Julie Menin, the first Jewish Council speaker, stopped short of calling for Carmella Charrington to resign
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Council member Julie Menin speaks during rally of 240 Holocaust survivors for 240 hostages kidnapped by Hamas during terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleNew York City Council Speaker Julie Menin — the first Jewish person to hold her role — slammed a newly elected Brooklyn Democrat’s promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories, but declined to call her commentary disqualifying.
Jewish Insider reported on Friday that Carmella Charrington, elected in Tuesday’s far-left wave to the unpaid but important party position of district leader with help from politicians in the Democratic Socialists of America, last November shared an antisemitic video endorsing industrialist Henry Ford’s infamous antisemitic pamphlet series The International Jew.
The video, which Charrington declared “the truth” and demanded become “the topic at the table,” blamed Jews for everything from gay rights to slavery and rehashed paranoid fantasies about a world-spanning plot to dominate the media, banks, controlled substances, and the education system.
“Obviously I strongly disagree with those views, and those views are deeply, deeply offensive,” Menin, a Manhattan lawmaker, told JI at an unrelated press conference at City Hall. “It’s unacceptable, it’s abhorrent, and there’s no place for that, and I’ll leave it at that.”
However, she did not answer JI’s question as to whether Charrington’s views should bar her from holding the role to which she was elected, which wields significant power over local party leadership and judicial nominations, as well as positions in the city Board of Elections.
Charrington, who deleted the post after speaking to JI, did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story. She initially defended her post as “facts” on Friday, and told a JI reporter to “get your rabbi,” before issuing a written apology to The New York Times and on social media, vowing to “start a dialogue with my Jewish neighbors.”
To date, none of the officials JI has pressed have called for her to resign. This includes state Sen. Jabari Brisport and Assembly nominee Eon Huntley, both prominent DSA leaders who campaigned alongside her and helped her make the ballot, although both denounced her remarks.
Councilman Chi Ossé, another prominent DSA member who helped make Charrington’s legal battle to recover control of her family brownstone a citywide cause celebre, also condemned the content of her post without calling her out personally. Similarly, fellow district leader Mark Hanna — who served as Charrington’s election attorney and also is the treasurer of the anti-AIPAC American Priorities PAC — argued her commentary “can be a teachable moment” rather than an occasion for criticism.
Charrington has long claimed to have been a victim of deed theft, a form of fraud, and on Friday blamed some of her legal problems on Jewish investors and a Jewish judge.
New York state Attorney General Letitia James found that her residence was sold as part of a complicated dispute over the estate of her infirm father, who the New York City Sheriff’s office took custody of in Brooklyn on Saturday and returned to Georgia, where a court had declared him a ward of the state.
The new bill narrows the language around educational institutions to build a veto-proof majority in the council
John Lamparski/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Julie Menin, speaker of the New York City Council, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Jan. 12, 2026.
New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin will back fresh legislation to compel the NYPD to establish formal protocols for deploying buffer zones around schools during protests — a push Menin said will sail through the council with more than enough votes to beat any effort from Mayor Zohran Mamdani to block it.
The move comes a month after Mamdani exercised his veto power — for the first and only time to date — in order to stop a similar bill from becoming law, even as he allowed another measure to establish police policy for buffer zones around houses of worship to go into effect.
In his explanation of his decision to veto, Mamdani cited concerns from unions that the blocked measure could interfere with their demonstrations around college facilities, even though the proposal contained an explicit labor carveout.
In a press conference on Wednesday, Menin characterized this as a misunderstanding — one the new legislation will rectify by applying exclusively to early childhood education facilities and “most K-12 schools,” and “explicitly excluding libraries, teaching hospitals, colleges and universities.”
“That will more clearly focus the legislation on the most vulnerable students,” Menin told reporters. “These students were always at the core of the legislation.”
Bronx Councilman Eric Dinowitz, chairman of the Jewish Caucus, introduced the first school security perimeter bill as part of a Menin-backed package of legislation to combat antisemitism. But sources told Jewish Insider that Manhattan Councilwoman Elsie Encarnacion will carry the new version.
