a few and broadly categorize labor unions as fostering discrimination,” Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA), the ranking member of the subcommittee, said.
Jamie Beran, the CEO of the progressive Jewish group Bend the Arc, testified that antisemitism in the healthcare setting is “heartbreaking” and “leaves many Jews feeling isolated and unsure who to trust.” But she also attacked the Trump administration and descriptions of labor unions as institutionally antisemitic.
“The Trump administration is using Jewish safety as a pretext for policies that endanger our neighbors and our democracy, and as a Jewish leader, that angers me,” she continued. “Unions and professional organizations are engaged in the same debates happening across America. These disagreements are not inherently illegal antisemitism or harassment. … [T]o smear the institutions themselves as antisemitic because of what some members say is politically motivated. It’s gross governmental overreach to constitutionally protected speech among adults.”
Beran also condemned the administration for cutting funding for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights, and for restricting abortion access.
Shekhman and Agronin insisted to JI after the hearing that the issue should be a nonpartisan one, and that they’re not targeting unions broadly. Shekhman emphasized that it’s a “patient care crisis issue” that impacts all Americans, regardless of their background. And Agronin said he did not believe that similar behavior would be tolerated if other groups were being targeted.
Shekhman said she did not have the opportunity during the hearing to emphasize the “true impact of BDS on healthcare overall” — including a loss of access to research, technology and collaboration across a range of different areas, as well as losing the support of Israeli physicians.
She said that lawmakers and the public may not understand the scope and volume of the problem: in the past two weeks AJMA received 26 incidents of various natures, from a car being vandalized with a swastika in a hospital parking lot to a kippah being knocked off. And, she continued, most of the victims are afraid to discuss the issue publicly.
Agronin said that CIR’s protestations that it is anti-Zionist rather than antisemitic are a ruse, and that “anti-Zionism is 1940s Jew hatred that’s rebranded for the 21st century.”
On a call with concerned Pennsylvania parents, the GOP senator said he’d raise the issue at the federal level and look into the state Education Department’s definition of antisemitism
Israel on Campus Coalition/X
Rep. Dave McCormick (R-PA) speaks at the ICC National Leadership Summit in Washington on July 29, 2025.
A group of Jewish parents from across Pennsylvania arrived at a virtual meeting with Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) with a plea: take note of antisemitism happening not just on college campuses but also in K-12 schools, and do something about it.
The Tuesday evening conversation, organized by the North American Values Institute, brought together four parents who, since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, have devoted their attention to antisemitism in their kids’ public schools.
“They’re just looking for help,” Steve Rosenberg, NAVI’s Philadelphia regional director, told McCormick in the call, attended by Jewish Insider. “They need life preservers. They’re writing emails, they’re sending texts, they’re doing everything they can, and they are getting very little, if any, response from their local politicians, from their state level people.”
McCormick discussed his bona fides in combating campus antisemitism, pointing out that he was one of the first political figures to call for University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill to resign after her testimony on Capitol Hill in December 2023. But, he told the parents, he was eager to learn about the challenges that their children faced in Pennsylvania’s K-12 schools.
“When I heard about this issue, that many parents were feeling various indications of antisemitism in the public schools in and around Philadelphia, it certainly caught my attention,” said McCormick. “I wanted to tell you [that] I’d like to be a strong voice in trying to combat this, and I wanted every opportunity to hear from parents about what they’re experiencing.”
The 45-minute meeting over Zoom did not come after any particular antisemitic incident. The parents all had created local branches of the Jewish Families Association, a network of grassroots hyperlocal advocacy groups that formed after Oct. 7. They wanted to express to McCormick what they saw over the last three years — that antisemitic rhetoric, and language targeting Israel and Zionists, had become commonplace at their local schools. They felt teachers and administrators often were not prepared to handle the issues.
“What’s been most concerning to me is not just the incidents themselves, but how increasingly normalized and socially acceptable antisemitic behavior has become, and how often the faculty and admin generally are not equipped to recognize the antisemitism, understand how it manifests today or respond to it effectively,” said Caren Lowrey, who works in drug education and prevention and is running as a Republican for a statehouse seat.
Ed Kovler, a parent and activist from Upper Dublin, outside of Philadelphia, asked McCormick for advice on codifying antisemitism policies and educational materials so that school board members and superintendents have resources available, even after leadership transitions. Kovler pointed out that he disagrees with the definition of antisemitism used in the state Department of Education’s glossary of equity, inclusion and belonging terms, which says that opposing Zionism is not, “on the face of it, antisemitic.” McCormick promised to look into it.
“I obviously am not a state official, but as a federal official, I’ll make an inquiry to the Department of Education and the governor and say this definition seems inconsistent with what we all would accept is antisemitism, and can you make the necessary judgment,” said McCormick. “That’ll be a takeaway from this call.”
Mark Isakowitz, McCormick’s chief of staff, urged the parents to document every instance of antisemitism that they see.
“There are things we can do as policymakers, but please double down on cataloging the examples,” Isakowitz said. “I know there’s been a ton about Philadelphia, and I’ve seen it all, but we need more of that, because there are people who are still gaslighting the whole issue.”
McCormick told the parents that he would not stay silent.
“I think part of the problem we’re seeing is people who aren’t antisemitic in public life are tolerating antisemitism,” said McCormick. “It’s not that they’re antisemitic themselves. It’s just that they haven’t shown the courage and the moral clarity to fight it.”
Plus, TX Dem gets the preemptive boot
Julie Menin, speaker of the New York City Council and Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York, arrive for an announcement in the Brooklyn borough of New York, US, on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 (Photographer: John Lamparski/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a heated phone call on Tuesday where they discussed a potential peace deal with Iran that was drafted by Qatar, Pakistan and other mediators, Axios reports, with Netanyahu pushing for a return to war.
Responding to reports that Netanyahu favors continuing strikes, Trump said on Wednesday that the Israeli leader “will do whatever I want him to do”…
Trump said the U.S. and Iran are “right on the borderline” of either securing a deal or resuming the war, telling reporters the process “could go very quickly, or could be a few days.” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, meanwhile, threatened to strike “beyond the region” should military operations continue…
The Jewish Democratic Council of America announced a dual endorsement today of Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow in Michigan’s three-way Senate Democratic primary, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports, saying, “There are two candidates who stand with our community on issues of importance to Jewish voters, and there is one who does not.”
While JDCA CEO Halie Soifer acknowledged concerns that Stevens and McMorrow could end up splitting the more-moderate vote and inadvertently propelling the far-left Abdul El-Sayed to the nomination, she told JI the dual endorsement was meant to reflect JDCA’s broader assessment of the stakes of the race…
New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin is backing a new buffer zone bill for schools that aims to avoid another veto from Mayor Zohran Mamdani, JI’s Will Bredderman reports; the revised legislation narrows the language to early childhood facilities and K-12 schools and carves out other educational facilities, addressing concerns from the mayor and other councilmembers…
A new poll from the independent Pan Atlantic Research firm found presumptive Maine Senate Democratic nominee Graham Platner leading incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) 48-41% among likely voters. There was a stark educational divide: Platner led Collins by 20 points among those with a four-year college degree or higher, while the candidates were neck-and-neck among those without…
Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) vowed that if Maureen Galindo, the antisemitic conspiracy theorist running in the Democratic primary for Texas’ 35th District, is elected to Congress, “we will force a vote to expel her every single day we are here.”
All Jewish Democratic members of Congress also joined to condemn Galindo’s “vile, bigoted, and antisemitic views,” calling her “desperate and unhinged”…
Yesterday’s primary elections saw Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) secure the GOP nomination for retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) Senate seat, while in Georgia, former Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) and former football coach Derek Dooley will head to a runoff next month after neither received 50% in the race to take on Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA)…
Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), who represented the Boston area in Congress for more than three decades and was the first openly gay member of Congress, died on Tuesday, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports. He was 86.
In the final weeks of his life, Frank did a series of interviews to promote his forthcoming book, even as he anticipated not making it to the release date. In a May 8 interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Frank said he believed Democrats should reject far-left litmus tests, but said Israel policy is “180 degrees” different and that Democrats need to make clear their opposition to Netanyahu…
Netanyahu, along with other Israeli officials, issued a sharp condemnation of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir after he released a video showing himself taunting detained flotilla activists, JI’s Matthew Shea reports.
In the video, Ben-Gvir waves a large Israeli flag over blindfolded activists kneeling on the ground and shouts, “Welcome to Israel, we are the masters.” Netanyahu said the way his Cabinet minister “dealt with the flotilla activists is not in line with Israel’s values and norms”…
James Murdoch, the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, is purchasing, through his media holding company Lupa Systems, New York magazine, the Vox Media Podcast Network and Vox.com from Vox Media. Murdoch’s other business ventures include an investment firm, Bodhi Tree, founded in 2022 with $1.5 billion from the Qatar Investment Authority. His expanded holdings in American media mark a homecoming of sorts — his father owned New York magazine from 1977-1991…
⏩ 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 an interview with the two Republican candidates running for the University of Michigan Board of Regents, as they see an opening to pitch themselves to voters over Amir Makled, an anti-Israel Democratic nominee.
The Capital Jewish Museum in Washington will open to the public to mark the one-year anniversary of the shooting that killed Israeli Embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim.
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington will hold candidate forums with D.C. mayoral hopefuls Janeese Lewis George and Kenyan McDuffie.
Stories You May Have Missed
DEM DISCUSSIONS
The Center for American Progress hosted leading Democratic officials and featured several panels on foreign policy. Israel was barely discussed
FLOURISHING FRIENDSHIPS
The emerging partnership is being sharpened by a rival alliance between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia
DNC Chair Ken Martin added his condemnation of Galindo: ‘This kind of vile, antisemitic rhetoric has no place in the Democratic Party’
U.S. House of Representatives
Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL)
Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) said on Wednesday that they would seek to expel Maureen Galindo, a Democrat running for Congress in Texas who has expressed extreme antisemitic views, if she is elected.
Their comments mark an escalation among Democrats condemning Galindo since comments by the House candidate, in which she called for the interment and castration of Zionists, gained widespread attention.
“If for some reason, Maureen Galindo wins the Congressional election in TX-35, as soon as she is sworn in, we will force a vote to expel her every single day we are here,” Gottheimer and Moskowitz said in a joint statement. “Maureen’s insane, antisemitic views — including putting Americans in concentration camps — have no place in our Party or country.”
Moskowitz added in a post on X about Galindo, “My grandmother was part of the Kindertransport out of Berlin. Her parents were killed in Auschwitz. My kids are never going to ‘the camps.’”
He made a similar comment, and expounded on the situation, during a House hearing earlier in the day, describing Galindo’s comments as a logical escalation of attacks on Jewish and pro-Israel Americans and U.S. support for Israel, which have become increasingly common in Democratic politics.
“We’ve gone from, ‘Oh there’s Americans who donate to elected officials that are AIPAC,’ and then it’s ‘ok, Netanyahu,’ and then it’s ‘ok, maybe we shouldn’t support foreign money,’ and ‘ok, now we’re going to call all these people Zionists.’ And now we’re at concentration camps,” Moskowitz said. “By the way, we got to concentration camps much faster than I thought we would, but here we are. And it’s real scary.”
“People are scared. People don’t want to show their Jewish stars anymore, they’re moving into neighborhoods just to be around other Jews because they’re concerned,” he continued.
Galindo came in first place in the March 3 primary race, leading sheriff’s deputy Johnny Garcia, despite Garcia being the party-backed candidate. Since the primary, a host of national Democratic groups, including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Majority for Israel, have been boosting Garcia ahead of a runoff race.
But Lead Left PAC, a secretive GOP-linked super PAC, has been airing ads backing Galindo with close to $1 million in outside spending ahead of next week’s runoff.
Galindo had previously made numerous antisemitic comments, including claiming that Jews “own Hollywood” and “worship at the synagogue of Satan,” but her comments about placing Zionists into concentration camps gained greater attention.
All Jewish Democratic House lawmakers joined in another joint statement on Wednesday to condemn the “vile, bigoted, and antisemitic views spewed by the desperate and unhinged Maureen Galindo,” which they said “[merit] no safe harbor anywhere in American politics, and for sure not in the Democratic Party.” In a first, the group expressed their joint support for Garcia.
They also said they were “appalled” by reports of a GOP-linked super PAC supporting Galindo, “shamefully embracing and elevating her disgusting antisemitic views and ideas.”
Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin also condemned Galindo.
“This kind of vile, antisemitic rhetoric has no place in the Democratic Party,” Martin said. “No matter someone’s political party, we must confront and stand up to hate wherever and whenever it appears.”
A group of Texas Democratic Party leaders, including the state party chair, also condemned Galindo on Wednesday.
“Antisemitism and hateful rhetoric have no place in the Democratic Party or in our communities. Maureen Galindo’s comments do not reflect our values as Democrats or Texans,” their statement reads. “The Texas Democratic Party and its county parties remain committed to standing against antisemitism in all its forms.”
Plus, bipartisan push for Jewish American Security Act
Jeffrey Dean/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, speaks during a campaign event ahead of a primary election at Veterans Memorial Park in Vanceburg, Kentucky, US, on Monday, May 18, 2026.
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we break down the results of yesterday’s critical primaries, including Rep. Thomas Massie’s loss in Kentucky and Chris Rabb’s win in PA-03, and report on the introduction by Sens. Jacky Rosen and James Lankford of the Jewish American Security Act. We look at how Democratic officials speaking at the Center for American Progress’ convening on Tuesday sidestepped discussions about Israel even as it held multiple sessions on the Middle East, and cover a new report from Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies warning about the effects of the erosion of American Jewish support for Israel on the relationship between Washington and Jerusalem. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Nick Valensi and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.
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
- The House of Representatives is expected to vote today on the Iran war powers resolution sponsored by Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The vote comes a day after Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who last week fell short in his reelection bid after President Donald Trump endorsed an opponent, flipped his vote to advance a similar Democratic-led measure in the Senate. More below.
- The House Education Committee’s subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions is holding a hearing this morning on antisemitism in the healthcare field, with the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law’s Deena Margolies, Dr. Jacob Agronin, Bend the Arc CEO Jamie Beran and American Jewish Medical Association CEO Eveline Shekhman set to testify. Read more here.
- Former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) is among those slated to speak at a hearing being convened this morning by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the State Department’s budget request for its adjacent entities.
- The House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on the Southern Poverty Law Center in a session titled “The Southern Poverty Law Center: Manufacturing Hate.”
- Elsewhere in Washington this morning, the Jewish Federations of North America, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Combat Antisemitism Movement and the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History are hosting a congressional breakfast to celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month. Sam Salz, who in 2022 became one of the only Orthodox Jews to play Division I college football when he walked on to Texas A&M’s team, will give the breakfast’s keynote address.
- Down Pennsylvania Ave., the Hudson Institute is holding an event with Sarah Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy, on modernizing public diplomacy to address global challenges. Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) is slated to give introductory remarks at the event.
- The Federalist Society is hosting its inaugural Legislative Branch Summit today in Washington.
- In Israel, the Knesset unanimously advanced a bill to dissolve the body, which if passed would automatically trigger elections, which are slated to take place no later than October 27. The bill will still need to go through several more readings and votes before it is passed.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR
Pro-Israel and Republican Jewish groups helped oust one of their leading GOP antagonists on Tuesday night, aligning with President Donald Trump to defeat Rep.Thomas Massie (R-KY) in the most expensive House primary in recent memory.
Ed Gallrein, a military veteran and farmer recruited by the Trump White House to challenge Massie, decisively defeated the congressman by 10 points, 55-45%. Massie, a libertarian lawmaker who long cast lonely Republican votes against Israel funding and resolutions condemning antisemitism, increasingly trafficked in bigoted rhetoric in the closing weeks of the campaign.
In his concession speech, Massie continued his antisemitic vitriol against his opponent, telling the crowd: “I had to call my opponent and concede, and it took a while to find Ed Gallrein in Tel Aviv.” Even though Trump’s outspoken opposition was the leading factor behind his demise, he routinely blamed Jewish and pro-Israel donors like Miriam Adelson for costing him his seat and insinuated that Israel was buying seats in Congress.
Massie first drew the ire of Trump for voting against his “big beautiful” reconciliation bill last year, and the anger was exacerbated by his work with Democrats to force the Department of Justice to release all of the files involving Jeffrey Epstein.
Outside groups, including a Trump-aligned super PAC (MAGA KY) and those affiliated with the Republican Jewish Coalition, AIPAC and Christians United for Israel, spent aggressively with ads and billboards attacking Massie over his record, with several pointing out his opposition to Israel and Trump’s foreign policy.
Massie’s defeat also underscores Trump’s strong and continued support within the party, with his endorsements in primaries almost always translating into his candidate’s victory. His opposition to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) led to his defeat last week, and he successfully ousted most of the Indiana GOP state senators who opposed his redistricting efforts.
POLICY PRIORITIES
Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK) on Tuesday introduced the Jewish American Security Act, a broad new effort by the lawmakers, who co-chair the Senate antisemitism task force, to address antisemitism across multiple sectors of American society, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Similar legislation is also expected to be introduced in the House.
About the bill: The bill contains various provisions aimed at increasing security for Jewish communities through additional funding and federal resources. Key provisions include: additional security assistance and improvements to security grant programs for Jewish communities; addressing antisemitism on college campuses through new federal oversight measures including a federal official to handle campus antisemitism; and addressing the spread of antisemitism online by requiring new transparency reports from social media companies, among a range of related steps in each category.
EIGHTH TIME’S THE CHARM
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) joined with Democrats to vote for a procedural motion advancing legislation that would end U.S. military operations against Iran, allowing the war powers resolution to move forward on Democrats’ eighth such attempt since the war began, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
State of play: Cassidy, who last week fell short in his reelection primary effort against a Trump-backed challenger, joined three other Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Rand Paul (R-KY) — in voting for the procedural motion, which was approved by a 50-47 vote. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) voted against the motion. The passage of the motion will now tee up further debate on and an additional vote on the resolution itself, at a time to be determined.
Money messages: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called on U.S. allies on Tuesday to “step up” and join Washington in taking aggressive economic action against Iran and its broader terrorism financing networks, JI’s Matthew Shea reports.
LEAVING FINGERPRINTS
A newly launched super PAC with ties to Republicans has spent nearly half a million dollars to help boost a Democrat running for a competitive open House seat in Texas who is facing growing bipartisan furor over a series of virulently antisemitic social media remarks, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Boosting Galindo: Lead Left PAC, the GOP-linked group, has been aggressively promoting Maureen Galindo, a fringe San Antonio activist who finished first in the primary and has said that Jews “own Hollywood” and “worship the synagogue of Satan.” Last week, she said that, if elected, she would turn a local immigration detention center “into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking,” while adding, “It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles which will probably be most of the Zionists.”
Bonus: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) slammed Galindo’s comments, saying that “bigoted garbage and antisemitism should be nowhere near our politics” and suggesting that the “donors behind the Republican super PAC funding her should be exposed.”
MENDING FENCES
A new study from the Tel Aviv University-affiliated Institute of National Security Studies warns that American Jews’ ties with Israel have weakened in recent years, and Israeli leaders do not seem to care enough about how these shifting attitudes might affect Israel’s national security. If Israel ignores the growing distance with the American Jewish community, the country could face long-term consequences, authors Ted Sasson and Avishay Ben Sasson-Gordis argue, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Words of warning: “An American Jewish community that is less supportive of Israel would leave Israel more isolated globally, less capable of extending soft power, and less confident in its role as the nation-state of the Jewish people,” Sasson, a Middlebury College professor and INSS scholar, and Ben Sasson-Gordis, director of the Israel-United States Research Field at INSS, write.
DEM DISCUSSIONS
On Tuesday, more than a dozen Democrats pitched their vision for America to a roomfull of liberal donors, staffers and funders at the Center for American Progress’ IDEAS Conference, a convening that pledged to bring together “the broad center-left’s leading thinkers and doers” to offer ideas on a range of policy topics. American foreign policy was one of those topics. In the two sessions on national security, each of which devoted significant discussion to the Middle East, one topic was notably absent: Israel, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Iran war opposition: Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) kicked off the gathering with an address billed as “National Security Ideas for the Future.” He cited his own experiences as a member of the Marine Corps who served in Iraq, arguing that the war in Iran is misguided and harming Americans. ”I’m here today because right now our country is in danger. Will this president continue to drag America into another endless Middle East war?” Gallego said. “This is a war that wasn’t planned, wasn’t authorized and is not making us safer. [Donald] Trump got his war, and working families got stuck with the bill every day.”
FLOURISHING FRIENDSHIPS
While some geopolitical relationships have been tested by the Iran war, others have been strengthened: Emerging alignments between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and India are creating new opportunities for cooperation among three countries increasingly bound by shared defense and economic interests, experts told Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Overlapping interests: On Friday, India and the UAE agreed on the framework for a strategic defense partnership, a step that could deepen ties between New Delhi and Abu Dhabi amid the regional fallout from the war. Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JI that the partnership also extends to Israel, which has remained a key ally of both countries. He said the emerging alignment is rooted in overlapping economic and strategic interests and shared adversaries.
Worthy Reads
Narrative War: Days after The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof published a piece alleging numerous abuses of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli security officials, Kristof’s colleague on the Opinion desk, Bret Stephens, observes the documented history of news outlets publishing falsehoods about Israel without basic fact-checking. “The common thread in these and many other stories is that they all involve strenuous, if ultimately embarrassed, efforts to prove that Israelis deliberately seek to kill the innocent and maim the vulnerable, apparently for no other reason than gratuitous cruelty. This isn’t a matter of reporters’ impartially trying to expose wrongdoing wherever they find it — if that were the case, the errors wouldn’t invariably lean in the same ideological direction. It isn’t speaking truth to power. It’s feeding narratives to the credulous.” [NYTimes]
Drawing Down Aid: In The Wall Street Journal, the American Enterprise Institute’s Daniel Samet argues in favor of winding down U.S. aid to Israel, calling it a “political liability” that could affect the future of the relationship between the countries. “Military aid to Israel, which Washington began supplying in significant amounts during the 1960s, has been a sound investment. The U.S. has financed a reliable ally that fights and wins wars against America’s enemies. Yet Israel no longer commands the affection of the American people as widely as it once did. Ending military assistance is a political imperative in changing times.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
U.S. forces in the Indian Ocean seized an Iran-linked oil tanker that had been under U.S. sanctions since March; the vessel was believed to be carrying upwards of a million barrels of crude oil that was loaded earlier this year from Iran’s Kharg Island…
The New York Times reports on an Israeli-developed plan, backed by the U.S., for former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was under house arrest in Tehran, to be installed as the leader of Iran; the plan reportedly fell apart after the hard-liner was injured on the first day of the war in a strike intended to free him from house arrest and, per the Times, “became disillusioned with the regime change plan”…
Ahmadinejad biographer and Israeli analyst Meir Javedanfar dismissed the report, calling it “a disinformation campaign initiated by those that tried to assassinate him”; Javedanfar said that the “disinformation is being used to create chaos within the ranks of the Islamic Republic of Iran” following what he described as “an assassination attempt gone wrong”…
Iranian state media reported that Tehran had offered a new proposal to the U.S. that would include the withdrawal of U.S. troops from areas near Iran, an end to hostilities targeting both Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon and reparations for damages the regime sustained in the recent war…
The United Arab Emirates said that three drones that targeted the country’s nuclear power plant over the weekend originated from Iraq, deepening speculation that Iran, which backs militias in the country, was behind the attack…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights the challenges facing Kuwait following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz that has halted the Gulf state’s ability to ship crude oil…
President Donald Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s primary challenge against Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on Tuesday, dealing a significant blow to Cornyn’s bid for a fifth term, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…
Former CIA officer Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, an ally of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, is departing her senior roles at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Office of Management and Budget to return to the private sector…
The Senate passed a resolution honoring Jewish American Heritage Month by unanimous consent…
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), responding to Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY) primary defeat, said that Massie “lost because he had the guts to stand up to the Epstein class and against the war”; the California Democrat, who is mulling a 2028 presidential bid, said he welcomed “voters who feel rejected by Trump,” pledging to “build a movement to stand for Team America”…
The South Carolina Statehouse approved a new congressional map that would eliminate the district represented by Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), the state’s only Democratic district; the new map will next head to the state Senate for a vote…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has in recent days held a series of meetings and listening sessions with Wall Street executives, including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, after Mamdani angered business leaders by filming a video outside the home of Citadel’s Ken Griffin in which the mayor announced a plan to tax second homes in the city…
Police in New York are investigating the death of a Jewish bakery owner and former Hatzolah volunteer whose body was found in the Queens neighborhood of Flushing after he was shot in the neck and back…
The Strokes announced that guitarist Nick Valensi, who is Jewish, won’t be participating in the band’s upcoming summer tour, weeks after Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas said on the “SubwayTakes” web series that “American Zionists get the benefits of white privileged people, but talk like they are Black people during slavery”…
Mohamed Hagi, Somaliland‘s newly arrived ambassador to Israel, announced that Hargeisa planned to open its embassy in the country in Jerusalem…
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claimed that the International Criminal Court was seeking a warrant for his arrest; the ICC would not comment on the claim, saying that requests for warrants are confidential…
In what he said was a response to the ICC’s request for a warrant, Smotrich threatened to evict residents of the West Bank Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar…
Comedy writer Barry Blaustein, a longtime collaborator of comedian Eddie Murphy who worked on the screenplays of “Coming to America” and “The Nutty Professor,” died at 71…
Pic of the Day
Birthdays
Emmy Award-winning singer and songwriter, Rachel Platten turns 45…
CEO at Kings’ Care – A Safe Place, operator of multiple drug and alcohol rehabilitation and treatment centers, Ilene Leiter… Canadian businesswoman and elected official, she served in the Ontario Assembly and in the Canadian House of Commons, Elinor Caplan turns 82… Former member of the New York State Assembly until 2020, representing the 97th Assembly District in Rockland County, Ellen Jaffee turns 82… Former member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-CT) for 20 years, he was born in a DP camp in Germany after WWII, Sam Gejdenson turns 78… Chagrin Falls, Ohio, attorney, Robert Charles Rosenfeld… CEO emeritus of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Michael S. Miller… Seamstress and weaver, Bernice Ann Penn Venable… Retired in 2022 as a federal judge for the Southern District of Texas, she is now a mediator and arbitrator, Judge Nancy Ellen Friedman Atlas turns 77… Five-time Emmy Award-winning producer and writer who has worked on “Saturday Night Live,” PBS’ “Great Performances” and “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” Alan Zweibel turns 76… U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) turns 75… Former director of international affairs, policy and planning at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, following 12 years at the ADL, Michael Alan Salberg… Professor at Tulane, he was president of the Aspen Institute, CEO of CNN and managing editor of Time, Walter Isaacson turns 74… Born in upstate New York as Michael Scott Bornstein, former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and then member of the Knesset, Michael Oren turns 71… Actor and singer, known for her work in musical theater, Judy Kuhn turns 68… CEO and founder of Abrams Media, chief legal analyst for ABC News and the founder of Mediaite, Dan Abrams turns 60… NYC location scout and unit production manager for feature films, TV and commercials, David Brotsky… Co-founder and CEO of Breitbart News, Larry Solov turns 58… Senior advisor at Majority Democrats, Ami Copeland… French singer and actor, at 13 she became the youngest singer to ever reach No. 1 in the French charts, Elsa Lunghini turns 53… Co-president of Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays, Matthew Silverman turns 50… Principal of public policy at Amazon, Philip Justin “PJ” Hoffman… Program officer of Jewish life at the Michigan-based William Davidson Foundation, Vadim Avshalumov… Founder and CEO of Berkeley, California-based Caribou Biosciences, a genome engineering company, Rachel Haurwitz, Ph.D…. Senior director of government relations and strategy for the ADL, Lauren D. Wolman… Executive communications leader, Susan Sloan… VP of digital advocacy at McGuireWoods Consulting, Josh Canter… Beauty pageant winner who was awarded the title of Miss Israel 2014, Doron Matalon turns 33… Master of public policy candidate at Oxford University, Aylon Berger turns 26… Conservative political activist, he is a survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Kyle Kashuv turns 25…
While pro-Israel leaders were encouraged by the defeat of Massie in Kentucky, many watched warily as Rabb, a DSA-endorsed candidate with a long record of extremist rhetoric and conspiratorial views, prevailed in a Philadelphia-area Democratic primary
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images/Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. and Pennsylvania State Rep. Chris Rabb
Pro-Israel and Republican Jewish groups helped oust one of their leading GOP antagonists on Tuesday night, aligning with President Donald Trump to defeat Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in the most expensive House primary in recent memory.
Ed Gallrein, a military veteran and farmer recruited by the Trump White House to challenge Massie, decisively defeated the congressman by 10 points, 55-45%. Massie, a libertarian lawmaker who long cast lonely Republican votes against Israel funding and resolutions condemning antisemitism, increasingly trafficked in bigoted rhetoric in the closing weeks of the campaign.
In his concession speech, Massie continued his antisemitic vitriol against his opponent, telling the crowd: “I had to call my opponent and concede, and it took a while to find Ed Gallrein in Tel Aviv.” Even though Trump’s outspoken opposition was the leading factor behind his demise, he routinely blamed Jewish and pro-Israel donors like Miriam Adelson for costing him his seat and insinuated that Israel was buying seats in Congress.
Massie first drew the ire of Trump for voting against his “big beautiful” reconciliation bill last year, and the anger was exacerbated by his work with Democrats to force the Department of Justice to release all of the files involving Jeffrey Epstein.
Outside groups, including a Trump-aligned super PAC (MAGA KY) and those affiliated with the Republican Jewish Coalition, AIPAC and Christians United for Israel, spent aggressively with ads and billboards attacking Massie over his record, with several pointing out his opposition to Israel and Trump’s foreign policy.
Massie’s defeat also underscores Trump’s strong and continued support within the party, with his endorsements in primaries almost always translating into his candidate’s victory. His opposition to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) led to his defeat last week, and he successfully ousted most of the Indiana GOP state senators who opposed his redistricting efforts.
Trump’s next test will come next week In Texas, after he just endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s intraparty challenge against Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).
While pro-Israel leaders were encouraged by the defeat of a leading GOP antagonist in Kentucky, many watched warily as state Rep. Chris Rabb, a DSA-endorsed candidate with a long record of extremist rhetoric and conspiratorial views, prevailed in a Philadelphia-area Democratic primary for the seat of retiring Rep. Dwight Evans (D-PA).
During the campaign, Rabb called Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza a genocide, and attacked his opponents for not doing the same.
Rabb comfortably led state Sen. Sharif Street by 14 points (44-30%), with surgeon Ala Stanford finishing in third with 24% of the vote. Rabb, who was endorsed by leading progressive lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), also spent time campaigning and fundraising with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker.
Rabb’s sharing of an Instagram post claiming the Bondi Beach terror attack that killed 14 Jews at a Chanukah celebration in Australia was a “false flag” perpetrated by Zionists did little to stunt his support. It also didn’t prevent Ocasio-Cortez from campaigning with him in the campaign’s closing days. (He claimed a former staffer was responsible for the post.)
