The penalty is less severe than the original legislation endorsed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, which would have charged such obstruction as a felony, but expands the buffer zone to 50 feet
Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images
NYPD officers set up barricades separating pro-Israel and anti-Israel protesters on Sept. 25, 2025 in New York City.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleThe final version of the New York state “buffer zone” legislation passed by the state Legislature on Tuesday makes it a Class B misdemeanor — one of the lowest levels of criminal offense — 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.
The language is less punitive than the legislation that Gov. Kathy Hochul initially endorsed, which would have made it a low-level felony for demonstrators to obstruct doorways and driveways at houses of worship. But the 50-foot enforcement zone in the final draft is twice as large as the one described in the earlier versions of the bill, and would apply to sidewalks as well as private parking lots and other entry points.
The measure explicitly covers community centers, as well as any other sort of facility that “a reasonable person would know that religious adherents collectively recognize as a place to regularly gather for or hold religious services, observance, prayer, assembly, education, instruction, or devotional practice” — indicating that the bill also shields religious schools.
UJA-Federation of New York, which became a leading proponent for the measure following pro-Hamas protests that targeted synagogues in Manhattan and Queens, applauded the measure ahead of its passage as part of the legislative package around the New York state budget.
The Jewish advocacy group particularly praised Hochul — as well as state Sen. Sam Sutton and Assemblymember Micah Lasher — for championing the proposal.
“We commend Governor Hochul and the state legislature for taking decisive action to protect New Yorkers by passing ‘buffer zone’ legislation, ensuring that safety and security remain a top priority across our communities,” the group said in a statement to Jewish Insider. “Governor Hochul, Senator Sutton, and Assemblyman Lasher have demonstrated strong leadership in their unwavering effort to help ensure safe access to critical community institutions and safeguard the right to worship free of harassment and intimidation.”
The state legislation is distinct from a recently passed city law compelling the NYPD to develop formal protocols for deploying security perimeters around houses of worship during protests. Both measures, as well as a separate New York City bill to establish security perimeter policy around schools — vetoed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, but since modified and reintroduced in the New York City Council — have received criticism from civil liberties groups, who allege they could interfere with First Amendment protections.
Hochul, for her part, heralded the measure as a victory for freedom of worship. The measure goes under her pen Tuesday evening, her office told JI.
“Every New Yorker should be able to enter their house of worship and practice their religion without fear,” the governor said in a statement. “As we’re witnessing an alarming rise in hate-fueled attacks and blatant antisemitism, I’m grateful our buffer zones legislation has passed and New Yorkers will be safer because of it.”
Plus, El-Sayed's physician creds called into question
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An attendee wears a jacket at an Iowa caucus watch party organized by Metro D.C. Democratic Socialists of America, on February 3, 2020 in Washington, DC.
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
UJA-Federation of New York has tapped longtime Jewish educator Michael Kay as its next CEO, the country’s largest Jewish federation shared exclusively with Nira Dayanim for Jewish Insider, marking a generational change that signals the growing importance of day schools on the Jewish communal agenda.
Kay, 46, currently serves as head of school at The Leffell School in Westchester County, N.Y., and will step into his new role on Oct. 5, succeeding Eric Goldstein, 66, a former Wall Street lawyer who will step down after 12 years in the role…
President Donald Trump continued to hedge today on resuming military action in Iran while keeping open diplomatic options: “We’re either going to make a deal or they’re going to be decimated,” he said of Iran while departing for his state visit to China. “So one way or the other, we win.”
Earlier in the day, Trump told the “Sid & Friends in the Morning” radio show that he’s anticipating Iran’s economic collapse due to the U.S. blockade of its ports. “It’s just a question of time, we don’t have to rush anything,” the president said…
Kuwait accused Iran of attempting to invade its Bubiyan Island today, claiming six members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps attacked soldiers on the strategic piece of Kuwaiti territory where the Gulf state, with assistance from China, is building a large port…
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) expressed frustration with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing as they declined to comment on a report that Pakistan harbored Iranian military aircraft from U.S. strikes.
Asked, if the report were to be accurate, if the U.S. should reconsider Pakistan’s role as mediator between the U.S. and Iran, Hegseth and Caine said they “didn’t want to get in the middle of ongoing negotiations.” Graham replied, “Well I do! I want to get in the middle of these negotiations. I don’t trust Pakistan as far as I can throw them … No wonder this damn thing is going nowhere”…
Jay Hurst, the Pentagon’s comptroller, testified that the cost of the war has risen to $29 billion — up from the $25 billion figure the Pentagon cited just two weeks ago…
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem wrote in a letter to terror group operatives that a deal between the U.S. and Iran is “the strongest card” for “stopping [Israel’s] aggression” in Lebanon, while slamming the Lebanese government for engaging in direct talks with Jerusalem, the third round of which are slated to take place this week in Washington…
Asked at the Politico Security Summit in Washington if she still calls herself a Zionist, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said, “I believe in a Jewish State of Israel, yes. And that to me isn’t a radical thing to say and I always have. I can say that in the same breath that I criticize the military policy of Bibi Netanyahu.”
