The Kennedy scion was the only one of four NY-12 Democratic candidates to say he supports the legislation imposing restrictions on weapons sales to Israel at a debate on Tuesday
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Jack Schlossberg, grandson of former President John. F Kennedy who is currently running for Congress, on Jan. 12, 2026 in New York City.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleJack Schlossberg, the Kennedy scion and social media influencer running for a coveted open House seat in Manhattan, came out on Tuesday in support of legislation that would impose unprecedented new restrictions on weapons sales or transfers to Israel, despite previously expressing skepticism of the bill.
During a debate on Tuesday evening, Schlossberg pledged that “as of today,” he would vote in support of the Block the Bombs Act, a controversial bill that has drawn backing from a growing number of left-wing House Democrats, casting his rejection of offensive weapons as a response to “a moral question that is being put to our country right now.”
He also reiterated he would vote for continued U.S. funding to boost Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system, saying his position aligns with a commitment to “protect civilian lives as best we can” in the region.
Schlossberg, who has shared inconsistent positions on aid to Israel throughout the campaign to succeed retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in a heavily Jewish House district, wrote in a January questionnaire that he was “unsure” whether he would support the Block the Bombs Act, arguing that it “would not provide an avenue to peace and stability.”
Even as he has frequently voiced his objections to future weapons sales to Israel, Schlossberg had not appeared to publicly back the Block the Bombs Act until Tuesday’s debate, marking a clear divide over Israel in the race.
By contrast, Schlossberg’s top rivals in the June 23 primary — including state Assemblymembers Micah Lasher and Alex Bores and former GOP attorney George Conway — all declined to support the bill at the debate.
Schlossberg’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment about his evolution on the legislation.
The 33-year-old grandson of former President John F. Kennedy has criticized Lasher and Bores for opposing efforts to condition military aid to Israel that single out the Jewish state.
But despite claiming on social media last month that he supports “no weapons to Israel,” Schlossberg has reportedly stated otherwise behind closed doors.
Speaking in May at a private social club on the Upper East Side, he told members he “probably would have continued funding Israel’s offensive weaponry within the years following Oct. 7,” according to audio of the meeting obtained by Politico.
His campaign told Politico that Schlossberg’s “views have evolved as the situation has.”
For his part, Schlossberg insisted in a series of social media posts that the story had misrepresented his views and that his stance on offensive aid has been consistent, even though he also said his “position has changed as the situation does.”
During a candidate forum in January, meanwhile, Schlossberg was comparatively noncommittal about his stance on aid to Israel, which he called “a strong democratic ally historically to the United States.”
“I would want to have a full intelligence briefing to try to understand the situation before supporting any specific legislation,” he said.
Plus, inside J Street's turn against Iron Dome
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) speaks during a news conference following the weekly Senate Democratic policy luncheon meeting at the U.S. Capitol Building on September 19, 2023, in Washington, DC.
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we have the scoop on United Democracy Project’s $790,000 ad buy targeting GOP Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky, and report on Sen. Chris Murphy‘s praise for dozens of Iranian ships that bypassed the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. We interview Rachel Goldberg-Polin about the release of her new book, out today, and report on Jack Schlossberg’s plans to skip upcoming Jewish candidate forums in the Manhattan congressional district where he is mounting a bid. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sue Altman, Idan Ofer and Jessica Chastain.
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
- Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, will conclude later today as the country moves directly into Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day. A prerecorded official torchlighting ceremony meant to mark the transition between the holidays will air this evening at Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem.
- Argentine President Javier Milei will be among those to participate in the torchlighting ceremony in Jerusalem, which traditionally honors supporters of Israel and designees from across Israeli society who are honored for their contributions to the country.
- EU foreign ministers are meeting today in Luxembourg, where Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares is leading an effort for the bloc to suspend its cooperation agreement with Israel.
- Talks between the U.S. and Iran, which were slated to begin today, remain unclear as both sides send mixed signals over the status of the negotiations. Iran has reportedly informed regional mediators that it plans to send a delegation today even as it publicly distances itself from the talks, while unnamed U.S. officials said Vice President JD Vance will travel to Islamabad today ahead of the expiration of the two-week ceasefire.
- The Senate is set to vote for a fifth time on a war powers resolution limiting U.S. actions in Iran.