Election results indicated that Rabb performed best in the whitest and wealthier precincts in the city, while Street and Stanford’s base was in the majority-Black working-class parts of Philadelphia.
The Brandeis Center’s Denna Margolies, who will be testifying, said healthcare unions sometimes ‘use their authority and resources to promote antisemitic and anti-Zionist campaigns’
Zack Frank
Capitol Building
A House Education & Workforce subcommittee is set to hear testimony on Wednesday on the rising problem of antisemitism in the healthcare space, with a particular focus on the role of healthcare workers’ unions in fueling animus in the field.
Deena Margolies, an attorney at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, who is set to testify before the subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions, said that Brandeis has seen a significant increase in complaints of antisemitism in healthcare spaces from doctors, medical students, residents, interns, nurses and other staff, as well as in medical school classrooms and psychology and social work spaces.
“When patients are at their most vulnerable, when they’re in an exam room or a hospital bed or an operating room, they need to trust that every member of their team is focused on their well-being,” Margolies said. “If there is shunning or marginalization or harassment towards Jewish or Israeli doctors, it’s going to impact the healthcare and the well-being of the patient, right? It’s going to affect coordination and trust and patient care and safety.”
Other witnesses scheduled to testify include Dr. Jacob Agronin, a cardiology fellow at Temple University Hospital; Eveline Shekman, the CEO of the American Jewish Medical Association; and Jamie Beran, the CEO of the progressive Jewish group Bend the Arc.
Margolies said that she has been representing Jewish and Israeli healthcare professionals and employees facing antisemitic discrimination, as well as some non-Jewish individuals who have experienced similar discrimination because they’re perceived as Jewish or are friendly with Jews.
Noting the hearing’s focus on unions, Margolies said she does not intend to question whether healthcare workers are allowed to hold or express political views.
“It’s when the healthcare unions use their authority and resources to promote antisemitic and anti-Zionist campaigns that are outside their mission,” she said. “It’s when they are demonizing or promoting antisemitic and anti-Zionist campaigns that marginalize and ostracize and alienate and discriminate against Jewish and Israeli healthcare workers.”
She said she’s spoken to numerous members of two major healthcare unions who have felt that they have had to hide their Jewish or Israeli identity to avoid hostility from fellow union members.
The job of unions is to collectively bargain for and represent healthcare workers, not to “help create the hostility that [these employees] are now enduring at work,” she continued. “There should be no place in such unions for [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] measures and demonization of Jewish and Israeli colleagues.”
Margolies said that Congress should conduct oversight of healthcare labor unions advancing antisemitic and anti-Zionist campaigns unrelated to their core purposes, and to probe whether unions engaged in such activity can properly represent Jewish and Israeli members.
She said that lawmakers should also press federal agencies to clarify that antisemitic harassment in healthcare workplaces is illegal, regardless of its source.
At previous hearings covering unions’ roles in pushing antisemitic and anti-Israel campaigns, some Democrats have accused Republicans of attempting to use the issue to undermine union organizing and collective bargaining rights generally.
“That couldn’t be further from the truth. The issue for me is not whether healthcare workers can hold political views, and I’m not looking for the union not to be able to collectively bargain,” Margolies said. “The problem really is when they use their authority and resources to promote antisemitic, anti-Zionist, anti-Israel campaigns that are outside their labor mission. … This is not an anti-labor union thing at all.”
Plus, Trump's Paxton endorsement puts Texas in play
Noam Galai/Getty Images
Sen. James Lankford speaks during the 'March For Israel' at the National Mall on November 14, 2023 in Washington, DC.
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK) introduced the Jewish American Security Act today, a broad new effort to address antisemitism across multiple sectors of American society, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
The bill — launched at a Jewish Federations of North America press conference on Capitol Hill — aims to combat antisemitism on campus and online, as well as streamline and provide $1 billion in funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, and has broad support among Jewish community groups and across all major religious denominations.
William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told JI it was “deeply encouraging to see this bill come together with bipartisan, bicameral support at a time when that kind of consensus is all too rare”…
President Donald Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) ahead of the state’s heated GOP primary runoff next Tuesday, JI’s Emily Jacobs reports. Trump, who has repeatedly praised both candidates, claimed Cornyn “is a good man … but he was not supportive of me when times were tough.”
If Paxton wins the May 26 runoff, Democrats plan to invest millions behind their nominee, state Rep. James Talarico, who is trying to become the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Texas since 1988. General election polling indicates that a matchup between Talarico and Paxton — who carries significant legal and ethical baggage — would be highly competitive…
Activist Maureen Galindo, a candidate for the Democratic nomination in Texas’ 35th Congressional District who has continuously trafficked in antisemitic conspiracy theories, pledged in an Instagram post last week to turn an immigrant detention center in south Texas into a “prison for American Zionists.” “It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles which will probably be most of the Zionists,” she continued.
Jewish and Democratic groups, including Democratic Majority for Israel, are backing Galindo’s opponent, Bexar County sheriff’s deputy Johnny Garcia. In a statement about Galindo’s comments, DMFI accused Republicans of funding her campaign and “deliberately elevating one of the most grotesque antisemites in America”…
Trump blasted Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) for sending a campaign text to voters, as election day is underway in Kentucky, with a statement from Trump endorsing Massie — from 2022. Trump has endorsed Massie’s opponent, Ed Gallrein, in today’s Republican primary.
“Horrible Congressman Thomas Massie put out an old Endorsement, from many years ago, of him by me long before I found out that he was the Worst Congressman in the History of our Country,” Trump wrote on X — his first post on the platform in months…
New polling from the campaign of Navy veteran Rebecca Bennett shows her with a 20-point lead in the Democratic primary for New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, the seat held by Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) — who is drawing increasing scrutiny for his monthslong unexplained absence from Congress. Bennett, who is leading the pack in fundraising, polled at 35% among likely primary voters, while Tina Shah came in second at 15%…
After abruptly scrapping a strike on Iran planned for today, Trump gave a vague timeline for renewed diplomacy, saying Tehran has only “a limited period of time” to return to the negotiating table. “Two or three days. Maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Maybe early next week,” he told reporters today.
Hours after calling off the strike yesterday evening, Trump met with his national security team to discuss military options in Iran, Axios reports, suggesting resumed strikes are still on the table…
Speaking at the No Money for Terror Conference in Paris, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called on U.S. allies to “step up” and join Washington in taking aggressive economic action against Iran and its broader terrorism financing networks, JI’s Matthew Shea reports.
Bessent’s comments came as the Treasury Department announced sanctions against four individuals associated with the pro-Hamas flotilla traveling towards Gaza, as well as a suite of sanctions against Iranian shadow banking operations and 19 regime-linked vessels…
The Emirati Defense Ministry said that drone attacks that caused a fire at the UAE’s nuclear power plant over the weekend were launched from Iraqi territory, where several Iran-backed militias are based…
Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, told members of the House Armed Services Committee that reports that Iran had managed to reconstitute many of its drone and missile sites struck during U.S. operations were inaccurate…
Twenty-five Republican senators led by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) wrote a letter to Trump urging him to “fully dismantle” the U.N. Relief and Works Agency and remove it from the U.N. budget, citing the agency’s “systemic infiltration by Hamas and other U.S.-designated terrorist organizations”…
The Oklahoman, a local daily newspaper, pulled down an opinion article published on Monday comparing the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA team to Israel — an “underdog that has become hated.” The article, written by a pro-Israel Jewish Oklahoman, was “mistakenly published,” the paper’s executive editor said, and “did not align with our opinion standards”…
⏩ 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 readout from the Center for American Progress’ IDEAS Conference, where more than a dozen Democrats, several with national ambitions, shared their policy visions today in Washington.
The Jewish Federations of North America, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Combat Antisemitism Movement and Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History will host a breakfast with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month, with a keynote speech from Sam Salz, believed to be the first and only Orthodox Jew to play Division I college football.
The Senate will begin consideration on the reconciliation bill to fund immigration enforcement, as well as security for the new White House ballroom, during which Senate Democrats could force votes on a range of issues, including the war in Iran.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a budget hearing on State Department-adjacent entities, with testimony from former lawmaker and diplomat Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), National Endowment for Democracy President Damon Wilson and Inter-American Foundation CEO Sara Aviel.
The House Committee on Education & Workforce will hold a hearing on antisemitism in healthcare settings. Witnesses will include Deena Margolies, an attorney from the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law; Jamie Beran, CEO of the progressive Jewish organization Bend the Arc; Eveline Shekhman, CEO of the American Jewish Medical Association; and Dr. Jacob Agronin from Temple University Hospital.
Sarah Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy, will speak at the Hudson Institute about the U.S.’ public diplomacy strategy abroad, with opening remarks from Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO).
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The Jewish American Security Act addresses security threats, antisemitism on campus and online antisemitism
U.S. Senate
Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK)
Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK) on Tuesday introduced the Jewish American Security Act, a broad new effort by the lawmakers, who co-chair the Senate antisemitism task force, to address antisemitism across multiple sectors of American society.
Similar legislation is also expected to be introduced in the House.
The bill, which has widespread support from all corners of Jewish leadership, including all major religious denominations and political organizations on both sides of the aisle, contains various provisions aimed at increasing security for Jewish communities through additional funding and federal resources.
Key provisions include: additional security assistance and improvements to security grant programs for Jewish communities; addressing antisemitism on college campuses through new federal oversight measures including a federal official to handle campus antisemitism; and addressing the spread of antisemitism online by requiring new transparency reports from social media companies, among a range of related steps in each category.
Rosen, leaders from the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee and BBYO International and local leaders whose communities have been impacted by antisemitic violence in recent years spoke in favor of the bill at a Jewish Federations of North America press conference on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. JFNA activists are on Capitol Hill this week meeting with more than 200 lawmakers to advocate for the bill and other legislation.
Rosen called the bill an “aggressive and comprehensive” response to antisemitism in the U.S. which will “help keep Jewish students safe, will help secure Jewish community institutions and we will help fight antisemitism online.”
She acknowledged that the path ahead is “not going to be easy” but emphasized that “it’s not an option for our government to not do more to fight antisemitism.”
Lankford emphasized the impacts of antisemitic violence on individual Jews and communities in a statement on the bill.
“These are not just numbers, these are real stories impacting real people. Jewish students being targeted on campuses. Synagogues being vandalized. People being attacked in the streets simply because of their faith and heritage,” Lankford said. “That is not who we are as a nation, and we unequivocally condemn antisemitism in all its forms. Every American deserves to live their faith freely. That is worth fighting for.”
Rosen told Jewish Insider later in the day that she and Lankford had been working to craft the bill for the past year, and had taken a range of input on the legislation. She said she and Lankford had learned from past legislative fights that to garner strong bipartisan support “you have to be very specific” and targeted in how legislation is crafted.
She said the new bill is focused on combating domestic antisemitism across three of the areas that have been epicenters of the recent rise in antisemitism since Oct. 7.
“I think it’s a good, solid bill and I believe that we crafted it in a way to get that good bipartisan support,” Rosen said. “We’re not going to solve every problem, but you have to start with something and work from there, and hopefully we build on that success.”
“Antisemitism we know is a canary in the coal mine. It starts with the Jews, it doesn’t end with the Jews,” she said.
“This bill that we wrote, we meant it to not be so prescriptive,” Rosen continued.” When we do things on college campuses, it’s going to help all students. When we do things in houses of worship, it’s not just for synagogues, it’s for all houses of worship. And when we start looking and analyze some of these algorithms online, it will probably inform us about some of the other algorithms, probably the same algorithms that are taking people down that hateful rabbit hole.”
Asked after the press conference about the path forward for the bill, and how advocates could avoid the same pitfalls that befell other efforts to combat antisemitism since Oct. 7, JFNA CEO Eric Fingerhut said that Jewish community groups took lessons from previous fights, particularly over the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which would codify the federal government’s use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism in evaluating campus antisemitism cases, but has failed to pass in several congressional sessions.
“We learned a lot from the experience with the Antisemitism Awareness Act. Of course we still support the IHRA definition, but we made a collective communal decision that there’s a separate bill that covers the IHRA definition, and that we hope that will continue to move through the process, but this is a separate issue,” Fingerhut told JI.
The bill does not explicitly endorse the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, which has proven a hurdle to previous efforts to combat antisemitism, but it notes that the Trump administration in 2019 implemented an executive order enforcing the IHRA definition on college campuses.
“This is the security of the Jewish community, and it has to be something that can be embraced on a bipartisan basis across the aisle,” he continued.
Fingerhut said that Rosen and other advocates made specific efforts to ensure the bill would not contain elements that would “turn it into a partisan effort” or “alienate people who have strong feelings about some of the issues that were in the Antisemitism Awareness Act, and so we hope we’ve accomplished that.”
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), who co-chairs the House antisemitism task force and also spoke at the press conference, said that he and his House co-chairs are moving toward introducing companion legislation.
“This was a labor of … unquestionabl[e] importance and it has taken us quite some time to come together in a bipartisan, bicameral way,” Goldman acknowledged. “We worked for several months to fine tune this bill, so that it can be a targeted, productive, and effective concrete step to fighting antisemitism and rooting it out on the ground. We have worked very hard in a bipartisan way because none of these bills matter unless they become law.”
Goldman highlighted the “dramatic escalation” in antisemitic incidents in New York City in recent weeks, and said that simple condemnation after -the -fact is “too little, too late.”
The bill has widespread support among Jewish community groups and across all major religious denominations, including from the American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Orthodox Union, JFNA, Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, Secure Community Network, The Rabbinical Assembly, Hadassah, Jewish Women International, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate, JCC Association of North America, the Nexus Project, Union for Reform Judaism, the Central Conference of American Rabbis and Agudath Israel of America.
The Republican Jewish Coalition and Jewish Democratic Council of America are also both endorsing the bill, JI has learned.
The legislation follows a previous effort by Rosen and Lankford, and counterparts in the House, to introduce a comprehensive package of antisemitism legislation in the past Congress, the Countering Antisemitism Act, which faced opposition from senior lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and ultimately did not advance.
The new bill is somewhat more limited than that prior effort, and builds on or combines other efforts that lawmakers have advanced individually, though certain provisions could still face objections from various corners.
Mirroring efforts currently underway in the 2027 government funding process, the legislation would authorize $1 billion annually for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program — though that funding would still have to be approved annually through the appropriations process even if this bill passes.
It also includes various provisions aimed at reforming NSGP management, including requiring that the Federal Emergency Management Agency provide sufficient staffing to “streamline the application process and post-approval process for a grant,” provide additional technical assistance to grantees and quickly disburse funds under the program, within 90 days of when grantees submit reimbursement requests.
At the outset of the Trump administration, grant reimbursements were paused for a significant period as the administration reviewed all Department of Homeland Security grant programs.
It requires that applications for the program open no later than 90 days after Congress passes funding for the program, and that each state publicize a timeline to submit applications, both of which were issues during the 2025 grant cycle.
Addressing repeated congressional complaints during the second Trump term that lawmakers have not received adequate information about or communication from the administration about the grant program, the legislation would codify a requirement that FEMA provide Congress with a list of grant awards and amounts at least a week before such grants are publicized. It would also release to the public information about grant acceptances and rejections and the criteria for such decisions.
Responding to concerns about new conditions imposed on applicants relating to cooperation with immigration authorities and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programming, the bill bars any conditions or terms that would disadvantage applicants or grant recipients based on their “religious, political, or ideological affiliation.”
The bill would modify current grant rules to allow nonprofits to use NSGP funding to pay for contracted or in-house security personnel.
At the press conference, Rosen called the provisions “comprehensive and long overdue reforms to this program that will actually make sure that it works for our at-risk institutions.”
And it would require the intelligence community to produce annual assessments on domestic and transnational antisemitic violent extremism.
The legislation would additionally codify a version of a program established in the 2026 Department of Justice funding bill that would allow the DOJ to provide grants to state and local law enforcement for the purpose of protecting religious institutions and addressing religious-based hate crimes.
In the education space, the bill would establish an antisemitism coordinator within the Department of Education, whose responsibilities would include working to ensure that antisemitism complaints that have been pending with the department’s Office for Civil Rights for more than 180 days are resolved promptly.
It would also mandate that any schools receiving federal funding designate a coordinator for addressing discrimination complaints under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and establish a uniform grievance procedure and provide support mechanisms for such complaints. The effort mirrors policies currently in place for sex-based discrimination, under Title IX.
To improve visibility into the volume of antisemitic activity on college campuses, the legislation would change federal reporting procedures for hate crimes on college campuses, requiring that annual public campus crime reports disaggregate such offenses based on the bias category, such as antisemitism, that motivated them.
It also requires the Department of Education to offer trainings for schools on their Title VI responsibilities and to create an online database on Title VI best practices and recommendations. It requires schools to publicize educational materials about students’ Title VI rights both online and in person.
Rosen told JI that existing mechanisms have been “woefully inadequate to protect our students.”
Addressing antisemitism online, the bill requires platforms with more than 50 million unique monthly American users to submit to the Federal Trade Commission and to share publicly a transparency report on their “content moderation practices and efforts to detect, remove, limit the visibility of, and prevent the amplification of antisemitic content” on their platform, twice each year.
That report would include details on the specific review mechanisms and content moderation tools the platforms use; the total number of pieces of content on the platform that were determined to violate their policies on antisemitism and what action the platforms took; the amount of antisemitic content that reached more than 100 viewers or was promoted by the platform’s algorithms; the percentage of antisemitic content that violated the platforms’ policies but remained online; and details on accounts that were suspended or removed for sharing antisemitic content.
Platforms that do not comply with these reporting requirements would be subject to penalties by the FTC.
The administration would also be required to report to Congress on antisemitism online that has been linked to offline violence.
Goldman said that such transparency provisions would serve as a “tremendous deterrent.”
“If these social media companies need to disclose how much money they’re making off of antisemitic content, that’s going to be a deterrent. That is bad PR. And so it is critically important that we take this first step,” Goldman said. “It doesn’t violate the First Amendment, it doesn’t violate Section 230. It is purely bringing some transparency.”
Rosen emphasized that social media has been an “accelerant” and driver of antisemitism, making such content easier to access. She said the legislation would not compel speech or action by the platforms, but would provide transparency into how algorithms may be driving people toward hate and violence, and allow better analysis and understanding of the problem.
Fingerhut told JI that recent antisemitic attacks may also play a role in demonstrating to lawmakers the need for the legislation to address antisemitism and protect the Jewish community.
Several speakers also made note at the press conference of the attack on Monday at the Islamic Center in San Diego, highlighting the threats to religious communities broadly which can benefit from the NSGP funding.
If Republicans end up ousting a lawmaker trafficking in some of the ugliest bigotry, while Democrats anoint a future lawmaker pushing extremist antisemitic conspiracy theories, it’s a sign of the direction both parties are headed
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Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, speaks during a campaign event ahead of a primary election at Veterans Memorial Park in Vanceburg, Kentucky, US, on Monday, May 18, 2026.
Today’s primaries in Kentucky and Pennsylvania may well serve as an early test over which party is more effectively dealing with its own antisemitism problems.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), one of the few remaining anti-Israel Republicans in Congress, has been spewing antisemitic tropes in the closing days of the campaign, portraying Congress as Israel-occupied territory and caricaturing wealthy Jewish donors as the fuel behind his opponent’s support, as he tries to fend off a serious challenge from Ed Gallrein, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump.
Meanwhile in Philadelphia, state Rep. Chris Rabb — who shared a post on his Instagram account promoting a conspiracy theory that the Bondi Beach terror attack in Sydney in which 14 Jews were killed was a false-flag operation perpetuating Israeli interests — holds the late momentum in an open Democratic congressional primary to succeed retiring Rep. Dwight Evans (D-PA). (Rabb’s campaign blamed a former campaign staffer for the offending post.)
A parade of progressive stars, from Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to Jamie Raskin (D-MD), have traveled to Philadelphia to campaign with the Democratic Socialists of America-backed Rabb. Antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker likewise rallied with Rabb and held a fundraiser with him where attendees chanted: “Free Palestine!”
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), representing the more mainstream wing of the Democratic Party, held a rally on Monday to boost one of Rabb’s leading challengers, state Sen. Sharif Street.
Gallrein and Rabb both appear to hold late momentum in their respective races. If the two end up winning, the conventional wisdom — and corresponding coverage — will rightly conclude that a Massie defeat came as a result of Trump’s outspoken opposition to the congressman and that a Rabb victory will be the result of progressives’ ascendance within the Democratic Party.
But that will only tell part of the story. If Republicans end up ousting a lawmaker trafficking in some of the ugliest bigotry, while Democrats anoint a future lawmaker pushing extremist antisemitic conspiracy theories, it’s a sign of the direction both parties are headed.
It’s well-documented that antisemitism is rising on both the left and the right, especially among younger Americans. As many experts have noted, it takes leaders calling out anti-Jewish hate from within their own party to combat it most effectively.
To be sure, Trump’s fury towards Massie has little to do with the congressman’s antisemitism. It’s mainly a result of the congressman voting against several of the president’s legislative priorities, while pushing legislation to require the Department of Justice to release files on Jeffrey Epstein.
But at least he’s giving the party cover to confront its own extremism. The comparative silence over Rabb from Democratic leaders speaks volumes over how hard that is to do.
In August 2025, O’Donnell hosted a popular far-right influencer best known by his online pseudonym ‘Raw Egg Nationalist’ on his podcast for a friendly discussion
Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons
Marty O’Donnell
Marty O’Donnell, a Republican candidate in Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District recently endorsed by President Donald Trump, hosted a Nazi supporter on his podcast last year, months after filing to run for Congress.
O’Donnell is an outsider candidate who also ran in the district in 2024, placing fourth in the GOP primary. He was best known before his political career as the music composer for the “Halo” video game series.
But with Trump’s endorsement — as well as backing from the National Republican Congressional Committee’s MAGA Majority program — the unlikely political candidate has become the favorite for the nomination, despite facing a former U.S. ambassador to Iceland, among others.
In August 2025, O’Donnell hosted Charles Cornish-Dale, a popular far-right influencer better known by his online pseudonym “Raw Egg Nationalist,” on his podcast for a friendly discussion. Repeatedly, over the course of multiple years, Cornish-Dale has shared antisemitic and pro-Nazi content on his Raw Egg Nationalist X account.
Those posts include a quote from Mein Kampf alongside a meme featuring a man in a Nazi uniform in front of a swastika flag; a reference to the “zog” — a conspiracy theory claiming Zionist control of the U.S. government and society; the shorthand “HH” — which stands for Heil Hitler; an advertisement for “Blood, Soil and Grass-fed Beef” t-shirts — referencing a Nazi and white nationalist slogan; and various other Nazi-sympathetic posts.
In his introduction to the interview, O’Donnell acknowledged that Cornish-Dale has been “accused of many weird — fascist, nationalist, white nationalist, misogynist, you name it — he’s been accused of everything. And of course I’m being accused of those things too, so I had to talk to him to find out what’s true and what’s not true.” He called the interview “one of those sort of marriages made in heaven.”
“Charles Cornish Dale was booked by Marty’s production team. Marty was unfamiliar with Dale before the interview and was unaware of these posts shared by Jewish Insider until we received the inquiry,” Keith Schipper, a spokesperson for O’Donnell, said in a statement. “Marty’s support of Israel is unequivocal and, as seen in various interviews and online posts, he will not tolerate the rise of anti-semitism in our country. Marty will continue to fight bigotry, misinformation, and hate toward Israel because it is the right and moral thing to do.”
Later in the interview, O’Donnell again dismissed criticisms of Cornish-Dale, including accusations of white nationalism and misogyny, as not credible. Cornish-Dale responded, “Once upon a time you were a Nazi if you held specific political beliefs and worshiped Adolf Hitler and all that, and now you’re just a Nazi if you’re right wing” — glossing over his own past commentary.
O’Donnell’s personal Discord server — The Marty Army — which he has used and promoted for campaign purposes, also contains a number of users who have shared antisemitic, pro-Nazi and anti-Israel sentiments, even as O’Donnell himself has personally debated with and threatened to ban some of those users from the server — and appears to have banned at least one such user.
Some of those comments, including a series of comments deriding the Anti-Defamation League, have been shared in a channel dedicated to O’Donnell’s congressional campaign.
O’Donnell’s friendly interview with Cornish-Dale comes in spite of his own personal history of speaking out against antisemitism and in support of Israel on social media, in the Discord server and in other public forums.
In a recent podcast interview, O’Donnell leaned into the religious and historical connection between Jews and Christians, and emphasized the West’s “Judeo-Christian” heritage.
“These Christian weirdos who are heretics, who say, ‘Oh, well, the Jews killed Jesus.’ Like, no, Jesus said, ‘No one takes my life from me. Amen. I lay down willingly. I’m doing my Father’s will.’ This is the plan for saving humanity, and it’s a Judeo-Christian plan. That’s God’s plan. That’s the people He chose,” O’Donnell said.
He said he believes that politics now is a form of “spiritual warfare,” including against antisemitic figures on the far right.
“How else do you explain Candace Owens? How else do you explain Tucker Carlson? Some evil spirit has clouded their minds, whether they’re just grifting for money or something evil is happening, but it’s spiritual warfare,” he said.
“Antisemitism, or Jew Hatred, is NOT ‘woke right’. Groypers, [Nick] Fuentes, and his followers are as far from the right as any of the godless Marxist progressives are,” he said at another point on X last year.
The embattled Kentucky congressman called his Trump-endorsed challenger a ‘puppet’ of the Republican Jewish Coalition
DANIEL HEUER/AFP via Getty Images
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) speaks to reporters at the US Capitol on Washington, DC on November 18, 2025.
In the closing days of his House reelection campaign against Trump-endorsed Navy veteran Ed Gallrein — which will conclude with Tuesday’s primary — Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has focused his ire on pro-Israel and Jewish advocacy groups, claiming that his opponent is a “puppet” of such interests.
At a rally on Saturday, the congressman joked that Gallrein’s phone number had a Tel Aviv area code, part of a narrative by Massie that Gallrein is working on behalf of Israeli interests.
“After months of beating around the bush, one reporter finally writes the true story of my race and when asked, the lobbyists brag about it,” Massie said on X on Sunday, referring to a story in Politico about pro-Israel groups’ spending to defeat him. “A coalition of Israel’s lobbyists and donors is spending tens of millions of dollars in a blatant attempt to buy a KY congressional seat.”
The congressman also asserted that Gallrein is a “puppet” of the Republican Jewish Coalition and that “they are running his race.”
The RJC’s national political director, Sam Markstein, responded, “I am speaking for ALL Republicans who want to see you lose tomorrow — including President Donald Trump.”
On Friday, Massie called his primary, which has become the most expensive intraparty congressional contest in U.S. history, “a referendum on whether Israel gets to buy seats in Congress.”
“I’ve never seen Great Britain, Australia or even Germany play in our elections here in the United States. But Israel gets so much from the United States. It’s a one-sided relationship,” Massie said. “They get us to be their proxies in wars they want against their enemies. They get our military assistance. They get our technology. They get our bombs. They get our tax dollars. And I think it’s a very one-sided relationship. At least with NATO, we pretend that they would come to our aid someday if we needed it — and even that’s a ruse.”
Massie also reportedly hosted at least two antisemitic social media figures at his home for an event over the weekend. Some of the attendees said online that Massie brought a group of several dozen influencers into his home for the event. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the event or on the individuals invited.
One of the individuals pictured at the event was Ryan Matta, a Holocaust denier who was pictured with Massie at a separate event wearing an “American Reich” sweatshirt. Another was David Reilly, a self-described antisemite who also has a history of racist and otherwise offensive comments.
Various figures with records of antisemitism including Tucker Carlson, former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Carrie Prejean Boller, who was booted from the White House Religious Liberty Commission over her antisemitic views, Alex Jones, Nick Fuentes and Ian Carroll have all declared their support for Massie, framing his race as a battle between him and Israel and its supporters.
He’s also picked up support from a variety of anti-Israel and Israel-critical figures on the left.
In the final days of the campaign last week, Massie also introduced the “AIPAC Act,” demanding that the pro-Israel group, and other interest groups supporting other countries, register as foreign agents — a longtime talking point by the congressman that leans into antisemitic dual loyalty tropes.
FDD’s Rich Goldberg, a Northwestern alum: ‘Purdue and Chiang have strong reputations for defending freedom of expression while not tolerating antisemitism’
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Mung Chiang, then-president of Purdue University, speaks during the Chamber of Commerce's Global Aerospace Summit in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 10, 2025.
Northwestern University’s Jewish community is celebrating the appointment of Mung Chiang as the school’s new president, optimistic that the supportive environment he fostered for Jewish students during his tenure as president of Purdue University will help combat the antisemitism seen at Northwestern in recent years.
“Purdue and Chiang have strong reputations for defending freedom of expression while not tolerating antisemitism,” Rich Goldberg, a senior advisor at Foundation for Defense of Democracies who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern, told Jewish Insider.
But Goldberg added that Chiang, who has been president of Purdue since January 2023, has enjoyed “a university culture and state leadership that looks very different from what he will find in Evanston, Illinois.” Under Chiang’s leadership, Purdue avoided much of the campus unrest seen at other schools following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks.
The appointment comes as Northwestern navigates the fallout from a turbulent chapter with antisemitism in recent years.
In November, the Illinois school reached a $75 million settlement with the Trump administration to restore federal funding that was frozen months earlier over allegations that administrators failed to address campus antisemitism.
Chiang, who assumes the role on July 1, “will need a new board chairman and other fresh faces who will have his back to fully enforce the federal settlement,” said Goldberg.
Michael Schill, Northwestern’s former president, announced his resignation last summer amid a series of controversies during his brief tenure.
When anti-Israel encampments emerged on college campuses across the country in spring 2024, Schill, who is Jewish, became the first university president to strike a deal with demonstrators. The deal allowed the students to avoid disciplinary action taken and acceded to several demands of the protesters, which drew strong condemnation from many Jewish leaders at the time.
In an August interview with the House Committee on Education and Workforce, Schill sounded unfazed to hear that a Palestinian professor he hired as part of the deal with encampment protesters had once met with slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
At the time of Schill’s resignation, Jewish alumni expressed optimism that his departure, and the House interview being made public, would lead Northwestern leaders to make reforms. Henry Bienen, who served as Northwestern president from 1995-2009, assumed the role of interim university president in September. Bienen previously established Northwestern’s Qatar campus, which has faced scrutiny for faculty ties to Hamas.
Northwestern Hillel said it “congratulates Northwestern University on the appointment of Mung Chiang as the University’s next president. We are deeply grateful to Interim President Henry Bienen for his leadership and partnership, and we’re especially appreciative of his support for students and campus life during this period of transition.”
Hillel at Purdue University declined to comment on Chiang’s record with the Jewish community.
The Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern, a coalition of Northwestern students, faculty, parents and alumni, said in a statement that it “welcomes President-elect Chiang at a pivotal moment for Northwestern and higher education more broadly.”
Chiang “arrives with a reputation for academic excellence, technological innovation, institutional leadership, and support for free expression and open inquiry,” said CAAN.
CAAN called on Northwestern’s new leadership to “ensure equal treatment and civil rights protections for Jewish, Israeli, Zionist students and faculty” and to “reinforce academic neutrality and viewpoint diversity.”
At the same time, it said, “Northwestern’s challenges are significant and will require sustained leadership, transparency, and institutional courage. Federal scrutiny, governance failures, campus polarization, and concerns involving antisemitism did not emerge overnight, and meaningful reform will require more than symbolic change.”
The three leading Democratic candidates agreed that the county can do better dealing with anti-Jewish hate
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Will Jawando, of the Montgomery County Council, speaks at the dedication of the Phil Alperson Way on February 25, 2022.
The three leading Democratic candidates in the race for executive of Montgomery County, Md., pledged to address the rise of antisemitism within the local school system, while some noted their disappointment that the school board has yet to adopt a Jewish group’s recommendations for doing so.
As the June 23 primary approaches, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington hosted a forum on Monday in which the group’s CEO, Ron Halber, asked Councilmembers Andrew Friedson, Evan Glass and Will Jawando how each would address rising antisemitism in Montgomery County’s K-12 schools if elected as executive.
Earlier this month, the JCRC called out the uniquely high rate of antisemitic incidents in the school district and called on the district to incorporate specific antisemitism training. Montgomery County, which is just outside of Washington, D.C., is home to more than 35 active synagogues and has the largest Jewish population in the state.
“I am disappointed that MCPS has not accepted that [training]. I will continue to urge them to do so,” said Jawando, the most progressive Democrat in the race. “There is some Holocaust and antisemitism education happening but we need to start it earlier, in middle school.”
Jawando said as county executive, he would create a Jewish community advisory board and dedicated Jewish liaison to work with schools.
Friedson called for “much better coordination between the school system, county government, JCRC and ADL to ensure better communication and coordination, and ultimately the training to avoid incidents.”
“That’s been offered” to MCPS, continued Friedson. “It has not been fully accepted, which continues to be a major frustration for all of us.”
Glass acknowledged that for years, “most of the antisemitism” in the area has come from schools. “The county executive has to use the bully pulpit to call out hate whenever they see it, wherever it is and for whomever it is pointed at.”
“I will continue to make sure that MCPS does better, either in their appointed leadership and also in their elected leadership.”
The question came at a fraught time for the district — located just outside of Washington, D.C. — as a new report from the Anti-Defamation League showed that Maryland ranked ninth in total antisemitic incidents nationwide in 2025, two-thirds of which occurred in Montgomery County. Among the top ten states with total incidents, Maryland ranked first in the percentage of incidents occurring at K-12 schools, at 34%.
Jawando, who has positioned himself as the most progressive of the candidates, has been critical of the Maryland Israel Development Center, which promotes relations between Maryland and Israeli businesses. “We should never use Montgomery County tax dollars to support the development or production of offensive weapons, whether that’s bombs or munitions or anything else. For me, that’s a nonstarter and I will always oppose it. That’s one reason my office is looking into exactly how MIDC funds are used,” he told the Montgomery Perspective last year.
Friedson, who has positioned himself as the most moderate among the Democratic candidates, has campaigned on a pro-business platform focused on job growth as the county faces slower economic expansion than some of its D.C. metro neighboring counties.
Both Friedson and Glass are Jewish and have longstanding ties to the county’s Jewish community.
Outside of the public school system, Montgomery County has experienced a surge in antisemitic vandalism targeting Jewish institutions.
All three candidates running to replace term-limited County Executive Marc Elrich also said they would retain the local Nonprofit Security Grant Program, one of the few outside of the federal program, in the county budget. Halber and other Jewish leaders have called for increasing NSGP funding in Montgomery County.
The report ‘makes clear that antisemitism and all other forms of discrimination and bigotry have no place at UCLA,’ said Chancellor Julio Frenk, who launched the task force
Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Campus of UCLA in Westwood, CA on Tuesday, May 5, 2026.
An antisemitism task force championed by UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk released a report on Thursday urging the university to intensify its crackdown on anti-Jewish harassment, as the school continues to be enmeshed in legal battles with the Trump administration.
The 42-page set of recommendations, issued by the Initiative to Combat Antisemitism action group, suggested that UCLA set a deadline of 120 days to resolve disciplinary cases. It also said the university should more clearly define consequences for violations to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The committee further urged UCLA to prevent faculty groups from using university resources or authority to express institutional support for anti-Zionism or the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and to implement the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism into rule enforcement and policy formation.
“The roadmap announced today turns our values into action. It makes clear that antisemitism and all other forms discrimination and bigotry have no place at UCLA,” said Frenk, who took over the school’s leadership last year.
UCLA’s Initiative to Combat Antisemitism was formed last year following recommendations of the 2024 Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias. It is led by Stuart Gabriel, a professor in UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.
“Our work at UCLA is building a strong foundation for a campus free of discrimination, and we hope our initiative can serve as a blueprint for colleges and universities nationwide as they seek to build more inclusive campuses,” Gabriel said.
Daniel Gold, a member of the committee and executive director of UCLA Hillel, told Jewish Insider, “While initial work of our Initiative has concluded with the release of this important report, the work of everyone else at UCLA now begins to implement these changes and uphold the commitment towards a campus free of antisemitism.”
The report comes shortly after the school’s student government condemned a campus event featuring former Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov, labeling the speaker selection as “selective platforming of narratives that obscure the broader reality of ongoing state violence” and “a troubling disregard for Palestinian life.”
UC Regent Jay Sures told JI at the time that UCLA’s student government was “shortsighted, antisemitic or both,” and called its members “lunatics” for condemning Shem Tov’s appearance. Sures, who is Jewish, had his home vandalized last year by UCLA Students for Justice in Palestine, which was since banned from campus.
The federal government has been in a monthslong legal battle with UCLA, including a February lawsuit alleging that the 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 DOJ complaint 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.”
Last year, UCLA settled a lawsuit with Jewish students who alleged that the university permitted antisemitic conduct during the spring 2024 anti-Israel encampments on the campus.
The new report does not specifically mention the Trump administration crackdown.
‘No defense, only offense,’ Gottheimer said at an event in Washington commemorating the 78th anniversary of Israel’s founding. 'I am sick and tired of people apologizing, of making excuses.'
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Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) speaks during annual Jerusalem Post conference at Gotham Hall.
Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) urged the Jewish and pro-Israel communities to go on the offensive against antisemitism and anti-Israel attacks, in remarks on Wednesday at an event hosted by the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., commemorating the 78th anniversary of Israel’s founding.
Both lawmakers said they were fed up with constant attacks against the Jewish and pro-Israel communities — and against themselves and other pro-Israel lawmakers personally — for their stances, and urged the audience to forcefully push back and put those attacking the Jewish community and Israel on the defensive.
“No defense, only offense,” Gottheimer said. “I am sick and tired of people apologizing, of making excuses. We should feel proud of the U.S.-Israel relationship, of the independence, of what it’s done for America, of the bipartisan nature, historically, of the relationship and thank God we have Israel to help us fight terror, to stand for freedom and to stand for democracy.”
Moskowitz emphasized that lawmakers who support Israel are being held to a drastically different standard than they are about any other global conflict, just as, he argued, Israel is held to a different standard than other countries.
“We have to stop the defense. We as Jews feel like, ‘Oh, if we just educate them, if we just educate people, if we just give them the information, if we just talk to them, they’ll finally understand,’” Moskowitz said. “We have to flip the script. It’s enough of defending what Israel does. … We have to make the other side defend.”
He said that members of Congress should be grilled aggressively on their support for and relationships with extreme figures such as Hasan Piker and Tucker Carlson, and they should be forced to defend or justify the stances such figures have taken.
“We need all of you … to stand up, to fight back, to play offense, whether that’s against Hasan Piker, whether it’s Candance Owens, we need to make it very clear that’s not going to fly. You’re not going to mess with us. We’re coming for you,” Gottheimer agreed.
Other speakers at the event included Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter. Wright drew comparisons between President Harry Truman’s decision to recognize the state of Israel and President Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran.
“The United States and Israel will prevail, and we will remove a massive threat, and we will bring years and decades of peace, prosperity and restoring confidence in the economic, social and cultural progress of this awesome region, the Middle East, anchored by the state of Israel,” Wright said.
He paid homage to Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, the two Israeli Embassy staffers gunned down last year in an antisemitic attack at the Capital Jewish Museum, not far from the location of Wednesday night’s event.
Wright also highlighted Israel’s technological and energy sector successes and innovations.
Other lawmakers in attendance at the event included Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL), Randy Fine (R-FL), Don Bacon (R-NE), Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Virginia Foxx (R-NC).
Other administration officials who attended the event included Sebastian Gorka, Josh Gruenbaum and Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun.
The annual event also included, for the first time, a dance floor, DJ and live music, to highlight and celebrate the end of the yearslong Gaza hostage crisis — following through on a slogan that emerged following the Hamas massacre at the Nova Music Festival on Oct.7, 2023: “We will dance again.”
The goal of the spending is to combat antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate
Ronald Zak/AP
George Soros, founder and chairman of the Open Society Foundations, attends the Joseph A. Schumpeter award ceremony in Vienna, Austria, June 21, 2019.
The Open Society Foundations, the major international philanthropy founded by left-wing billionaire George Soros, has pledged $30 million over three years to combat antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate, directing those funds to a number of progressive groups, some of which are at odds with the mainstream Jewish establishment.
Jewish recipients of the funding include progressive Jewish groups such as the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Nexus Project and Jewish Social Justice Roundtable. Alexander Soros, George Soros’ son, was also a founding chair of Bend the Arc Jewish Action, another grantee. The younger Soros is a longtime donor to progressive Jewish causes and chairs OSF’s board of directors.
The OSF has also come under fire within the Jewish community for funding initiatives seen as hostile to Israel, including providing grants for Jewish Voice for Peace — which has spearheaded anti-Israel campus demonstrations.
Asked about the OSF’s support of anti-Israel groups, a spokesperson for the organization told Jewish Insider, “We’re a human rights organization and we were created in part to counter discrimination and hatred which are contrary to ideas an open society needs to flourish. Everything we fund is aligned with those values but a lot of the work is focused on many other issues [unrelated to antisemitism].”
The commitment, announced Wednesday, marks an alternative approach to the community’s fight against rising antisemitism, which has traditionally focused on legacy organizations including the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Federations of North America that have historically been at the forefront of combating antisemitism. The spokesperson told JI that the commitment “supports organizations on the frontlines standing against antisemitism and other forms of hate — not by challenging another organization.”
JCPA, one of the grantees, is a member of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations — the umbrella organization of mainstream American Jewish groups. “JCPA is a legacy Jewish organization [that] already collaborates with other legacy Jewish organizations, including on campus and broader education-related issues,” the group’s CEO, Amy Spitalnick, told JI.
“No grantee of any foundation agrees with every position of every other grantee,” said Spitalnick. “We’ve been a clear voice calling out antisemitism wherever it exists across the ideological spectrum and underscoring that our legitimate concerns should not be exploited to attack democratic norms and institutions, including university research funding.”
But other organizations selected, such as Nexus, are newer and use a more left-wing lens to combat antisemitism than the approach taken by the largest Jewish organizations. Nexus released the Nexus Document to challenge the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, specifically arguing that double standards targeting Israel are not inherently antisemitic. The IHRA definition is largely embraced among mainstream Jewish organizations.
Nexus also faced backlash after it defended a recent New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof that alleged widespread rape of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli security forces. The Israel Foreign Ministry and AJC called the column a “blood libel.”
Nexus wrote on Tuesday that “Kristof’s article is a challenging and important read. It takes courage and care to expose sexual violence” and accused Israel of “weaponiz[ing] the term ‘blood libel’ to dismiss Kristof’s thorough reporting.”
Other recipients of the foundation’s funding include Jewish Social Justice Roundtable — a coalition of 60+ progressive member and partner organizations focused on humanitarian and social justice — and Bend the Arc, a national progressive Jewish group, which offers a guide and trainings focused on dismantling antisemitism, focused primarily on right-wing antisemitism.
Open Society’s commitment comes amid broader conversations in the Jewish world about the efficacy of legacy Jewish institutions’ efforts to combat antisemitism. In February, at Manhattan’s 92Y, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens called to “dismantle the Anti-Defamation League,” arguing Jewish philanthropy’s allocation of funds to fight antisemitism were “mostly wasted.”
Recent moves by the ADL, including their creation of a “Mamdani monitor” after the election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the organization’s initial collaboration with the second Trump administration, have raised the ire of left wing Jewish groups.
An OSF spokesperson told JI that organizations were selected based upon ones “we knew were doing great work in this space, which is certainly already underway.”
“Some of these organizations have been on our radar for a long time; either we had a relationship with them or we had been aware of their work for a while,” the spokesperson said.
ADL’s Lauren Wolman: ‘The fact that a Member of Congress was subjected to this kind of abuse so openly is outrageous and a sign of how far too normalized antisemitism has become’
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Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) speaks during a press conference outside of Columbia University on April 22, 2024 in New York City.
William Paul, the adult son of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), verbally accosted Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) at a popular bar in Capitol Hill on Tuesday evening in a lengthy, public antisemitic tirade, Lawler confirmed to Jewish Insider on Wednesday afternoon.
NOTUS, whose reporter witnessed the confrontation, was the first to report the situation.
The tirade occurred less than a week before the congressional election in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District, where anti-Israel Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who has repeatedly faced accusations of antisemitism, is facing a primary challenger, Ed Gallrein, backed by President Donald Trump and a range of Jewish and pro-Israel groups.
Lawler said that William Paul was visibly intoxicated when he entered the restaurant, the Tune Inn. He said that Paul had confronted him when he first entered the restaurant, and introduced himself as the senator’s son, later sitting next to Lawler at the bar and ultimately interjecting into Lawler’s conversation with the NOTUS reporter.
“He goes on a drunken tirade about Thomas Massie, and if he loses, it’s because of my people. I said, ‘My people, who’s that?’ He goes, ‘Jews,’” Lawler, who is Catholic, told JI.
Lawler said that he told Paul he was not Jewish, and that Paul had apologized for “accusing you of that,” to which Lawler responded, “‘Even if I was Jewish, what’s the problem?’ And he just went on a tirade about it. Totally insane.”
He said that Paul went on to rant, “I hate Jews and I hate gay people, and I don’t care if they die,” which Lawler called “pretty vile” and “f****** disgusting.” He described Paul as engaging in a “roughly 10-minute diatribe about Israel, accusing Jews of being responsible for so many things, playing right into the typical antisemitic tropes that so many people rely on.”
Paul ended the conversation by giving Lawler the middle finger, and tripped on his way out of the bar, according to Lawler.
Lawler said that he was “honestly flabbergasted that somebody would engage in that type of rhetoric, let alone directly to a member of Congress.” He called it “arguably the most shocking thing” he’d experienced in his four years in Washington.
Paul apologized for the comments on Wednesday.
“Last night, I had too much to drink and said some things that don’t represent who I really am. I’m sorry and today I am seeking help for my drinking problem,” Paul wrote on X.
Asked what he wanted to hear from the elder Paul in response to the incident, Lawler said he would be “mortified” if it was his own child who had engaged in such behavior, but said he would leave it to the senator how he wants to respond. He said he hasn’t spoken to Sen. Paul or Massie about the incident.
He said that there is “no question when you look at some of the polling that the issue of Israel among young people and support for Israel is waning, and it’s a concern. … I think a lot of the anti-Israel sentiment is rooted in Jew-hatred, and driven by antisemitic tropes that are published on social media and online, and it’s something that we as a society and certainly Congress needs to combat.”
He said the incident “speaks to a larger issue, obviously in society, and what we’re seeing among young people and what we see online,” a “level of hatred and vitriol” that his Jewish colleagues and Jewish constituents have experienced firsthand.
The Kentucky senator’s office did not respond to JI’s request for comment on the incident.
Multiple House lawmakers condemned Paul’s son.
Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) told JI, “his grandfather,” former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) “was an antisemite. So why should we be surprised that it didn’t fall from the tree? And his father’s supporting the biggest antisemite in the house, Thomas Massie. So I don’t find it surprising. I would be curious where he works, because I wouldn’t suspect he’ll work there for long.”
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) wrote on X, “If you are wondering how things are going up on Capit[o]l Hill. We have elected family members screaming ‘you are a Jew’ at catholics.”
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) called it, “Repugnant behavior that we don’t want in the GOP.”
Melanie Pell, chief engagement officer for the American Jewish Committee, who lives in Kentucky, told JI, “What’s most disturbing here is how casually ‘Jew”’ was weaponized as a slur in a face-to-face exchange. This isn’t about politics or personal relationships — this is textbook antisemitic bigotry, and its normalization should alarm everyone.”
Pell said she “would hope that Senator Paul would be quick to condemn any use of ‘Jew’ as a slur irrespective of the source.”
The Republican Jewish Coalition responded to the original NOTUS report saying simply, “gross.” Jeff Miller, a Republican lobbyist and board chair of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, responded, “WTF.”
Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, the chairman of the Kentucky Jewish Council, said that his organization was “deeply disturbed both by the antisemitic conspiracy theories posited by Mr. Paul and with his comfort in harassing someone he thought was Jewish in a public place.”
“The antisemitic conspiracy of Jews controlling the government, supported by extremist bigots like Thomas Massie and Tucker Carlson are not only false, stupid, and a refutation of American values, they are also dangerous, as we can see how they go from online bots to public confrontations, and can potentially turn to violence,” he said in a statement.
Litvin reiterated his concern over the younger Paul’s actions in an interview with JI later Wednesday, questioning if the encounter with Lawler would have ended differently if Paul had confronted “a kid in a yarmulke.”
“My initial reaction is hurt, but not shock. What Congressman Lawler went through last night is an experience that nearly every Jewish American understands,” Litvin said. “I’m relieved this was a U.S. congressman who he thought was Jewish. It could have just been a kid in a yarmulke, and I don’t know how the night would have ended in that case.”
Litvin linked the Tuesday night incident with Massie’s appearance on Tucker Carlson’s podcast, accusing the Kentucky congressman of spreading “Nazi propaganda of Jewish control of the government” as he claimed Jews were responsible for his primary challenge.
Massie, according to Litvin, “said, ‘I’m the only one who didn’t support the leader of my party in my body, Speaker Johnson, and I voted against Trump. Now they’re coming after me and it’s because of the Jews.’ Perhaps, if you’ve made enemies out of all the leaders of your party, the Jews are not responsible when people are upset with you, but that’s his claim, that it’s the Jews, it’s the Zionists.”
“That’s exactly what this young man said to Mike Lawler: ‘You need to watch more Tucker Carlson because this is what they’re talking about,’” he said.
Still, Litvin repeatedly emphasized in his statement and to JI that he has “never seen a hint of antisemitism” from Sen. Paul “who has been a friend to Jewish Kentuckians, condemning antisemitism, supporting Jewish students, standing for the return of stolen Holocaust art and valuables, rejecting the hateful extremism at international organizations, and celebrating the Jewish community’s contributions to our country.”
Litvin called on statewide officials to condemn the younger Paul’s comments, while defending the Kentucky senator.
“I think everyone should speak out at this point. I think we have a growing problem we’ve been ignoring in America. Of Candace Owens, of Tucker Carlson, of Hasan Piker,” he continued. “They’re not on some big news station who’s held responsible. They are given a limitless platform and a microphone, and far too many times we have seen those direct comments lead to violence.”
Lauren Wolman, the senior director of government relations and strategy for the Anti-Defamation League, called the comments “disgusting and dangerous.”
“We’re thankful to Rep. Lawler for standing up in the face of this hate, but the fact that a Member of Congress was subjected to this kind of abuse so openly is outrageous and a sign of how far too normalized antisemitism has become,” Wolman said. “Every leader and public official, in every party, must condemn it clearly and unequivocally and make clear this hate will not be tolerated.”
The incident comes just days after another antisemitic incident in Massie’s race drew widespread national condemnation. An outside group backing Massie and opposing Gallrein published a vitriolic attack ad against Gallrein donor and Jewish billionaire Paul Singer, which placed Singer alongside a large star of David.
Paul has made headlines in the past for alcohol-related issues, including a 2015 collision with a parked vehicle while intoxicated and a 2013 arrest for assaulting a flight attendant, underage drinking and disorderly conduct.
Paul’s LinkedIn page lists him as a digital communications manager in the House, and a former staffer for two conservative groups. But a recent post from four days ago suggested he no longer works on the Hill.
Jewish Insider’s Washington reporter Matthew Shea contributed to this report.
Former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said antisemitism has worsened to the point that Jews aren’t guaranteed safety in the U.S.
Marc Rod
Lawmakers attend Anti-Defamation League reception honoring Jewish American Heritage Month on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, May 12, 2026
A series of largely Democratic lawmakers painted an unusually dire portrait of the state of rising antisemitism and threats to the Jewish community in remarks at an Anti-Defamation League reception honoring Jewish American Heritage Month on Capitol Hill on Tuesday evening.
Several emphasized the need for those in the audience, many of them young Jewish congressional staffers and Washington professionals, to continue speaking out and fighting for the Jewish community in a time of crisis.
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the retiring former No. 2 House Democrat, said that antisemitism has escalated to the point that Jews are no longer guaranteed safety in the United States.
“There were two places in the world where Jews felt really safe. One, of course, was Israel, and the second was the United States of America,” Hoyer said. “That’s not true today, and that is a sad statement of what’s going on in the country today. So you all need to be involved. You all need to when you see something that’s not right, not fair, not just stand up, speak up and make a difference.”
Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA) emphasized that efforts to fight antisemitism have often been met with additional hostility.
“It is a very scary time for the Jewish community,” Friedman said. “And to make matters worse, when we express that we’re scared and that there’s this rising level of hatred directed towards the Jewish community, we’re often met with people telling us that we’re not allowed to feel that way. And how dare we even say that there’s anything wrong with treatment towards Jews in this country?”
She offered as an example of “how bad it’s gotten” that her synagogue was graffitied this year with a swastika, and that she ended up in an argument online with local activists “who were trying to tell me why it was appropriate for people to put swastikas on the sides of buildings in the Jewish part of Los Angeles, where there are Holocaust survivors still living, why they thought that was OK and not antisemitic.”
Friedman used as another example a recent ad created by a super PAC backing Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in his reelection race attacking a Jewish conservative donor, Paul Singer, who is supporting Massie’s opponent, which prominently featured a graphic of a Jewish star alongside the Singer’s face.
“A super PAC thought it was totally fine to do a hit on a candidate by showing one of their donors and by flashing a Jewish star behind that donor to let everyone know that, ‘Hey, if everything else we’ve said about this candidate isn’t convincing enough, they have a donor who’s Jewish,’” Friedman said.
“I don’t think anyone can sit this one out and you all being here is part of that effort, so thank you … for showing up, thanks for the work you do,” she concluded.
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), who is running for Senate in Michigan and has faced attacks over her support for Israel and ties to the Jewish community, said that she would not “sugarcoat” the situation, explaining that “the faces of hate in this country have morphed into violent extremism,” with an increasing pace of violent attacks targeting the Jewish community, including in her own district.
“Extremist words matter. They absolutely matter,” Stevens said.
She also maintained that she is “unequivocal in declaring that I am very much a proud Zionist” in spite of facing attacks for that stance. “When I show my face in my community, every so often [I] get chased out because of violent extremism, because people feel so emboldened to shout at me that I am a ‘Zionist pig.’ That cannot be acceptable.”
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), whose congressional district was recently carved up by Tennessee Republicans, likely ending his career, warned that prejudice is still a real and very active problem.
He recounted a story of when he ran for governor in 1994: “I went to a little radio station in Dixon, Tenn. — one person radio station, gravel road. [I] came in, talked to the man for a while and he said, ‘Son, you Jewish?’ I said, ‘Yes sir.’ He said, ‘Good luck,’” Cohen recounted. “It ain’t changed a lot since then. Be careful. There’s a lot of mamzers out there. They don’t know us, but they don’t like us,” he said, using the Hebrew word for bastard.
Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) said that it is “obviously a very bad time” for the American Jewish community and “in my opinion, it’s going to get a lot worse.” He urged the crowd “to lead through such difficult, chaotic, awful times.”
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) lambasted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as emboldening and encouraging antisemitism.
“We see a mayor in New York City who has, in many respects, OKed his supporters engaging in antisemitic hate, engaging in conduct that threatens Jewish students and Jewish lives,” Lawler added. “We see these protests happening outside places of worship — these are real issues that we have to combat.”
He also emphasized that antisemitic influencers like Hasan Piker, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson have been using antisemitism as a “grift” and playing on hatred to “make a buck” and create further division.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) said that it is “unacceptably scary to be a Jew in the United States” and that the country is “violating the core promise that George Washington made” to the Jewish community in Rhode Island in 1790 that the country would be one of religious freedom and pluralism.
Auchincloss highlighted his efforts in Congress to combat antisemitism on social media, describing platforms as having become “failed societies online. It’s become so toxic, it’s become so rotten on these platforms that antisemitism is mushrooming as a symptom of something that is deeply rotten underneath.”
Rep. Kim Schrier (D-WA) said that Jews are “all feeling so threatened right now” and emphasized the need for broader understanding of antisemitism.
“They need to understand that anti-Zionism is kind of a new iteration [of antisemitism], if you don’t want another country wiped off the map,” Schrier said. “And I just think we all need to recognize that we all need to call it out, whether it’s in our party or another party.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said that “antisemitism and racism are the gateway to the destruction of liberal democracy” and that “the extremism, the fascism, the racism and the antisemitism” are infecting politics in the U.S. and around the world.
He praised Hungary as an example of a country that had been able to buck such trends, ousting its longtime right-wing government.
Several of the lawmakers who addressed the group also offered remembrances about Abe Foxman, the former longtime ADL leader who died last weekend.
“We’re all thinking about Abe Foxman right now, who looms over this room in a powerful way and taught us so much,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) said. “I think what he taught us most was to be courageous, to fight, to never back down. That’s my ask of you. It’s tough out there, by the way. The harder they hit us, the more fight I feel.”
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) said that Foxman was “a giant, a hero of mine, hero of so many, and really built this organization practically from the ground up.” She said she’d been stunned by his death, having spoken to him at a Holocaust remembrance event at the Capitol just weeks ago.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) also urged those in attendance to follow Foxman’s model, and emphasized the need for additional funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
In a statement, Lauren Wolman, ADL’s senior director of government relations and strategy, said the group was “honored to host our annual Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM) reception celebrating Jewish Members of Congress and congressional staff.”
“At a time when many of these dedicated public servants are navigating rising antisemitism and growing challenges on Capitol Hill, the reception served as an important opportunity to celebrate their work and create a space for Jewish professionals to come together in community, connect with one another, and feel supported,” Wolman continued.
The NYC mayor cited violence against Jews to justify his eight-figure funding boost for the city’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes
Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani presents the fiscal year 2027 executive budget at City Hall in New York, US, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced his administration would allocate $26 million annually toward anti-hate crimes measures, signaling that the significant funding increase — promised during the campaign season — would go toward a program that funds both leading Jewish organizations and left-wing nonprofits.
The new funding, part of a sprawling $124.7 billion budget that would resolve the city’s fiscal woes largely by delaying pension payments, would go toward the city’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes — though the mayor provided few details about the funds’ destination in a Tuesday afternoon press conference. He did, however, acknowledge that Jewish New Yorkers represent a minority of city residents yet a majority of hate crime victims, and promised the anti-hate crime campaign would operate “alongside” the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism to reduce the number of prejudice-inspired incidents.
“These are investments in programs that have been found to be effective. And too often the only response offered to a hate crime is exactly that, it’s a response to the hate crime. We want also to do the work of preventing those hate crimes,” he said, adding that his antisemitism czar, Phylisa Wisdom, would soon embark on a “listening tour” to develop a “municipal approach to fighting antisemitism.”
Additional details were not immediately available, and Mamdani’s office did not respond to questions from Jewish Insider.
Initial reports asserted that this represented a $23 million increase over a prior $3 million budget. That $3 million figure matches the amount the Partners Against the Hate (P.A.T.H.) FORWARD Initiative, which operates under the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, provided last year to “50 community-based organizations representing the city’s diversity to help combat hate and bias motivated incidents,” according to an analysis the Mamdani administration also released on Tuesday.
A list of subvendors for the initiative released last year features a wide range of social service providers, including a number based in or supporting Jewish communities across the city. Sources at several of these participating nonprofits did not immediately answer questions as to whether P.A.T.H. Forward might benefit from the new spending — and one, Devorah Halberstam of the Jewish Children’s Museum of Crown Heights, told JI she had “no idea, because he just announced it.”
P.A.T.H. Forward also provides resources to multiple leftist organizations, such as Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, that supported Mamdani’s election through political affiliates.
Justice David Wecht: 'Acquiescence to Jew-hatred is now disturbingly common among activists, leaders and even many elected officials in the Democratic Party. I can no longer abide this'
Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images
Judicial candidate David Wecht
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht announced Monday he has left the Democratic party, citing “anti-Jewish” actions and “acquiescence to Jew-hatred” within the party, including from elected officials.
“Acquiescence to Jew-hatred is now disturbingly common among activists, leaders and even many elected officials in the Democratic Party. I can no longer abide this,” wrote Wecht, who was elected as a Democrat in 2015. He added that he is no longer affiliated with any political party.
A former vice-chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, Wecht wrote that he and his wife were married at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Congregation, the site of the 2018 synagogue shooting. “That terror came from the right,” he wrote. “Jew-hatred has always festered on the fringe of that sector.”
But, Wecht continued, “in the quarter century that has passed” since his leadership position, “the Democratic Party has changed.”
“Nazi tattoos, jihadist chants, intimidation and attacks at synagogues, and other hateful anti-Jewish invective and actions are minimized, ignored, and even coddled,” he wrote.
The players also toured the National Museum of African American History as part of the D.C. visit
Maddie Crooke/Minnesota Vikings
Minnesota Vikings owner Mark Wilf leads players, high school students on Holocaust Museum trip
Minnesota Vikings owner Mark Wilf, the son of Holocaust survivors, believes that his family’s history and his role owning an NFL franchise give him a unique responsibility: to use his platform to educate younger generations about the dangers of antisemitism and bigotry.
That mission was on display Saturday, when Wilf was joined by Vikings defensive tackle Levi Drake Rodriguez, offensive lineman Walter Rouse, defensive end Elijah Williams and former Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe as the group took a tour of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum together with a group of Black and Indigenous Minneapolis-area high school students.