Encarnacion’s office did not immediately reply to a JI request to confirm this.
Menin maintained that she had whipped enough votes to pass the original Dinowitz bill over Mamdani’s veto, but chose not to “jam through an override” while her colleagues had lingering qualms regarding higher education institutions. She also denied the new iteration represented a “watering-down” of the original proposal.
“What our weeks of conversation revealed was that there was a considerable number of members who wholly support the intent of the legislation, but who have concerns about which educational facilities are included,” she said. “We heard them, and now we’re choosing to address them rather than dismiss them.”
The mayor’s team said it would wait to review the text of the bill before weighing in.
“The Mamdani administration has not seen the specific legislative language, and we look forward to reviewing it,” Deputy Press Secretary Sam Raskin said. “The mayor believes New York City must remain a place where students can access their schools safely as well as exercise their constitutional right to protest.”
Plus, Israel-Ukraine relations face grain of contention
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)
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The gunman who attacked the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night, Cole Tomas Allen, was arraigned in Washington this afternoon. He is being charged with transportation of a firearm between states, discharging a firearm during a crime of violence and attempting to assassinate the president of the United States, which carries a potential life sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Ballantine said Allen, 31, had “a 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun, a .38-caliber semiautomatic pistol and … three knives and other dangerous paraphernalia” during the attack. He will remain in detention with another hearing scheduled for Thursday…
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that President Donald Trump met with his national security team this morning where they discussed Iran’s latest proposal to end the war, which reportedly includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz but postponing talks on the country’s nuclear program…
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the U.S. is “being humiliated” by Iranian leaders after negotiations between the two countries this weekend were called off.
“The Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skillful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result,” Merz told a group of students. The result is “an entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards,” he added…
Russian President Vladimir Putin praised how “courageously and heroically the people of Iran are fighting for their independence” in a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi today in St. Petersburg. Araghchi thanked Russia for standing by its side and said the countries will continue their “strategic partnership”…
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said today that the terror group will not disarm, despite the Lebanese government’s intent to remove the group from power in the south of the country under the terms of the ongoing ceasefire with Israel. Hezbollah and Israel have continued to exchange fire throughout the ceasefire, including a wave of Israeli airstrikes today in response to Hezbollah’s deadly drone attack that killed an IDF soldier and wounded six yesterday…
New Department of Homeland Security training materials allow green card applicants to be denied for antisemitic and anti-Israel social media posts and activism, as well as anti-American activism, The New York Times reports. The documents, distributed to immigration officers last month, cite “as an example of questionable speech a social media post that declares, ‘Stop Israeli Terror in Palestine’ and shows the Israeli flag crossed out”…
Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Andrii Sybiha summoned Israel’s ambassador to the country to protest the arrival of a ship allegedly carrying grain taken from Russian-occupied Ukraine at Israel’s Haifa Port, Sybiha said on X. Sybiha also denounced Israel’s “lack of appropriate response to Ukraine’s legitimate request” regarding a similar vessel that docked in Haifa last week.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar slammed Sybiha for his announcement: “Diplomatic relations, especially between friendly nations, are not conducted on Twitter or in the media,” Sa’ar wrote. He said that “evidence substantiating [Ukraine’s] allegations have yet to be provided” and that “the matter will be examined”…
Several pro-Israel House Democrats in Florida could lose their seats after Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled a new congressional map that eliminates their districts — state lawmakers are expected to approve the map for use in this year’s midterm elections at a special session of the state Legislature tomorrow.
The new map could give the GOP up to four additional House seats by redrawing Democratic-leaning districts, including those of Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Darren Soto (D-FL)…
Claims by New Jersey congressional candidate Adam Hamawy that the Gazan hospital where he volunteered as a trauma surgeon in 2024 during Israel’s war with Hamas was a “completely benign civilian hospital with no tunnels underneath it” are false, The Washington Free Beacon reports.