Slotkin said that “as someone who served three tours in Iraq” she has “concerns with the way the Israelis are organizing military policy right now. … What I can’t accept, though, is collective punishment that comes from saying, ‘well, I don’t like Bibi Netanyahu’s military policy so Jews in America’s synagogues should be attacked,’” she continued…
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told the Washington Examiner he’s open to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to wind down U.S. aid to Israel over the next decade: The proposal “has been sort of a given, I think, in our foreign aid budget” for “a long time,” he said, “but if that’s how the Israeli leader feels about it — feels like they’re able to deal with their national security threats with their own resources — then I guess I would listen to what he has to say”…
Two weeks ahead of the Texas Senate Republican primary runoff, Thune said he “still [doesn’t] know where [Trump] is headed” in his intent to endorse either Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) or Attorney General Ken Paxton, but “someone would clearly benefit from it.”
Cornyn, meanwhile, told reporters he doesn’t expect Trump to make an endorsement at all. “We can’t wait, and we’re not waiting. We’re getting prepared, and we are optimistic,” he said. (Still, in what may be a last-ditch effort to secure the president’s support, Cornyn introduced a bill yesterday to rename U.S. Route 287 as Interstate 47 in honor of Trump, the country’s 47th president)…
Politico cast doubt on Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s claim and campaign talking point that he is a practicing physician, finding that “there’s overwhelming evidence that he’s had no experience as a licensed medical doctor.”
While El-Sayed did attend prestigious medical schools and served as executive director of the Detroit Health Department, he was never granted a medical license in either Michigan or New York, where he says he has practiced, and appears not to have treated patients since his schooling days, despite claiming repeatedly in campaign pitches that he is a physician…
AIPAC denied accusations by El-Sayed and others that it is behind the Center for Democratic Priorities super PAC, a new group supporting Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the Michigan Senate Democratic primary, and also noted it “isn’t funding any group’s efforts” in Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District, where critics have alleged the pro-Israel group is behind efforts to support candidate Ala Stanford…
Speaking on a webinar with other Washington-area Jewish leaders today, Ron Halber, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, excoriated the Democratic Socialists of America as an “evil” organization committed to driving Jews out of society, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
“I think they’re a fringe, radical, antisemitic organization,” Halber said, adding that the group wants to make Jews feel “isolated” and force them to “renounce Zionism” and their connection to Israel in order to participate in the political process…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released his city budget proposal this afternoon, which includes $26 million annually for the Office to Prevent Hate Crimes, a significant increase from its current budget of around $3 million…
Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg hosted a lunch at the State Department with officials from Gulf Cooperation Council countries as well as Jordan to discuss technology supply chains and the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor…
⏩ 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 tonight’s forum of New York 12th Congressional District Democratic candidates moderated by JI Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar.
The Israeli Embassy in Washington will host its belated Yom Ha’Atzmaut reception.
The Jewish Democratic Council of America’s conference in Washington continues, with speakers including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, diplomat Dennis Ross, The Washington Institute’s Dana Stroul and former national security officials Jake Sullivan, Jeremy Bash and Jon Finer.
Stories You May Have Missed
DEMOCRATIC FAULT LINES
Race to replace Pelosi offers early test of whether progressive Jews welcomed on the left
State Sen. Scott Wiener has called Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide and is open to conditions on offensive aid to the Jewish state, but is still derided as a ‘Zionist’
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
Israel’s business leaders see opportunity amid war, political shifts
‘I’m not an investment advisor, but you can see that if you were not in Israel in the past two years, you probably missed out, if Israel was not part of your portfolio,’ Seffy Zinger, chair of the Israel Securities Authority, told JI
Kay will assume the role on Oct. 5, as Eric Goldstein departs after 12 years atop the country’s largest Jewish federation
Courtesy
The country’s largest Jewish federation, UJA-Federation of New York, has reached into the day school world to tap its next leader, naming longtime Jewish educator Michael Kay as CEO, Jewish Insider has learned.
In a generational change that signals the growing importance of day schools on the Jewish communal agenda, Kay, who currently serves as head of school at The Leffell School in Westchester County, N.Y., will succeed Eric Goldstein, 66, a former Wall Street lawyer who announced last June that he was stepping down after 12 years in the role. Kay, 46, will enter the position on Oct. 5.
Goldstein steered New York’s Jewish community through a series of crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks and the surge in antisemitism and multiple wars that followed. Though last year’s announcement set Goldstein’s departure for the end of the fiscal year in June, he will now remain in the role until Oct. 4.
Kay inherits a key leadership position in a complex, often divided New York Jewish community. Over the last three years, new cracks have emerged and old ones have widened within the community in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks. In November, exit polls showed that 33% of Jewish voters cast their ballots for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israel who has clashed with Jewish leaders and organizations, including UJA-Federation of New York.
Asked how he wants UJA’s relationship with Mamdani to look under his leadership during an interview with Jewish Insider announcing his appointment, Kay emphasized UJA’s commitment to advocating for the well-being of the Jewish community with local officials, “no matter who they are.”
“We have an obligation and a responsibility to work with our local elected officials no matter who they are to ensure that our needs are met and they are accountable for meeting those needs, as I said, well-being, thriving, safety, security,” Kay said. “I start the job in five months, I’m sure that there will be a lot of conversation between now and then with our government relations team about the specific best way to interact with City Hall to achieve that, but we’re not going to lose sight of what those goals are.”
Joining the New York federation after 13 years at the Leffell School, an independent K-12 school with nearly 900 students — formerly a Solomon Schechter school — Kay brings decades of experience in Jewish education to the role.
Prior to Leffell, Kay also served as Upper School principal and director of Judaic studies at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Md., and led Camp Givah, a Jewish summer camp in upstate New York — both pluralistic institutions. He is also an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship.