The visit marked the sixth such trip coordinated by the Vikings and the nonprofit Project Success and was aimed at exposing students to history through tours of both the Holocaust museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
“It’s very important for young people to learn about history and how they can make an impact on the world and society,” Wilf told Jewish Insider during the group’s guided tour of the Holocaust museum. “To learn the history of the world — where sometimes there’s hatred and bigotry and see what it can lead to — and also learn the impact of an individual: how an individual can change things, can fight back and how we can set an example by being tolerant and learning from each other.”
Wilf and his brother, Zygi Wilf, have owned the Minnesota Vikings since 2005. Wilf’s family has long supported Holocaust education and survivor organizations, including Yad Vashem, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. He is the current chair of the Jewish Agency for Israel, after recently serving as chair of the Jewish Federations of North America.
During World War II, Wilf’s father, Joseph, was deported with his family to a Siberian labor camp. His mother, Elizabeth, survived by escaping the Lvov ghetto and hiding in a barn with her family until liberation. Joseph and Elizabeth met at a displaced persons camp in Germany after the war, married and came to America.
For Wilf, the Vikings’ partnership with Project Success connects his professional platform with that family legacy.
“My parents, grandparents, are all Holocaust survivors, so it’s deeply personal to myself and my family,” Wilf said. “We’re very privileged to be in this country and as Americans, and being part of the NFL … so I’m going to use that platform to help educate.”
The veteran Vikings owner acknowledged that antisemitism is “much more out there” today, but emphasized that the need for education remains constant. “It doesn’t matter when the time is, to be educated is important,” he said. “Every generation has to learn that history over and over again. The bigotries, the prejudices, the hatreds — these lessons are always critical to making society better.”
“All these lessons from history, these things happened, and now, by going through these museums and being on the street, they [the students] are now witnesses, and they have a responsibility to tell, to learn that as individuals they can make an impact,” he added.
Beyond exposing students to Holocaust history, Wilf said it was also important for Vikings players to join the tour — both to help guide the students and to experience the history themselves.
“Our Vikings players are so appreciative of representing the Vikings and being here,” Wilf said. “People look up to professional athletes like the Minnesota Vikings. We’re appreciative that they’re great ambassadors for our organization, and they’re learning as well at the same time.”
Rouse, an offensive tackle who was selected in the sixth round of the 2024 NFL Draft, told JI that it was his first time on the trip and that he would not hesitate to do it again. He said the experience was especially enlightening for him based on “how little I learned in high school on what happened in the Holocaust.”
“The main thing I knew was about Anne Frank and Auschwitz,” Rouse said. “It’s important that everyone at least understands and gets a glimpse of what happened with the Holocaust, especially with the state of the world today.”
“The fact that you had people [Wilf’s parents] that were able to survive the Holocaust and still persevere through to have raised someone like Mark and have that strength to move forward and to get through that evil — it’s just important,” he added. “It’s a disgusting part of the history of the world, but I think it’s important that everyone knows about that.”
Rouse said that having the students in attendance was especially important:
“A few of them [the students] talked about how they didn’t even know a lot about the Holocaust, they only learned a couple things,” Rouse said. “They may have known a lot about slavery, but they didn’t know about the Holocaust. Being able to see that perspective actually brings us closer together because we have more things in common with one another. I think that’s one thing that we can connect and share and come together that can just help bring us forward.”
Rouse said the effort is something that more NFL teams and players should emulate. “I think there are players in every single team that do want to get involved, do want to help,” he said. “And there are students across the country in each and every state that would not hesitate to say yes and come to something like this and be part of the experience. I think we should do this for as many people as we can.”
Williams, a defensive end who signed with the Vikings in 2025, said the most important part of the experience was “understanding history.” Echoing Rouse, Williams said the museum tour offered a closer look at a subject he felt was not taught in enough depth in school.
“In school, you don’t really get too in-depth of all the atrocities. But when you get into these museums, you really get the unfiltered truth. That’s what we need in society — unfiltered truth so we don’t sugarcoat the atrocities of the past,” Williams said. “We tend to repeat it [history], and this is just another example of the hatred in the world and how we need to avoid it.”
But while the players had their own takeaways from the experience, Williams similarly emphasized that “the kids being here was way more important than us [the players] being here.”
“The younger generation is always going to be the future, even though we’re not that many years apart,” Williams said. “I feel like them being here is just going to help bring more change into this world, more than the previous generations could bring.”
Rodriguez, a defensive tackle and seventh-round selection in the 2024 NFL Draft for the Vikings, said the experience was important in bringing the history “to light.”
“I think it just brings to light the history that is brutal, heartbreaking and gut-wrenching, and shows how we could seek a change in our lives and get more knowledge from that,” Rodriguez said. “Just how many souls had to fight day in and day out. You can’t even put into words, honestly, the [amount of] mass casualties that took place. And for what? Someone’s race, skin color or ethnicity? It’s insane.”
The progressive lawmaker rejected calls for the left to ally with the far-right former lawmaker on anti-Israel activism
Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) takes part in the Munich Security Conference.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) expressed skepticism of allying with former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on issues like Israel policy, calling Greene a “proven bigot and antisemite.”
The comments have, notably, earned her the opprobrium of others on the far left, and also mark a break with some more mainstream Democrats who have urged their party to join forces with the disgruntled GOP ex-lawmaker.
“There are certain places, certain areas where I don’t think that we should ignore some folks’ record on some of these issues. It’s about where we trust intent, where we trust where those outcomes are going,” Ocasio-Cortez said at an event last week at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.
“I personally do not trust someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene, a proven bigot and antisemite, on the issues of what is good for Gazans and Israelis.”
“I don’t think that it benefits our movement, in that instance, to align the left with white nationalists,” she continued. “I don’t think it serves us.”
The comments run counter to calls from both the far-left and certain more mainstream Democrats to praise and align with Greene and other Republicans with histories of antisemitism and other controversies who have broken with President Donald Trump over Middle East policy and other issues.
Some on the far left have reacted with outrage.
Peter Daou, a former Democratic strategist who later served as a campaign strategist for presidential candidates Marianne Williamson and Cornel West, asserted that Greene has “far more intellectual honesty … and far more courage on the defining moral issue of our time” than Ocasio-Cortez.
Ryan Grim, a founder of the Hamas-sympathetic news site Drop Site News, said that Greene “sacrificed her political career to stand against genocide, against Trump, against the Epstein Class, and to defend the survivors of Epstein’s trafficking. If that doesn’t earn credibility I don’t know what possibly could.”
Susan Abdulhawa, a prominent Palestinian writer and activist, said, “as a leftie, I’d say [Greene] has more credibility and honor than [Ocasio-Cortez] on this matter.
Greene herself responded, “AOC refused to vote for my amendment to strip funding for Israel. She can run her mouth all she wants but votes are the only thing that matters, not a bunch of words and nasty name calling.”
At the same time, Ocasio-Cortez said that there are areas where cross-partisan alliances are needed because certain issues are “anti-establishment” and will “require a massive bipartisan consensus of people willing to come together across those differences,” like outlawing stock trading by members of Congress.
Ocasio-Cortez is seen as having ambitions for higher office, either running for Senate against Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) or for president in 2028.
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt called Foxman, who died on Sunday at 86, 'an iconic Jewish leader who embraced the ideal of an America free from antisemitism and hate'
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Holocaust survivor and former National Director of the Anti-Defamation League Abraham Foxman becomes emotional during the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Annual Days of Remembrance ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on April 23, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Abraham “Abe” Foxman, a towering figure in Jewish communal life who led the Anti-Defamation League for nearly three decades, and whose personal story as a hidden child during the Holocaust gave him a unique gravitas in dealing with issues of Holocaust memory and anti-Jewish bias, died on Sunday, the ADL confirmed. He was 86.
Foxman was born to Polish Jewish parents in present-day Belarus in 1940. As a toddler, his parents placed him in the care of his Catholic nanny, who had him baptized and raised him in the church. After being reunited with his parents at the end of World War II, the family moved into a displaced persons camp in Austria. In 1950, when he was 10 years old, the family immigrated to the U.S.
His early childhood experiences shaped the trajectory of his life. Foxman joined the ADL in 1965 as a legal assistant, becoming the organization’s national director in 1987, a post he held until his retirement in 2015. He was succeeded by Jonathan Greenblatt, who serves as the group’s CEO.
Foxman was named to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s council by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, a role he was reappointed to by Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden. In recent years, Foxman was the only Holocaust survivor to serve on the board, which now includes a number of children and grandchildren of survivors.
Met Council CEO David Greenfield, who met Foxman while serving on the New York City Council, said the longtime ADL head “really shaped modern Jewish leadership today.”
Foxman, Greenfield said, “was the kind of leader that all of us aspire to be. … I really believe he set the standard, and everyone is still chasing that standard. There was only one Abe Foxman.”
In his years at the ADL, Foxman built deep relationships with his staff. Jay Kaiman, the president of the Marcus Foundation, was hired by Foxman to head the group’s operations in the Southeast. That relationship endured long after Kaiman left the organization, he told JI.
“He was my compass,” Kaiman said. “He was invaluable to me as a resource all those years, and he had a lot to offer.” Foxman, Kaiman added, “really was a mentor to so many people.”
After stepping down from the ADL, Foxman remained active in Jewish communal life. “He really did love his work,” Kaiman said, “and he never stopped working, even if he wasn’t the ADL director. He was the epitome of being the professional’s professional.”
Once he was no longer the head of a nonpartisan organization, Foxman began to endorse candidates and policies, while speaking out against the mainstream media’s coverage of Israel and antisemitism. He endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential bid, but became increasingly critical of the Democratic Party’s leftward shift on Israel.
Foxman was also critical at times of Republicans and the Trump administration.
Delivering an address last spring at the Capitol to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, Foxman said, “As a [Holocaust] survivor, my antenna quivers when I see books being banned, when I see people being abducted in the streets, when I see government trying to dictate what universities should teach and whom they should teach. As a survivor who came to this country as an immigrant, I’m troubled when I hear immigrants and immigration being demonized.”
In the same address, he gave credit to both the Biden administration and the second Trump administration for their commitments to addressing antisemitism.
“What made him so unique was he wasn’t a Democrat or Republican. He called balls and strikes like he saw them,” Greenfield told JI. “He was really one of the few leaders to call out both sides and say, ‘Hey, a pox on both of your houses. You both have increasing levels of antisemitism, to new levels never seen before.’”
Deborah Lipstadt, who served as the Biden administration’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, knew Foxman for decades. When she was being sued for libel by Holocaust denier David Irving, Foxman was a source of support, she told JI, even bringing a group to the trial in a London court.
She praised Foxman’s lifelong commitment to fighting antisemitism. “We’ve got too many voices that carry with them an agenda,” she said. “His agenda was, ‘I hate the Jew-haters.’ And he had no patience for the Jew-haters: right, left, center. He had no patience for people who use their position for self-aggrandizement.”
Citing record-high levels of antisemitism, Lipstadt called Foxman’s death “a big loss for the Jewish people at a particularly crucial moment.”
“At a time like this, we have very few voices like that that spoke with a personal and professional authority, a personal and professional commitment, and he shall be deeply missed,” Lipstadt said.
Greenblatt said that Foxman was “an iconic Jewish leader who embraced the ideal of an America free from antisemitism and hate and who strongly believed that these scourges could be defeated if good people opposed it.”
“In his storied career, Abe transformed ADL while confronting antisemitism and hate (from both left and right), opposing the global rise in antisemitism, holding world leaders accountable and working to ensure that Israel was Jewish, secure and democratic,” Greenblatt continued.
“Abe’s voice was heard — and listened to — by popes, presidents, and prime ministers, a voice he used wherever Jews were at risk. Abe Foxman spoke on the global stage with moral authority and clarity and was relentlessly dedicated to his pursuit of a world without hate.”
William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, called Foxman “a mentor, a guide, and a towering presence in Jewish communal life” who “showed a generation of leaders that fighting antisemitism demands clarity, courage, and the willingness to stand firm under pressure.”
In a statement, Israeli President Isaac Herzog praised Foxman as a “passionate Zionist, a humanist, and an outspoken, [and] wise friend.”
“Coming into a world at war, the Holocaust shaped Abe’s character and defined his mission: Combating antisemitism and hypocrisy, calling out racism and bias, speaking up for the Jewish people and the Jewish democratic Israel,” Herzog said. “His story, of rising from the ashes, is our story, the story of our people.”
Foxman met his wife, Golda Bauman, while attending Camp Herzl in Webster, Wisc. The couple was engaged in Mexico and married in 1967, the same year he joined the ADL.
He is survived by his wife and two children, Michelle and Ariel.
As Alex Bores and Jack Schlossberg woo the left, Micah Lasher emerges as favorite among Jewish voters
Brian Stukes/Lev Radin/Roy Rochlin/John Nacion
George Conway/Micah Lasher/Jack Schlossberg/Alex Bores
With seven weeks remaining until the Democratic primary for an open House seat in Manhattan, the crowded race is beginning to show emerging signs of division over Israel and rising antisemitism, key issues in the heavily Jewish district where many voters closely identify with liberal Zionist sentiments.
The last week — which included two candidate forums focused on Jewish community issues and was punctuated by an anti-Israel protest near a synagogue in the district hosting an Israeli real estate event — highlighted some of the subtle ideological fault lines inflecting the June 23 race to succeed retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY).
From recent efforts to block U.S. weapons sales to Israel to the intersection between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, the four top candidates in the closely contested race — state Assemblymembers Alex Bores and Micah Lasher, Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg and former Republican attorney George Conway — are by varying degrees staking out differing views on Middle East policy as well as domestic concerns affecting the Jewish community, while continuing to reaffirm their support for the Jewish state.
Meanwhile, some recent endorsements that Bores received from left-wing advocacy groups hostile toward Israel have fueled skepticism of that support among Jewish leaders, along with speculation he is seeking to carve out a progressive lane for himself that has been largely unoccupied for most of the campaign.
The starkest disagreements were on display last Wednesday during a candidate forum at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on the Upper West Side, where Schlossberg, a social media influencer with a narrow lead in most private polls, notably said he would have joined most Senate Democrats who voted last month to restrict arms sales to Israel — even as he continues to back defensive aid to help boost Israel’s Iron Dome system.
For their parts, Conway and Lasher both confirmed they would have opposed the legislation introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). “I don’t support the withholding of aid from Israel,” Conway explained, drawing applause from the audience, while Lasher said he did not believe the bill “would have actually improved the lives of people on the ground,” echoing comments he had made in a candidate questionnaire opposing House legislation to block weapons sales to Israel.
Bores, who had previously committed to the event, pulled out the day before, citing a scheduling conflict in Washington.
The forum, which took place a day after anti-Israel demonstrators had chanted antisemitic slogans near Park East Synagogue to oppose an Israeli real estate event featuring some advertising for settlements in the West Bank, drew other distinct contrasts among the candidates.
Schlossberg, for instance, condemned what he called the “antisemitic rhetoric” used by demonstrators who had shouted slogans such as, “We don’t want no Zionists here,” “Death to the IDF” and “We don’t want no two-state, we want ‘48.”
Still, he added, “I don’t think that a land sale for real estate that is in violation of international law should be happening in a house of worship.”
In comparison, Lasher, a Jewish protégé of Nadler’s, questioned the protesters’ aims. The demonstration was more broadly about “framing Israel, and the idea of making aliyah to Israel, as illegitimate,” he argued. Earlier, he said the protest was “intended to create fear in the hearts of Jewish New Yorkers and stigmatize our community.”
“I think it’s important to speak with clarity,” added Lasher, who has touted his state legislation to ban protests directly outside houses of worship, which has been opposed by anti-Israel activists in the city. “When people are outside a synagogue shouting, ‘We don’t want two states, we want ‘48’ — that’s not about the question of West Bank settlements. That is about the legitimacy of Israel.”
Bores, whose state Assembly district includes Park East Synagogue, said in a joint statement with City Councilmember Virginia Maloney before the protest on Tuesday that the demonstration evoked “painful memories of times when people have been harassed while entering houses of worship.” He did not appear to have commented on the protest after it occurred.
While Bores has recently accepted support from some groups opposed to U.S. funding for Israel, he has indicated that he does not share such positions. He has rejected legislative efforts to condition aid — stating in one candidate questionnaire, for example, that “determining foreign policy through legislation that targets individual countries has overall not been beneficial for achieving universal rights.”
He reiterated that view last Monday during a separate forum at The Jewish Center, a Modern Orthodox synagogue on the Upper West Side, where he appeared with Lasher. “I support the consistent application of Leahy Laws across all countries,” he said, referring to U.S. laws banning security funding to foreign military units that engage in human rights violations.
Lasher also agreed with that position. “It should be a universal standard,” he said.
“We should be able to stand up to people in our party,” Bores added at the forum last week, “and say how important our relationship is with the State of Israel and how important it is to ensure the rights of everyone in the region, including the Palestinians.”
Still, his recent endorsement from Our Revolution, a Sanders-aligned group that has advocated for cutting military funding to Israel, has fueled questions about the sincerity of his positions. His decision to pull out of the Stephen Wise candidate forum on short notice last week also raised eyebrows, particularly as he had done so after winning support from a City University of New York union that has called for divesting from Israel.
Bores has otherwise claimed backing from New York Progressive Action Network, which likewise supports efforts to withhold U.S. military aid to Israel.
“There’s a lot of skepticism now,” said one Jewish community leader who is closely following the race, speaking on the condition of anonymity to address a sensitive issue. “You don’t get the endorsements of Our Revolution and PSC CUNY,” which represents faculty and staff in the university system, “without saying something differently privately than you do publicly.”
“There’s concern now that there wasn’t a few weeks ago,” the Jewish leader said, noting Bores had been calling community members to do “damage control” after receiving the Our Revolution endorsement. He has explained that the nod extends from their shared goal of regulating the AI industry, which is targeting the former Palantir employee aggressively in the race, according to the Jewish leader.
A spokesperson for Bores’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment about the endorsement last week.
While some Jewish voters in the district feel that Lasher’s views on Israel are to the left of their own, his outspoken opposition to rising antisemitism and commitment to Israel’s security are now appealing to a segment of the community that is questioning the apparent dissonance between Bores’ publicly stated positions and his endorsements from organizations with which he is not aligned on Middle East policy.
A graphic circulating in local Jewish WhatsApp groups on Friday, which was shared with Jewish Insider, warned that “a Bernie Sanders PAC just endorsed Alex Bores” and that “Jack Schlossberg wants to cut arms sales to Israel,” highlighting the names in red.
“Micah Lasher is the clear choice. The community and rabbis are rallying behind him,” the message continued. “It’s time to unite to win this seat.”
Garth Symonds, who chairs The Jewish Center’s committee to get out the vote, said in a statement to JI on Friday that Bores “has proven his toughness in the face of well-funded attacks by those resistant to AI regulation” and that he “appears to have a strong legislative record, but so does Lasher.”
“On Israel, Lasher has a supportive track record, whereas Bores appears close to some people in the Working Families Party, which is anti-Israel, and has been endorsed by One Revolution,” he said, claiming Lasher, a veteran Democratic operative, “has deeper political experience.”
The Working Families Party, which supports conditioning aid to Israel, chose not to issue an endorsement after soliciting questionnaires from Bores, Lasher and Schlossberg. But the group has recently indicated it could rethink that decision as Schlossberg has gained traction, saying “we can do better than that.” It is most likely to support Bores if it does weigh on the primary, City & State New York has reported.
2025 also marked the first time American Jews were killed in antisemitic attacks on U.S. soil since 2019
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Students participate in a protest outside of the Columbia University campus on November 15, 2023 in New York City.
The number of antisemitic incidents in the U.S. plummeted by a third last year, led by a steep drop on college campuses, but assaults with a deadly weapon spiked dramatically, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s 2025 audit released on Wednesday.
The ADL tallied 6,274 incidents of antisemitic assault, harassment and vandalism across the country in 2025, an average of 17 incidents per day. While representing a 33% decrease from 2024, this total remains significantly higher than levels before the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, making 2025 the third-highest year for antisemitic incidents since ADL began tracking the data in 1979.
2025 also saw the first time American Jews were murdered in antisemitic attacks on U.S. soil since 2019. Two Israeli Embassy staffers were killed last May outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. One month later, a victim died from injuries sustained in a firebombing attack in Boulder, Colo., at a walk in support of the Israeli hostages.
According to the audit, there were 203 incidents categorized as assault, a 4% rise from 2024. Incidents of assault involving a deadly weapon increased from 23 in 2024 to 32 in 2025, and at least 300 people were victimized by incidents of assault.
Forty-five percent of all incidents (2,847 incidents) were related to Israel or Zionism, a decline from 58% in 2024. There was also a nearly 50% drop in white supremacist propaganda distribution.
Antisemitic incidents at public K-12 schools remained nearly stable from 2024 (860) to 2025 (825). Most of the reported incidents in schools involved interpersonal behavior between classmates, such as antisemitic harassment or students vandalizing classrooms with swastikas, rather than organized group activity.
Meanwhile, incidents on university campuses saw the steepest decline of any location, a trend the ADL attributes to proactive measures by college administrators. In 2025, ADL recorded 583 antisemitic incidents on college campuses, a 66% drop from 2024 (1,694 incidents).
The states with the highest levels of incidents were New York (1,160), California (817) and New Jersey (687).
The ADL maintained that it did not conflate general criticism of Israel or anti-Israel activism with antisemitism in its methodology. It defined harassment, vandalism and assault as incidents reported to ADL by victims, law enforcement, the media and partner organizations.
“Our 2025 Audit, which shows it was one of the most violent years for American Jews on record, is a reminder of how dramatically the threat landscape has shifted. Numbers that would have shocked us five years ago are now our floor,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “People are being murdered because of antisemitism on American soil, and thousands more are threatened.”
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, also speaking at the event, highlighted college campuses as an epicenter of anti-Jewish hate
Matthew Shea
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) speaks at Israel Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill on May 5, 2026.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), a co-chair of the House Antisemitism Task Force, warned on Tuesday that anti-Israel sentiment has moved from the political fringes to a “dominant” position within the Democratic Party and warned the same could happen to his own party.
“My colleagues across the aisle on the Democrat side, what I see right now is a very anti-Israel dominance on the Democrat side and that scares me because it used to be bipartisan,” Bacon said. “I got a lot of friends on the Democrat side that are pro-Israel, but right now the anti-Israel tone is dominant.”
“I see it in my primary back in Nebraska right now, where there’s two Democrats vying for the nomination and one is attacking the other for being pro-Israel,” said Bacon, who is retiring at the end of his term. “I don’t want to let that happen on my side of the aisle, and I’ve seen it grow on our side of the aisle.”
Speaking at a packed auditorium in the U.S. Capitol for Israel Advocacy Day, an event organized by pro-Israel evangelical Christian groups and featuring a lineup of largely conservative speakers, Bacon warned that “all parties are grappling” with antisemitism. The event brought more than 300 rabbis and pastors to Capitol Hill to advocate for support for Israel, combating antisemitism and supporting protections for Jewish and faith-based communities.
Bacon, who has also served on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, noted that this sentiment is being fueled by social media misinformation, including claims that lawmakers support Israel for financial rather than moral reasons — a narrative he dismissed by citing the “win-win” nature of the partnership, particularly in military intelligence and technology like the F-35 fighter jet program.
“There’s a lot of misinformation out there,” Bacon said. “I see all the time on social media that ‘Israel is paying me to do this.’ No, these are U.S. citizens who love Israel and who hate antisemitism. And it’s important for us to know that U.S. citizens are doing this.”
“We are blessed. I mean, we provided a lot of these weapons to Israel and they make them better. A lot of our missiles they [Israelis] perfect it. They tell us on the F-35 it can be used better, because they have been using them in combat a lot longer than we have been,” Bacon continued. “We gain intelligence from Israel. It’s also a win-win when it comes to economics. We both gain from this relationship. And so I think it’s important to tell that to our neighbors in our circles and defend it. I do not retreat from it at all.”
Also speaking at the event, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, similarly noted the growing threat of antisemitism. “Antisemitism has tested America,” he said, acknowledging that it has “exposed the degree to which America’s institutions, notably higher learning institutions, have been poisoned by radical ideas.”
“The Muslim Brotherhood has strategically manipulated language to deceive the West by redefining Zionism as the epitome of evil, and by disconnecting the Holy Land from scripture. This radical Islamic group attempts to drive a wedge between us — Jews and Christians — and erode Western civilization,” Leiter said. “Across [college] campuses, spineless administrators sign multi-million dollar contracts with Qatar, which exports this Muslim Brotherhood ideology.”
Leiter also said that antisemitism has been promoted by extremist podcasters, without specifying individuals in particular.
“Libels of genocide and starvation proliferate, and then antisemitism spreads like contagion and it kills in the name of goodness and liberation,” said Leiter. “This fiction about Jews as foreign occupiers extends to others. Particular podcasters have pontificated that the people of the Bible are not the people of the modern State of Israel today.”
Far-right podcaster Tucker Carlson made that argument in a heated interview with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee in February, drawing condemnation from Huckabee and others.
“Zionism is moral and just, and we must start carrying ourselves like it, unapologetically, unequivocally,” Leiter continued. “We shouldn’t have to thank people for acknowledging the right of Israel to defend herself or the right of Israel to exist.”
“Claims that Jews are not indigenous to the land [of Israel] is what legitimizes” Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, he said.
Beyond the ideological battle in the West, the ambassador framed the current conflict in Iran as a pivotal struggle for the future of the region, emphasizing that it is a fight for “moderation.”
“A healthy battle within Islam has taken place between those who seek to accept Judeo-Christian civilization and those who continue to seek to reject it and eradicate it. The war against Iran is part of a broader struggle for moderation in the Middle East and the Muslim world, and I can tell you with confidence it is happening,” Leiter said.
‘Every elected official is going to have to decide where he or she stands, and what you believe,’ the Republican Texas senator told JI
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks during the 29th annual Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California on May 4, 2026.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has for months been raising the alarm about the growing threat of antisemitism on the American right. During a visit to Los Angeles for the Milken Institute Global Conference, he called for elected officials — including in his own party — to take a clear stand on the issue.
“I don’t want to wake up in five years and find ourselves in a country where both major political parties are unequivocally anti-Israel and unapologetically antisemitic. And I think that is a very real threat,” Cruz told Jewish Insider in an interview on Monday at the Milken conference.
Among populist young conservatives, where the MAGA ideology of President Donald Trump has given way to an isolationist, America First worldview, Cruz sees a big shift on Israel.
“Every elected official is going to have to decide where he or she stands, and what you believe,” said Cruz. “As Ronald Reagan said more than 50 years ago, this is a time for choosing, and each person can decide where he or she stands.”
When pressed about Vice President JD Vance — who, through his choice of staffers and comments suggesting skepticism of interventionist policies, is increasingly seen as sympathetic to younger conservatives’ worldviews — Cruz did not come to the vice president’s defense.
“You got my answer,” Cruz told JI.
The Texas Republican was at Milken to speak on a panel about economic mobility. But Cruz was also eager to talk about what he saw as exciting developments in the war with Iran. He called for what he described as “regime collapse” in Iran: the U.S. working to free Iran from authoritarian religious leaders without necessarily sticking around to replace them with a new leader.
He called for a more muscular U.S. approach to Iran; he wants to see the U.S. arming the Iranians, the Kurds and the Peshmerga — whatever it takes to bring down the Islamic Republic.
“Removing that regime from power is unambiguously in America’s national security interest. Now, that does not mean we should engage in nation-building, and I have no delusions that we’re going to go transform Iran into some democratic utopia [or] we’re going to turn Iran into Switzerland. That’s not our job,” said Cruz. “For 25 years, Republican foreign policy has operated under what [former Secretary of State] Colin Powell described as the Pottery Barn rule: ‘You break it, you buy it.’ I think that’s nonsense.”
The mayor’s stop with NYPD commissioner Tisch and a local councilmember surprised the press and local religious leaders
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani/X
Devorah Halberstam, co-founder of the Jewish Children’s Museum in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, gives New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani a tour of the museum on Monday, May 5, 2026
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani toured the Jewish Children’s Museum in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn on Monday — accompanied by the police commissioner, the local city councilmember and a co-founder of the museum’s, but no press or local religious leaders.
The mayor’s stop was first reported by Chabad community news site COLlive, which shared a photo of him entering the building alongside NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, and inside the lobby with Tisch and Councilmember Crystal Hudson. In another image was Devorah Halberstam, one of the museum’s founders, who COLlive reported provided a “closed-door tour.”
The mayor’s daily schedule released Sunday night said only that Mamdani would visit “a Children’s Museum” in a 1 p.m. slot, and noted it was closed to the press.
Halberstam told Jewish Insider she connected with the mayor following the car-ramming of the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters, which sits a few hundred feet from the museum and serves as the spiritual center of the neighborhood, and that a meeting had been in the works since before Passover. During his visit Monday, she said she and the mayor discussed her son Ari, a 16-year-old yeshiva student murdered in an antisemitic shooting on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1994, in whose honor she founded the museum in 2004.
Halberstam said that she took the mayor through a floor of the museum dedicated to Jewish holidays, and characterized him as a “very good listener” and “a work in progress” on issues of concern to the Jewish community, particularly the kind of hate and terror incidents that took the life of her son.
“Hopefully there will be movement in different directions. And I hope to help him along with doing that as it applies to the Jewish community,” Halberstam told JI. “He’s young, he’s new to this, he’s on a learning curve, but he definitely wants to learn.”
A source from the Chabad-Lubavitch movement said they were unaware of the mayor’s visit, as did Rabbi Chanina Sperlin of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council. Sperlin, however, noted that the museum was Halberstam’s “baby” and that she was the community leader most involved with it.
Mamdani’s office did not respond to questions from Jewish Insider about the mayor’s visit. However, he shared a photospray from the visit on X, along with praise for Halberstam.
“Devorah Halberstam has spent her life advocating for the safety and well-being of Jewish New Yorkers,” the tweet from the mayor’s official account reads, noting that May is Jewish American Heritage Month. “We discussed the importance of ensuring this city remains a place where Jewish history can be celebrated and shared with everyone — including young New Yorkers. This Jewish American Heritage Month, we honor the rich culture and history that Jewish New Yorkers contribute to our city daily.”
Halberstam has served in a number of public roles, including currently as honorary commissioner of community affairs and chair of the Hate Crime Review Panel at the NYPD. Former Mayor Eric Adams appointed her chair of the board of commissioners at the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism.
The first mayor to seek a relationship with the museum was Michael Bloomberg, who also supported it financially.
JCRC-NY CEO Mark Treyger: ‘This is not normal, and we need city leaders to act now’
New York Assemblymember Sam Berger
Vandalism defaced the Rego Park Jewish Center in Queens, New York.
Multiple Jewish homes, a synagogue and a Jewish center in Queens — which contains a preschool — were vandalized with swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti overnight on Monday, leaving Jewish residents questioning their safety amid a spate of antisemitic incidents.
