New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani took the occasion of St. Patrick’s Day and the presence of former Irish President Mary Robinson in New York to talk Middle East politics and praise Robinson’s controversial tenure as the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights.

Speaking at a breakfast at Gracie Mansion, Mamdani acknowledged Robinson from the lectern and lauded her record of advocacy, particularly singling out her stance on Israel. The Irish presidency is a largely ceremonial role. 

“I think also of how she stood steadfast alongside the people of Palestine,” the mayor said in listing Robinson’s accomplishments. “I say this as over the past few years as we’ve witnessed a genocide unfold before our eyes, there has been deafening silence from so many. For those who have long cared about universal human rights and the extension of them to Palestinians, silence, however, is nothing new. For Palestinians are so often left to weep alone. Yet former President Robinson has never been silent.”

During her tenure at the U.N., Robinson chaired a preparatory meeting for the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia gathering in Tehran that blocked the participation of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and representatives from the persecuted Baha’i faith. Robinson blamed the obstruction on “procedural and technical” issues, though she voiced support for the general right of such groups to take part.

The eventual conference, held in Durban, South Africa, was a notoriously disorganized fiasco that led to the end of Robinson’s commissionership. The conference saw the withdrawal of American and Israeli delegations over draft document language from Arab governments attempting to reinstate a repealed U.N. resolution that declared Zionism to be a form of racism and to compare Israeli policy to the Holocaust. 

She was a founding member of The Elders, a group of veteran global leaders promoting “peace, justice, human rights and a sustainable planet,” and became the group’s chair in 2018. In 2014, she co-authored a Foreign Policy opinion piece with former President Jimmy Carter amid the 2014 Israel-Gaza war that called for “recognizing Hamas as a legitimate political actor.”

The Chicago City Council unanimously voted to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism into the city’s declaration of human rights this week, an effort spearheaded by two local university students with no prior political experience.

For Jake Rymer, a junior majoring in biological sciences at University of Chicago, and Michael Kaminsky, a senior studying criminology at DePaul, the push to pass the antisemitism ordinance was personal.

“I had only been on campus for two weeks when [the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel] happened and people I thought were my friends those first two weeks turned out not to be. They turned their backs on me when I needed their allyship,” Rymer told Jewish Insider. “I also started to see flaws in the city of Chicago and that there were things that needed to get changed that we could actually accomplish.” 

Kaminsky, a vocal pro-Israel voice on campus, was attacked and injured by masked assailants on school property in 2024 in an alleged hate crime. He filed an ongoing lawsuit against DePaul, claiming the university failed to protect Jewish students.    

“We were tired of being told by Jewish organizations to ‘suck it up and deal with it’ or that ‘help would come eventually,” said Rymer. “We realized that we as students — even though we don’t have legislative experience — have the ability to make meaningful change, so we decided to go ahead with it.”  

The pair quickly learned the City of Chicago had never provided a clear definition of antisemitism in its municipal code. They garnered support from Alds. Raymond Lopez and Debra Silverstein last spring to begin drafting legislation to implement IHRA. 

On Monday, Ordinance O2025-0019984 passed unanimously in committee and at the city council meeting. Because the ordinance is an updated version of one that already existed and it passed without objection, it becomes official upon publication — even though Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson was not involved. 

Section 6-10 of Chicago’s Municipal Code is now amended to include antisemitism as discrimination in the Chicago City Council’s declaration of general human rights. Antisemitism is defined by IHRA as a “certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.” Progressive critics of the definition argue that its Israel-related examples risk conflating antisemitism with legitimate political criticism while conservative critics claim that the definition is anti-Christian because one of its affiliated examples states that it’s antisemitic to accuse Jews of killing Jesus.

“Chicago has taken a clear and historic stand against hate by officially adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism,” Silverstein, the city council’s only Jewish member, said in a statement. “At a time when antisemitic hate crimes are surging locally, this unanimous City Council action sends an unmistakable message that anti-Jewish hate has no place in Chicago.”

Chicago joins more than 1,200 entities worldwide, including 37 U.S. state governments and 98 city and county bodies that have adopted the definition. 