Kay’s appointment comes as Jewish education and day school affordability have become priorities for the Jewish Federations of North America. Recently, the organization has lobbied governors to adopt a federal tax credit that could reduce the financial burden of Jewish day school tuition, marking JFNA’s growing foray into issues of day school affordability and school choice. Earlier this week, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul stated her intention to opt-in to the tax credit.
Asked what he thinks the New York federation should do to advance day school affordability and Jewish education in New York, Kay acknowledged the role of childhood Jewish education in fostering long-term relationships with Judaism, stating that UJA has a responsibility to promote “Jewish engagement in all its forms.”
“I think it’s critically important. We have data showing that students who grow up experiencing Jewish education at a young age are substantially more likely to support Israel on their college campuses, and to take on roles of leadership in the Jewish community,” he said.
Kay is also a senior lay leader and member at Temple Israel Center of White Plains, the egalitarian Conservative congregation that he attends with his wife, Rachel, and their two children.
Announcing his appointment, UJA-Federation highlighted Kay’s work in expanding and strengthening philanthropic support for The Leffell School, including through UJA’s Day School Challenge Fund, and his capabilities as a unifying leader, skilled in bringing people together across differences and partisan divides “through respectful dialogue.”
“It has been the privilege of a lifetime to lead UJA-Federation,” Goldstein said in a statement. “Michael has proven throughout his career an ability to bring the full spectrum of our community together, building trust across differences and harnessing our diversity as a source of strength. That experience will be invaluable to UJA’s next chapter.”
Entering his role the day after the bodies of three kidnapped and slain Israeli teenagers were recovered in the West Bank, Goldstein’s 12-year tenure as CEO of the continent’s largest Jewish federation provided a constant in a particularly tumultuous period for North American Jewry.
Goldstein, whose appointment — as the first Orthodox head of the organization — raised eyebrows within the New York community, led the organization through a period of rising domestic antisemitism. That period was bookended by 2017’s Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., and the 2018 deadly shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue that killed 11 congregants — and the recent set of deadly attacks on Jewish institutions following the Israel-Hamas war. Under Goldstein, in late 2019, the UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York launched the Community Security Initiative, a program designed to protect the Jewish community from violent threats and antisemitic incidents. Since its inception, as threats against the community have continued to mount, the program has grown significantly.
Goldstein also steered the organization both through funding shortfalls during the COVID-19 pandemic, forgoing his own salary for the 2021 fiscal year, and a massive influx of donations for emergency relief after the Oct. 7 attacks.
“We are deeply grateful to Eric S. Goldstein, whose 12 years of leadership leave UJA in a position of strength as we look to the future,” Marc Rowan, the federation’s board chair, said in a statement.
According to the federation, more than 40 candidates were considered for the role, in a search conducted by a 14-member search committee, led by Linda Mirels, the federation’s board president, and supported by global search firm Heidrick & Struggles. Kay’s selection was unanimous.
“Michael is the right leader for this defining moment,” said Rowan. “He is battle-tested — unflappable under pressure and willing to take on the most pressing challenges facing our community, from the safety and security of the Jewish people to the urgent work of strengthening Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”
At the end of June, Mirels and Rowan, will both conclude their three-year terms. Suzanne Peck and David Wasserman, both of whom served on the search committee, will succeed Rowan and Mirels as president and chair, respectively.
“Michael distinguished himself as a singular and compelling leader — a truly original thinker whose intellect, moral seriousness, and vision for Jewish life set him apart,” said Mirels. “He is an eloquent and persuasive communicator with a long record of inspiring the next generation of proud Jews and Zionists. The work ahead is real — strengthening Jewish identity and pride, deepening commitment to Israel, confronting rising antisemitism, and caring for global Jewry and New Yorkers in need. Michael is the leader our community needs for the work ahead.”
The Jewish Community Relations Council and UJA-Federation of New York blasted Mamdani’s recent gatherings with Mahmoud Khalil and Abdullah Akl
Leonardo MUNOZ / AFP via Getty Images
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani arrives for a news conference at Gracie Mansion in New York City on March 9, 2026.
Two of New York’s largest Jewish community groups voiced consternation Tuesday night over New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s recent fraternizing with activists who had defended and even advocated violence against Israel.
The criticism from the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York and the UJA-Federation of New York came after Mamdani shared a photo on social media Monday night of himself and his wife hosting Columbia University campus activist Mahmoud Khalil at Gracie Mansion — and after reports that Abdullah Akl, the stridently anti-Israel political director of the Muslim American Society of New York, had introduced the mayor at an event in Staten Island.
JCRC CEO Mark Treyger highlighted federal findings that the protests that Khalil helped lead created a hostile environment for Jewish students at Columbia. He acknowledged Khalil’s legal fight to avoid deportation, but urged the mayor to also open Gracie Mansion to those subjected to harassment on the Ivy League campus.
“If our democracy affords Mahmoud Khalil due process rights, as it should, then those same democratic principles must also extend to the civil rights of students and staff to study and work in an environment free from hate, intimidation, and harassment. We cannot be selective about whose rights we defend,” Treyger, a former city councilmember, wrote on X. “Their stories deserve to be heard so that no student, in any educational setting, is ever forced to endure hate and intimidation again.”
The UJA-Federation statement noted that Khalil had rationalized the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks as a means of preventing Israeli-Saudi normalization, and that Akl had led a chant in 2024 calling for attacks on Tel Aviv and lauding now-deceased Hamas spokesperson Abu Obeida.