“When rabbis and congregants arrived to pray this morning, they expected to be met with their usual loving community. When a family woke up, they were prepared to begin an otherwise normal week. Instead, they were met with terrifying signals of hatred and threats of violence,” New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, the city’s first Jewish council speaker, wrote on X.
Menin, alongside Queens Councilmembers Lynn Schulman and Phil Wong, visited Congregation Machane Chodosh in Forest Hills, the impacted synagogue, on Monday morning. The Rego Park Jewish Center and two residential houses in Forest Hills were also targeted.
The NYPD is searching for at least four individuals responsible for the vandalism, according to Menin.
“With antisemitism on the rise here and across the globe, we will always stand up for our Jewish community and fight back against hate,” said Menin, adding that the graffiti will be removed once the NYPD completes its investigation.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement on Monday afternoon that he was “horrified and angered” by the vandalism, which he called “a deliberate act of antisemitic hatred meant to instill fear.”
“I stand in solidarity with our Jewish neighbors. Their safety, dignity, and belonging are non-negotiable,” Mamdani continued.
Gov. Kathy Hochul similarly condemned the “vile, targeted hate.”
Democratic state Assemblymember Sam Berger, who represents Queens’ nearby heavily Jewish neighborhood of Kew Gardens Hills, told JI that his grandparents, who are Holocaust survivors, “lived around the corner from this shul. It’s mortifying.”
“I have a Jewish community that is seriously questioning whether it is still welcome in this city,” said Berger.
“One of the sites houses a pre-K program, where young children, their families, and staff were greeted with swastikas and other hateful vandalism,” said Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.
“This is not normal,” said Treyger, “and we need city leaders to act now.”
Sydney Altfield, CEO of Teach Coalition — which oversees security grants for Congregation Machane Chodosh and most other synagogues and schools in the area — said in a statement, “Waking up to swastikas on a synagogue, homes, and a Jewish center that houses a preschool is not just vandalism, it is a direct act of intimidation against an entire community. We’re working closely with synagogue leadership and guiding next steps to protect families and strengthen security in the short term.”
“This is exactly why sustained investment in security for Jewish institutions is so critical. It also underscores how important it is not only to secure that funding but also to ensure institutions can access it,” Altfield continued.
In January, Queens played host to a pro-Hamas protest that caused nearby schools and a synagogue to close early, where dozens of masked protesters chanted “We support Hamas” near the synagogue.
Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman is facing criticism from the newly created Annapolis Jewish federation
Maryland State Capital building in Annapolis, Maryland.
A Maryland Jewish group is “not taking no for an answer” after the Anne Arundel County executive repeatedly declined to include funding for security grants requested by Jewish institutions in his proposed budget.
Amid rising antisemitism in the state, the newly formed Jewish Federation of Annapolis & the Chesapeake wrote to Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman last month requesting similar security grants as neighboring counties have received for hate crime protection.
Pittman, whose second and final term ends in December, denied the request. In a county-wide email on April 24, he wrote, “I want to share some of my thinking on the tough decisions, on saying, ‘No, not this year.’”
“I’ll start with a proposal to create a county-funded and administered grant program to pay for security at organizations vulnerable to hate crimes,” Pittman wrote. “It came primarily from the four synagogues in Anne Arundel County, but has attracted support from others. I took the proposal seriously. Antisemitism is a national epidemic, as is hate against African Americans, Muslims, immigrants, and the LGBTQ+ community. All of these groups have enhanced security measures in the last year and a half.”
Still, he said his office would not be including a provision to fund a county-administered program that helps pay for security for vulnerable minority communities in the county in its final budget proposal for the next fiscal year.
“We’re not taking no for an answer from the county council,” Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, co-founder of the Jewish Federation of Annapolis & the Chesapeake, told Jewish Insider. “The county executive has now told us no three times. He told us in person, in an email that he sent to the entire county and now [on Friday] in a budget that he released publicly to the whole county.”
Laszlo Mizrahi said the federation, which was formed last year, has started conducting meetings with the five candidates running to replace the term-limited Pittman, and although the group cannot endorse a candidate, it plans to publish a voter’s guide to be distributed around local Jewish institutions.
While Anne Arundel County, which is home to Annapolis, the state’s capital, provides no Jewish security funding, the county — which has a fairly small Jewish population compared to other Maryland counties — receives federal and state security grants, which Laszlo Mizrahi called “extremely oversubscribed.”
“What makes us different from most small communities is that state capitals attract protesters who are angry and there have been a lot of people who are angry at Israel and come to our hometown,” she continued.
In Maryland, 356 antisemitic incidents were reported in 2024, according to the Anti-Defamation League, the sixth highest number reported in the country. This included 195 incidents of harassment, 154 incidents of vandalism and seven cases of assault.
In his email, Pittman pointed to surrounding counties — heavily Jewish Montgomery County, which has a $1.7 million safety grant program, and Howard County and Prince George’s County — having “much smaller programs in previous budgets.”
“None, in my view, come close to meeting the needs, and while some have said that even a small program sends a signal that we care, I believe that a small grant program that rejects most applicants leaves too many feeling rejected,” he wrote.
“I met with advocates for a safety grant program on March 19, with our Police Department and Hate Crimes Prevention Program present. I told them that there would be no grant program in our upcoming budget proposal, but that I wanted to hear more about the need, their security programs, and where the gaps exist. Police held a follow-up meeting with the group to go into more detail,” continued Pittman.
“A future county executive may see things differently, but I believe that the focus of our county work to protect synagogues and other vulnerable institutions should remain with our Police Department and Hate Crimes Prevention Program.”
“Our federation is brand new and we have a long way to go to play catch up,” Laszlo Mizrahi told JI. “One thing we have learned is that if you aren’t at the table, you are on the menu. When a county can find $400,000 in funding for more pickleball lighting, but can’t find security dollars, we know we need to work in partnership for a better future.”
“I believe we are going to achieve this because it is common sense,” she continued. “People understand the threat. We have a fabulous partnership with the police but when you call 911 it still takes time for them to come. When the crisis is a life or death matter of seconds, you need to have a guard on the premises. That’s where the gap is in terms of funding, particularly for the [preschools].
Pittman’s office did not respond to a request for comment from JI.
‘We won’t support a Democrat who doesn’t represent the views and values of the vast majority of American Jews,’ Halie Soifer said
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Jewish Democratic Council of America CEO Halie Soifer in Washington on May 24, 2023.
The Jewish Democratic Council of America is not ready to endorse Graham Platner, the controversial presumptive Democratic nominee in Maine’s Senate race, said Halie Soifer, the group’s CEO.
“We won’t support a Democrat who doesn’t represent the views and values of the vast majority of American Jews,” Soifer said in a statement. “JDCA has endorsed more than 120 candidates across the country who are fighting for the issues Jewish Americans care about and standing against antisemitism. It’s those many Democrats who have our backs, and we’ll have theirs as they work to defeat Republicans aligned with this White House whose views are antithetical to our values.”
Soifer additionally told The Forward on Thursday that Platner’s record of incendiary past comments and personal controversies are “reasons for concern” about his candidacy, saying that the far-left insurgent would first need to clarify his views to receive possible consideration from the group.
Reached by Jewish Insider on Thursday, Soifer confirmed JDCA’s position on the race but declined to comment further.
JDCA, a leading Jewish Democratic group, typically endorses most Democrats in major federal races, especially closely contested ones like the Senate seat in Maine.
The group had backed Maine Gov. Janet Mills in the June primary to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). But Mills, the establishment favorite, said Thursday that she was suspending her campaign due to a lack of financial resources, clearing the way for Platner to secure the nomination in a race viewed by Democratic leaders as key to regaining control of the upper chamber.
Previously, JDCA had expressed criticism of Platner after it was revealed that he had a Nazi tattoo on his chest for nearly two decades. He has since removed the tattoo and claimed he was unaware of its links to Nazism until recently, even as a former acquaintance told JI that he had long known the icon represented a skull-and-crossbones known as a Totenkopf, adopted by an infamous SS unit.
“Hateful rhetoric and Nazi symbols must have no place in the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, or anywhere in our politics,” JDCA said last year after JI’s report. “Under any and all circumstances, it must be unacceptable to glorify Nazis or Nazism. Period.”
Platner’s hostile approach to Israel and demonization of AIPAC have also faced scrutiny among mainstream Jewish leaders at the state and national levels.
He has repeatedly accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and called for blocking U.S. aid to the Jewish state. In a past Reddit post recently uncovered by JI, the Marine veteran voiced admiration for Hamas’ tactics in a violent raid into Israel in 2014.
JDCA’s reservations over Platner’s campaign reflect ongoing discomfort among both Democratic and nonpartisan Jewish organizations that are now reckoning with the implications of his popularity in spite of the tattoo and other issues he has weathered.
The Anti-Defamation League as well as Maine’s Jewish federation have also raised concerns about Platner’s tattoo and past comments.
Platner, for his part, has pledged to engage further with the Jewish community, recently hosting a Seder in Maine that included the state chair of J Street, the progressive Israel advocacy group.
A spokesperson for J Street did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday night about whether it would endorse Platner’s campaign.
The funding marks an increase over 2025 levels but is far short of the $1 billion advocates have sought
David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
A Department of Homeland Security officer stands guard at 26 Federal plaza as protestors gather to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil at Foley Square on March 10, 2025 in New York City.
House Democrats and Jewish groups welcomed the passage of $300 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) on Thursday, while warning that funding for the program remains insufficient to fully protect the Jewish community and places of worship amid a surge in antisemitism.
The appropriation was passed through a bill funding most of the Department of Homeland Security, approved in the House on Thursday after receiving approval in the Senate. The move ends the monthslong shutdown of agencies including the Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which operates NSGP.
While lawmakers welcomed the fact that funding marks an increase from the $274.5 million provided in fiscal year 2025, they cautioned that the $300 million still falls short of the need within the Jewish community, given the threat level. The grants are used to harden institutions, including synagogues and day schools, against physical attacks.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) told Jewish Insider that $300 million is “nowhere near enough.”
“It is just unacceptable that we are going in the wrong direction,” Wasserman Schultz said. “$300 million is backwards. We need a billion dollars with the explosive growth in antisemitism and antisemitic attacks.”
Jewish communal groups as well as a bipartisan group of 150 House members called for an increase in funding for the program of up to $1 billion following several attacks including the car-ramming and shooting attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., in March.
“We need to make sure that every person who attends not just a Jewish institution, but any religious or community organization — that no one should have to fear being attacked in a public space like that,” Wasserman Schultz added. “We need to make sure that the funding is adequate to keep people safe.”
The Florida lawmaker noted that she hopes Congress can unlock more funding for the program, saying that there is an “appropriations process that is ongoing, so hopefully we’ll be able to.”
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) told JI that the development is “good news,” adding that “hopefully we [Congress] will get these resources out the door as quickly as possible to protect our religious institutions.”
“It’s better than nothing, right?” Gottheimer said. “It’s good news to get these resources out the door, and we certainly need to get them out the door, and so this is an important step.”
Still, Gottheimer said the amount is not enough. He stated that he plans to “push for a lot more for next year” and that he has “already taken action, written letters and laid down clear markers that we need a lot more.”
“I think we need more because right now we’re running less than 50% fulfilled in terms of [grant] requests,” Gottheimer said. “So, obviously it’s not enough, especially with the threats out there. When you look at antisemitism and the surge in the rates, we obviously need to get a lot more help for our religious institutions so we can ensure religious freedom and protect our synagogues.”
Gottheimer also expressed frustration with what he described as former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem “holding up the resources.” However, he said he hoped that the department’s newly installed secretary, former Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, would mark an improvement.
“She [Noem] had put a review on all of the resources, so a lot of the money didn’t get out the door because they were looking at all the procedures and so the money was being held up,” Gottheimer said. “I’m optimistic that our new secretary, and I spoke to him, will get these resources out the door.”
Rep. George Latimer (D-NY) said he was unsure whether the newly allocated amount was the “right number,” but stated that he believed it could have a “positive effect.”
“The synagogues and the Jewish day schools in my district and around me are really concerned about the rise of antisemitism,” Latimer said. “I’m not Jewish myself, but I can see that there’s a pointed effort to try and make people feel afraid in doing things that we believe everybody should be able to do.”
“I suppose you could always use more [funding],” Latimer added. “But if it’s going to go to the right purpose and it’s done without extra strings attached, as you never know how this administration will operate — but I would certainly say that Jewish communities should have this extra support and protection.”
Jewish communal organizations similarly applauded the funding, but urged for more down the line.
“This increase over last year’s funding level is an important and very welcome step,” Nathan Diament, executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, said in a statement. “While sadly even more funding is needed for Jewish community security, this increased level of funding will surely help. We will continue working with members of Congress and our allies to fund NSGP at even higher levels in 2027 to meet demand.”
Lauren Wolman, senior director of government relations and strategy at the Anti-Defamation League, called the funding “an important step in protecting vulnerable communities amid evolving threats.”
“NSGP is a proven, lifesaving program, but demand continues to far outpace resources. As antisemitic threats reach record highs, funding must keep pace. Turning our attention to FY27, we urge Congress to fund NSGP at $1 billion,” Wolman continued. “Now that DHS has reopened, we urge the Administration to ensure FY25 funds are disbursed promptly and [open applications for 2026 grants] in a timely manner.”
The Jewish Federations of North America also welcomed the move, saying in a statement that the funding will “restore critical operations at a moment when threats facing Jewish communities and other vulnerable populations remain alarmingly high.” It also encouraged the administration to release funds allocated for 2025 and open applications for 2026, and indicated that the organization would “fight for $1 billion for FY2027.”
The assistant attorney general for civil rights emphasized that Nazis often had advanced degrees and impressive credentials
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Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department on September 29, 2025 in Washington, DC.
In a speech at a federal government commemoration of the Holocaust on Thursday, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon argued that the post-Oct. 7 wave of antisemitism in the U.S. resembles 1930s Germany and warned that modern bigotry is often perpetrated by “educated elites” under the cover of intellectual language.
Dhillon, drawing on a speech that the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gave at a Holocaust remembrance event nearly three decades ago, said that Germany’s reputation as an intellectual and scientific hub in the 1920s and 1930s is closely connected to the development of the Holocaust.
“The road to Auschwitz was incremental and methodical. It began with excluding Jews through the legal, political, economic and social life of everyday society,” Dhillon said. “Many perpetrators of the Holocaust were often the most educated intelligentsia in Germany.”
She was speaking at the 33rd annual Federal Interagency Holocaust Remembrance Program, an event organized by and for federal government employees. It took place in the Justice Department’s Great Hall, and as attendees arrived, they walked up a staircase lined with portraits of historic legal experts, like the Babylonian king Hammurabi. One showed Moses, pictured with the twin tablets of the Ten Commandments.
The fact that the perpetrators of the Holocaust often had advanced degrees and impressive credentials is relevant for our understanding of contemporary antisemitism, Dhillon said.
“Today we are experiencing a rise in antisemitism in the world, including right here at home. As in the past, it often begins with social exclusion. On some university campuses, Jews have been blocked by mobs from entering certain spaces,” said Dhillon. “As in 1930s Germany, these actions are often perpetrated by the educated elites of our nation, framed in intellectual language, giving them a veneer of legitimacy.”
She called on federal workers to pledge to stand up against antisemitism and to defend Western values.
“The task in front of all of us here today as federal employees and people of conscience is a difficult but straightforward one. We must defend our values: our values as Americans, as Westerners, as heirs to this great civilization, our values that hold that all men are created equal,” she said.
The Trump administration, Dhillon stated, is committed to protecting Jews and fighting discrimination.
“The Department of Justice will confront anti-Jewish bigotry and ensure peace and security for all people of faith. We are and will continue to aggressively prosecute individuals and organizations who attack Jews, and we will ensure that our institutions of higher learning treat students and faculty with the dignity through which they are all entitled, and all of us are entitled,” she stated.
Other speakers at the event included Ellen Germain, the State Department’s special envoy for Holocaust issues, and Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg, who spoke via video about his grandparents, who came to the U.S. after surviving the Holocaust.
“Their experiences impressed upon me that the opportunities we have today are not guaranteed. That sense of duty informs our work in government as public servants,” said Helberg. “Remembrance isn’t passive. It requires action. It requires us to ensure that the facts of the Holocaust remain accessible and that distortion and denial are confronted.”
Frank Cohn, a 100-year-old Holocaust survivor and U.S. Army veteran, shared his story.
At the end of the event, Germain warned that Holocaust distortion is “alarmingly on the rise these days.” She called on everyone in the room who survived the Holocaust, or who is a descendant of Holocaust survivors, to stand. They received a standing ovation from a crowd that included White House Jewish liaison Martin Marks, State Department antisemitism special envoy Yehuda Kaploun and representatives from more than two dozen foreign embassies.
‘The keffiyeh wasn’t a slip. It was the point. And it’s disgraceful,’ an Eric Adams advisor said
Mayor Zohran Mamdani/X
Screenshot
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani drew criticism on Thursday from several prominent Jewish New Yorkers for releasing a social media video on rent regulation hearings that prominently featured a public employee sporting a keffiyeh, a checkered scarf associated with the Palestinian cause.
The video, which runs just over one minute long and doesn’t touch on Middle East issues, promotes a new door-to-door outreach campaign to encourage participation in upcoming meetings of the Rent Guidelines Board.
In it, one of staffers featured in the video, Mohamed Alharbi — deputy borough director of the newly established Mayor’s Office of Mass Engagement — wears a keffiyeh over his shoulders, visible for all but a few moments of the clip.
“Shameful video. The anti-Zionist messaging isn’t subtle — it fuels a broader climate that emboldens antisemitism,” wrote Todd Richman, a veteran Democratic Party operative and co-founder of Democratic Majority for Israel, highlighting the recent spike in hate crimes targeting Jewish New Yorkers. “Don’t ignore the pattern. This rhetoric has real consequences. The Mayor should take this down immediately.”
Benny Polatseck, who ran the creative communications team for former Mayor Eric Adams, also raised concerns.
“The keffiyeh wasn’t a slip. It was the point. And it’s disgraceful,” Polatseck asserted. “We would never have produced a video targeting a community in our city.”
Daniel Loeb, a hedge fund manager and major political donor in New York, questioned the entire initiative.
“Imagine if some guy wearing a terror Schmatta comes to your home unannounced and knocks on your door asking you a bunch of personal questions and demanding you appear at a government struggle session,” he tweeted, using a Yiddish word for rag.
The black-and-white patterned keffiyeh was the invention of English-born Lt. Gen. John Glubb, leader of the Arab Legion that seized the West Bank in 1948. Palestinian Liberation Organization head Yasser Arafat and terrorist hijacker Leila Khaled later popularized the garment as a political symbol in the 1970s.
The Mamdani administration did not respond to questions about the decision to feature a public servant displaying a political symbol in a publicly financed video.
The British PM called for protesters who use the phrase ‘globalize the intifada’ to be prosecuted and for increased security presence in Jewish communities
Leon Neal/Getty Images
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer talks at a press conference at Chequers at the conclusion of a state visit by U.S. President Donald Trump, on September 18, 2025 in Aylesbury, England.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced several new policies aimed at protecting British Jews, including a ramped up security presence, a tightening of immigration laws and a crackdown on extremist charities, in a speech on Thursday following the stabbing of two Jewish men in a suburb of London.
Starmer denounced the rise in antisemitic attacks, naming several that have occurred in recent months, and fear that British Jews experience while conducting everyday life. He listed new government priorities including increasing visible police presence in Jewish communities; increasing investments in Jewish security services; introducing new legislation to prevent “hate preachers” from entering the country and speaking on college campuses; and working to speed up sentencing for perpetrators of antisemitic attacks.
Starmer further condemned those who participate in protests with antisemitic themes. “Of course we protect freedom of speech and peaceful protest in this country, but if you are marching with people wearing pictures of paragliders without calling it out, you are venerating the murder of Jews,” he said.
He added that demonstrators who use the phrase “globalize the intifada” are “calling for terrorism against Jews” and should be prosecuted.
As British authorities are investigating whether a recent surge of attacks targeting Jewish institutions in the country is linked to Iran, Starmer added, “We need stronger powers to tackle the malign threat posed by states like Iran because we know for a fact that they want to harm British Jews, which is why we will fast-track the necessary legislation.”
British Jews have been raising the alarm on rising antisemitism in the country and government inaction to combat it. On Wednesday, two Jewish men, one in his 70s and one in his 30s, were stabbed in the heavily Jewish London suburb of Golders Green. Both were hospitalized in stable condition, according to the Metropolitan Police, which declared the attack a terrorist incident.
The stabbing is the latest in a string of violent attacks against Jewish individuals and sites around London in recent months, which U.K. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has called a “sustained campaign of violence and intimidation.” He said following Wednesday’s attack that “words of condemnation are no longer sufficient.”
Last week, an arsonist who pleaded guilty to attacking a London synagogue was released on bail. Also this month, two suspects in an arson attack on another London synagogue were similarly released on bail, and a building that used to house the Jewish Futures charity and still bears its name on the side was targeted in a separate arson attack the same week.
Antisemitic attacks in the country have extended beyond London. Last year, during Yom Kippur, two men were killed at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Manchester in a car-ramming and stabbing attack. At the time, Starmer promised to do “everything” in his power to protect the Jewish community, including allocating $13 million in emergency funds to provide greater security.
The Senate candidate shared that her husband, who is Jewish, was verbally attacked in front of their 5-year-old daughter
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow speaks on the first day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on August 19, 2024.
An activist at this month’s Michigan Democratic Party convention in Detroit screamed an antisemitic slur at the husband of Michigan Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow, in front of the couple’s 5-year-old daughter, McMorrow revealed in a radio interview airing Wednesday.
McMorrow, a state senator seeking the Democratic nomination for an open U.S. Senate seat, is not Jewish, but her husband is and their daughter attends a Jewish preschool. The incident occurred at a convention where far-left activists also booed one of her primary opponents, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), a moderate pro-Israel lawmaker.
The third candidate in the race is physician Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive who has a longstanding hostile record towards Israel.
“At the convention a few weeks ago, there was a mood,” McMorrow said in an interview with WHMI, a radio station in metro Detroit. “They booed Haley, but there was a man who walked up to my husband and my daughter — I was not there, just my husband and my daughter, and screamed an antisemitic slur at him in his face, in front of my 5-year-old.”
On the campaign trail, McMorrow has made a point of trying to cater to both the state’s sizable Jewish population and its large Arab population. She described herself in the interview as trying to be “the bridge,” while navigating conflicting views that she hears from voters.
“I got in an Uber the other day and unprompted, the man said to me, ‘Why is it that this country can afford to drop bombs on other countries, but we can’t feed our kids?’ There is a truth in that anger that we as a country have to figure out how we solve that,” McMorrow said.
But she cautioned that politicians and activists who are unhappy with American policy in the Middle East need to ensure their criticism does not veer into antisemitism.
“I will be the first to say, and I’ve taken a lot of heat for it — when it crosses the line into antisemitism, I will be the first to say so,” said McMorrow. “We have to make space for you to be angry and do so in a way that does not make people feel scared, truly scared, to just exist as a Jewish person in this country.”
McMorrow has been endorsed by J Street and pledged not to accept any funding from AIPAC. But she has also taken aim at El-Sayed for his approach to the Middle East. After he announced that he would hold campaign rallies with the far-left, antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, McMorrow slammed El-Sayed in an interview with Jewish Insider last month.
She reiterated that position to WHMI, although she said she has “no problem” with people who appear on Piker’s show if they want to try to reach his audience and push back on his point of view.
“Bringing somebody in to campaign for you implies that you endorse that person’s point of view, and it tells your audience that this messaging is who I am,” said McMorrow, noting that the timing of Piker’s appearance in Michigan was particularly striking, just weeks after the attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield.
Asked whether she believes Piker to be antisemitic, McMorrow said no — but added that it almost doesn’t matter.
“I don’t think that he is. I think he gets dangerously close,” she said. “I think there is justifiable anger at the ongoing war. I think a lot of what he says is uninformed and hurtful. I can’t purport to speak for what he believes in his heart, but I can tell you, for my family, a lot of what he says is really hurtful.”
Plus, Israel-Ukraine relations face grain of contention
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Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
The gunman who attacked the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night, Cole Tomas Allen, was arraigned in Washington this afternoon. He is being charged with transportation of a firearm between states, discharging a firearm during a crime of violence and attempting to assassinate the president of the United States, which carries a potential life sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Ballantine said Allen, 31, had “a 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun, a .38-caliber semiautomatic pistol and … three knives and other dangerous paraphernalia” during the attack. He will remain in detention with another hearing scheduled for Thursday…
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that President Donald Trump met with his national security team this morning where they discussed Iran’s latest proposal to end the war, which reportedly includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz but postponing talks on the country’s nuclear program…
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the U.S. is “being humiliated” by Iranian leaders after negotiations between the two countries this weekend were called off.
“The Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skillful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result,” Merz told a group of students. The result is “an entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards,” he added…
Russian President Vladimir Putin praised how “courageously and heroically the people of Iran are fighting for their independence” in a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi today in St. Petersburg. Araghchi thanked Russia for standing by its side and said the countries will continue their “strategic partnership”…
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said today that the terror group will not disarm, despite the Lebanese government’s intent to remove the group from power in the south of the country under the terms of the ongoing ceasefire with Israel. Hezbollah and Israel have continued to exchange fire throughout the ceasefire, including a wave of Israeli airstrikes today in response to Hezbollah’s deadly drone attack that killed an IDF soldier and wounded six yesterday…
New Department of Homeland Security training materials allow green card applicants to be denied for antisemitic and anti-Israel social media posts and activism, as well as anti-American activism, The New York Times reports. The documents, distributed to immigration officers last month, cite “as an example of questionable speech a social media post that declares, ‘Stop Israeli Terror in Palestine’ and shows the Israeli flag crossed out”…
Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Andrii Sybiha summoned Israel’s ambassador to the country to protest the arrival of a ship allegedly carrying grain taken from Russian-occupied Ukraine at Israel’s Haifa Port, Sybiha said on X. Sybiha also denounced Israel’s “lack of appropriate response to Ukraine’s legitimate request” regarding a similar vessel that docked in Haifa last week.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar slammed Sybiha for his announcement: “Diplomatic relations, especially between friendly nations, are not conducted on Twitter or in the media,” Sa’ar wrote. He said that “evidence substantiating [Ukraine’s] allegations have yet to be provided” and that “the matter will be examined”…
Several pro-Israel House Democrats in Florida could lose their seats after Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled a new congressional map that eliminates their districts — state lawmakers are expected to approve the map for use in this year’s midterm elections at a special session of the state Legislature tomorrow.
The new map could give the GOP up to four additional House seats by redrawing Democratic-leaning districts, including those of Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Darren Soto (D-FL)…
Claims by New Jersey congressional candidate Adam Hamawy that the Gazan hospital where he volunteered as a trauma surgeon in 2024 during Israel’s war with Hamas was a “completely benign civilian hospital with no tunnels underneath it” are false, The Washington Free Beacon reports.
While Hamawy claimed in an interview shortly after he returned that “there were definitely no tunnels underground and no command base there,” Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed a year later “in a tunnel directly under the hospital emergency department, where he was leading a high-level meeting with senior Hamas terrorists,” the Free Beacon writes…
All five of Pennsylvania’s living former governors, both Democrats and Republicans, released a statement today calling on state officials to prioritize the safety and security of Gov. Josh Shapiro, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
The letter came days after state Treasurer Stacy Garrity — Shapiro’s leading Republican opponent in this year’s gubernatorial race — said the state will not pay for security upgrades made to Shapiro’s privately owned family residence, done after the state-owned governor’s mansion was targeted in an antisemitic arson attack last spring…
The New York Times chronicles Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s turn away from the Democratic Party and increasing political involvement, including against the proposed “billionaire tax” in his home state of California.
“I fled socialism with my family in 1979 and know the devastating, oppressive society it created in the Soviet Union. I don’t want California to end up in the same place,” Brin told the Times. Brin, who is Jewish, has also been disturbed by the Democratic Party’s leftward shift on Israel policy…
Toronto-based Jewish advocate Adam Hummel argues in the “Boundless Insights” Substack that “anti-Zionism” is an obsolete position, given the 78-year-old existence of the State of Israel.
“Israelis don’t owe anyone an argument for their existence. … The debate is over, not because one side won, but because the thing itself came into being. They are a people. They speak a language. They live on a piece of land and have mortgages. That is what peoples do. The Greeks do it. The Poles do it. The Québécois do it. The arguments about whether they should are, at this point, a leisure activity for people who live elsewhere”…
⏩ 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 Keith Sonderling, the acting secretary of labor, who is Jewish and the grandson of Holocaust survivors, following the resignation of Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
The Zionist Rabbinic Coalition will present its first “Pillar of Zion” award to Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) at the organization’s fifth annual National Conference in Washington. Other speakers at the three-day conference will include Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter; State Department antisemitism envoy Yehuda Kaploun; Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon; and Jonathan Schanzer, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
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Sures told JI members of the student association who condemned Omer Shem Tov’s appearance on campus are ‘shortsighted, antisemitic or both’
Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for UCLA
Jay Sures, vice chairman of United Talent Agency, speaks onstage during the 27th Annual UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation’s “Taste for a Cure” Event at the Beverly Wilshire, a Four Seasons Hotel on May 10, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California.
Jay Sures, vice chairman of United Talent Agency and a regent of the University of California system, slammed the members of UCLA’s Undergraduate Student Association who authored a letter condemning former Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov’s recent campus appearance as “shortsighted, antisemitic or both,” in an interview with Jewish Insider.
“Why would anybody send out a letter condemning a hostage who is a student who was held in captivity for over 500 days? You have to be a complete lunatic to sign on to that letter,” Sures told JI on Friday, shortly after he issued his own letter to the body stating he was “disgusted and appalled” by its condemnation.
Sures, who was appointed to the Board of Regents in 2019, told JI that UCLA’s campus is host to a “small number of people who have a very loud voice that love to spew antisemitic hatred,” adding that “administration has done an excellent job at cracking down on this and having a zero tolerance towards it.”
Sures, who is Jewish, has frequently spoken out in support of Israel since the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks and had his home vandalized last year by anti-Israel demonstrators.
Upon sending Friday’s letter, Sures told JI he has renewed concerns regarding his family’s safety. “Having said that, I think it’s critical that my voice is heard louder than ever at this moment in time in history,” he said.
In his letter, which was drafted on Regents of the University of California letterhead, Sures said, “Like many University leaders, I am disgusted and appalled by the Council’s recent statement condemning an on-campus event featuring former Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov. Talk about a missed opportunity. Rather than hearing the perspective of a 23 year old peer abducted by terrorists at a music festival and held hostage by Hamas for 505 days, those of you who voted for the letter of condemnation chose not to listen at all.”
“Let’s unpack this. Omer Shem Tov is not a representative of the Israeli government. In fact, he is a young student, like many of you, whose life took a horrific turn when he and his friends were kidnapped at a music festival and driven into Gaza, where he was held hostage and tortured for months underground without contact to the outside world,” continued Sures in his letter.