- This afternoon, the Helsinki Commission is holding a hearing on Capitol Hill on Iranian support for Russia.
- Also this afternoon, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is convening senior State Department officials for a hearing on U.S. counterterrorism efforts in Africa.
- The House Ethics Committee is holding a sanctions hearing for Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), as the Florida Democrat faces allegations that she illegally misdirected FEMA funds.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S josh kraushaar
Amid the downbeat assessment of Israel’s political standing in the U.S., two new polls that came out last week suggest that the Jewish state still can rely on a sizable, if largely Republican, base of support.
The biggest takeaway from these two new polls — one commissioned by NBC News and one conducted by the respected GOP firm Echelon Insights — is that Israel has become a partisan issue, with Democrats turning decidedly against the Jewish state while Republicans have become strongly supportive.
All told, the polls show the public evenly divided over Israel, with the splits largely along party, ideological and generational lines. The results indicate President Donald Trump’s embrace of the Jewish state has caused Democrats to take an instinctively more negative view — in a continuation of how politics has generally operated in the Trump era.
Echelon Insights, which surveyed 1,022 respondents from March 12-16, found 44% of respondents held a favorable view of Israel, while 38% held an unfavorable view. While Israel’s plus-6 net favorability score is nothing to write home about, the results are noticeably better than a recent Pew Research Center poll that drew outsized attention for finding Israel’s net favorability rating at a dismal minus-23 (37/60%).
SCOOP
United Democracy Project, the AIPAC-linked super PAC, is taking aim again at Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) with a significant buy for a television ad targeting the anti-Israel congressman, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
About the ad: The buy totals $790,000 for a week of broadcast and cable ads in the Cincinnati, Louisville and Charleston media markets. The ad, which features a graphic of Massie’s face on a flipping coin, accuses Massie of changing his policy positions from when he was first elected, saying he “started out as a conservative Republican but now votes with liberal Democrats” on issues including border security and Israel.
Exclusive: The Republican Jewish Coalition announced Tuesday that it is endorsing four Republican Senate candidates for open seats: Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA), former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), former U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme in Montana and former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley in North Carolina, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
on whose side?
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) on Monday appeared to cheer on the reported evasion by more than two dozen Iranian ships of the U.S. maritime blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports.
Comment card: The Connecticut Democrat, one of the most vocal critics of Israel in the Senate, responded on X with a one-word comment — “awesome” — to an unconfirmed report that at least 26 vessels belonging to the shadow fleet, which is overseen by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had bypassed the blockade.
IRON DOME DECISIONS
In recent years, as the progressive Israel advocacy group J Street joined left-wing calls to place restrictions on U.S. military aid to Israel, support for funding Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system remained a sacred cow for the group. That consensus has shattered in recent weeks. Instead of steering the conversation among Democrats, where J Street maintains a solid base of support, the organization found itself playing catch-up to the progressive lawmakers it supports after several of them announced in early April that they think the U.S. should no longer fund Iron Dome batteries, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Change in position: J Street released a statement on April 13 calling for the U.S. to cease funding Iron Dome batteries, arguing that Israel — a wealthy nation with a substantial defense budget — should pay for its own missile-defense systems. In conversation with JI on Monday, J Street’s chief policy officer, Ilan Goldenberg, acknowledged that progressives’ rapid shift on the issue factored into J Street’s announcement, even as the group insists it was moving in that direction anyway. “It stirred up the conversation a little more, but that memo was already written,” Goldenberg said.
ABSENCES AND ANSWERS
As Jack Schlossberg gains a foothold in his primary campaign for a coveted open House seat in the heart of Manhattan, his views on Israel policy are drawing closer scrutiny, as he begins to stake out a stance on the increasingly heated subject of Democratic debate. His decision to skip at least two upcoming Jewish community candidate forums occurring next month, meanwhile, is also raising some eyebrows in the district, which has a large Jewish constituency, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Not attending: On Middle East policy, the 33-year-old Kennedy scion has embraced positions that place him to the left in the crowded field on Israel issues. Some Jewish leaders say that they are interested in hearing more from Schlossberg as he emerges as a leading candidate in the race. He attended Shabbat services in March at the Conservative Park Avenue Synagogue on the Upper East Side, a day after the terrorist attack against Temple Israel in suburban Detroit.