“His decision in the last few days alone to share a stage on Staten Island with an individual who publicly called to ‘strike, strike Tel Aviv,’ and then host an Iftar meal at Gracie Mansion with a man who justified the Oct. 7 atrocities, raises deep concerns in our community,” the UJA-Federation statement said, contrasting the actions with the mayor’s pledges of inclusivity when he entered office.
“This is an important moment for Mayor Mamdani to live up to his own rhetoric and reaffirm his commitment to confronting antisemitism and keeping every New Yorker safe.”
Akl’s organization had its funding from the City Council frozen earlier this year after it held a craft fair hawking merchandise celebrating Hamas, Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and featuring the slogans “Let’s go bomb Tel Aviv” and “Death to the IDF.”
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and did not answer questions from Jewish Insider about how his team vets the people he participates in events with.
Plus, the NYC candidate who won't say 'Jewish state’
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
A police officer stands at the site of a fatal shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum on May 22, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover comments by Zohran Mamdani at last night’s UJA-Federation of New York town hall with the leading Democratic candidates in New York City’s mayoral primary and report on the Trump administration’s move to strip Harvard University of its ability to enroll foreign students. In the aftermath of Wednesday’s deadly shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, we talk to friends of the victims, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, and report on comments by pro-Israel leaders connecting the murder to anti-Israel advocacy on the political extremes and highlight a statement by 42 Jewish organizations urging additional action from the federal government to address antisemitism. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sen. John Cornyn, Rep. Josh Gottheimer and Ambassador Yechiel Leiter.
Ed. note: In honor of Memorial Day on Monday, the next edition of the Daily Kickoff will arrive on Tuesday, May 27.
What We’re Watching
- The fifth round of nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran will take place today in Rome. Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Mossad Director David Barnea are also set to meet with Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in Rome to coordinate Israel’s views with the U.S.
- Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) will deliver the keynote address at the 51st commencement ceremony of Touro’s Lander Colleges on Sunday at Lincoln Center.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JOSH KRAUSHAAR
In a series of upcoming Democratic primaries, Jewish and pro-Israel groups are deciding whether to press their political case and go on offense behind stalwart allies — or take a more cautious approach, focused on preventing candidates that are downright hostile to Jewish concerns from emerging as nominees, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
It’s an unusual place to be in. Until recently, most Democratic candidates were reliably attuned to Jewish communal interests, and there wasn’t much of a need for groups to play in primaries, except in rare situations. That changed with the emergence of the anti-Israel Squad of far-left Democrats, which led pro-Israel Democratic groups like DMFI to step up and support mainstream candidates, and pushed AIPAC to launch a super PAC to become much more involved in direct political engagement.
Now, even the issue of fighting or speaking out against antisemitism — far from the more heated debate over Israel policy — is no longer a consensus issue for Democrats. Senate Democrats (when in charge of the upper chamber) hesitated to hold hearings on campus antisemitism, a leading candidate for mayor of New York City declined to sign onto a legislative resolution commemorating the Holocaust and an increasingly credible New Jersey gubernatorial candidate has declined to distance himself from Louis Farrakhan.
What was once the extreme has now come uncomfortably close to the Democratic mainstream. The urgency of ensuring most candidates condemn antisemitism and anti-Israel radicalism wherever it rears its ugly head was made clear after the horrific murder on Wednesday night of two Israeli Embassy employees by a terrorist with a radical, anti-Israel background. Far too often, the growing number of threats to Jews along with the rise of anti-Israel sloganeering featuring antisemitic hate or adoption of terrorist symbols has been met with a benign acceptance.
That’s made the tactical decisions from outside Jewish and pro-Israel groups involved in politics a lot more significant. There are a number of Democratic primaries coming up featuring a stalwart ally of the Jewish community, an anti-Israel candidate with checkered history on antisemitism and a middle-of-the-road candidate whose record on these issues is respectable, but not always reliable.
Take next month’s New Jersey governor’s primary. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), seen as the front-runner, has compiled a generally pro-Israel record in Congress but hasn’t stuck her neck out as much as her Democratic colleague, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ). Gottheimer has yet to catch momentum in the crowded primary, and one of the other credible challengers is Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, whose condemnation of Israel’s war in Gaza and praise for Farrakhan is viewed as beyond the pale.
At a certain point, do Jewish groups rally behind the center-left front-runner to block the more problematic candidate, or stick with the most supportive candidate?
The New York City mayoral primary next month provides another key test. State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani is the favorite of the DSA base, and thanks to strong support from that far-left faction, is polling in second place. But due to his high profile and moderate pro-Israel message, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo looks like the clear front-runner — even as Jewish voters haven’t yet consolidated behind him in the crowded field.
To Cuomo’s benefit, New York City mayoral primaries have a ranked-choice system that prevents a candidate with a small but passionate base from winning a small plurality in a crowded field. In theory, that should help Cuomo. But as the leading moderate candidate in the race, he could also benefit from consolidating the centrist vote, which is still up for grabs.
Within the sizable Jewish constituency in New York City, Cuomo faces pushback from some Orthodox voters still angry about the then-governor’s lockdowns and expansive COVID-19 restrictions during the pandemic, making his pitch in support of Israel and against antisemitism far from a slam dunk in certain circles. His resignation from the governorship amid allegations of sexual misconduct is also a factor for some Jewish voters, as well.