“While your letter expresses concern over ‘a troubling disregard for Palestinian life,’ it says nothing about the Israeli lives lost on Oct. 7th, including the shooting of many of Omer’s close friends. Nor does your letter mention the countless rapes and massacres carried out by Hamas on that day. It is as if none of that happened,” he said.
In an undated letter to UCLA administration, as well as the organizers of the event — UCLA Hillel and the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies — and “affiliated campus stakeholders,” the the undergraduate student council wrote that it “condemns” the April 14 event, held on Yom HaShoah, which was titled “505 Days in Captivity: Omer Shem Tov’s Testimony of Resilience.”
The letter from the council, which represents over 29,000 undergraduates at UCLA, said Shem Tov’s appearance constituted “selective platforming of narratives that obscure the broader reality of ongoing state violence” and “a troubling disregard for Palestinian life.”
In his counterletter, Sures asserted that students were promoting a “double standard.”
“You claim you want balance in programming and more than ‘a single narrative’ from speakers at UCLA. Balance, by definition, inherently involves equal consideration of more than one point of view. By condemning this speaker’s public appearance on our campus, your words and actions make clear you have no interest in balance at all,” he wrote. “That is the biggest double standard of all.”
“It is this failure of some student leaders in your council to listen to and acknowledge views of people with whom they disagree that I find the most disappointing and dangerous. It is not the condemnation itself that is concerning — that is absolutely their right, but it is the rush to do so without even considering other’s perspectives that is so disheartening.”
A spokesperson for UCLA told JI earlier this week, “The event’s message was one of resilience and respect for human rights and dignity — a message we support. We stand by UCLA Hillel, UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies and the UCLA Chapter of Students Supporting Israel’s invitation to have this very important dialogue.”
“We will review the process by which this letter was issued. The condemnation of such a peaceful event to share a story of resilience in the face of extreme suffering is antithetical to the values of our Bruin community,” the spokesperson said.
Sures told JI he expects that the UCLA administration will ultimately “have speakers from all different groups, from all different walks of life so that our students, faculty and staff can hear thoughtful points of view from different places.
“It’s critical that we give the audiences that come to UCLA a very diverse group of opinions, that’s what learning is all about. I think that’s essential to the learning experience,” said Sures. “UCLA has been terrific in terms of bringing in speakers from different walks of life.”
Weeks after Oct. 7, Sures also sent a letter to the UC system’s Board of Regents, its chancellors and its president condemning what he called an “appalling and repugnant” letter condemning Israel from the UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Council, which represents hundreds of faculty systemwide.
Sures wrote that the letter was “rife with falsehoods about Israel and seeks to legitimize and defend the horrific savagery of the Hamas massacre of October 7.”
Sures was honored at the Los Angeles Jewish Federation’s 2025 gala, soon after the targeting of his home. At the event, he paid tribute to his late father, a veteran of Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, and to his mother, whom Sures commended for her foresight anticipating a rise in antisemitism.
“We need louder voices to say this is not okay, it’s not normal,” he told JI. “To let folks go out and spew this hatred without pushing back is the worst thing we can do.”
Plus, half of young Americans view Israel as a burden
Iranian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian delivers a speech on April 19, 2026.
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Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Talks between Israel and Lebanon, which are currently underway, were moved from the State Department to the White House. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were spotted arriving there together this afternoon, and a White House official told Jewish Insider that President Donald Trump would greet the participants at the opening of the discussion…
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who returned to Washington in order to participate in the talks, also stopped by Capitol Hill where he met with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)…
While the bombing campaign in Iran is on pause, the battle at sea continues: U.S. forces boarded another vessel carrying Iranian oil in the Indian Ocean this morning and Trump said he had ordered the U.S. Navy to “shoot and kill any boat” placing mines in the Strait of Hormuz — just as a third U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in the region…
Trump also said Iran is “having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is,” indicating the regime may still be struggling to present the U.S. with a unified proposal. “The infighting is between the ‘Hardliners,’ who have been losing BADLY on the battlefield, and the ‘Moderates,’ who are not very moderate at all (but gaining respect!),” he claimed.
In response, Iranian parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and President Masoud Pezeshkian, both considered relative moderates, issued nearly identical statements on X pledging “complete obedience to the Supreme Leader”…
Iranian officials tell The New York Times their new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is alive but injured, and so far ruling differently than his late father; the younger Khamenei is relying on Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commanders to provide him advice to make decisions “as though he is the director of the board.”
Khamenei’s injuries are extensive and he is largely inaccessible in person: “One leg was operated on three times, and he is awaiting a prosthetic. He had surgery on one hand and is slowly regaining function. His face and lips have been burned severely, making it difficult for him to speak, the officials said, adding that, eventually, he will need plastic surgery”…
U.S. officials are expressing concern over the military’s ability to defend Taiwan from China in the near future should the need arise, given that the U.S. has burned through more than 1,000 Tomahawk missiles and more than 1,500 air-defense missiles in the course of the war with Iran so far, supplies that could take up to six years to replace…
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar named Israel’s first Christian ambassador, George Deek, as the country’s special envoy to the Christian world, JI’s Lahav Harkov reports, after several recent controversies in Israel relating to Christians. Deek is part of the Arab Orthodox Christian community in Jaffa…
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) joined other Michigan Democrats in denouncing Amir Makled, a Democratic nominee for regent of the University of Michigan, over Makled’s past comments expressing antisemitic sentiments and support for terrorism.
“I’m going to have a problem with any candidate — Democrat, Republican or independent — who shares antisemitic and hateful posts on social media. Especially when they refuse to disavow those comments or show remorse,” Slotkin said in a statement to JI’s Marc Rod, in response to a question about Makled…
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not give advance notice to senior Republican senators before announcing yesterday that he was firing Navy Secretary John Phelan, causing surprise and confusion on Capitol Hill. “I found out about it the way everybody else did,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told JI’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod of the Pentagon’s announcement on social media of Phelan’s dismissal.
Trump praised Phelan in a post on Truth Social this afternoon and said he’d “certainly like to have him back within the Trump Administration sometime in the future” — Phelan had reportedly bumped heads with Hegseth but had a close relationship with the president…
Nearly half of young American adults view Israel as a burden to the United States, according to a new Harvard Youth Poll of 18- to 29-year-olds. The survey found that 46% of young Americans consider Israel to be mostly a burden to the U.S., compared to just 16% who say Israel is mostly a benefit, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports.
In addition, Ukraine, which has also received U.S. support in its lengthy war with Russia, was also determined to be more of a burden by young Americans — 31% of respondents said Ukraine is mostly a burden, while 21% said it is mostly a benefit…
The Wall Street Journal‘s Matthew Hennessey issued a defense of Elliot Kaufman, a member of the Journal‘s editorial board, after Trump slammed him on Truth Social as an “idiot” and a “moron.”
“What triggered the president’s ire was an op-ed under Mr. Kaufman’s byline headlined ‘The Iranians Take Trump for a Sucker.’ That’s a provocative title, yes, but the piece delivers on the provocation. Mr. Kaufman wasn’t calling Mr. Trump a sucker; he was merely pointing out that the Iranians are acting like they think he is one. The piece offers plenty of recent evidence to support that claim,” Hennessey wrote…
American journalist Shelly Kittleson details in The Atlantic her experience being kidnapped and held hostage by the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah terror group in Iraq for nine days earlier this month…
Former Disney CEO Bob Iger, who stepped down last month, is returning to Joshua Kushner’s venture firm, Thrive Capital, in an advisory role…
⏩ 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 an interview with Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) as he introduces a buffer zone bill in Congress, which follows legislation under consideration in New York and elsewhere, aiming to protect attendees at houses of worship.
Washington is abuzz ahead of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, being held at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night. The event will be headlined by American Israeli mentalist Oz Pearlman and attended by Trump for his first time as president, alongside celebrities (including Trump fan Nicki Minaj), politicians and media figures. Politicos and reporters will schmooze at events beginning this evening through Sunday morning.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!
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SHAPIRO SPOTLIGHT
In an interview with JI, Shapiro said he ‘[hasn’t] really thought about’ whether he would appear on Hasan Piker’s stream but that he hasn’t been invited
DEFINITION DEBATE
In testimony before the City Council’s antisemitism task force, an NYPD official said Mamdani played no role in a controversial change in reporting data from hate crimes
In testimony before the City Council’s antisemitism task force, an NYPD official said Mamdani played no role in a controversial change in reporting data from hate crimes
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at a "Rental Ripoff" hearing at Fordham University in the Bronx borough of New York on March 11, 2026, in New York City.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s antisemitism czar said on Wednesday that his administration won’t replace the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism he wiped off the books his first day on the job.
Speaking before the City Council’s Task Force Antisemitism alongside officials from the NYPD, the executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, Phylisa Wisdom, said that city agencies do not and will not work off any official definition of antisemitism. Mamdani’s predecessor, former Mayor Eric Adams, adopted the IHRA definition and established the office Wisdom leads amid a dramatic uptick in hate crimes targeting Jewish New Yorkers in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks and subsequent Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
“Across city government there is not a definition codified for any form of hate at all,” Wisdom told Republican Councilmember Inna Vernikov, one of the task force’s two co-chairs. “We don’t believe that there needs to be a codified definition at all.”
A total of 37 states, as well cities from D.C. to Los Angeles, have adopted the IHRA definition. But critics allege its assertion that certain antagonism toward the Jewish state can be classified as antisemitism serves to stifle criticism of Israel.
Instead of a formal, written classification, Wisdom, who previously led the progressive Zionist group New York Jewish Agenda, touted “an understanding that we share.”
“We understand broadly, in the universe of civil rights and combating antisemitism, it to be prejudice, violence and discrimination against Jews because they are Jewish,” she explained. “We understand usually what that looks like.”
Wisdom acknowledged the question of how the vast city bureaucracy recognizes antisemitism was “a hot one in the community.” When Vernikov pressed Wisdom on how the administration could address and rectify antisemitism without defining it, Wisdom acknowledged the difficulty, but fell back on equating it with other undefined forms of bigoted behavior.
She also alluded to previous testimony by NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Legal Matters Michael Gerber that the police department operates off a state-level hate crime statute, which does not feature definitions of prejudice, but only considers whether a victim was targeted because of their real or perceived identity.
“I think what you’re asking is a good question because it is hard,” Wisdom said. “In terms of bias and hate, it’s really sticky and extremely serious stuff, and it’s case by case.”
After the hearing, Wisdom avoided questioning from Jewish Insider about whether she considered it antisemitic to applaud the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel or the man behind them, late Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar — as Mamdani’s wife and other personnel in his office have done.
In his testimony, Gerber said Mamdani and his team had no input on a data-reporting change that drew controversy after the city logged a 152% increase in hate offenses in January over the same month last year, driven by a spike in reported incidents targeting Jewish New Yorkers — then changed its reporting criteria for February. The move drew criticism from experts and transparency advocates.
But Gerber asserted the old methodology was deeply flawed, and that NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who was originally appointed by Adams, had only recently learned of it and ordered it changed.
“That data did not reflect confirmed hate crimes. It did not reflect reported hate crimes,” said Gerber. “It was numbers pulled from an informal tracker that had a mix of reported hate crimes that had not yet been classified by the [NYPD Hate Crimes] Task Force and confirmed hate crimes. These were hodgepodge numbers, resulting in clarity about nothing.”
He added that the decisions did not come “at the initiative or direction of anyone at City Hall” — a point he stressed under questioning.
“These were decisions by the NYPD. We made these decisions and we stand by them,” he told Vernikov. “These were not decisions made by anyone at City Hall.” The NYPD is formally part of Mamdani’s administration.
Gerber further asserted the mayor’s team was “notified” of the reporting change, but “not consulted.” He further highlighted a recent NYPD announcement that going forward, it would disclose to the public both reported and confirmed bias crime incidents, the favored approach of good government and civil rights supporters.
Plus, Dems concerned over fraying Israel-Europe ties
Gage Skidmore
Elizabeth Warren
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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt maintained this afternoon that President Donald Trump is “generously offering a bit of flexibility” to Iranian leaders and has not given them a “firm deadline” to provide a proposal to the U.S., contrary to reports that said Trump only intended to wait a few days before ending the ceasefire that he extended yesterday.
Leavitt also said the president did not view Iran’s seizure of two ships near the Strait of Hormuz today as a violation of the ceasefire: “These were not U.S. ships. These were not Israeli ships,” she said — a change in tone for Trump, who has taken a hardline against Tehran’s escalatory actions in the key waterway.
Meanwhile, mediating countries are reportedly working to get Tehran and Washington back to the negotiating table, with a meeting possibly on Friday. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran “has welcomed dialogue and agreement and continues to do so,” but that “breach of commitments, blockade and threats are the main obstacles” to continuing talks…
Even as negotiations to end the war are still in flux, Trump thanked Iran for granting his request not to execute eight women who were reportedly due to be killed by the regime tonight, instead releasing four of them and holding the other four in jail for one month…
The Financial Times profiles Pakistani army chief Asim Munir as he emerges as an unexpected key mediator between the U.S. and Iran, utilizing his ties to Tehran’s security establishment — including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — and personal rapport with Trump to help secure a comprehensive deal…
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is keeping the door open to a possible 2028 presidential run, saying “only the good Lord knows” what comes next as he continues to reestablish himself in the private sector and policy world after serving in the first Trump administration.
In a wide-ranging interview with Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs, Pompeo also praised Columbia University, where he now teaches at the School of International and Public Affairs, for “beg[inning] to get back the correct leadership … in a way where more voices can be heard”…
U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack stood by his comments that drew criticism over the weekend in which he repeatedly criticized Israel and praised Turkey, saying he was merely “stating the obvious.”
“When I described the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire as a ‘time out’ and said that ‘everybody has been equally untrustworthy,’ I was simply stating the obvious reality on the ground. This is realism, not criticism of any side,” Barrack told Fox News Digital. He also reaffirmed his comments that the goal in Lebanon is “not killing Hezbollah,” and that Turkey should be readmitted to the F-35 fighter jet program…
A group of Jewish District of Columbia residents gathered at the city’s municipal building today for a scheduled meeting with Janeese Lewis George, a D.C. councilmember and one of the leading candidates in this year’s mayoral race, but she never showed, two people who were in the meeting told JI’s Gabby Deutch.
A staff member for Lewis George told attendees at the start of the meeting that she was having a busy morning, and they should begin the conversation without her. At the end of the meeting, when Lewis George still had not arrived, the staff member apologized that she could not attend…
New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin warned this morning that if Mayor Zohran Mamdani vetoes the council’s legislation intended to regulate protests at religious and educational sites, the city will face “more divisiveness,” calling the decision a critical test for the mayor, JI’s Haley Cohen reports.
Menin, New York City Comptroller Mark Levine and Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, speaking at 92NY on the future of Jewry in New York, beseeched the Jewish community not to flee despite tensions with the mayor. “This is not a time to lose hope. Hopefully the three of us here can embody the future of the commitment to fighting antisemitism, the commitment to supporting the Jewish community,” Menin said…
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) is set to introduce a federal buffer zone bill, similar to that of the New York City Council, alongside Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt on Friday, as Suozzi seeks reelection to his swing-district seat on Long Island…
Democratic lawmakers and strategists are expressing concern over the rising popularity of far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, fearing that if he clinches the Democratic nomination, he would lose in a general election to former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), the GOP front-runner, Semafor reports. Democrats must retain the Michigan Senate seat to have any hope of taking back the chamber in the midterm elections.
Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI), who is backing Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the race, told the outlet that “all three candidates are qualified, but dinged El-Sayed for campaigning with [Hasan] Piker and said ‘we are continuing to see consistent polling that suggests that Haley is the only one that can win in a general election’”…
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner said he would not support keeping Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as the party’s leader in the chamber, naming as potential replacements Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Chris Murphy (D-CT) or Brian Schatz (D-HI). He also said he would oppose a ban on semiautomatic assault weapons, a priority policy for much of the Democratic caucus…
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) dismissed criticism of Platner after campaigning with him in Maine last weekend: Asked on CNBC about her comment that Platner is “my kind of man” given his past incendiary rhetoric and actions including his Nazi chest tattoo, Warren said, “He has apologized, he’s out meeting with the people of Maine every single day so they can evaluate not who Graham Platner was but who Graham Platner is today.”
Warren sidestepped a question specifically about Platner’s 2014 praise of Hamas tactics during an attack on Israeli soldiers, as reported by JI: “You guys want to be the party of inclusivity, right?” host Sara Eisen asked regarding the report. “I want to be the party that stands up for hardworking people,” Warren answered…
Schumer dodged a question yesterday asking if he is on the wrong side of his party after most Democratic senators voted in favor of blocking arms sales to Israel — a measure he opposed. “Our caucus is united and focused on ending the war in Iran,” he said, and touted Democrats’ war powers resolutions before walking away…
Rep. David Scott (D-GA) died today at 80. Scott, who voted on the House floor last night, had been running for reelection for his 13th term…
⏩ 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 results of this afternoon’s war powers resolution vote in the Senate, which is expected to be blocked by Republicans as the previous four were.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh will meet at the State Department tomorrow for the second round of direct talks between the two countries. Lebanon is reportedly seeking a one-month extension to the ongoing ceasefire, which is set to expire on Sunday; Hezbollah, which has said it is not bound by the agreement, has continued to fire rockets and a drone at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison will host an exclusive dinner honoring President Donald Trump and CBS News’ White House correspondents at the recently renamed Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace. Ellison is currently seeking regulatory approval of Paramount’s deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.
The Jewish Democratic Council of America will host a candidate forum for New York’s 17th Congressional District featuring leading candidates Beth Davidson, a Rockland County legislator, and Cait Conley, a national security veteran.
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DEM DIVIDES
Jewish Democrats described a ‘shell-shocked’ atmosphere at their statewide convention that saw marked hostility to pro-Israel voices
CAMPAIGN CLASH
Daniel Moraff also recruited Rep. Summer Lee, a leading anti-Israel Democrat, to pursue her political career
Plus, Dems concerned over fraying Israel-Europe ties
Daniel Torok/The White House via Getty Images
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R) sit in the Situation Room as they monitor the mission that took out three Iranian nuclear enrichment sites, at the White House on June 21, 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
President Donald Trump announced this afternoon, with the status of negotiations with Iran up in the air and the expiration of the ceasefire quickly approaching, that he is indefinitely extending the ceasefire at the request of Pakistani negotiators (despite having said, as recently as this morning, that he was not inclined to do so).
“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured … we have been asked to hold our Attack … until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other”…
Talks were meant to begin shortly in Islamabad, but Vice President JD Vance’s trip was reportedly put on hold and he remains in Washington. Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were all spotted arriving at the White House for meetings this afternoon.
Iran also had not committed to sending its own delegation — Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the U.S. of violating the ceasefire through its blockade of Iranian ports and seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship, calling it an “act of war. … Iran knows how to neutralize restrictions, how to defend its interests, and how to resist bullying,” he wrote…
U.S. forces boarded an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean that had been sanctioned for working with Iran which defense officials said was currently carrying Iranian oil, in a further escalation of the U.S. campaign against Tehran-aligned assets and actors outside of the Middle East.
The Treasury Department also announced sanctions on 14 individuals and entities in Iran, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates for “their involvement in procuring or transporting weapons or weapons components on behalf of the Iranian regime”…
Six weeks after he was announced as Iran’s new supreme leader after the assassination of his father, Mojtaba Khamenei has still not been seen in public, raising speculation he is incapacitated from injuries sustained in a U.S.-Israeli airstrike or has been smuggled abroad…
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-ID) endorsed Sen. Roger Wicker’s (R-MS) view that the U.S. should reconsider its funding for the Lebanese Armed Forces in light of its continued inaction to disarm Hezbollah, in addition to the Lebanese government’s failure to “follow through on long-promised economic reform. The era of complacency & unconditional bailouts must come to end,” Risch said…
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) clarified that his post calling it “awesome” that several Iranian oil tankers had bypassed the U.S. blockade — reporting that has been disputed as Iranian propaganda — was written as sarcasm. “[O]bviously Trump’s bungled mismanagement of this war is not ‘awesome.’ As I have said a million times here, it’s a disaster and he should end the war immediately,” Murphy wrote on X…
Democratic lawmakers are expressing concern over Israel’s fracturing relationship with key European allies, while experts say the shifting dynamics could carry longer-term economic and political risks for Jerusalem, even if Israel weathers threats to unwind largely symbolic defense agreements, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Among other recent moves, Spain and Ireland led a push today to suspend the EU’s association agreement with Israel. The initiative stalled as member states remained divided on the issue; still, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) called the developments “deeply alarming.”
“NATO allies like Spain, France and Italy are turning their backs on Israel, a key democratic partner that is actively fighting on the front lines against Iran,” Gottheimer said. “Singling out Israel represents a double standard”…
The arsonist who pleaded guilty to attacking a North London synagogue on Saturday night was released on bail by the Westminster Magistrates’ Court today, JI’s Haley Cohen reports. The 17-year-old boy who threw a bottle containing accelerant through the window of Kenton United Synagogue must live and sleep at his home address and not enter any synagogue, the judge said. It was the third such attack on a Jewish institution in London within a week…
Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) resigned from Congress this afternoon, half an hour before her House Ethics Committee sanctions hearing was due to begin. Having lost jurisdiction in the matter, the committee canceled the hearing…
The Board of Peace is reportedly in discussion with the UAE-owned DP World logistics company about managing supply chains and humanitarian aid in Gaza, including potentially building a new port and developing a free-trade zone, according to Financial Times, as part of the Trump administration’s vision of privatizing much of Gaza’s services and infrastructure…
⏩ 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 Jewish Democrats in Michigan are making sense of their place in the party in the wake of a state convention where pro-Israel voices were shouted down and a pro-Hezbollah candidate won the party’s nomination for a statewide race.
The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing evaluating the effectiveness of U.S. sanctions.
A vote on the fifth Iran war powers resolution in the Senate, expected today, has been pushed to tomorrow.
92NY will host a discussion on the future of New York’s Jewish community with New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal and New York City Comptroller Mark Levine.
The New York City Council’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism will hold its first hearing. The task force was established by Menin in January, shortly after her election, to make recommendations and work towards her five-point plan to combat antisemitism.
Robert Kraft’s Blue Square Alliance Against Hate will host a unity dinner in partnership with the NFL, Hillel International, United Negro College Fund and the Pittsburgh Steelers for Black and Jewish college students from the Pittsburgh area. The event will include a fireside chat featuring Kraft, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch.
Washington, D.C., mayoral candidate Kenyan McDuffie will hold a meet-and-greet with young Jewish professionals.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) will speak in conversation at Yeshiva University with its president, Rabbi Ari Berman, about her new book, Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities.
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IRON DOME DECISIONS
J Street’s Ilan Goldenberg said the surge in far-left calls to cut off missile-defense aid ‘stirred up the conversation a little more’ but says the group was moving that way regardless
CAMPAIGN CLASH
Adam Hamawy said on Hasan Piker’s show that he does not support Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system, arguing that it insulates Israel from the consequences of war
Plus, Israel-Lebanon talks to continue Thursday
Edna Leshowitz/Getty Images
Jack Schlossberg, grandson of former President John. F Kennedy who is currently running for Congress, on Jan. 12, 2026 in New York City.
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
Iranian officials have signaled they will attend talks with the U.S. in Islamabad, Pakistan, this week, with Vice President JD Vance, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner expected to depart for the meeting tomorrow (despite President Donald Trump’s claim that they were already in transit this morning).
Negotiators are up against a running clock, as Trump said today that his two-week ceasefire with Iran will end “Wednesday evening Washington time” and it’s “highly unlikely that I’d extend it” if no deal is reached…
In a series of heated social media posts, Trump again denied that Israel dragged the U.S. into war with Iran: “[T]he results of Oct. 7th, added to my lifelong opinion that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON,” were his motivation, he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump also boasted that the deal under negotiation will be “far better” than the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. “If a Deal happens under ‘TRUMP,’ it will guarantee Peace, Security, and Safety, not only for Israel and the Middle East, but for Europe, America, and everywhere else,” he wrote. Lashing out at the media, Trump insisted, “I’m winning a War, BY A LOT, things are going very well,” claiming the U.S. blockade, “which we will not take off until there is a ‘DEAL,’ is absolutely destroying Iran”…
The State Department confirmed that the U.S. will host the second round of ambassador-level talks between Israel and Lebanon on Thursday, as the 10-day ceasefire between the two countries that began last Thursday, after the first round of talks, continues to hold…
Republican operatives and strategists are growing increasingly concerned that the GOP may lose the Senate in the midterm elections, several told Politico, as rising gas prices and unease around the war with Iran create a poor national environment for Trump’s party.
The New York Times’ Nate Cohn argues that Democrats have a “realistic chance” to flip the four seats they need to win back the chamber because “they’ve recruited unusually strong candidates in three states that supported Mr. Trump three times: North Carolina, Ohio and Alaska.”
“In all three states, the Democrats’ likely nominees are popular recent statewide office holders. They either won their last campaign or were highly competitive in losing re-election under less favorable political conditions. So far, the polls show those Democrats running well ahead of what one might otherwise expect,” Cohn writes…
Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg’s shifting views on Israel policy and decision to skip two upcoming Jewish community candidate forums are raising eyebrows in New York’s heavily Jewish 12th Congressional District, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
During a candidate forum at 92NY last week, for example, Schlossberg rejected continued U.S. funding for offensive weapons to Israel amid the war in Iran — even as he emphasized support for boosting the Iron Dome missile-defense system, which he described as a “critical” technology…
Minnesota’s Democratic Party is poised to endorse progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan for U.S. Senate at its convention next month, Flanagan’s campaign said, after the lieutenant governor secured support from over 90% of Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party local conventions held statewide. The party endorsement, however, will not determine the nominee, as Democratic voters are set to choose their candidate in the Aug. 11 primary election.
The campaign of Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN), Flanagan’s primary opponent and the favorite of pro-Israel activists, called on the DFL last week to launch a formal investigation into a series of alleged instances of antisemitic activity among its delegates. One instance at a local convention last month reportedly saw an unnamed delegate argue that “we should nuke” Israel…
The Wall Street Journal reports on the growing feud between Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, which “spilled out into public view on Thursday, when Driscoll described to lawmakers his fondness for the Army’s former top general, Randy George, whom Hegseth fired as the service’s chief of staff on April 2 while Driscoll was on vacation”…
A Washington Post investigation found that, since January 2025, neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes has made nearly $900,000 through paid messages on his livestreams from roughly 11,000 fans. His top 500 donors are responsible for almost half of that amount…
The UAE has asked the U.S. to consider offering it financial assistance amid the war with Iran, as the Gulf country has borne the brunt of Iran’s drone and missile strikes, taking a heavy toll on its oil, economic and tourism industries. Emirati officials raised the idea of a currency-swap line, which would allow Abu Dhabi inexpensive access to U.S. dollars…
European officials hosted two meetings on Gaza reconstruction today — one gathering, led by EU representative Kaja Kallas and Norway, centered on coordinating aid with the U.S.-led Board of Peace, where White House advisor Josh Gruenbaum requested international assistance in rebuilding the enclave. The other forum, led by Kallas and Belgium, focused on a two-state solution and was attended by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa…
In response to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s condemnation of an IDF soldier found to have desecrated a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon, Radosław Sikorski, Poland’s deputy prime minister and foreign affairs minister, accused the IDF of committing war crimes.
“Lessons should also be drawn regarding the way they are being trained,” Sikorski wrote on X. “IDF soldiers themselves admit to war crimes. They killed not only civilian Palestinians but even their own hostages”…
Incoming Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar affirmed that his country is bound by rules of the International Criminal Court to arrest those sought under its warrants, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Magyar said he intends to prevent Hungary from leaving the ICC, a move his predecessor, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, had initiated.
Responding to questions about Netanyahu’s claim that Magyar had invited him to the country for a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising, Magyar responded, “Every leader is welcome to attend this important commemoration,” but “we have a legal obligation to enforce the court’s rulings, and I’m sure [Netanyahu] knows this”…
Apple CEO Tim Cook announced this afternoon that he will step down from the helm of the tech giant and become its executive chairman in September. Succeeding Cook is John Ternus, head of the company’s hardware engineering…
⏩ 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 an interview with Rachel Goldberg-Polin on the release of her book, When We See You Again, which debuts tomorrow.
The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will hold a nomination hearing for Kevin Warsh, son-in-law of Jewish philanthropist Ronald Lauder, to be chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Democrats intend to press Warsh on his personal fortune, which he has only partially disclosed thus far.
The House Ethics Committee will hold a public hearing to determine whether to apply sanctions to Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), after finding last month that she had committed serious ethics violations and campaign finance misconduct.
The U.S. Helsinki Commission will hold a hearing on Iran’s support for Russia amid its war with Ukraine.
The Senate Foreign Relation Committee’s subcommittee on Africa will hold a hearing on U.S. approaches to counterterrorism on the continent.
Stories You May Have Missed
LATIN LINKS
An Israeli diplomatic source told JI that Ecuador and Paraguay are expected to join the Isaac Accords
MICHIGAN MOMENT
Platner, in Reddit post on Hamas terrorist attack: ‘From a strictly professional standpoint, this was a damn fine looking and successful raid against a superior opponent’
Plus, Michigan Dems swap Jewish regent for Hezbollah cheerleader
Jose Juarez/AP
Amir Makled, a candidate for the University of Michigan Board of Regents, addresses delegates after winning the party's nomination during the Michigan Democratic Party State Endorsement Convention, Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Detroit.
👋 Good Monday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at deepening concerns among Jewish Democrats over the party’s increasing embrace of terror supporters and antisemitism, and report on recent polling from Israel that indicates a divide in public opinion over the Trump administration-brokered recent ceasefires with Iran and Lebanon. We cover the weekend’s Alex Soros-backed inaugural Global Progressive Summit in Barcelona, and break down the results of last week’s special election in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, where progressive Analilia Mejia sailed to victory, despite a lack of support from some of the district’s most Jewish areas. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, Raz Hershko and Luke Lindberg.
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
- Vice President JD Vance is expected to return to Islamabad, Pakistan, this week for a second round of talks with senior Iranian officials amid conflicting reports over the status of the talks, with Iran saying it has not yet decided whether it will send representatives to the negotiations.
- Meanwhile, Tehran threatened retaliation this morning for the U.S.’ weekend attack on and seizure of an Iranian-flagged ship in the Gulf of Oman that had attempted to evade the Navy’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
- Argentine President Javier Milei is in Israel today after arriving over the weekend ahead of events around Israel’s Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut, the country’s back-to-back commemorations of Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terror, and its Independence Day. Yesterday, Milei and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the Isaac Accords between the two countries. Read more about the initiative here.
- Israel will hold official Yom HaZikaron events at the Western Wall this evening and at Mt. Herzl, the country’s military cemetery, tomorrow morning.