Chicago’s adoption of IHRA was applauded by Alison Pure-Slovin, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s director of social action and partnerships, Midwest/South. “Jewish communities today feel the familiar chill of rising hostility, and the old game of blurring the line between honest debate and open hatred is once again underway. Chicago’s action is not a gesture for the cameras. It is a statement that antisemitism will not be explained away, softened or disguised in polite language,” Pure-Slovin told JI.

Rymer expressed hope that “college campuses in the city of Chicago will follow the lead of Chicago aldermen and this could be applied in college communities to help define what antisemitism is and properly characterize it in case future incidents happen.”    

He also encouraged students and community members in other cities to pick up on the “sense of momentum,” adding that he has “been in contact with other students to discuss plans to introduce this bill in other cities.” 

In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has faced criticism from some Jewish leaders for repealing an executive order that implemented IHRA earlier this month. The revocation came as part of a blanket repeal of all of former Mayor Eric Adams’ executive orders following his September 2024 indictment on federal corruption charges. 

“We want to set a standard for major cities in America that they can make initiatives like this happen,” said Rymer. “We can use the framework set here as support for any Jewish students interested in making a greater impact. We are very happy about the passing of this but it’s not the end of the work we’re doing. There’s a lot more change that can happen.” 

Cameron Kasky’s announcement on Wednesday that he was ending his bid for a coveted open House seat in the heart of Manhattan and pivoting to focus on advocating for human rights in the West Bank didn’t come as much of a surprise — given the 25-year-old progressive political activist’s almost exclusive fixation on targeting Israel as a first-time candidate.

Kasky, a Democratic upstart who was among a range of contenders vying to succeed retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in the 12th Congressional District, had recently returned from a visit to the West Bank, and his experience meeting with Palestinians had left him with “one concern,” he said, motivating his decision to drop out of the primary and seek to promote legislation to counter Israeli settler violence in the territory.

Without providing specifics, Kasky said he looked forward to sharing more details of what he called a “West Bank human rights emergency plan” and said he had “consulted with experts extremely well-versed in the matter” to ensure that “the t’s are crossed and the i’s are dotted.”

Still, while Kasky framed his so far loosely defined next act as a “chance to do what must be done” in the wake of his brief “human rights-centered campaign,” as he described it, his explanation about the sudden withdrawal avoided mentioning that he had been seen as an unserious candidate struggling to gain any traction in the crowded race.

His harsh criticism of Israel generated online attention and helped him to build a relatively sizable and enthusiastic following on social media.  

But Kasky’s early exit from the June primary, just two months after launching his bid, illustrates how digital clout is not a reliable indicator of meaningful voter support, particularly as a growing number of influencers has sought unsuccessfully to convert online popularity into a seat in Congress in a range of recent primaries.

It also underscores how Kasky’s anti-Israel views were likely alienating to many voters in one of the most heavily Jewish districts in the country — even as several far-left challengers across New York are taking on pro-Israel incumbents. One Democratic operative familiar with the district, which covers the Upper East and West Sides, called Kasky’s hostile positions on Israel a form of political “kryptonite.”

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a pro-Israel moderate, won the district with 50% of the vote in November, beating now-Mayor Zohran Mamdani by five points.

In contrast with top candidates in the race, Kasky embraced stances far to the left of the Democratic mainstream, repeatedly accusing Israel of committing genocide in its war in Gaza, for instance, while pledging to vote against all aid to Israel, “‘defensive’ or otherwise,” as he wrote on his campaign site. He also said he was running to block what he called the “Greater Israel” agenda, accusing Israeli leadership of using “colonial violence” to expand the country’s territory across the Middle East.

Polling commissioned by a rival campaign, some details of which were relayed to Jewish Insider by a Democratic source familiar with the figures, showed Kasky far behind his leading opponents. Two recent polls put Kasky in sixth place, garnering just 5% of the primary vote in one and 8% in the other, according to the source, who shared the unpublicized numbers on condition of anonymity.

The polls showed two state assemblymen, Micah Lasher and Alex Bores, clustered at the top of the field along with Jack Schlossberg, a young Kennedy heir, and George Conway, a former Republican attorney and a prominent critic of President Donald Trump, the source confirmed on Thursday. While no candidate won more than 20% of the vote in either poll, Kasky was seen as operating in a lower tier and unlikely to break out. 