But if pro-Israel, Jewish voters divide their support among other candidates, it could help Mamdani, whose record is the least palatable to these same constituents.
The fact that many Democrats in New Jersey and New York City, two places with among the largest concentrations of Jewish voters in the Diaspora, are not automatically stalwart allies of mainstream Jewish interests, is itself a sign of the changing political times and the evolving nature of the Democratic Party. It may also explain why there appears to be more of an effort to play defense — a focus on blocking the most objectionable candidates from winning high office — rather than hoping for the best, and seeing where the chips fall.
TYING IT TOGETHER
Pro-Israel leaders link anti-Israel advocacy to fatal shooting
Pro-Israel leaders and lawmakers in the United States on Thursday connected the killing of two Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington to the anti-Israel advocacy seen on the political extremes throughout the country since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, characterizing it as a culmination of such rhetoric and, in some cases, the failure of some politicians to denounce it, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report.
What they’re saying: Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) told Jewish Insider that the attack should be a signal to the left that it needs to rethink its rhetoric on Israel and Zionism. He compared the anti-Israel movement in the United States to a “cult” that has been stoked online and is using inherently violent slogans while its members “try to hide behind this idea that it’s free speech to intimidate and terrorize members of the Jewish community.” A coalition of 42 Jewish organizations, in a statement, described the murders as “the direct consequence of rising antisemitic incitement in places such as college campuses, city council meetings, and social media that has normalized hate and emboldened those who wish to do harm.”
Hill talk: Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) called on the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate the political organizations that Elias Rodriguez, the suspect in the shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum, claims to be an active member of, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
fondly remembered
Israeli Embassy victims remembered as ‘the perfect diplomat’ and ‘committed to peace’
“The perfect diplomat.” That’s how a former colleague and friend of Yaron Lischinsky remembered him on Thursday, the day after the Israeli Embassy staff member was shot dead alongside his girlfriend, Sarah Milgrim, outside of the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington as the couple was leaving an event for young diplomats and Jewish professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee. “He was diligent and went to D.C. to pursue his dream,” Klil, who interned with Lischinsky, 29, at the Abba Eban Institute for Diplomacy and Foreign Relations at Reichman University in Herzliya, Israel, in 2020 and requested to be identified only by her first name, told Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen.
Cherry blossoms: The pair mostly lost touch after the internship, when Lischinsky moved to Washington to work at the Israeli Embassy after pursuing a masters’ degree at Reichman. But their interest in Japan kept the two connected via social media, where they would share cherry blossom photos — Lischinsky’s came each spring when the Japanese trees bloomed on the Tidal Basin in Washington. Klil shared her cherry blossom photos from London, where she was living after the internship. “We had a shared experience around that,” she said. Recently, Lischinsky’s Instagram posts featured more than cherry blossoms. Klil took note of the photos he had been posting, posing together with Milgrim. The couple met while both working at the embassy.
Remembering Milgrim: Milgrim, 26, was remembered by a former colleague and friend as “bright, helpful, smart and passionate.” “Sarah was committed to working towards peace,” said Jake Shapiro, who worked with Milgrim in 2022-23 at Teach2Peace, an organization dedicated to building peace between Palestinians and Israelis. “One small bright spot in all of this is seeing both Israelis and Palestinians that knew Sarah sending their condolences and remembering her together,” Shapiro told JI. That gives him hope that a “more peaceful reality is possible.”
COMMUNITY CALL
Jewish community urges additional action from federal government following D.C. shootings
A coalition of 42 Jewish organizations issued a joint statement on Thursday urging additional action from the federal government to address antisemitism in the United States following the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, and particularly expanded funding for a variety of programs to protect the Jewish community, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they’re asking for: The demands include a call to massively expand funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $1 billion, from its current level of $274.5 million. The groups also called for additional funding for security at Jewish institutions, for the FBI to expand its intelligence operations and counter-domestic terrorism operations and for local law enforcement to be empowered to protect Jewish establishments. And they called for the federal government to “aggressively prosecute hate crimes and extremist violence” and hold websites accountable for amplification of antisemitic hate, glorification of terrorism, extremism, disinformation, and incitement.”
UNSAID BUT UNDERSTOOD
Mamdani declines to support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state
Zohran Mamdani, a leading Democratic candidate in New York City’s June mayoral primary, declined to say whether he believes Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state, when pressed to confirm his view during a town hall on Thursday night hosted by the UJA-Federation of New York in Manhattan, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Between the lines: “I believe Israel has a right to exist and it has a right to exist also with equal rights for all,” Mamdani said in his carefully worded response to a question posed by JI’s editor-in-chief, Josh Kraushaar, who co-moderated the event. Despite some initial resistance to addressing such questions earlier in his campaign, Mamdani, a Queens state assemblyman and a fierce critic of Israel, has in recent weeks acknowledged Israel has a right to exist. But his remarks on the matter have never recognized a Jewish state, an ambiguity he was forced to confront at the forum — where he avoided providing a direct answer.
DEFINITION DYNAMICS
Following shooting, Gottheimer urges New Jersey governor candidates to support IHRA bill
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), a candidate for governor of New Jersey, challenged his fellow candidates to pledge to sign bipartisan state legislation to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism in response to the murder of two Israeli Embassy officials outside the Jewish museum in Washington, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Background: That legislation has become a major dividing line in the gubernatorial race — Gottheimer and Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) support it, while Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop opposes it, but said recently he would not veto it. Other candidates did not respond to requests for comment on the issue earlier this year. Critics of the legislation say that the IHRA definition — which identifies some criticism of Israel as antisemitic — violates free speech protections. “As Governor, I’ll immediately sign New Jersey’s IHRA bill into law, and I’ll push to dismantle antisemitism and hate in any form whenever it rears its ugly head,” Gottheimer said.