PHILLY FIGHT
Anti-Israel Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb has collected a series of high-profile congressional endorsements in recent days as he seeks the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District against state Sen. Sharif Street and Ala Stanford, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Rabb has made his criticism of Israel and pro-Israel groups a central part of his House campaign, including accusing Israel of committing genocide.
Backing Rabb: Rabb has been endorsed in recent days by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Jared Huffman (D-CA), as well as the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Far-left streamer Hasan Piker has also praised Rabb on his show.
LOVE AND PAIN
In the months after the death of Hersh Goldberg-Polin at the hands of his Hamas captors, his parents became the faces of a unique kind of grief — one that they experienced in the public eye. Rachel Goldberg-Polin recounts some of those moments in her new book, When We See You Again, which comes out today, a chronicle of her life before, during and after her son’s captivity and murder, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports.
Writing as therapy: “I don’t think of this book at all as a memoir or a tell-all,” Goldberg-Polin told JI. “It’s like little Tupperware of pieces of a life that was, and then figuring out a life that is, and how do you do this? How do we do this, breathing in a world where we no longer have air?” She had started writing because she found it therapeutic. “I couldn’t bear the intensity of the suffering that I was carrying; [it] was making my knees buckle and my soul buckle,” Goldberg-Polin explained.
Worthy Reads
MBS Scales Back: The New York Times’ Vivian Nereim observes Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s pivot away from his grandiose Vision 2030 endeavor to more modest projects and advancement amid financial challenges. “Over the past 10 years, the government has managed to reduce its reliance on oil revenue, finding new sources of funding by introducing taxes and fees. But the prince’s plans and ambitions have grown more rapidly than the state’s financial capacity. … But in recent years, the prince has refashioned himself as a mediator and diplomat, while pulling back on some of the most ostentatious elements of his plans.” [NYTimes]
The New Gulf Doctrine: In Semafor, former senior Qatari defense official Nawaf Al-Thani posits that the recent war with Iran has changed the decades-old doctrines that have guided regional relations for the last half-century. “It won’t happen overnight, because states don’t abandon half a century of accumulated practice in weeks, but change will come because the old formula was too generous and cautious. What follows this war will be narrower, harder, and more demanding. There may still be trust, but it will require verification of a far more definitive kind.” [Semafor]
The Missiles That Bind: In the Jewish New Syndicate, William Daroff and Betsy Berns Korn, respectively the CEO and chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, argue that “a shared civilian battlefield” is the “new reality” tying Israel to Gulf states in the wake of the war with Iran. “The experience no longer divides along national lines. The same missile that sent a family in Tel Aviv to a shelter sent a family in Abu Dhabi to do the same. The geography differs. The fear does not. The ceasefire quiets the sirens for now, but it does not erase what people across the region now understand.” [JNS]
Word on the Street
The Board of Peace’s Nickolay Mladenov suggested that negotiators working to get Hamas to agree to disarm have “maximum a couple of weeks” to reach a deal with the terror group, which has already blown past its deadline to accept the board’s disarmament proposal…
The Iranian ship seized by the U.S. Navy in the Gulf of Oman was believed to be carrying dual-use items from China that had potential military uses…
Pakistan has reportedly paused plans to move forward on a $1.5 billion deal to supply weapons to Sudan after Saudi Arabia, a close ally of Islamabad, with which it signed a defense pact last year, said it would not finance the sale…
The Wall Street Journal reports on the “hidden war within a war” that took place between Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Gulf states during the broader war with Iran…
CBS News goes to Tehran to meet with members of the country’s 12,000-strong Jewish community to discuss the recent U.S. and Israeli war with Iran…
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that Congress “should not support the [Lebanese Armed Forces] unless it acts to disarm Hezbollah completely — and immediately”…
Sue Altman, a progressive organizer and former top staffer for Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ), who is running for Congress in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, slammed her anti-Israel primary opponent Adam Hamawy for “cheerleading and wishing for the deaths of Israeli children” with his comments opposing Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
NBC News looks at former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel’s leftward shift on Israel as he mulls a potential White House bid in 2028…