- In Washington, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will speak this morning at a State Department ceremony unveiling the portrait of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR
Events in recent days may well be marking a tipping point in the decline of the Democratic Party — at least when it comes to its treatment of Jews, on top of its growing hostility toward Israel.
The weekend ended with the news that Michigan Democratic delegates, at their statewide convention Sunday, nominated a Hezbollah supporter, Amir Makled, to the University of Michigan Board of Regents, choosing to oust a Jewish member, Jordan Acker, whose home and car were repeatedly vandalized with antisemitic graffiti and his family threatened.
Acker’s offenses? He backed efforts to hold anti-Israel campus protesters at the University of Michigan accountable for assaulting police and engaging in intimidation of Jewish students, among other instances of student misconduct. He declined to support efforts to divest university funds from Israel, along with other members of the Board of Regents, as a radical faction of students had demanded.
Acker’s non-Jewish Democratic ticketmate, Paul Brown, who also supported discipline against anti-Israel students, wasn’t targeted and was renominated for election. But the Democratic delegates ousted Acker in exchange for Makled, who has posted on social media with comments praising Hezbollah’s leaders and retweeted antisemitic messages from the conspiracy-theorizing influencer Candace Owens.
The results mark a new low for Michigan Democrats. Also over the weekend, Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed told CNN that he believes the Israeli government is just as evil as Hamas. Read more here.
In the same interview, El-Sayed also said that Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) should replace Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as the Democratic leader in the upper chamber, citing Schumer’s continued support for U.S. aid to Israel. Van Hollen is among the most vocal critics of Israel in the Senate.
Michigan is a closely watched bellwether of the direction of the Democratic Party, and the latest developments underscore that a more radical faction of the party appears to be growing. This, in the state where dozens of Jewish preschoolers were nearly killed in a terrorist attack last month by a Hezbollah sympathizer who targeted the state’s largest synagogue.
dem defections
Rep.-elect Analilia Mejia (D-NJ) cruised to victory in last Thursday’s special election for New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, but the results showed notable defections among Jewish Democrats — an early warning sign for both the left-wing Mejia and her party, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
By the numbers: Mejia ran significantly behind other recent Democratic candidates in two municipalities that have traditionally strongly favored Democrats — Livingston Township and Millburn Township — both areas with significant Jewish populations. In Millburn, Mejia lagged 22 percentage points behind former Vice President Kamala Harris’ performance in the 2024 presidential election, and 17 percentage points behind Harris in Livingston.
SPEAKING OUT
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said on Friday that the Democratic Party “absolutely” has an issue with rising antisemitism, calling out the party’s embrace of candidates including Graham Platner in Maine and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan while criticizing the recent progressive push to cut off defensive aid to Israel, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
What he said: The Pennsylvania senator made the comments after being asked on CNN’s “The Arena with Kasie Hunt” if he believed the Democratic Party has a problem with antisemitism. Fetterman argued that the growing support for both candidates in their respective primaries was indicative of a tolerance for antisemitism within the party. “I mean, the guy that’s going to win the primary in Maine has a Nazi tattoo on his chest and now that’s no problem for a lot of voters,” Fetterman said.
IDENTITY CRISIS
Amid a surge in antisemitism across the political spectrum, many American Jews have described feeling a growing sense of isolation. But for Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, being “politically homeless” is not a crisis to be solved, but rather a position to be embraced, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
A different perspective: “I don’t think some measure of political homelessness is a fundamentally bad thing,” Kurtzer said on Thursday while speaking alongside Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. “I think Americans have become hyper-partisan in ways that reflect that partisan political identity has become part of our identities in ways that are not healthy for Americans.” Kurtzer and Goldberg sat in conversation at an event focused on American Jewry ahead of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
the view from israel
A weekend of diplomatic turbulence has deepened fault lines in Israel over the ceasefires in Lebanon and Iran, with public opinion split along political lines over whether President Donald Trump is serving Israeli interests — or overriding them. Trump’s announcement of a ceasefire in Lebanon on Thursday, before any known progress had been made in talks between Jerusalem and Beirut toward dismantling Hezbollah, already made waves in Israel, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Tough talk: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that “we have not yet finished the job,” but said Israel was “provid[ing] an opportunity to advance an integrated diplomatic and military solution with the Lebanese government,” at Trump’s request. Within an hour of the release of Netanyahu’s statement, Trump published a Truth Social post in which he “PROHIBITED” Israel from continuing to bomb Hezbollah targets, adding: “Enough is enough!!!” Shira Efron, a senior fellow at RAND who serves as the think tank’s distinguished chair for Israel policy, told JI that “there is no question that the tone – ‘prohibited’ in upper case, ‘enough is enough’ – struck a sensitive note in Israel, and people are talking about a vassal state.”
Under pressure: Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), a moderate Republican and co-chair of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, introduced a war powers resolution on Thursday that aims to enforce the deadlines for the war in Iran laid out in the 1973 War Powers Act, breaking with all Republicans except Thomas Massie (R-KY) JI’s Marc Rod reports.
ENVOY SPOTLIGHT
U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack faced fresh condemnation from two Senate Republicans and conservative influencers for a series of comments he made at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey this weekend in which he repeatedly criticized Israel and praised Ankara, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Hezbollah hiccups: To comments by Barrack claiming that the current ceasefire in Lebanon “is so delicate because everybody has been equally untrustworthy” — referring to both Israel and Hezbollah — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he “respectfully and strongly disagree[s].” Barrack said at the conference there needs to be “a path with Hezbollah, and that path has to be not killing Hezbollah.” He further dismissed the idea that the Lebanese Armed Forces would act to disarm Hezbollah, as is required under the terms of the current and past ceasefires. “I always get in trouble because Hezbollah, in American parlance, and most of the West, is a foreign terrorist organization. Hezbollah, in Lebanon, is also a political organization,” Barrack added.
UNITING THE GLOBAL LEFT
A range of Israel critics, from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) to Israeli lawmaker Ahmed Tibi, were among those gathered in Barcelona, Spain, over the weekend for the inaugural Global Progressive Summit, backed by left-wing philanthropist Alex Soros. The conference brought together representatives from over 40 countries, offering, according to its website, “a necessary alternative to conservative and far-right forces,” Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
In attendance: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, an outspoken critic of Israel who called on Saturday to downgrade EU-Israel relations, hosted the two-day conference, whose American attendees also included Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, with Soros. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent video messages. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose government petitioned the International Criminal Court to prosecute Israeli leaders, Brazilian President Lula de Silva and U.K. Justice Secretary David Lammy were also in attendance.
Worthy Reads
Dumb and Dumber: The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg explores the expanding platforms of influencers and public figures who are uneducated on the issues about which they speak and unchallenged by interviewers. “Talking with Piker about a political coalition to save American democracy without discussing his affinity for China’s rulers is like teaming up with Carlson without interrogating his praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin — or with Donald Trump without examining his outlook toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And yet, only the debate over the latter tends to happen, such that Israel crowds out all other considerations, including extremely consequential beliefs that can end up going unchallenged.” [TheAtlantic]
It’s All Relative: In The Washington Post, the American Enterprise Institute’s Danielle Pletka raises concerns about the presence of relatives of officials from American adversaries who are living in the U.S., amid an effort to deport some of those family members. “The U.S. is littered with other nepo babies, wives and cousins — what the Iranians and Arabs call aghazadeh and the Russians call mazhor — enjoying the privileges of living in the land of the free, often made possible by the ill-gotten gains of the fam back home. It’s little wonder why they came. … It turns out the easiest route is through higher education, with some institutions explaining outright how F-1 student visa holders can transfer to permanent status upon graduating.” [WashPost]
Dropping the Trump Name: The New York Times’ Eric Lipton spotlights an effort by the wealthy Khayyat family in Syria to influence U.S. foreign policy in Syria through the Trump family’s business dealings. “Such a mixing of personal and diplomatic affairs has long been the norm in Middle Eastern nations, where a small set of players have historically run, and profited from, their dominant role in society. But it has become the way Washington operates in Mr. Trump’s second term, too. … [A friend of Mohamad Al-Khayyat, Syrian American businessman Tarek] Naemo, who is based in Florida and runs an investment firm that he said had done deals with partners including the Qatari Investment Authority, began with his wife to court at least a dozen members of Congress, starting with Speaker Mike Johnson.” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump nominated Under Secretary of Agriculture Luke Lindberg to serve as the next head of the World Food Program, following Cindy McCain’s announced departure from the role over health issues…
The New York Times looks at divisions within the conservative campus movement in the wake of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September, finding that members of some campus chapters and breakaway groups are split “over support for Israel, the showcasing of conspiracy theorists and who is rightfully American,” as well as disagreements over the war against Iran…
Buckley Carlson, the son of Tucker Carlson, departed his role as deputy press secretary to Vice President JD Vance to start his own consulting firm…
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was spotted with Philadelphia 76ers owner Josh Harris as the 76ers took on the Boston Celtics in Massachusetts over the weekend…
Authorities in Los Angeles arrested an Iranian woman with permanent U.S. residency status accused of brokering sales of Iranian weapons to the Sudanese Armed Forces for use in the African country’s yearslong civil war…
A George Washington University alumna is suing the school and her former employer, Ernst & Young, as well as a number of GWU officials, alleging that she faced retaliation and discrimination in the wake of an address she delivered at one of the school’s 2025 commencement ceremonies; her remarks calling for GWU to divest from Israel deviated from those approved by the school…
Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts University graduate student who was detained for more than a month by immigration officials for co-authoring an op-ed critical of Israel, is returning to Turkey, having completed her Ph.D. studies at the Boston-area school…
The New York Times reviews When We See You Again, Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s account, which will be released tomorrow, of her life before and after the 2024 death of her son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, at the hands of his Hamas captors…
Canada’s Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, with the backing of more than 80 Jewish groups, is calling on the federal government in Ottawa to increase funding to address “rising security demands” as the country sees a sharp increase in antisemitism…
A French peacekeeper was killed and three others members of UNIFIL, the U.N.’s peacekeeping force in Lebanon, were injured in what France and UNIFIL said was a Hezbollah attack; French President Emmanuel Macron, whose government was sidelined from recent U.S.-brokered talks between the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to Washington, called on Beirut to “immediately arrest those responsible and assume their responsibilities alongside UNIFIL”…
An appeals court in France ruled than an Algerian-born nanny who worked for a French Jewish family was not acting out of antisemitism when she poisoned family members, despite having told police, “Because they have money and power, I should never have worked for a Jewish woman; she only brought me trouble”; the woman was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, less than if she was found to have been motivated by antisemitism…
Kanye West’s upcoming concert in Poland, which was slated to take place in June, was called off by organizers, one of whom cited “formal and legal reasons,” weeks after West’s planned concerts in France and the U.K. were also cancelled amid public outcries over his past antisemitic comments…
Helen Mirren, Skylar Astin and Liev Schreiber were among more than 1,000 signatories to an open letter organized by Creative Community for Peace in support of Israel’s continued participation in the Eurovision Song Contest…
U.K. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis decried the “sustained campaign of violence and intimidation” targeting British Jews amid a series of attacks on Jewish communities around the country…
Mirvis’ statement came shortly before the arrest of two teenagers in connection with an arson attack that caused minor damage to London’s Kenton United Synagogue; British authorities are investigating whether the recent spate of attacks targeting Jewish sites in the country is linked to Iran…
A British court rejected an effort by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians to issue a summons for a dual U.K.-Israeli citizen who traveled to Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, to rejoin his unit as a reservist in the wake of Hamas’ deadly attacks the day prior…
Sixteen Arab and Muslim countries — including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, but excluding Abraham Accords signatories the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Bahrain — signed onto a Qatar-led statement condemning Israel for appointing former Israeli Ambassador to Kenya Michael Lotem as the country’s first ambassador to Somaliland, four months after Jerusalem recognized the African state…
The New York Times explores the impact of the war in Iran on Qatar and other U.S.-allied Gulf nations, finding Doha [t]rapped between their chief ally and their neighbor” and now being “forced to rethink their security strategies”…
The UAE’s minister of state for international cooperation said that 90% of the sites struck in the Gulf nation by Iran over the course of the recent conflict were civilian infrastructure; Reem Al Hashimy said that approximately 2,800 missiles and drones launched by Iran had hit targets in the UAE…
The governor of the UAE’s central bank, who met last week in Washington with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, introduced the possibility of working with Washington to create a currency-swap line as a potential financial backstop should the Gulf state face further economic challenges…
Iran said it executed two people alleged to have collaborated with Israel’s Mossad…
The IDF released a map showing the Lebanese territory under its control as it fights against Hezbollah in the southern part of the country…
IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said the military was conducting an investigation following the surfacing of a photo in which an IDF soldier is pictured desecrating a statue of Jesus in the southern Lebanese Christian village; Israeli Prime Minister condemned the incident, saying he “was stunned and saddened” and that Israel “express[es] regret for the incident and for any hurt this has caused to believers in Lebanon and around the world”…
Senior Hamas officials confirmed to The New York Times that the terror group was willing to relinquish some of its weapons to the Palestinian administrative committee operating under the Trump administration’s Board of Peace…
Israeli Olympic silver medalist Raz Hershko won gold in her weight class at the European Judo Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia…
Pic of the Day
Yizhar Hess, vice chairman of the World Zionist Organization, hosted a reading on Sunday of Israel’s Declaration of Independence at the egalitarian section of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Hess was joined by members of the Sydney Jewish community as well as former Israeli hostage Shoshan Haran.
Birthdays
Israeli model, swimwear designer and social media star, Neta Alchimister turns 32…
Stanford University professor and 2020 Nobel Prize laureate in economics, Paul Robert Milgrom turns 78… Chairman of the media networks division of Activision Blizzard, he previously held high-ranking roles at NFL Network, ESPN and ABC, Steve Bornstein turns 74… Philadelphia-based development professional, currently at AJC after a long career for a number of organizations, Andrew Demchick turns 70… Immigrants rights activist and professor at Salem State University, she is the eldest daughter of Noam Chomsky, Aviva Chomsky turns 69… Television and radio host, syndicated columnist and political commentator, Steve Malzberg turns 67… Past president and executive director of the D.C.-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, now at the Center for AI and Digital Policy, Marc Rotenberg turns 66… Author, journalist and former co-host of “The Femsplainers Podcast,” Danielle Crittenden Frum turns 63… Semi-professional race car driver and restaurateur, he was previously CEO, president and chairman of the Trust Company of New Jersey, Alan Wilzig turns 61… Television producer and game show host, known professionally as J.D. Roth, James David Weinroth turns 58… Israeli jazz bassist, composer, singer and arranger, Avishai Cohen turns 56… British film director, Sarah Gavron turns 56… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, one of four Jewish Republican congressmen, Randy Fine (R-FL) turns 52… VP of government and public affairs at Cleveland-based GBX Group, a historic real estate development firm, Seth Foster Unger… Deputy associate administrator at the General Services Administration, Michael C. Frohlich… Chief philanthropy and leadership officer at the World Jewish Congress, Elliott G. Mendes… President and CEO at the Los Angeles-based Skirball Cultural Center, Jessie Kornberg turns 44… Former general manager of Bird in Israel, he is a nephew of Israel’s past president Reuven Rivlin, Yaniv Rivlin… ESPN sportscaster and former Fox Sports and NFL Network personality, Peter Schrager turns 44… New York-based national security and human rights lawyer, Irina Tsukerman… Co-founder of The Free Press and its head of strategy, Nellie Bowles turns 38… PM breaking news editor at CNN Politics, Kyle Feldscher… Policy advisor and counsel to U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), Zachary L. Baum… Systems engineer at Google X, Joseph Gettinger turns 38… Facilitator, coach and workshop organizer, Daniela Kate Plattner… Research analyst at the U.S. Department of State during the Biden administration, David Mariutto… VP at Cedar Capital Partners, Alex Berman… CEO of Social Lite Creative and news anchor on ILTV, Emily K. Schrader… Israeli scientist, engineer and artificial intelligence researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Maor Farid turns 34… Working on advertising platforms at Apple, McKenna Klein… Senior associate at LvlUp Ventures, Andrew J. Hirsh… R&B, soul, pop singer and teen actress, at 13 she was the runner-up on the second season of “The X Factor,” Carly Rose Sonenclar turns 27… Diane Kahan…
Michigan is a closely watched bellwether of the direction of the Democratic Party, and the latest developments underscore that a more radical faction of the party appears to be growing
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, US, on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024.
Events in recent days may well be marking a tipping point in the decline of the Democratic Party — at least when it comes to its treatment of Jews, on top of its growing hostility toward Israel.
The weekend ended with the news that Michigan Democratic delegates, at their statewide convention Sunday, nominated a Hezbollah supporter, Amir Makled, to the University of Michigan Board of Regents, choosing to oust a Jewish member, Jordan Acker, whose home and car were repeatedly vandalized with antisemitic graffiti and his family threatened.
Acker’s offenses? He backed efforts to hold anti-Israel campus protesters at the University of Michigan accountable for assaulting police and engaging in intimidation of Jewish students, among other instances of student misconduct. He declined to support efforts to divest university funds from Israel, along with other members of the Board of Regents, as a radical faction of students had demanded.
Acker’s non-Jewish Democratic ticketmate, Paul Brown, who also supported discipline against anti-Israel students, wasn’t targeted and was renominated for election. But the Democratic delegates ousted Acker in exchange for Makled, who has posted on social media with comments praising Hezbollah’s leaders and retweeted antisemitic messages from the conspiracy-theorizing influencer Candace Owens.
The results mark a new low for Michigan Democrats. Also over the weekend, Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed told CNN that he believes the Israeli government is just as evil as Hamas.
In the same interview, El-Sayed also said that Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) should replace Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as the Democratic leader in the upper chamber, citing Schumer’s continued support for U.S. aid to Israel. Van Hollen is among the most vocal critics of Israel in the Senate.
Michigan is a closely watched bellwether of the direction of the Democratic Party, and the latest developments underscore that a more radical faction of the party appears to be growing. This, in the state where dozens of Jewish preschoolers were nearly killed in a terrorist attack last month by a Hezbollah sympathizer who targeted the state’s largest synagogue.
But it’s not just in Michigan where the weekend’s developments suggest an ominous turn in the Democratic Party’s evolution.
Today’s Daily Kickoff includes comments made by Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), one of the few pro-Israel Democratic stalwarts left, who blasted his party for tolerating antisemitism, calling out Democrats’ acceptance of Senate candidates with checkered histories, including Graham Platner in Maine and El-Sayed.
In particular, Fetterman expressed shock that party leaders had nothing to say about revelations that Platner praised Hamas’ tactics in a 2014 Reddit forum that shared video of the terrorist group killing several Israeli soldiers.
We cover the implications of the election results from New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, a moderate-minded, affluent suburb, where voters elected a far-left Israel critic who withheld criticism of Hamas after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks — except for the Jewish Democrats in the district, who swung decidedly to the right.
And we report on the pained comments from Yehuda Kurtzer, the president of the Shalom Hartman Institute (a liberal, pluralistic think tank dealing with issues affecting the Jewish community), who called on American Jews to “embrace political homelessness” as part of a pointed perspective on how badly things have gotten within the progressive movement, the longtime home for many American Jews.
“We’re stuck as an American Jewish community between an illiberal argument on the right, which is currently in power, and an illiberalism of the left,” he said.
Also notable from the weekend: Likely Democratic presidential candidate Rahm Emanuel, who is portraying himself as a bold, moderate truth teller against the left wing of his party, championed the fact on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” that he wants to cut off all U.S. military aid to Israel — in a clear political pander to the growing anti-Israel wing of his party. Truth-telling only goes so far when public opinion against Israel within the Democratic party has grown to such a high level.
It’s surely comforting to believe that Israel’s aggressive war against Hamas and Hezbollah in Gaza and Lebanon and tough tactics against Iran or Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s haughty approach to his engagement with Washington are the main factors driving the Democratic Party towards its estrangement of Israel. Maybe then, after a possible change of Israeli leadership in the country’s October elections, Democratic public opinion would shift.
But if that was truly the case, you wouldn’t see the party tolerating candidates with neo-Nazi tattoos who “dig” Hamas’ terror tactics and ones who compare the mistakes of a democratic state with a terrorist group that seeks in its charter to eliminate all Jews.
You wouldn’t see a Jewish regent of the University of Michigan and a Jewish Michigan attorney general being personally threatened for enforcing the law — with little protest from party leadership.
And you wouldn’t see Hasan Piker, an antisemitic social media figure with a laundry list of terror-justifying rhetoric, become the progressive movement’s trendy surrogate, in this fraught moment for American Jews.
Kurtzer is right that illiberalism is rising on all sides. But when the party that has long positioned itself as the bulwark against bigotry now tolerates terrorist apologists and antisemitic hate — while abandoning pro-Israel Jews who long called it home — it should be a wake-up call that something is broken.
An Israeli diplomatic source told Jewish Insider that Ecuador and Paraguay are expected to join the Isaac Accords
Kobi Gideon (GPO
Argentinian President Javier Milei, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee take part in the launch ceremony of the Isaac Accords
Argentine President Javier Milei began an event-packed visit to Israel on Sunday, which will include receiving a Presidential Medal of Honor and lighting a torch in Israel’s Independence Day ceremony on Tuesday.
Milei and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the “Isaac Accords” on Sunday, an initiative conceived by Milei to encourage closer cooperation between Israel and Latin American countries.
An Israeli diplomatic source told Jewish Insider that Ecuador and Paraguay are expected to join the Isaac Accords. Israeli media have reported that Costa Rica, Panama and Uruguay have also expressed interest.
Milei described the launch of the initiative as “a historic moment for our nations. It will not only strengthen the relationship between Argentina and Israel, united by shared values, but also represents a step toward a freer and more prosperous hemisphere.”
“Isaac, the son of Abraham, represents an initiative to extend the model initiated by President [Donald] Trump in the Middle East to Latin America, addressing challenges such as terrorism, antisemitism, and drug trafficking, while inviting other nations to join,” Milei said. “Nations that share values have a mission to work together. With the support of the United States, we have the opportunity to bring about transformative change.”
The accords are “a new strategic framework aimed at strengthening cooperation between Argentina, Israel and like-minded partners in the Western Hemisphere, the descendants of Isaac and nations of the Judeo-Christian tradition, in defense of freedom and democracy, and in the fight against terrorism, antisemitism, and drug trafficking,” according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
Milei suggested launching the accords in a meeting with Israel Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, whose father was from Argentina. The Israeli foreign minister was the main Israeli catalyst pushing for the agreement, including in his most recent meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio last summer, during which they established a working group to advance the matter, an Israeli diplomatic source told JI.
Netanyahu said that he sees “great hope vis-à-vis the Latin American continent. We see the beginnings of change, certainly we’ve seen enormous change in Argentina, but I think that this is also a compass and a map for other countries, not only for their internal reforms but also for their external reforms, that is coming back to the alliance of freedom. It begins with the two of us and with the support that is always there of the United States for free societies.”
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee took part in the launch ceremony, and called Milei and Netanyahu “two of President Trump’s greatest friends” who seek to “bring back the values that are the underpinning of Western civilization and Judeo-Christian values upon which our nations were built.”
Sa’ar described Milei as “one of the boldest leaders of our age. … We will continue to strengthen this close friendship! Viva Argentina! Viva Israel!”
Earlier Sunday, Milei visited the Western Wall with Argentinian Ambassador to Israel Axel Washnish, a rabbi with whom he learned Torah for years before becoming president.
Israel and Argentina also announced direct flights between the countries. The first El Al flights to Buenos Aires are expected to start in November.
‘The guy that’s going to win the primary in Maine has a Nazi tattoo on his chest and now that’s no problem for a lot of voters. … That’s crazy,’ Fetterman told CNN
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is seen after the Senate luncheons in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said on Friday that the Democratic Party “absolutely” has an issue with rising antisemitism, calling out the party’s embrace of candidates including Graham Platner in Maine and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan while criticizing the recent progressive push to cut off defensive aid to Israel.
The Pennsylvania senator made the comments after being asked on CNN’s “The Arena with Kasie Hunt” if he believed the Democratic Party has a problem with antisemitism. Fetterman argued that the growing support for both candidates in their respective primaries was indicative of a tolerance for antisemitism within the party.
He pointed to Platner surviving the controversy surrounding his Nazi tattoo and Jewish Insider’s reporting in recent days that the first-time candidate repeatedly praised Hamas’ tactics in a 2014 Reddit forum that shared video of the terrorist group killing several Israeli soldiers.
“I mean, the guy that’s going to win the primary in Maine has a Nazi tattoo on his chest and now that’s no problem for a lot of voters,” Fetterman said. “I don’t know why. That’s crazy. And now, I mean, we know he knows, he knew what that was. I mean, if you’re back over 12, 13 years, cheering about the death of Israeli soldiers, I mean, you clearly have a serious issue, and the left has a serious issue with antisemitism.”
“It was just released that he was praising and celebrating a video online where Hamas was beating and torturing Israeli soldiers to death,” Fetterman said, referring to Platner.
Fetterman also made note of El-Sayed’s lead in one recent primary poll despite his decision to campaign alongside antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker.
“The guy in Michigan, he’s leading now in that race, as my party becomes more and more hostile to Israel,” Fetterman said. “They’re just palling around someone like Hasan Piker, you know the guy that, absolutely, I mean, he absolutely is proud to cheer for Hamas, loves Hamas.”
“The Democrats are proud to stand with him and campaign with him,” he added. “Go ahead, try to win Pennsylvania and campaign around Hasan Piker, or saying, ‘Yeah, America deserved 9/11’ or ‘Hamas is 1,000% better than Israel’ or ‘I don’t care about the rapes and for all this other things.’ We have a serious problem with my party.”
Fetterman, one of most vocal pro-Israel Democrats in the Senate, told Hunt that Israel is “becoming more and more toxic for a Democrat to support,” pointing out that “80% of Democrats view Israel in a negative way.” He specifically condemned the uptick in progressive and far-left voices coming out against continued defensive aid to Israel.
“You have people like [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] voting against Iron Dome, the technology that prevents tens and tens of [thousands] of Israeli deaths from the rockets that those cowards fire at civilians,” he said.
Fetterman went on to criticize members of his party for opposing the war in Iran, saying that there were other Democrats who felt the same as him in supporting the effort but were not speaking out because doing so would be “politically toxic.”
“Every single Democrat has already been on record saying, ‘We can‘t ever allow Iran to acquire a nuclear bomb,’” Fetterman said, specifically naming former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and “everyone that’s run for president” who said “we can’t ever allow that to happen.”
“Then, [President Donald] Trump happened to do something about that to prevent that. That’s why I support that,” he continued. “I’m not the only Democrat who supports this, but I’m the only Democrat that’s willing to stand up and say it’s the right thing because I know how politically toxic it is as a Democrat to support this.”
Fetterman surmised that he is the “only Democrat … perhaps left in the entire Congress” who will say publicly that recent U.S. military action in Iran “was necessary” because doing so “contradicts every single thing that every Democrat has said” about how “we can’t ever allow Iran to acquire a nuclear bomb.”
Fetterman went on to criticize the Democratic lawmakers who voted for the recent war powers resolutions in the House and Senate, arguing that their opposition to the war has been “celebrated” by Iranian leadership and calling their response to the conflict “absurd.”
“Iran has celebrated this,” Fetterman said of the broad Democratic opposition. “A lot of people in my party and a lot of people in the media has turned Iran into the underdog. They’re like Rudy” — making a reference to the 1993 sports movie — “and putting them up on their shoulders and cheering for Iran at this point.”
Asked to respond to Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s (D-MI) statement that “being pro-Israel today is not about simply supporting the political or military agenda of Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, just like being pro-American should not be equated with loyalty to President Trump,” Fetterman argued that her comments on her votes for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) measures on Thursday blocking military sales to Israel were similarly “absurd.”
“She’s a Democratic senator. Why aren’t you criticizing Iran? Why aren’t you criticizing Hamas or Hezbollah or these other kinds of forces? If you have to pick a side here, criticize that. So that’s where we are as a Democratic Party, and you’re going to vote against the kinds of critical aid that Israel requires and needs in order to beat back and destroy an organization like Hezbollah. Like I said, if you have to pick a side in a war, and clearly we have a side, I’m proud to stand on the side of Israel and America.”
Pressed on if he was still committed to being a Democrat given that his comments marked his harshest criticism yet of his party, Fetterman responded affirmatively.
“Well, of course. Yeah, I am absolutely committed to [remaining a] Democrat, absolutely,” Fetterman said. “I vote 91, 92 percent the Democratic line, but I am the only Democrat now that’s proud to consistently stand with Israel, and I’m going to do that, and that’s been very damaging with my standing as a Democrat.”
“If it’s what’s necessary, I’ll be the last Democrat standing with Israel through this,” he later added.
Fetterman also predicted that the war in Iran would not go on much longer, noting that “things kind of continue to wind down,” and said it’s “important to support” the U.S. securing an outcome in which Iranian leadership “surrenders.”
“I think these are very positive developments,” he said of Israel and the U.S. targeting Iran and their leading proxies.
“I think it seems like it’s going to wind down,” Fetterman said. “And we’re heading to a strong end at this point.”
In conversation with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, Kurtzer said the Jewish community is caught between the illiberalism of the left and the illiberalism of the right
Shalom Hartman Institute
Yehuda Kurtzer
Amid a surge in antisemitism across the political spectrum, many American Jews have described feeling a growing sense of isolation. But for Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, being “politically homeless” is not a crisis to be solved, but rather a position to be embraced.
“I don’t think some measure of political homelessness is a fundamentally bad thing,” Kurtzer said on Thursday while speaking alongside Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. “I think Americans have become hyper-partisan in ways that reflect that partisan political identity has become part of our identities in ways that are not healthy for Americans.”
Kurtzer and Goldberg sat in conversation at an event focused on American Jewry ahead of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
Kurtzer argued that hyper-partisanship is particularly dangerous for the Jewish community, noting that Jews “believe in the notion that we are tethered to other people regardless of what they believe.” He said American Jews “should take that same ethos and apply it to what it means to be an American as well.”
“Choosing a side has never worked for Jews because when you get out of the hall to power, you will be identified as the exemplar of that political attitude that can now be destroyed,” Kurtzer said.
“Now we’re stuck as an American Jewish community between an illiberal argument on the right, which is currently in power, and an illiberalism of the left,” Kurtzer continued. “We don’t have a choice as American Jews but to fight for the very liberal framework that resists the authoritarianism of the right and resists the authoritarianism of the left and insists that this is the only way we can make it work for ourselves.”
This tension is especially acute on university campuses, Kurtzer said, where he believes “progressivism” has played “a major role in shutting down the pluralistic discourse that a university campus is supposed to inhabit.”
“I think there’s an immense amount of shame that travels for American Jews, especially for young people, about association with Israel,” Kurtzer said. “At a moment like this, it’s very hard to get past that shame with even rational arguments.”