EDUCATION ESCALATION
Trump escalates war on Harvard by barring all foreign students
The Trump administration on Thursday stripped Harvard University of its ability to enroll foreign students, citing Harvard’s collaboration with the Chinese Communist Party, in what the Department of Homeland Security described as an act of accountability for the university “fostering violence, antisemitism and pro-terrorist conduct from students on its campus.” The move is an escalation in President Donald Trump’s battle with Harvard, just one front in his war with elite higher education institutions. But this is the first instance of the White House completely cutting off a university’s ability to admit international students, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Israelis on campus: Harvard currently hosts more than 10,000 international students, according to university data, 160 of whom are from Israel. Current students must transfer schools or lose their visa. Harvard Hillel’s executive director, Rabbi Jason Rubenstein, expressed concern about the impact on Israeli students at Harvard. “The current, escalating federal assault against Harvard — shuttering apolitical, life-saving research; threatening the university’s tax-exempt status; and revoking all student visas, including those of Israeli students who are proud veterans of the Israel Defense Forces and forceful advocates for Israel on campus — is neither focused nor measured, and stands to substantially harm the very Jewish students and scholars it purports to protect,” Rubenstein told JI.
Worthy Reads
Today’s Blood Libel: Bari Weiss draws a line in The Free Press between anti-Israel vitriol that has pervaded protests, universities and social media in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks and the murder of two Israeli Embassy staffers on Wednesday. “Venomous, untrue statements about Israel, its supporters, and the war against Hamas in Gaza chipped away at the old taboo against open antisemitism in America. Constant demonization of American Jews and Zionists is how a democratic state and its supporters have been made into targets. It is how the ‘permission structure’ for violence against Jews in America has been erected. Growing up, learning about Simon of Trent or other medieval blood libels, I wondered how something so unnatural, so deranged, could ever happen. How lies could spread so far, transmogrify into a movement, infect culture so comprehensively, and engender deadly action. … How can anyone honest with themselves not draw a connection between a culture that says Zionists are antihumans — even Nazis themselves — and the terrorists now attacking Jews across the globe?” [TheFreePress]
Israeli Resilience: Tablet’s Armin Rosen writes about the resilience of the Israeli diplomatic corps: “In my experience the diplomats of the Jewish state are among the least Israeli of Israelis. They are restrained and secular and quiet and usually know how to dress themselves; they speak with every possible accent, and it’s hard to imagine them whacking at a matkot ball, fighting their way onto a bus, or davening during halftime of a basketball game. They are the normal and cosmopolitan faces of a rambunctious and inherently tribal country. But it is the tension between the rigors of diplomacy and the character of their homeland that also makes them deeply Israeli: whatever their religious practice and whatever their politics, Israeli diplomats are inevitably Jews among the nations, a tiny sub-tribe that serves as the official foreign representation of the world’s only Jewish state, the first in 2,000 years and one of the most hated and lied-about countries in the entire history of humankind. To carry out this mission for fairly low pay on behalf of an often-dysfunctional foreign ministry, in places far from home where spies and activists and journalists and local Jews are circling you or even actively targeting you at any given moment, requires a typically Israeli mix of creativity, resourcefulness, and optimism” [Tablet]
Yaron the Healer: Mariam Wahba, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, eulogizes her friend Yaron Lischinsky, one of the victims of Wednesday night’s shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum, in The Free Press. “He told me how his family lived in Israel before they moved to Germany, about moving back when he was 16, and knowing, early and without hesitation, that he wanted to be a diplomat and peacemaker. Language came easily to him: Hebrew, Japanese, English, and of course, his native German. He moved through the world with care and thoughtfulness, as if everyone and everything he touched might break. … Yaron was the kind of person who knew the exact year of the First Council of Nicaea and never made you feel small for getting it wrong. His murder leaves a wound in many hearts, one that may never fully heal, for he was the healer. Yaron was sharp, but more importantly, he was kind. He didn’t just want to understand the world. He wanted to mend it. Quietly and gently. Thoughtfully. Steadily.” [TheFreePress]
Bibi, the Bit Player: The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg argues that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put too much faith in a second Trump term and has found himself sidelined from the president’s agenda. “By revealing Netanyahu to be a bit player, rather than an elite operator, Trump has not just put the Israeli leader in his place. He has exploded Netanyahu’s carefully cultivated political persona — an act as damaging to Netanyahu’s standing as the Hamas attack on October 7. Worse than making Netanyahu look foolish, Trump has made him look irrelevant. He is not Trump’s partner, but rather his mark. In Israeli parlance, the prime minister is a freier — a sucker. The third-rate pro-government propagandists on Channel 14 might not have seen this coming, but Netanyahu should have. His dark worldview is premised on the pessimistic presumption that the world will turn on the Jews if given the chance, which is why the Israeli leader has long prized hard power over diplomatic understandings. Even if Trump wasn’t such an unreliable figure, trusting him should have gone against all of Netanyahu’s instincts.” [TheAtlantic]
Word on the Street