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Alan Dershowitz, a registered Democrat who has long been a vocal critic of his party, announced he was reregistering as a Republican, arguing that the Democratic Party’s “hostility to Israel represents a deeper and more dangerous shift away from the center and toward a radical approach that is bad for America and the free world”…
Mohamed Abdou, a former Columbia University professor terminated for praising Hamas and advocating for jihad following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, is scheduled to speak on Tuesday at an event organized by New York University students, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
The Real Deal profiles Israeli businessman Idan Ofer as the founder of Quantum Pacific Group looks to break into the New York real estate market by acquiring offices to convert into residential properties…
The Washington Post does a deep dive into the finances of Nick Fuentes, who had made close to $1 million, largely through donations from superfans who pay for extra access to the far-right antisemitic conspiracy theorist…
Apple TV is expected to release the long-delayed thriller series “The Savant,” which stars Jessica Chastain as a researcher who uses the dark web to track down extremists and domestic terror groups; the series, which was delayed following the assassination of Charlie Kirk last September, is largely based on the work of an Anti-Defamation League employee…
Residents of Scarsdale, N.Y., are calling on the president of the school board to resign after his daughter, a student at Scarsdale High School, praised the recent vandalism of posters promoting a student-led Israeli culture club that were ripped down and discarded in a urinal…
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer admitted to having unintentionally misled legislators about the security clearance of Peter Mandelson, who was appointed to be London’s envoy to the U.S. despite having failed vetting over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein; Starmer said that the government itself had been misled by lower-level Foreign Office staffers who greenlit Mandelson…
An Australian man who mimicked the terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach weeks after the deadly shooting and made antisemitic comments was sentenced to a year in jail; the man’s attorney said, “What he did say was antisemitic but he didn’t go out of his way to be an antisemite”…
Hungarian Prime Minister-elect Péter Magyar said that Budapest would comply with the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, should the Israeli leader enter Hungary; Netanyahu had earlier this month accepted an invitation to travel to the country later this year to take part in a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising…
The Financial Times profiles Marion Maréchal, the niece of French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, as she works to build a broad right-wing alliance modeled on similar efforts by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni that would propel Le Pen’s National Rally party to electoral victory next year…
Swiss football club FC Basel, which was set to host Kanye West during his planned European tour this summer, canceled his upcoming show, following similar moves in the U.K., France and Poland, over West’s history of making antisemitic comments…
Israeli computer scientist Michael Rabin, who in 1976 was a co-recipient of the Turing Award, died at 94…
Pic of the Day
Israeli President Isaac Herzog laid a wreath on Tuesday morning at the Memorial Day ceremony for Israel’s fallen soldiers at the Hall of Remembrance on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
Birthdays
Once the top-ranked collegiate female tennis player in the U.S. and currently the head women’s tennis coach at the University of Oklahoma, Audra Marie Cohen turns 40…
Comedian, screenwriter, film director and actress, she returned to Broadway in 2018 after a 60-year hiatus, Elaine May turns 94… Art collector and museum trustee in Chicago, he is a retired attorney, Don Kaul turns 91… President and executive director of the Ben and Esther Rosenbloom Foundation, Howard Rosenbloom turns 87… British chemist and emeritus professor at the University of Cambridge, Sir Alan Roy Fersht turns 83… Award-winning folklorist, author, poet and editor of dozens of books, Howard Schwartz turns 81… Former lieutenant governor of Connecticut, Nancy S. Wyman turns 80… Southern California-based interior designer, Marilyn Weiss… Emergency physician in Panorama City, Calif., Joseph Edward Beezy… Founding director of Microsoft’s long-running research program on quantum physics at UCSB, an early winner of a MacArthur genius fellowship (1984), Michael Hartley Freedman turns 75… Rabbi, psychologist, writer and editor, Susan Schnur turns 75… Professor emeritus at George Mason University Law School (now known as Antonin Scalia Law School), he lectures frequently at Federalist Society chapters across the country, Michael Ian Krauss turns 75… Australian barrister who is a minister for local government following 31 years as mayor of Botany Bay, Ron Hoenig turns 73… Rabbi at Temple Ner Simcha in Westlake Village, Calif., Michael Barclay turns 63… Ukrainian-born industrialist, now also an Israeli citizen, he co-founded the Genesis Prize