While Hamawy claimed in an interview shortly after he returned that “there were definitely no tunnels underground and no command base there,” Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed a year later “in a tunnel directly under the hospital emergency department, where he was leading a high-level meeting with senior Hamas terrorists,” the Free Beacon writes…
All five of Pennsylvania’s living former governors, both Democrats and Republicans, released a statement today calling on state officials to prioritize the safety and security of Gov. Josh Shapiro, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
The letter came days after state Treasurer Stacy Garrity — Shapiro’s leading Republican opponent in this year’s gubernatorial race — said the state will not pay for security upgrades made to Shapiro’s privately owned family residence, done after the state-owned governor’s mansion was targeted in an antisemitic arson attack last spring…
The New York Times chronicles Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s turn away from the Democratic Party and increasing political involvement, including against the proposed “billionaire tax” in his home state of California.
“I fled socialism with my family in 1979 and know the devastating, oppressive society it created in the Soviet Union. I don’t want California to end up in the same place,” Brin told the Times. Brin, who is Jewish, has also been disturbed by the Democratic Party’s leftward shift on Israel policy…
Toronto-based Jewish advocate Adam Hummel argues in the “Boundless Insights” Substack that “anti-Zionism” is an obsolete position, given the 78-year-old existence of the State of Israel.
“Israelis don’t owe anyone an argument for their existence. … The debate is over, not because one side won, but because the thing itself came into being. They are a people. They speak a language. They live on a piece of land and have mortgages. That is what peoples do. The Greeks do it. The Poles do it. The Québécois do it. The arguments about whether they should are, at this point, a leisure activity for people who live elsewhere”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a profile of Keith Sonderling, the acting secretary of labor, who is Jewish and the grandson of Holocaust survivors, following the resignation of Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
The Zionist Rabbinic Coalition will present its first “Pillar of Zion” award to Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) at the organization’s fifth annual National Conference in Washington. Other speakers at the three-day conference will include Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter; State Department antisemitism envoy Yehuda Kaploun; Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon; and Jonathan Schanzer, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
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REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK
Hiding under a table at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
‘Two thoughts ran through my head. The main one: I’m getting married in six days. I can’t die now. The second: I can’t believe this is happening to me again’
FOLLOW THE MONEY
Abdul El-Sayed brings in campaign cash from head of Hamas-cheering group
The Michigan Senate contender accepted $7k from the chair of Al-Awda/PRRC — and hired her son
Plus, half of young Americans view Israel as a burden
Iranian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian delivers a speech on April 19, 2026.
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Talks between Israel and Lebanon, which are currently underway, were moved from the State Department to the White House. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were spotted arriving there together this afternoon, and a White House official told Jewish Insider that President Donald Trump would greet the participants at the opening of the discussion…
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who returned to Washington in order to participate in the talks, also stopped by Capitol Hill where he met with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)…
While the bombing campaign in Iran is on pause, the battle at sea continues: U.S. forces boarded another vessel carrying Iranian oil in the Indian Ocean this morning and Trump said he had ordered the U.S. Navy to “shoot and kill any boat” placing mines in the Strait of Hormuz — just as a third U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in the region…
Trump also said Iran is “having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is,” indicating the regime may still be struggling to present the U.S. with a unified proposal. “The infighting is between the ‘Hardliners,’ who have been losing BADLY on the battlefield, and the ‘Moderates,’ who are not very moderate at all (but gaining respect!),” he claimed.
In response, Iranian parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and President Masoud Pezeshkian, both considered relative moderates, issued nearly identical statements on X pledging “complete obedience to the Supreme Leader”…
Iranian officials tell The New York Times their new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is alive but injured, and so far ruling differently than his late father; the younger Khamenei is relying on Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commanders to provide him advice to make decisions “as though he is the director of the board.”