Elias Rodriguez, the suspected gunman in the deadly shooting of two Israeli Embassy employees in Washington on Wednesday, was charged with two counts of murder and other federal crimes. Interim U.S. Attorney in Washington Jeanine Pirro said investigators are continuing to investigate the attack as a hate crime and terrorism and additional charges may be brought…
The New York Times drew parallels between Wednesday night’s killing of two Israeli Embassy employees in Washington and another murder of an Israeli diplomat in the Washington area in 1973, a case which was never solved…
Scripps News published archive footage from 2018 from an interview it conducted with Elias Rodriguez, the suspected gunman in the Wednesday night shooting of Israeli Embassy employees, during a protest in Chicago where he identified himself as a member of ANSWER Chicago. ANSWER has held protests against the Israeli war in Gaza, which the organization calls a genocide…
The shooting has stoked safety fears among Israelis and Jews amid a spike in global antisemitism, The Wall Street Journal reports…
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a briefing that President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “have a good relationship, one that’s built on transparency and trust.” Leavitt said the president “has made it very clear to not just Prime Minister Netanyahu, but also the world, that he wants to see a deal with Iran struck if one can be struck.”…
The Supreme Court, in a 4-4 decision, rejected an Oklahoma Catholic school‘s bid to receive public funds as a religious charter school; the deadlocked ruling lets stand an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision barring the creation of such a charter school. The Orthodox Union had filed a brief in support of the school and said that a favorable ruling would make Jewish education more accessible…
A federal judge in Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration and Education Secretary Linda McMahon from dismantling the Department of Education and ordering them to reinstate department employees who had been fired. The administration said it will challenge the judge’s ruling “on an emergency basis”…
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights announced on Thursday that Columbia University violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by “acting with deliberate indifference towards student-on-student harassment of Jewish students from October 7, 2023, through the present.” Anthony Archeval, acting director of the Office for Civil Rights at HHS, said in a statement, “We encourage Columbia University to work with us to come to an agreement that reflects meaningful changes that will truly protect Jewish students.”…
The Wall Street Journal highlights what it called the “extraordinary blurring of government negotiations and private business dealings” as Zach Witkoff, son of Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, continues to invoke his father’s work and White House connections as he travels the world pursuing deals for his cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial…
Netanyahu on Thursday appointed Maj. Gen. David Zini as the next Shin Bet chief, despite a court ruling that his firing of the previous chief, Ronen Bar, and the determination of the attorney general that the move represented a conflict of interest in light of the agency’s ongoing investigation into Netanyahu’s aides’s ties to Qatar…
The Israeli airstrike that targeted Mohammed Sinwar, Hamas’ leader in Gaza, earlier this month, also reportedly killed several other high-ranking Hamas operatives as they gathered for a meeting…
Iran threatened to “implement special measures” to protect its nuclear facilities and materials if Israeli threats of a strike persist…
A failed Houthi attempt to launch a missile from the vicinity of Sana’a airport caused an explosion this morning, Muammar al-Iryani, Yemen’s information minister, said…
Globes reports that in closed meetings with Israeli officials, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee conveyed concerns from Washington on several economic issues including initiatives that would affect U.S. energy giant Chevron and streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+…
Pic of the Day
Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. (right), on Thursday stands outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, where two staff members of the Israeli Embassy were killed in a terror attack the night before. With him are (from left) Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL), Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).
Birthdays
Actor, voice actor and stand-up comedian sometimes referred to as “Yid Vicious,” Bobby Slayton turns 70 on Sunday…
FRIDAY: Emeritus professor of physics and the history of science at Harvard, Gerald James Holton turns 103… Businessman and attorney, he acquired and rebuilt The Forge restaurant in Miami Beach, Alvin Malnik turns 92… Businessman, optometrist, inventor and philanthropist, Dr. Herbert A. Wertheim turns 86… Former dean of the Yale School of Architecture and founder of an eponymous architecture firm, Robert A. M. Stern turns 86… Founder and chairman of law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, leading DC super-lobbyist but based in Denver and long-time proponent of the U.S.-Israel relationship, Norman Brownstein turns 82… British fashion retailer and promoter of tennis in Israel, he is the founder, chairman and CEO of three international clothing lines including the French Connection, Great Plains and Toast brands, Stephen Marks turns 79… Senior counsel at Cozen O’Connor, focused on election law, he was in the inaugural class of Yeshiva University’s Benjamin Cardozo School of Law, Jerry H. Goldfeder turns 78… Award-winning television writer and playwright, Stephanie Liss turns 75… Israeli diplomat, he served as Israel’s ambassador to Nigeria and as consul general of Israel to Philadelphia, Uriel Palti turns 71… Editor-in-chief of a book on end-of-life stories, she is a special events advisor to The Israel Project, Catherine Zacks Gildenhorn… Israeli businessman with holdings in real estate, construction, energy, hotels and media, Ofer Nimrodi turns 68… President of Newton, Mass.-based Liberty Companies, Andrew M. Cable turns 68… Best-selling author and journalist, whose works include “Tuesdays with Morrie,” he has sold over 42 million books, Mitch Albom turns 67… Resident scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Reuel Marc Gerecht… Chairman of the board of the Irvine, Calif.