and the Genesis Philanthropy Group, Mikhail Fridman turns 62… Chicago-based lobbyist and attorney, Scott D. Yonover… Art collector and dealer, who together with his father and brother are reputed to own $1 billion of art including over 1,000 pieces by Andy Warhol, Alberto “Tico” Mugrabi turns 56… International breaking news reporter at The New York Times, Ephrat Livni… Founder of I Was Supposed to Have a Baby (IWSTHAB), an online community geared toward Jewish women experiencing infertility, Aimee Friedman Baron… Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The New York Times and best-selling author, Jodi Kantor turns 51… CEO of Unistream, Ifat Bechor… Head of customer success at SnapStream, Eric Weisbrod… Retired actress and voice actress, her career included the voice of Regina “Reggie” Rocket on Nickelodeon’s “Rocket Power,” Shayna Bracha Fox turns 42… Investor relations officer at Gryphon Investors, he is a past president of the Berkeley Hillel, Robert J. Kaufman… Salesforce marketing and cloud consultant at Jackson Family Wines, Joshua Gibbs… Outfielder for MLB’s Texas Rangers, he is a two-time World Series champion and a two-time All-Star, he played for Team Israel in the 2013 and 2023 World Baseball Classics, Joc Pederson turns 34… Writer, magazine editor and actress, she was the founder and editor-in-chief of the since closed online Rookie Magazine, aimed primarily at teenage girls, Tavi Gevinson turns 30…
Backed by prominent donors and polling at the top of the Democratic primary field for NY-12, Schlossberg says he supports Iron Dome but is open to restricting U.S. aid to Israel
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.
As Jack Schlossberg gains a foothold in his primary campaign for a coveted open House seat in the heart of Manhattan, his views on Israel policy are drawing closer scrutiny, as he begins to stake out a stance on the increasingly heated subject of Democratic debate.
His decision to skip at least two upcoming Jewish community candidate forums occurring next month, meanwhile, is also raising some eyebrows among a key constituency in a district that has the largest Jewish voting population in the country.
On Middle East policy, the 33-year-old Kennedy scion has embraced positions that place him to the left of the field on Israel, a potentially consequential issue in the 12th Congressional District, which favored former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo over New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani in the November mayoral election.
Schlossberg, like his some of his Democratic rivals, had backed Mamdani, despite disagreeing with the now-mayor’s controversial campaign vow to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and declining to call Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide, among other notable differences.
But as the fallout over Gaza and the war with Iran has stoked Democratic skepticism of the U.S. relationship with Israel, Schlossberg is now joining growing calls to oppose U.S. weapons sales to the Jewish state, though he has yet to clearly articulate his plans to enact such policies if elected to serve in the House.
During a candidate forum at 92NY last week, for example, Schlossberg, the grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, 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.
“I do not think the United States should back away from its ally completely and leave them hanging out to dry without any defenses,” he told the crowd, while saying Congress should hold a vote on funding for the war in Iran, including offensive weapons to Israel.
Schlossberg made no mention of Senate votes taking place that evening in which most Democrats favored resolutions led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) seeking to block arms sales to Israel — which were ultimately rejected.
Meanwhile, in a questionnaire recently solicited by the Working Families Party, Schlossberg confirmed that he would co-sponsor legislation introduced by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) “that would end U.S. military aid to Israel for any uses connected to the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.”
“Yes, I oppose the use of U.S. taxpayer dollars for abuse, illegal seizure and destruction of property and any violations of international humanitarian law anywhere,” he wrote.
For their part, two of his rivals in the race to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), state Assemblymen Micah Lasher and Alex Bores, both declined to back the legislation. Another top primary opponent, George Conway, a former Republican lawyer and activist who has become a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, did not submit a questionnaire to the party.
Previously, Schlossberg had said at a candidate forum in January that he “would want to have a full intelligence briefing before supporting any specific legislation” related to Israel.
Schlossberg, who identifies as Jewish on his father’s side despite being raised Catholic, has taken steps to court the district’s sizable Jewish constituency. In the first policy proposal of his campaign, for instance, he pledged to fast-track legislation that would nearly double security funding for synagogues and other Jewish institutions amid an uptick in antisemitic violence.