However, Kurtzer suggested that young Jews may be uniquely positioned to model a “healthy political alternative” by demonstrating how to navigate complex discourse. He noted that since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, many Jews feel “a greater sense of attachment to the Jewish community and Jewish lives and even the State of Israel.”
He argued that American Jews must “find a way to articulate the thickness of our relationship to Israel and the Jewish people that is not perpetually under the test of what the Israeli government does today and tomorrow.”
Kurtzer also warned that the American Jewish community has grown too “comfortable” being part of the daily fabric of American life.
“Jews wrote the soundtrack to American patriotism. We engaged in that project,” he said. “The thing that I think the American Jewish community has let go of is that we became comfortable saying, ‘We’re now insiders to that project. We no longer need to be active creators of the American story.’ We just get to kind of sit on our laurels.”
While Kurtzer called for further engagement from the Jewish community in American life and political processes, he explained that the strength of the community also lies in its willingness to remain distinct.
“It’s OK and probably important for Judaism to maintain some dimension of counter-culturalism,” Kurtzer said. “Some dimension of insisting that in a radical technological world, anti-technological behaviors like turning off your phone for 25 hours a week are actually good.”
EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas: ‘At some point, either the government will know information related to individuals’ religion, or we will not be able to enforce the laws on their behalf’
Dillon Meyer Media
EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas and Brandeis Center founder Kenneth Marcus speak at the inaugural conference on antisemitism and civil rights law at Harvard University on April 16, 2026.
The Trump administration official leading a controversial probe into antisemitism at the University of Pennsylvania told Jewish leaders and legal experts on Thursday that compiling a list of Jewish faculty with their detailed personal information was necessary to identify and protect victims.
“There is no other way to protect victims of harassment or discrimination unless you collect information about them,” Andrea Lucas, chair of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law’s inaugural conference on antisemitism and civil rights law, held at Harvard University.
“We never collect information to contact someone on their work system,” she said. “The EEOC’s long-standing practice is to collect personal information because we want to make sure that there is not any clear monitoring of your email systems … that when you speak to a government agency you feel completely not pressured.”
Last month, a federal judge ordered Penn to comply with a subpoena from the Trump administration requesting detailed information about Jewish university affiliates as part of the EEOC’s ongoing investigation into Penn’s handling of antisemitism. The subpoena had requested the school turn over lists of Jewish employees and members of Jewish organizations — including their identifying details and phone numbers — which the school called “extraordinary and unconstitutional.” Critics on campus have likened the move to Nazi-era methods of collecting information about Jews.
During a fireside chat with Kenneth Marcus, founder of the Brandeis Center and former assistant secretary of education for civil rights under the first Trump administration, Lucas noted she was speaking generally and not about the Penn case specifically, as litigation is ongoing.
“At some point, either the government will know information related to individuals’ religion, or we will not be able to enforce the laws on their behalf,” continued Lucas, who is not Jewish but emphasized a personal interest in religious liberty as “a core thing the EEOC needs to be focusing on.”
“I understand the sensitivities around this issue … but fundamentally the Jewish community does have to decide: do you want to have civil rights enforcement in this space? If you do, there is no other way we can get money for victims.”
Experts told Jewish Insider in January that a more typical investigation might involve agency officials interviewing people who issued complaints directly with the agency, then visiting the campus and publicizing their investigation, calling the EEOC’s methods in the Penn case “incredibly unusual, if not completely unprecedented.”
Lucas asserted that the same standard applied for helping members of any race, religion or gender. None of the event’s speakers publicly disagreed with Lucas’ statements.
The daylong conference was born out of last year’s settlement between the Brandeis Center and Harvard over a Title VI lawsuit, and was framed around this year’s U.S. Semiquincentennial.
It opened with an address from Marcus and a benediction from Harvard Chabad’s Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi. Attendees included Harvard community members, Jewish activists, lawyers and scholars.
The plenary session, “Towards a Jewish Civil Rights Movement,” moderated by Marcus, featured William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Elan Carr, CEO of Israeli-American Council and former special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism; and Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network.
Carr called the battle against antisemitism “a war for the soul of America and the soul of civilization,” and advocated for a shift in classroom curriculums and federal funding.
“Jew-hatred is history’s greatest barometer of human ruin and suffering. We are fighting for the future of our country and American values. So we need to get serious about teaching American values … we can’t safeguard this republic unless we teach American kids what this republic is, why it was founded, what our values are and constitutional structures are,” he said. “This is a national crisis with national implications. The federal government needs to say ‘no money goes anywhere to any educational institution unless there’s Western values, American civics, basic principles of the United States as part of the curriculum.’”
After the session, Daroff told JI that “today’s conference brought a united American Jewish community together, aligned in action. We are not standing back. We are organizing, building and acting together with shared purpose and resolve.”
The conference also featured a panel titled “Defining Anti-Semitism at America’s 250th: New Challenges for a New Century.” Speakers debated the importance of pushing states to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, as many mainstream Jewish groups are using resources to do. Critics of IHRA say the definition chills political speech and criticism of Israel.
Nathan Diament, executive director for the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, said that IHRA is not only important for combating campus antisemitism — as several of the speakers emphasized — but also regarding legislation in Washington.
At the same time, “in the political arena, vagueness around questions [of what is antisemitism] is unhelpful. The most important currency in politics is votes. Advocates and voters need to be able to say with clarity to politicians [what they will and will not support]. This is the most important need for the definition of antisemitism, to draw a line as clearly as we can and make clear to politicians that if they cross this line, there will be consequences,” said Diament.
“Even as the OU has, and continues to, support legislation to codify the IHRA definition, I don’t think at this stage in the game that’s the most important way to further the definition and to use our political capital,” he continued. “We don’t need Congress’ approval of how we want to define antisemitism. We don’t need them to codify it and we don’t need them to give us permission to use it to hold members of Congress and other politicians accountable. We can use the IHRA definition because we say that’s the definition.”
Alyza Lewin, president of U.S. affairs for the Combat Antisemitism Movement and former president of the Brandeis Center, pushed back by highlighting how the law enforcement trainings she provides varies based on local adoption of the IHRA definition. She noted a stark difference between training in states where it is codified, such as Georgia, and those where it is not, such as New York.
Law enforcement in Georgia “has a very concrete reason now to understand and use” the training, said Lewin. “In New York, especially after [Mayor Zohran Mamdani] reversed the executive order on IHRA, I can try to explain it to them but it’s just a nice thing I teach them. They are under no obligation to actually engage with it and utilize it. So I do think on a state by state level, it does make a difference whether or not a state has adopted the IHRA definition.”
In a separate panel, moderated by Anat Alon-Beck, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, speakers explored new avenues for litigation against antisemitism.
“Nearly two years after the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, the Jewish community still lacks unified messaging, coordinated toolkits and a clear strategy. At a time when antisemitic actors are highly organized and aligned, our disunity is a serious vulnerability,” Alon-Beck told JI following her session. “We need to come together — with clarity, courage and coordination — because the stakes could not be higher.”
According to the Brandeis Center, this conference was the first in an annual three-part series.
Charles Dabda, a third-year student at Touro Law Center and law clerk with National Jewish Advocacy Center, told JI he was leaving the conference with a clear sense that “antisemitism is rising in real time with real consequences across campuses, professional spaces and beyond. At the Brandeis Center, and NJAC, our commitment remains resolute and steadfast; we will confront antisemitism wherever it manifests — through advocacy, and, when necessary, the courtroom.”
The New York Republican talked to JI about her leading role holding university presidents accountable
Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on her nomination to be Ambassador to the United Nations on Capitol Hill on January 21, 2025 in Washington, D.C.
On Capitol Hill, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) has long been a vocal advocate for combating antisemitism and active on Middle East security issues. But it was her questioning at a December 2023 hearing that made her a household name in the American Jewish community and beyond, and drew her into the center of the unfolding fight on campus antisemitism.
“Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate [your school’s] code of conduct or rules regarding bullying and harassment?” Stefanik asked the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Their equivocal responses, as disruptive and at times threatening anti-Israel protests were sweeping universities across the country, were a major factor in the resignations of two of those presidents and a slew of further hearings that put college presidents in the hot seat.
Now, as she prepares to leave Congress next year, Stefanik is out with a new book on campus antisemitism, Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities.
More than two years after that first hearing — and after a tumultuous political period in which she saw her nomination as ambassador to the United Nations withdrawn before launching a short-lived New York gubernatorial campaign — Stefanik offered a mixed readout on how she sees the state of American higher education in an interview with Jewish Insider this week.
“In the year after the hearing, we saw that the universities failed to fix themselves and continued to dig deeper and deeper, and it was going to take significant administrative and legislative and frankly, appropriations action of withholding of funds, to force them to really reckon with what the American people saw loudly and clearly in that hearing, [which] is that there are deep-seated issues in higher education,” Stefanik said.
She said that there have also, however, been leadership changes at many of the universities that were probed by the House Committee on Education & the Workforce, in part because of those hearings, as well as overhauls such as the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion programs at some schools.
“The other piece, I would say, is you’re seeing parents and students vote with their wallets and their feet,” such as the rising application and matriculation rates to schools like Vanderbilt University, which Stefanik has highlighted as having handled the post-Oct. 7, 2023, environment effectively.
The New York congresswoman argued that the hearings played a major factor in the reform efforts that followed. She also said that the Trump administration, even before it took office, has been sharply focused on the issue of campus antisemitism, coordinating closely with her office to help shape the administration’s lawsuits and executive orders on the issue.
Asked about anti-Israel and antisemitic voices in the Republican Party such as commentators Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, Stefanik largely dismissed the idea that antisemitism was, or could become, a significant problem within the GOP.
“The difference between [New York City Mayor Zohran] Mamdani and those podcasters is Mamdani is elected to the most important city in the world as mayor, and those other names are not elected, and I think are often overstated [in] their influence,” Stefanik said. “They would not be elected to local office, to state office, to congressional office. That’s why I think it’s very important for actual elected officials, actual leaders, to speak out on issues of importance.”
She praised Trump for calling out Carlson and Owens and making clear that they don’t represent him or his voters, and argued that similar voices represent just a small fringe of Republican members in Congress.
Pressed on the fact that such voices represented a similarly small fringe of the Democratic Party in Congress a decade ago, Stefanik insisted that Republican voters would not embrace such voices.
“The Democrat[ic] Party — it’s a full blown takeover of Hasan Piker, of these voices that The New York Times is now embracing, and ‘Pod Save America’ is now embracing,” Stefanik said. “That is not the case on the Republican side. And as a candidate who actually has stood in front of the voters for the past decade-plus — yes, those voices can say what they want, you actually represent the people that elect you, and that’s not what voters in my district [want].”
Despite the relatively small share of Jewish voters in her district, Stefanik said that her work on campus antisemitism still receives some of the strongest praise from constituents.
Though the administration’s initial blitz of action on campus antisemitism has faded from the headlines, Stefanik said its efforts to address issues in higher education are ongoing, and that the issue also remains top-of-mind for the country at large.
“It’s not just about antisemitism,” she added. “This is broader higher education reform. … That was the canary in the coal mine issue that brought up so many broader issues that were wrong with higher education.”
In Congress, she said that more legislation should be brought to the floor on campus antisemitism, adding that she’s also hoping to work on reining in funding to colleges, cracking down on tax advantages and loopholes that benefit colleges and further limiting foreign funding and foreign student populations at U.S. institutions in her remaining months on the Hill.
She pointed to Qatar as one driver of antisemitism on campuses, and said that the U.S. should make clear to Doha that, if it wants to remain a military partner with the U.S., it “can’t foment and fund this anti-Americanism on college campuses, full stop.”
Stefanik isn’t yet sharing her next steps, but said she wrote her new book in part to serve as a historical record of antisemitism on college campuses, so that “mainstream media” can’t “brush this chapter under the rug.” She said she intends to continue shining a light on the issue.
Though she ultimately passed on a gubernatorial run, Stefanik seems to have longer-term plans in New York politics, and said that Republicans will be in a stronger position to win in the state in the coming years.
Regarding her decision to drop out of the governor’s race, Stefanik argued that the political environment is not currently ripe for a GOP victory, that Republicans need more time to build their statewide infrastructure and that Mamdani’s policies will grow more unpopular in the next few years.
“I think the Democrat Party is going to be increasingly taken over [by Mamdani-aligned socialists],” Stefanik said. “That, long-term, is where Republicans can win back those independents and traditional Democrats.”
Stefanik drew a direct line between the anti-Israel encampment at Columbia University and Mamdani’s election — both because Mamdani’s father is “very much part of this antisemitic petri dish” at Columbia and because “the same people that were organizing the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia directly were boots on the ground for [his] campaign.”
She called herself “the leader” among state Republicans in pushing back against “socialist and Democrat single-party rule of New York State,” and highlighted that she has her own statewide political apparatus — separate from the statewide GOP, which she said lacks infrastructure.
“There is going to be a long road in rebuilding that infrastructure to save the state,” she said.
She also said she wanted to spend more time with her four-year-old son at this stage of his life.
“My voice is not going anywhere. If anything, it’s more. I mean, we’re putting this [book] out in the world and helping set the tone for the type of leadership we need in New York and, frankly, across the country,” Stefanik said.
Plus, Vance courts pro-Israel donors ahead of 2028
Adri Salido/Getty Images
The Lebanese capital is seen from a viewpoint after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that would commence at midnight local time on April 16, 2026 in Beirut, Lebanon.
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 announced the start of a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon to begin at 5 p.m. ET today, after he held phone calls with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day.
Trump added that he will be inviting Aoun and Netanyahu to the White House for “meaningful talks,” later telling reporters such a meeting could happen in the “next week or two.”
The text of the agreement released by the State Department indicates the ceasefire is a “gesture of goodwill” on Israel’s part “intended to enable good-faith negotiations” toward a permanent agreement. The temporary pause in hostilities could be extended if Lebanon “effectively demonstrates its ability to assert its sovereignty” and prevent Hezbollah from carrying out attacks against Israel…
Trump again indicated further talks with Iran could take place this weekend and said the two sides are “very close to making a deal,” telling reporters this afternoon that Iran has already agreed to “give us back the nuclear dust,” referring to its highly enriched uranium.
Hours earlier, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned at a press briefing that U.S. forces are “maximally postured” to return to military operations against Iran if negotiations are unsuccessful, and will look to attack “infrastructure, power and energy”…
The House narrowly voted to block a Democratic resolution to force an end to the war in Iran by a vote of 214-213-1, with all but one of the four Democrats who opposed a similar effort in March changing their votes to support today’s measure, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Reps. Greg Landsman (D-OH), Juan Vargas (D-CA) and Henry Cuellar (D-TX), who voted last month against a similar resolution, flipped their votes to support the war powers effort. But Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), who is retiring at the end of his term, voted no again. On the Republican side, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), who voted for the war powers resolution last time, switched his vote to “present.” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) was the only Republican who voted for the resolution…
Vice President JD Vance, the first vice president to serve simultaneously as finance chair of his party, is building donor relationships that may prove useful should he choose to run for president in 2028, The New York Times reports, including attempting to woo some pro-Israel donors who have otherwise been wary of his ties to far-right commentator Tucker Carlson.
Among others, Vance has developed relationships with Jewish philanthropists Miriam Adelson, whom he spent New Years Eve with at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, and Paul Singer; has appeared as the guest of honor at a dinner hosted by Palantir and 8VC co-founder Joe Lonsdale; and has been featured at a Republican National Committee event hosted by tech executive Keith Rabois, who is married to Under Secretary of State Jacob Helberg…
With less than six weeks to go until the Texas primary runoff election, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is defending his seat against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton with a significantly larger war chest: As the first quarter of 2026 closed, Cornyn had more than $8 million in cash on hand (including a small donation from former President George W. Bush), while Paxton had $2.6 million in the bank. Whoever clinches the GOP nomination will face state Sen. James Talarico, who has nearly $10 million on hand…
Josef Palermo, who was the first curator of visual arts and special programming at the Kennedy Center until his dismissal last month, recounts his experience as Trump and the center’s then-President Richard Grenell initiated an overhaul of the building, a process Palermo describes as “cronyism, incompetence, and a series of bizarre moves.”
Palermo recounts an exhibition he organized commemorating the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in the building’s Israeli Lounge: “Speaking at the opening reception, Grenell warned the mostly Jewish audience that unless donors came forward to sponsor the space and pay for renovation costs, the lounge would be given away to a new donor. … Such a strong-armed fundraising pitch, at an event commemorating a pogrom, struck many of us in the room as inappropriate. I was mortified”…
Asked for his perspective on antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker’s reach on his platform, Twitch CEO Daniel Clancy said at the Semafor World Economy summit in Washington today that “one of the challenges is when you’re livestreaming you say a lot … you might say a lot of things that are over the top. … If you violate [community guidelines] then we take enforcement actions and we suspend you — it’s designed not to kick you off forever.”
“Whenever Hasan has stepped over the line, we’ve taken action … Folks will get worked up from both the right and the left on this because we have also conservative people that are saying certain things that some people don’t like. … In general, we think it is important for us to allow people to express themselves,” Clancy 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 temperature check on support for Israel within the Democratic Party, in light of 85% of Democratic senators voting in favor of a Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)-led measure to block military sales to the Jewish state.
France and the U.K. will co-host a conference tomorrow focused on restoring freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, with leaders from several European, Asian and Gulf countries participating via video.
Michigan’s Democratic Party will hold its endorsement convention on Sunday, where party activists will nominate their two preferred candidates for the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents. The election has reignited the campus’ debate over Israel, as candidate and anti-Israel activist Amir Makled seeks to unseat Jewish regent Jordan Acker, who became the target of antisemitic vandalism and harassment in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. (The SEIU labor union recently pulled its endorsement of Makled over his past support of Hezbollah.)
National party leaders including former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) will appear at events in Detroit ahead of the convention.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!
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Meta’s director of content policy spoke at a ‘Hack the Hate’ tech conference as the ADL released a report documenting antisemitism spreading unchecked on its platform Instagram
Shahar Azran/WJC
Ben Good, Meta's director of content policy, speaks at the 2026 Hack the Hate summit in Manhattan.
Amid accusations that Meta’s moderation policies enable antisemitic content to circulate on its platforms, a Meta leader on Tuesday highlighted efforts to combat online Jew-hatred, including restrictions on Holocaust denial.
“We remove Holocaust distortion and denial, not because it’s false, which it is, but because it’s antisemitic. It is hate speech against Jewish people, so we’ve drawn a clear line against it,” said Ben Good, director of content policy at Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp.
Good spoke at “Hack the Hate NYC 2026,” an event at the Yeshiva University Museum in Manhattan spotlighting Israeli tech experts and Jewish leaders working to combat digital antisemitism.
Good, who leads Meta’s team that writes content policies — the rules for what can be posted to the platforms — spoke during a fireside chat with Yfat Barak-Cheney, executive director of the Institute for Technology and Human Rights at the World Jewish Congress.
“Those are policies that govern the global speech of 3 billion people, so we take the responsibility extremely seriously. We want to make sure people can express themselves maximally but we also have to keep our community safe,” said Good.
The event was held as Jewish communities in Israel and around the world marked Yom HaShoah. Barak-Cheney noted that it took four years of advocacy from groups like WJC for Meta to recognize Holocaust denial as antisemitism. In October 2020, the company updated its policies to explicitly prohibit content that denies, distorts or minimizes the Holocaust.
Even after that recognition, she said, the situation remains “especially alarming because it’s not just that we see a larger quantity of AI-generated material, but the quality is different, it’s getting better.”
“Holocaust denial is looking very realistic,” she said. “There’s fabricated quotes. I am worried that we’re losing our grip on the reality of the Holocaust. Does Meta see this as alarming from the inside as it is from our point of view?”
“I have seen new trends putting words in people’s mouths that were not said, having prominent Nazis say things that aren’t true. Those violate our policies. It’s hate speech and we remove it,” said Good. “The same goes for a lot of other conspiracy theories that are misinformation but really are about dehumanizing Jewish people. The most prominent one being the centuries-old tropes that Jewish people control the media or government. We know that underlies dangerous acts so we remove it.”
Good said that Meta, which uses AI-generated content moderation, has “tremendous potential to advance AI systems in dealing with what we call ‘integrity work’ in social media.”
He said that “traditional machine learning,” utilized about two years ago, required being fed “a ton of data, some content that violates [Meta policies], some that doesn’t and they begin to understand [and match] patterns.”
Modern LLMs are able to analyze context on their own, said Good, allowing for more accurate reasoning.
“That is extremely important in an area such as Holocaust denial because it’s very coded and can often be long-form speeches and text which can be hard to understand even for a human,” said Good. “The LLMs are really good at understanding coded language and context.”
But even as Meta has made strides in addressing Holocaust denial, the Anti-Defamation League released a new report on Wednesday revealing that Instagram failed to remove 93% of reported extremist and hateful content, tying the trend directly to Meta’s efforts to roll back content moderation last year.
A spokesperson for Meta told Jewish Insider after the report was released that “over two-thirds of the accounts and posts flagged by the ADL were removed prior to the publication of this report, while some did not violate our policies.” ADL told JI it gave Meta a two-week window from reporting the content to getting a response from the platform.
The January 2025 rollback of content moderation included ending the platform’s third-party fact-checking program and replacing it with a system modeled after the community notes feature on Elon Musk’s X.
At the time, 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. Meta had said the relaxed guidelines aim to “allow more speech by lifting restrictions on some topics that are part of mainstream discourse.”
“The name of the game isn’t just relying on the magic of AI and setting it loose on our platform,” said Good. “Instead, we have to be extremely positive that it understands our written policies and will apply and enforce them. We don’t want to leave the guesswork to the technology. We will always be reporting our enforcement metrics. But this is a chance to bring contextual understanding to content moderation.”
Barak-Cheney asked Good what guardrails Meta, which produces its own AI system called Llama, has in place to stop its LLMs from generating content that might be antisemitic.
“We do train the models on our safety standards,” said Good. “The unique challenge with generative AI is that it’s interactive and adaptable. When we train the models to prevent harm, we’ve learned it’s not so much the ‘what’ but the ‘why.’ It’s not so much telling the model that it can or can’t say this, it’s explaining to the model why we have certain rules, prohibitions and standards and reasoning with it so it can extrapolate that reasoning into situations.”
“This can mean a number of things, but an old-school way of doing it would be to say ‘here are 500 words we consider slurs, don’t say them.’ A more dynamic rule might be ‘this is what a slur is, this is why we consider a word a slur and these are the circumstances in which you can say it,’ and let the model reason through various situations,” explained Good.
He added that “there’s no limit” to how much help antisemitism watchdogs can provide to Meta.
“To be clear, we understand that generally it’s our job to understand how problems manifest and address them, but when people who are on the ground in a given space give us reports and intel it allows us to validate our own research in a way that helps us make decisions better. The policy shouldn’t be a bunch of people in Silicon Valley deciding things. They should be decided collaboratively,” Good said.
The event, attended by some 150 Jewish leaders and innovators, opened with remarks from Rabbi Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University. It was organized by Generative AI for Good and the 8200 Alumni Association, which preserves the legacy of IDF Unit 8200, in partnership with the Israeli Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, Gesher Israel, Maccabee Ventures, President Isaac Herzog’s Voice of the People Initiative, the World Jewish Congress’ TecHRI and Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business.
Attendees are expected to include Harvard community members, Jewish activists, lawyers and scholars
Cassandra Klos/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Widener Library on the Harvard Campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, on Wednesday, June 4, 2025.
A Jewish legal group will convene its inaugural conference on antisemitism and civil rights law at Harvard University on Thursday, an event that was born out of last year’s settlement of a Title VI lawsuit against the school and framed around the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States.
“We’re very excited to have a mix of federal, high-level leadership, prominent scholars, Jewish communal leaders, high-powered litigators and experts in the field,” Ken Marcus, founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the group hosting the conference, told Jewish Insider.
The day-long event is slated to open with an address from Marcus and benediction from Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, who leads Harvard Chabad.
Held as America prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary this summer, Marcus said the headline session will focus “on how we define antisemitism as lawyers and professionals, and why a proper definition of antisemitism matters for America at this point in time.” The panelists will include Andrea Martin, co-chair of the Center for Jewish Legal Studies; Nathan Diament, executive director for the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center; Alyza Lewin, president of U.S. affairs for Combat Antisemitism Movement; and Julie Paris, Mid-Atlantic regional director of StandWithUs.
The plenary session, “Towards a Jewish Civil Rights Movement,” moderated by Marcus, will feature William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Elan Carr, CEO of Israeli-American Council and former special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism; and Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network.
A separate panel, moderated by Anat Alon-Beck, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, will explore new avenues for litigation against antisemitism.
Attendees are expected to include Harvard community members, Jewish activists, lawyers and scholars, according to Marcus, who served as assistant secretary of education for civil rights in President Donald Trump’s first administration.
In January 2025, the Brandeis Center settled its lawsuit with Harvard, which alleged that since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, students and faculty on campus called for violence against Jews and celebrated Hamas’ terrorism as the university ignored harassment — including a physical assault — of Jewish students.
Under the terms of the resolution, Harvard agreed to host Brandeis Center events, implement the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, invest additional academic resources to study antisemitism and establish another partnership with a university in Israel, in addition to programs the university currently has in place with Israeli universities.
The conference comes as Harvard remains entrenched in legal battles with the Trump administration, which it has sued to recover billions in funding that was frozen over the government’s allegations that the school has not adequately addressed antisemitism. 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.
Last month, the clash escalated when the Trump administration filed a new lawsuit against the university, claiming that its leadership violated the civil rights of Jewish students by failing to address ongoing antisemitism that has roiled the campus since Oct. 7.
The conference is also held against the backdrop of a newly released report by Harvard’s official Jewish alumni group finding that Jewish enrollment at the Boston school has fallen to roughly 7% — its lowest level since the pre-World War II era.
Marcus said the Brandeis Center has been in “continuing engagement with Harvard University over both the challenges that we still see there and the efforts that they’re undertaking to address them.”
“This conference is a part of that process and we hope it can be used to take the problems that they have had at Harvard and to turn them into something positive, not just for Harvard University and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but for the country as a whole,” continued Marcus.
“We see this as the first of a series of conferences that we will have at Harvard University and may consider hosting them in other locations as well,” he said.
Plus, Senate Dems dominate 2026 fundraising
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) speaks at a press conference on committee assignments for the 118th U.S. Congress, at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 25, 2023, in Washington, D.C.
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
A war powers resolution brought by Senate Democrats to force an end to the war in Iran was blocked by Republicans yet again this afternoon, the fourth failed attempt mounted by Senate Democrats since the war began in late February, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Nevertheless, top Senate Democrats have said they intend to continue forcing such votes weekly (they have nine more resolutions already filed) in the hopes that more Republicans will change their votes as the war drags on…
Texas state Sen. James Talarico announced he raised $27 million in the first quarter of 2026 in his run for U.S. Senate, a massive haul that his campaign claimed is the largest amount ever raised by a Senate candidate in the first quarter of an election year. Democrats hope the funds will put Texas in play as Talarico seeks to challenge either Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) or Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who are still locked in their own hotly contested primary.
The top Senate fundraisers behind Talarico this quarter were also Democrats: Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) brought in $14 million — breaking the record for first-quarter fundraising in Georgia — former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper raised $13.8 million and former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) raised $12.5 million…
Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) said he raised $1.1 million in this year’s first quarter, bringing his total to $4.4 million raised — more than any other House incumbent or candidate in New Jersey this cycle, according to the New Jersey Globe — as he defends his swing seat from several well-funded Democratic challengers.
But even as he’s pulled in plenty of support, Kean has missed a month’s worth of votes on Capitol Hill due to an unspecified medical issue, with his staff declining to say when he will return…
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in an interview on the “Pod Save America” podcast praised former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) — once a vocal Omar foe who called for the congresswoman’s deportation while they were both in the House — and far-right influencer Candace Owens over the pair’s break with President Donald Trump, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
“I believe the thing that has been very fascinating, especially about Marjorie and Candace, is that … they’re saying, ‘This action is wrong,’ right? They’re saying, ‘I am done with you.’ We should give them credit for that, the fact that they’ve had this wake-up call to finally seeing this con man, this corrupt, chaotic man for what he is,” Omar said…
Sebastian Gorka, the White House senior director for counterterrorism and a deputy assistant to the president, is reportedly angling for the position of director of the National Counterterrorism Center, which was recently vacated by Joe Kent amid Kent’s opposition to the Iran war. Gorka has been a staunch defender of Trump and backed his war with Iran, as well as repeatedly praised Israel amid its war in Gaza…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Péter Magyar, the presumptive next prime minister of Hungary, for the first time today, calling the conversation “warm” and saying that Magyar indicated he will continue the close relationship the countries enjoyed under his predecessor, outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán…
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul defended her proposal to bar demonstrations of more than two people from occurring within 25 feet of a house of worship today, JI’s Will Bredderman reports, legislation that has drawn legal scrutiny over its creation of a new felony offense for violators.
“I believe I have the right to protect people’s constitutional right to free exercise of religion,” Hochul told reporters when asked if she had concerns that the legislation might provoke challenges on First Amendment grounds. “So if that means we test it in court, bring it on”…
After holding its final public hearing earlier this week, the White House Religious Liberty Commission is now preparing a set of recommendations to be presented to the president next month. Ambiguity and confusion about the commission’s mandate has left commissioners unsure if they’ll continue to meet — their first year on the panel was marred by the firing of one commissioner over her disruption of a hearing on antisemitism…
Progressive media organization More Perfect Union is launching More Perfect University, an effort aimed at college students to act as an alternative to the conservative Turning Point USA, with a focus on urging young people to share left-wing political and economic messaging through social media. Faiz Shakir, the head of More Perfect Union who is also chief political advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) campaign, said he hopes to jump-start “an economic populist movement for the next generation”…
Duke University’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter has been suspended as a student group and had its funding frozen after it posted virulently antisemitic imagery depicting Israel and the U.S. as pigs frothing at the mouth on its Instagram page, prompting student complaints to campus administration…
University of Michigan President-elect Kent Syverud announced today he has been diagnosed with brain cancer and will no longer assume the presidency, leaving the future of the school’s leadership in question. Jewish leaders had praised Syverud’s appointment as a positive development for UM, which had seen rampant anti-Israel activity in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks…
⏩ 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 a first-of-its-kind antisemitism conference taking place tomorrow at Harvard, created as an outcome of last year’s settlement of a Title VI lawsuit against the school.
New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District will hold its special election for the remainder of Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s congressional term, where progressive Analilia Mejia is expected to prevail against Republican Joe Hathaway.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold nomination hearings for John Breslow to be U.S. ambassador to Cyprus, Todd Steggerda to be U.S. representative to the U.N. in Geneva and Preston Wells to be U.S. representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, among others.
The Shalom Hartman Institute will host a discussion at the Capitol Jewish Museum in Washington with Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, on American Jewry ahead of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
The House Appropriations Committee will hold a budget hearing on the Department of Homeland Security, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