His stances on Israel, among other issues, were “a dealbreaker” to a significant share of the electorate, the source noted to JI. “I don’t think that he had the means to become a compelling candidate and build a coalition,” he added.

Owing to his hasty departure from the race, some Democratic strategists and activists suggested that he had not intended to remain a candidate and was using his long-shot bid to build an online audience.

“Kasky saw the writing on the wall,” said another Democratic source who spoke with the candidate. “He did not have a sustainable campaign because it was never a campaign for Congress.”

For Kasky, a Jewish survivor of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida who became a gun control activist, “it was a campaign for new social media followers, the hard, hard left and activist clout,” the source told JI on condition of anonymity to offer a candid assessment. “He can absolutely claim victory for getting new followers on Instagram outside of Florida, but he achieved this milestone on the backs of the people he so shockingly vilified: NY-12 Jews.”

“He was never running to win,” added a Jewish Democratic leader familiar with Kasky’s abortive campaign, who was granted anonymity to weigh in freely about the race. “He was running to raise his profile and raise some money so he could continue to be an activist influencer.”

Kasky’s campaign, whose fundraising numbers will be reported later this month, did not return JI’s request for comment on Thursday.

Scott Stringer, a former city comptroller who previously lived in the district and now resides in Lower Manhattan, dismissed Kasky’s campaign as unviable from the beginning. “The bottom line is he wasn’t a factor when he was running, and he’s not a factor now that he’s not running,” Stringer, a Jewish Democrat backing Lasher in the primary, told JI. “I think he would have been better served by applying to his local community board.”

“There’s a whole lot of people on Twitter, unfortunately, who focus on Jewish hate,” he added. “But at the end of the day I think most people tuned out his rhetoric. I know I did.”

A full repeal of human rights sanctions on Syria under the Caesar Civilian Protection Act is likely to pass Congress as part of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, after House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) signed off on the measure, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The NDAA, which Congress aims to finalize in early December after its Thanksgiving recess, will include a full repeal of the sanctions, but also a nonbinding provision urging the administration to reimpose sanctions on Syria if its new government does not meet certain human rights conditions, the source told Jewish Insider. Barring any unexpected developments, the provision should be on track to pass Congress in the must-pass legislation.

The Senate approved similar provisions in its version of the NDAA earlier this year, but the House version of the bill included no such language, and Mast’s approval was needed to incorporate the provision into the final version of the bill being negotiated between both chambers.

President Donald Trump has been urging Congress to repeal the sanctions, an effort supported by many Syrian diaspora activists, including Rabbi Yosef Hamra, the brother of the country’s last chief rabbi, who now lives in the U.S.

But others, including activists from other Syrian minority communities and some lawmakers, have argued that the sanctions should remain on the books to provide leverage and accountability to ensure the protection of minorities and the Syrian government’s cooperation on other matters like counterterrorism.

Mast had been skeptical of lifting sanctions, but indicated to JI his position was softening last week. He met earlier this month with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Washington.

Mast told The Hill, which was first to report the news, that his position is that the sanctions should be, “Fully repealed, to have mechanisms, or rather a sentiment that sanctions should be reinstituted if a number of conditions are not met. … Still fully repealed.”

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed suit in federal court in Massachusetts on Wednesday on behalf of two Jewish students, alleging that the university and a tenured professor violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, including harassment on social media and in mass emails. 

“This is a textbook example of neglect and indifference,” Kenneth Marcus, founder and chairman of the Brandeis Center, said of the lawsuit, shared exclusively with Jewish Insider. “Not only were several antisemitic incidents conducted at the hands of a professor, but MIT’s administration refused to take action on every single occasion,” said Marcus, who served as U.S. assistant secretary of education in the Bush and Trump administrations. 

While the lawsuit, Sussman v. MIT, addresses several antisemitic incidents caused by students, a large portion of the 71-page complaint focuses on alleged antisemitic actions from Michel DeGraff, a tenured linguistics professor. 