It is unclear whether his views will shape pro-Israel spending in the race. Democratic Majority for Israel did not respond to requests for comment, though one person familiar with internal discussions told Jewish Insider late last year it was unlikely to engage in the primary, barring any major developments.
A spokesperson for AIPAC likewise declined to comment on the primary when reached by JI.
J Street, the progressive Israel advocacy group that has recently begun calling for ending U.S. funding to bolster Iron Dome, told JI it has “primary approved” Bores, Lasher and Schlossberg, meaning its members are able to contribute to all three candidates through its online political portal.
Tali deGroot, J Street’s vice president of political and digital strategy, told JI in a statement that all three of the candidates “are aligned with J Street’s pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy positions.”
“Ultimately, it is up to the district to determine who they want to represent them in Congress, and we are glad to see three J Street-aligned voices in this race,” she added.
Some Jewish leaders say that they are interested in hearing more from Schlossberg as he emerges as a leading candidate in the race. He attended Shabbat services in March at the Conservative Park Avenue Synagogue on the Upper East Side, a day after the terrorist attack against Temple Israel in suburban Detroit.
But he is otherwise expected to be absent from two Jewish community forums next month in the district at The Jewish Center and West Side Institutional Synagogue, the latter of which will be moderated by JI’s editor-in-chief.
Daniel Sherman, the rabbi of West Side Institutional Synagogue, said Schlossberg had been invited to the May 4 candidate forum “but his campaign responded that they had a scheduling conflict.” The event will be attended by Lasher, Bores and Conway, according to a flyer.
“As our goal is to engage with all of the candidates we would welcome his presence if the scheduling conflict can be resolved,” Sherman told JI.
Mordechai Schwarz, a longtime Jewish Center member who organized its upcoming forum, told JI that Schlossberg’s team had declined to join due to a busy schedule, even when asked if an alternative date would work better, while Conway’s campaign had not responded to repeated email invitations.
In an email to The Jewish Center shared with JI by its rabbi, Yosie Levine, Schlossberg’s team gave its “sincerest apologies” for skipping the forum, adding that “May is a busy, everchanging month for us, so we do not have alternative times to offer right now.”
In a statement to JI on Monday, a spokesperson for Schlossberg said, “Jack Schlossberg knows that Israel is a critical democratic ally for America and does not believe we should abandon Israel. That includes funding for the Iron Dome — which he would support should he be elected to Congress, so that Israel can protect itself from the myriad of threats facing it from all directions — as well as his local plan to boost protections at Jewish places of worship, given the increase in antisemitism and hate crimes.”
“With that said, Mr. Schlossberg is also the only NY-12 candidate fully opposed to the no-plan Iran war,” the spokesperson added. “That includes weapons to foreign countries, Donald Trump’s massive $200b supplemental request, and his record-breaking, bloated $1.5 trillion defense budget demands. No war means no funding for any part of the war. Schlossberg would vote accordingly.”
A spokesperson for Conway told JI on Friday he was unable to attend the forum because of a “scheduling conflict,” and said the campaign would be following up with The Jewish Center “to close the loop” on the pending matter.
Lasher and Bores are listed as attending The Jewish Center’s forum in a flyer.
The Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, a Reform congregation on the Upper West Side, is hosting a Democratic candidate forum scheduled for May 6, a representative confirmed to JI, but participants have not yet been finalized. Schlossberg’s team confirmed to JI after this story was published that he will be joining the Stephen Wise forum.
Most of the limited available polling conducted earlier this year shows Schlossberg narrowly leading the crowded primary field with a small plurality of the vote in the district that spans the Upper East and West Sides and stretches south to Union Square.
More recent private polling has indicated that Schlossberg continues to maintain a leading position in the race. According to a source briefed on an internal survey conducted for Schlossberg’s campaign in early April, who broadly described the results to JI on condition of anonymity, the Kennedy scion held a seven-point lead in the 20s — with his opponents all clustered in the high teens. The poll’s margin of error was three percentage points.
Jake Dilemani, a Democratic consultant who is not involved in the primary, suggested that Schlossberg’s favorable position most likely is “a function of name recognition,” saying that voters “are interested in his campaign because there’s a sexiness to a Kennedy running.”