-based Ayn Rand Institute, Yaron Brook turns 64… Actor, comedian, writer, producer and musician, H. Jon Benjamin turns 59… Former ski instructor, ordained by HUC-JIR in 1998, now rabbi of the Community Synagogue of Rye (N.Y.), Daniel B. Gropper… Film and television director, Nanette Burstein turns 55… Australian cosmetics entrepreneur, now living in NYC, she is known as the “Lipstick Queen,” Poppy Cybele King turns 53… Prominent NYC matrimonial law attorney, she is the daughter of TV journalist Jeff Greenfield, Casey Greenfield turns 52… Member of the Knesset for the New Hope party, she previously served as Israel’s minister of education, Yifat Shasha-Biton turns 52… Retired attorney, now a YouTuber, David Freiheit turns 46… Executive director of the Singer Family Charitable Foundation, Dylan Tatz… Tech, cyber and disinformation reporter for Haaretz, Omer Benjakob… Professional golfer on the LPGA Tour, Morgan Pressel turns 37… Senior manager of brand and product strategy at GLG, Andrea M. Hiller Tenenboym…
SATURDAY: Co-founder of the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, he is featured in Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers,” Herbert Wachtell turns 93… Professor emeritus of statistics and biomedical data science at Stanford, Bradley Efron turns 87… Biographer of religious, business and political figures, Deborah Hart Strober turns 85… Born Robert Allen Zimmerman, his Hebrew name is Shabsi Zissel, he is one of the most influential singer-songwriters of his generation, Bob Dylan turns 84… Social media and Internet marketing consultant, Israel Sushman turns 77… Member of Congress since 2007 (D-TN-9), he is Tennessee’s first Jewish congressman, Steve Cohen turns 76… Former director of planned giving at American Society for Yad Vashem, Robert Christopher Morton turns 74… Former Mexican secretary of foreign affairs, he is the author of more than a dozen books, Jorge Castañeda Gutman turns 72… President of the Israel ParaSport Center in Ramat Gan and vice chair of Birthright Israel Foundation, Lori Ann Komisar… First-ever Jewish member of the parliament in Finland, he was elected in 1979 and continues to serve, Ben Zyskowicz turns 71… Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and short story writer, Michael Chabon turns 62… U.S. ambassador to Singapore during the Obama administration, he is now the managing director and general counsel of KraneShares, David Adelman turns 61… Senior advisor at the MIT Center for Constructive Communication, Debby Goldberg… Ukrainian businessman, patron of the Jewish community in Ukraine, collector of modern and contemporary art, Gennadii Korban turns 55… Film director, in 2019 he became the second-ever Israeli to win an Academy Award, Guy Nattiv turns 52… Swedish criminal defense lawyer, author and fashion model, Jens Jacob Lapidus turns 51… Actor, who starred in the HBO original series “How to Make It in America,” Bryan Greenberg turns 47… Emmy Award-winning host of “Serving Up Science” at PBS Digital Studios, Sheril Kirshenbaum turns 45… EVP and chief of staff at The National September 11 Memorial and Museum, Benjamin E. Milakofsky… Synchronized swimmer who represented Israel at the 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, Anastasia Gloushkov Leventhal turns 40… Travel blogger who has visited 197 countries, Drew “Binsky” Goldberg turns 34… Member of the Iowa House of Representatives since 2023, Adam Zabner turns 26… Social media influencer and activist, Emily Austin turns 24…
SUNDAY: Academy Award-winning film producer and director, responsible for 58 major motion pictures, Irwin Winkler turns 94… Holocaust survivor as a young child, he is a professor emeritus of physics and chemistry at Brooklyn College, Micha Tomkiewicz turns 86… Co-founder of the clothing manufacturer, Calvin Klein Inc., which he formed with his childhood friend Calvin Klein, he is also a former horse racing industry executive, Barry K. Schwartz turns 83… Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 1986, he is now on senior status, Douglas H. Ginsburg turns 79… British journalist, editor and author, he is a past VP of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Alex Brummer turns 76… Of counsel in the Chicago office of Saul Ewing, Joel M. Hurwitz turns 74… Screenwriter, producer and film director, best known for his work on the “Back to the Future” franchise, Bob Gale turns 74… Los Angeles area resident, Robin Myrne Kramer… Retired CEO of Denver’s Rose Medical Center after 21 years, he is now the CEO of Velocity Healthcare Consultants, Kenneth Feiler… Israeli actress, Rachel “Chelli” Goldenberg turns 71… Professor of history at Fordham University, Doron Ben-Atar turns 68… President of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities, Ralph Friedländer turns 66… U.S. senator (D-MN), Amy Klobuchar turns 65… Senior government relations counsel in the D.C. office of Kelley Drye & Warren, Laurie Rubiner… Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania from 2020 until 2022, Yossi Avni-Levy turns 63… Actor, producer, director and writer, Joseph D. Reitman turns 57… Cape Town, South Africa, native, tech entrepreneur and investor, he was the original COO of PayPal and founder/CEO of Yammer, David Oliver Sacks turns 53… Member of the Australian Parliament since 2016, Julian Leeser turns 49… Former Minister of Diaspora Affairs, she is the first Haredi woman to serve as an Israeli cabinet minister, Omer Yankelevich turns 47… Senior political reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Greg Bluestein… COO at Maryland-based HealthSource Distributors, Marc D. Loeb… Comedian, actor and writer, Barry Rothbart turns 42… One of the U.S.’ first radiology extenders at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Orli Novick… Senior communications manager at Kaplan, Inc., Alison Kurtzman… Former MLB pitcher, he had two effective appearances for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic qualifiers, Ryan Sherriff turns 35… Olympic Gold medalist in gymnastics at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, Alexandra Rose “Aly” Raisman turns 31… Laura Goldman…
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