Khamenei’s injuries are extensive and he is largely inaccessible in person: “One leg was operated on three times, and he is awaiting a prosthetic. He had surgery on one hand and is slowly regaining function. His face and lips have been burned severely, making it difficult for him to speak, the officials said, adding that, eventually, he will need plastic surgery”…
U.S. officials are expressing concern over the military’s ability to defend Taiwan from China in the near future should the need arise, given that the U.S. has burned through more than 1,000 Tomahawk missiles and more than 1,500 air-defense missiles in the course of the war with Iran so far, supplies that could take up to six years to replace…
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar named Israel’s first Christian ambassador, George Deek, as the country’s special envoy to the Christian world, JI’s Lahav Harkov reports, after several recent controversies in Israel relating to Christians. Deek is part of the Arab Orthodox Christian community in Jaffa…
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) joined other Michigan Democrats in denouncing Amir Makled, a Democratic nominee for regent of the University of Michigan, over Makled’s past comments expressing antisemitic sentiments and support for terrorism.
“I’m going to have a problem with any candidate — Democrat, Republican or independent — who shares antisemitic and hateful posts on social media. Especially when they refuse to disavow those comments or show remorse,” Slotkin said in a statement to JI’s Marc Rod, in response to a question about Makled…
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not give advance notice to senior Republican senators before announcing yesterday that he was firing Navy Secretary John Phelan, causing surprise and confusion on Capitol Hill. “I found out about it the way everybody else did,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told JI’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod of the Pentagon’s announcement on social media of Phelan’s dismissal.
Trump praised Phelan in a post on Truth Social this afternoon and said he’d “certainly like to have him back within the Trump Administration sometime in the future” — Phelan had reportedly bumped heads with Hegseth but had a close relationship with the president…
Nearly half of young American adults view Israel as a burden to the United States, according to a new Harvard Youth Poll of 18- to 29-year-olds. The survey found that 46% of young Americans consider Israel to be mostly a burden to the U.S., compared to just 16% who say Israel is mostly a benefit, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports.
In addition, Ukraine, which has also received U.S. support in its lengthy war with Russia, was also determined to be more of a burden by young Americans — 31% of respondents said Ukraine is mostly a burden, while 21% said it is mostly a benefit…
The Wall Street Journal‘s Matthew Hennessey issued a defense of Elliot Kaufman, a member of the Journal‘s editorial board, after Trump slammed him on Truth Social as an “idiot” and a “moron.”
“What triggered the president’s ire was an op-ed under Mr. Kaufman’s byline headlined ‘The Iranians Take Trump for a Sucker.’ That’s a provocative title, yes, but the piece delivers on the provocation. Mr. Kaufman wasn’t calling Mr. Trump a sucker; he was merely pointing out that the Iranians are acting like they think he is one. The piece offers plenty of recent evidence to support that claim,” Hennessey wrote…
American journalist Shelly Kittleson details in The Atlantic her experience being kidnapped and held hostage by the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah terror group in Iraq for nine days earlier this month…
Former Disney CEO Bob Iger, who stepped down last month, is returning to Joshua Kushner’s venture firm, Thrive Capital, in an advisory role…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for an interview with Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) as he introduces a buffer zone bill in Congress, which follows legislation under consideration in New York and elsewhere, aiming to protect attendees at houses of worship.
Washington is abuzz ahead of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, being held at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night. The event will be headlined by American Israeli mentalist Oz Pearlman and attended by Trump for his first time as president, alongside celebrities (including Trump fan Nicki Minaj), politicians and media figures. Politicos and reporters will schmooze at events beginning this evening through Sunday morning.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!
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SHAPIRO SPOTLIGHT
Josh Shapiro supports U.S. aid to Israel, but calls to use it as leverage
In an interview with JI, Shapiro said he ‘[hasn’t] really thought about’ whether he would appear on Hasan Piker’s stream but that he hasn’t been invited
DEFINITION DEBATE
Mamdani won’t set definition of antisemitism after repealing IHRA, his antisemitism czar says
In testimony before the City Council’s antisemitism task force, an NYPD official said Mamdani played no role in a controversial change in reporting data from hate crimes
Plus, Dems concerned over fraying Israel-Europe ties
Gage Skidmore
Elizabeth Warren
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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt maintained this afternoon that President Donald Trump is “generously offering a bit of flexibility” to Iranian leaders and has not given them a “firm deadline” to provide a proposal to the U.S., contrary to reports that said Trump only intended to wait a few days before ending the ceasefire that he extended yesterday.