Like other political observers, though, Dilemani told JI he expects the polling to shift as outside spending and other advertising influences the primary.
A star-studded list of campaign donors reflects Schlossberg’s celebrity status in the race, featuring prominent names from politics, fashion, music and entertainment such as Tory Burch, John Goodman, Bette Midler, Paul Simon, Lorne Michaels, Richard Plepler, Damon Lindelof, Bryan Lourd, Peggy Siegal, Chrissy Teigen, Jay Carney and Jon Corzine — all of whom have shown up in recent campaign filings to the Federal Election Commission.
Schlossberg, who had built a sizable online following as a social media influencer before launching his bid in November, pulled in nearly $1.2 million in the first quarter of 2026, according to his latest filing released last week, with most of that money on hand, less than his rivals have banked in their accounts.
Credibly or not, Schlossberg’s fresh perspective as a relative newcomer has provided him some license — despite his well-known family name — to call himself an “outsider” in a field populated by more established opponents with extensive records in both politics and government.
“President Kennedy was the first Catholic and the youngest president. He challenged the status quo, and he was an outsider. And that’s what I am in this race, so I’m proud to continue that legacy here,” he recently told a local news outlet, saying he will bring “new energy” to Washington.
But some critics point to Schlossberg’s otherwise thin resume, lack of reported income last year and history of bizarre and performative social media stunts, such as imitating a Nazi salute in a controversial video that surfaced at the start of his campaign, as evidence that his recent political makeover remains unconvincing.
While many of the district’s older constituents may still be unaware of Schlossberg’s unbalanced online record, Dilemani predicted that the other campaigns “will do their best to make it known” before the June primary.
High campaign staff turnover since he entered the primary has also drawn scrutiny to his operation. And he has faced some recent scrutiny for pulling out of other upcoming candidate forums.
Chris Coffey, a Democratic strategist who is not involved in the race, expressed strong doubts over Schlossberg’s bid to represent what he described as a “really important seat” in “one of the most educated and affluent districts in the country,” airing concerns about his “erratic background” and “online persona.”
“I have no doubt he is a great guy to go and have a Diet Coke with,” Coffey explained of Schlossberg. “But in an era where Democrats will hopefully be in an oversight position and needing to use all the tools they can to hopefully go after the president, he’ll be the guy making videos and doing press conferences.”
He also questioned the sincerity of Schlossberg’s comments on Israel as the party has shifted to the left, claiming he had not yet seen him “take a tough position” on any issue in the race.
“I honestly think Jack would say and do anything to get elected,” he told JI, citing Schlossberg’s recent opposition to a redevelopment project in Chelsea that some of his rivals have backed. “If he thinks today that it’s better to say, ‘I’m never going to give Israel a weapon again,’ he’ll say that,” Coffey added.
In Coffey’s assessment, “this race will test whether we’re in a moment where resumes don’t matter and nothing actually matters.”
Still, Schlossberg has managed to win some notable mainstream support, claiming a major endorsement in February from retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who said in a statement that he “represents the best of his generation” and “possesses a unique ability to navigate the digital and the classical political worlds in a way that can get things done for people.”
He has also garnered praise from Al Sharpton, joining the Democratic commentator for a “power breakfast” reported in Page Six this month and days later taking the stage at his National Action Network convention in New York, a closely watched annual political event.
Jack Schlossberg, the 32-year-old grandson of John. F. Kennedy, is joining a growing crop of young House contenders with digital clout who have been seeking to convert online popularity into a seat in Congress
Danielle Parhizkaran/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Jack Schlossberg walks into the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library ahead of the annual gala on May 4, 2025.
Jack Schlossberg’s decision to launch a bid for Congress in New York City last week was just the latest example of a Kennedy scion hoping to ascend to federal office, testing the continued strength of a hallowed family name whose political currency has dwindled over the years.
His unorthodox campaign also marked the most recent arrival of a new type of political candidate that has cropped up with increasing regularity this election cycle: the social media influencer vying for power beyond the screen.
Schlossberg, the 32-year-old grandson of John. F. Kennedy, is joining a growing crop of young House contenders with digital clout who have been seeking to convert online popularity into a seat in Congress. His campaign announcement follows, among other recent newcomers, Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old left-wing social media influencer running in next year’s crowded Democratic primary to succeed retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) in the Chicago suburbs.