The complaint states that through the spring and fall of 2024, DeGraff publicly harassed Lior Alon, an Israeli postdoctoral student, for serving in the Israel Defense Forces — posting Alon’s name and image on social media, and tagging Al Jazeera. The professor then published an article in European newspaper Le Monde in which he singled out the Alon by name, writing that the Israeli, “like many other Zionist counter-protesters, participate in well-rehearsed propaganda that erases the anti-Zionist Jewish students and misrepresents them.” 

As a result, Alon said he was confronted by strangers in various locations, including his child’s daycare and at the grocery store. Alon emailed MIT President Sally Kornbluth expressing fears for his safety and the safety of his family, and requested that the posts be taken down.

Kornbluth — who is the only one of the three college presidents who testified in a now-infamous December 2023 congressional hearing on campus antisemitism who remains in her position — never responded to Alon’s concerns, according to the lawsuit, and no action was taken.

In November 2024, the complaint states that DeGraff harassed another Jewish student by sending a series of mass emails to his entire department, copying Kornbluth and other administrators, accusing the student of having a Jewish “mind infection” and threatening to use him as a “real-life case study” in a class the professor was teaching. 

That same day, flyers were slipped under doors in a dormitory where this student previously lived, targeting him specifically in white lettering on a green band, styled after Hamas headbands, advocating for violence against Jews. 

As a result of the harassment, the student left MIT before completing his Ph.D. program.  

Other instances of antisemitic harassment detailed in the lawsuit include students occupying buildings and disrupting classes with antisemitic chants, students distributing “terror maps” promoting violence at campus locations deemed Jewish and an individual urinating on the Hillel building.

The Massachusetts school was among the 45 universities against which the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened Title VI investigations in March. 

Wednesday’s lawsuit comes at a time when many elite universities are acquiescing to the Trump administration’s demands to crack down on the rise of antisemitic activity on campus that began in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. MIT, however, joined a lawsuit last month challenging the federal government’s attempt to cut research funding from schools that the administration says have not adequately addressed antisemitism. 

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a list of 112 companies on Wednesday that do business in Israeli West Bank settlements, sparking swift negative reactions from the Israeli government, many members of Congress and most mainstream American Jewish organizations. 

Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said she was “conscious this issue has been, and will continue to be, highly contentious,” but that the list had been compiled “after an extensive and meticulous review process.” The report did not call for sanctions or boycotts of the specific companies listed, but is seen by many as a pressure campaign against the businesses.

The list included Airbnb, Booking.com, Motorola, TripAdvisor, General Mills and Expedia — though 94 of the entities were Israeli businesses. 

In response, Israel cut ties with Bachelet for releasing the list without advance warning and without any coordination with Israeli officials. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the U.N. Human Rights Council “a biased body that is devoid of influence” that works only to “disparage Israel.”

In a statement, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said that efforts to boycott or single out the Jewish state “mirror the kind of gross discrimination directed at Jewish people during some of history’s darkest moments.” 

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the list is “wrongheaded and will embolden those who seek to use boycotts as a tool to pressure Israel.”

Reps. Michael McCaul (R-TX), Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Lee Zeldin (R-NY), members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released a joint statement calling the blacklist “yet another anti-Israel stunt that will not further peace in the region.” 

Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley tweeted that the body “hit a new low,” calling the timing of the publication “conniving and manipulative at best.”

Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, published a statement calling the report “incredibly biased,” and that it only offered further proof the OHCHR “is overly politicized and focusing a disproportionate amount of time and resources on Israel.” 

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused the U.N. body of being “driven by politically motivated actors who seek to isolate Israel and undermine its right to exist.”

House Republican Whip Steve Scalise said the list “gives Israel’s enemies targets for violence and economic punishment.” Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) called the move “shameful,” and said it “will do nothing to further peace.” Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) said the list was “the most recent in a long series of discriminatory and shameful actions by the United Nations.”

Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) tweeted that the list is the list “discriminatory” and “absolutely appalling,” and Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) said the U.N. Human Rights Council “caved to anti-Israel voices.”

Condemnation also came from AIPAC, the Conference of Presidents and the American Jewish Committee.

None of the four members of “The Squad” — Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) commented on the U.N. publication as of Wednesday evening.