Both parties have tried to harness social media to advance their messages while courting influencers and content creators to broaden their appeal among younger online voters. But as influencers engaged in political commentary now pursue political office — most with few apparent qualifying credentials — it remains to be seen if their new efforts can translate to winning campaigns.
And it’s not just young recruits trying to parlay their social media clout into political success. George Conway, the vocally anti-Trump conservative lawyer, is hoping that 2.2 million followers on X and his prolfic online attacks against the president will translate into Democratic votes as he seriously considers running in the Nadler district as well. To succeed, voters in the heavily-Democratic district would have to overlook his long record of traditionally conservative views on policy.
So far, the results have not been promising for such candidates. In a special election for a vacant House seat in Arizona this past summer, for instance, Deja Foxx, a 25-year-old influencer, fell short by a nearly 40-point margin, losing to a more well-known local lawmaker, Adelita Grijalva — a daughter of the late congressman who represented the district for more than two decades.
Foxx, a progressive TikTok activist who first drew national attention during a viral confrontation with a former Republican senator, raised a lot of money for her campaign, and polling suggested that she was gaining traction toward the end of the race. But despite the hype, a majority of voters ultimately elevated a more traditional choice to the Capitol — underscoring the obstacles in to translating online fame to electoral success.
In Houston, meanwhile, Isaiah Martin, a young Democratic activist with a sizable online following who previously served as an advisor to the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), faced a similar outcome in a crowded special House election in November — placing fifth with only 5% of the vote.
For her part, Abughazaleh, a former video producer for Media Matters of America who recently pleaded not guilty to federal charges last month alleging that she impeded immigration agents during a protest, is also trailing well behind a more established primary opponent, Daniel Biss, the mayor of Evanston, polls have shown — though many voters still remain undecided.
On the Republican side, some far-right influencers have also fared poorly in recent elections, including Laura Loomer in Florida and Brandon Herrera in Texas.
Jonathan Nagler, the co-director of the Center for Social Media and Politics at New York University, said that “we have no evidence that being able to influence someone’s consumer decisions translates to the ability to influence their political decisions. But one of the things essential for winning office is name recognition. Influencers have that. And they have the ability to reach lots of voters. That means they have the necessary resources to run a real campaign. So they become potential candidates.”
“The challenge for influencers is to come up with issues to run on,” he told Jewish Insider. “They need some reasons to suggest they can be politically relevant and do something that matters to people.”
In Schlossberg’s case, it is for now unclear if he can meaningfully leverage his family ties as he enters an increasingly crowded primary featuring a range of state and local elected officials whose political and legislative backgrounds far outmatch his own thin resume.
The Kennedy heir, who is a graduate of both Yale and Harvard, has most notably served a stint in the State Department and was a political correspondent for Vogue, where he wrote just a handful of articles — underlining his limited professional experience.
His campaign website is short on policy and instead features vague pronouncements on such concepts as “focus,” “optimism,” “courage” and “accountability.”
He is best known for his provocative social media presence, which has stirred controversy that could fuel attacks in the open primary to succeed retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in Manhattan. A recently resurfaced online video where Schlossberg seems to repeatedly perform a Nazi salute is among the posts that have raised questions about his new candidacy.
Still, one Democratic strategist who spoke with Schlossberg before he launched his campaign said that he had gotten a largely positive first impression from their conversation — despite his reputation for bizarre and often outlandish social media stunts.
“He’s smart. Had something to him. But IDK,” the strategist texted skeptically, using digital shorthand for “I don’t know.”
Nadler, who is expected to endorse his protégé, Micah Lasher, an assemblyman who represents the Upper West Side, has also expressed doubts about Schlossberg’s campaign, saying he “certainly is not going to be a major candidate” and that the House replacement “should be somebody with a record of public service, a record of public accomplishment.”
Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democratic consultant in New York City, told JI that “being an influencer in today’s campaign world matters certainly with younger voters,” but suggested that Schlossberg would need to adapt to reach a broader subset of voters in an older and more traditionally liberal district.
“In the complicated candidate and geography he will face, it is only a small part of the coming highly competitive campaign,” he said.
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