Leavitt also said the president did not view Iran’s seizure of two ships near the Strait of Hormuz today as a violation of the ceasefire: “These were not U.S. ships. These were not Israeli ships,” she said — a change in tone for Trump, who has taken a hardline against Tehran’s escalatory actions in the key waterway.
Meanwhile, mediating countries are reportedly working to get Tehran and Washington back to the negotiating table, with a meeting possibly on Friday. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran “has welcomed dialogue and agreement and continues to do so,” but that “breach of commitments, blockade and threats are the main obstacles” to continuing talks…
Even as negotiations to end the war are still in flux, Trump thanked Iran for granting his request not to execute eight women who were reportedly due to be killed by the regime tonight, instead releasing four of them and holding the other four in jail for one month…
The Financial Times profiles Pakistani army chief Asim Munir as he emerges as an unexpected key mediator between the U.S. and Iran, utilizing his ties to Tehran’s security establishment — including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — and personal rapport with Trump to help secure a comprehensive deal…
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is keeping the door open to a possible 2028 presidential run, saying “only the good Lord knows” what comes next as he continues to reestablish himself in the private sector and policy world after serving in the first Trump administration.
In a wide-ranging interview with Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs, Pompeo also praised Columbia University, where he now teaches at the School of International and Public Affairs, for “beg[inning] to get back the correct leadership … in a way where more voices can be heard”…
U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack stood by his comments that drew criticism over the weekend in which he repeatedly criticized Israel and praised Turkey, saying he was merely “stating the obvious.”
“When I described the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire as a ‘time out’ and said that ‘everybody has been equally untrustworthy,’ I was simply stating the obvious reality on the ground. This is realism, not criticism of any side,” Barrack told Fox News Digital. He also reaffirmed his comments that the goal in Lebanon is “not killing Hezbollah,” and that Turkey should be readmitted to the F-35 fighter jet program…
A group of Jewish District of Columbia residents gathered at the city’s municipal building today for a scheduled meeting with Janeese Lewis George, a D.C. councilmember and one of the leading candidates in this year’s mayoral race, but she never showed, two people who were in the meeting told JI’s Gabby Deutch.
A staff member for Lewis George told attendees at the start of the meeting that she was having a busy morning, and they should begin the conversation without her. At the end of the meeting, when Lewis George still had not arrived, the staff member apologized that she could not attend…
New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin warned this morning that if Mayor Zohran Mamdani vetoes the council’s legislation intended to regulate protests at religious and educational sites, the city will face “more divisiveness,” calling the decision a critical test for the mayor, JI’s Haley Cohen reports.
Menin, New York City Comptroller Mark Levine and Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, speaking at 92NY on the future of Jewry in New York, beseeched the Jewish community not to flee despite tensions with the mayor. “This is not a time to lose hope. Hopefully the three of us here can embody the future of the commitment to fighting antisemitism, the commitment to supporting the Jewish community,” Menin said…
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) is set to introduce a federal buffer zone bill, similar to that of the New York City Council, alongside Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt on Friday, as Suozzi seeks reelection to his swing-district seat on Long Island…
Democratic lawmakers and strategists are expressing concern over the rising popularity of far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, fearing that if he clinches the Democratic nomination, he would lose in a general election to former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), the GOP front-runner, Semafor reports. Democrats must retain the Michigan Senate seat to have any hope of taking back the chamber in the midterm elections.
Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI), who is backing Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the race, told the outlet that “all three candidates are qualified, but dinged El-Sayed for campaigning with [Hasan] Piker and said ‘we are continuing to see consistent polling that suggests that Haley is the only one that can win in a general election’”…
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner said he would not support keeping Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as the party’s leader in the chamber, naming as potential replacements Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Chris Murphy (D-CT) or Brian Schatz (D-HI). He also said he would oppose a ban on semiautomatic assault weapons, a priority policy for much of the Democratic caucus…
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) dismissed criticism of Platner after campaigning with him in Maine last weekend: Asked on CNBC about her comment that Platner is “my kind of man” given his past incendiary rhetoric and actions including his Nazi chest tattoo, Warren said, “He has apologized, he’s out meeting with the people of Maine every single day so they can evaluate not who Graham Platner was but who Graham Platner is today.”
Warren sidestepped a question specifically about Platner’s 2014 praise of Hamas tactics during an attack on Israeli soldiers, as reported by JI: “You guys want to be the party of inclusivity, right?” host Sara Eisen asked regarding the report. “I want to be the party that stands up for hardworking people,” Warren answered…
Schumer dodged a question yesterday asking if he is on the wrong side of his party after most Democratic senators voted in favor of blocking arms sales to Israel — a measure he opposed. “Our caucus is united and focused on ending the war in Iran,” he said, and touted Democrats’ war powers resolutions before walking away…
Rep. David Scott (D-GA) died today at 80. Scott, who voted on the House floor last night, had been running for reelection for his 13th term…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for the results of this afternoon’s war powers resolution vote in the Senate, which is expected to be blocked by Republicans as the previous four were.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh will meet at the State Department tomorrow for the second round of direct talks between the two countries. Lebanon is reportedly seeking a one-month extension to the ongoing ceasefire, which is set to expire on Sunday; Hezbollah, which has said it is not bound by the agreement, has continued to fire rockets and a drone at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison will host an exclusive dinner honoring President Donald Trump and CBS News’ White House correspondents at the recently renamed Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace. Ellison is currently seeking regulatory approval of Paramount’s deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.
The Jewish Democratic Council of America will host a candidate forum for New York’s 17th Congressional District featuring leading candidates Beth Davidson, a Rockland County legislator, and Cait Conley, a national security veteran.
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Menin, Mark Levine and Brad Hoylman-Sigal — the most senior Jewish elected officials in NYC — beseeched the Jewish community not to flee the city despite tensions with the mayor
Vladimir Kolesnikov/Michael Priest Photography
New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, Comptroller Mark Levine and Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal speak at 92NY on April 22, 2026.
New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin warned Wednesday morning that if Mayor Zohran Mamdani vetoes the council’s legislation intended to regulate protests at religious and educational sites, the city will face “more divisiveness,” calling the decision a critical test for the mayor.
The bills, which include measures to create standard NYPD policy for deploying buffer zones during protests at educational and religious facilities, face a potential veto as Mamdani has repeatedly declined to take a stand on the issue. He has acknowledged concerns against the legislation from left-wing activists and civil rights groups who have targeted synagogues and yeshivas with anti-Israel demonstrations, and has until the end of this week to veto the bills or they become law automatically.
“We need less divisiveness. I really hope — and I’ve said this to the mayor — that there is not a veto of the package of bills. That’s necessary. It will create much more division,” Menin said during a panel discussion at 92NY on “the future of being Jewish in New York,” featuring the city’s most senior Jewish elected officials: Menin, who is the first Jewish council speaker, Comptroller Mark Levine and Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal.
The panel, moderated by 92NY CEO Seth Pinsky, comes as the city has experienced historic levels of antisemitism in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks — and as Jews navigate a tense relationship with a mayor who has held hostile views towards several key communal issues. New York City has the largest population of Jews outside of Israel.
Asked by Pinsky what advice each would give to Mamdani to try to reassure the roughly 70% of the Jewish New York City electorate that did not vote for him, Hoylman-Sigal called on Mamdani to “follow the tradition of every mayor preceding him [since 1951] and visit Israel.”
He added that Mamdani already has some “really good Jewish advisors,” including Phylisa Wisdom, a progressive Jewish leader Mamdani tapped in February to run the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism. A range of Jewish Democratic politicians and advocates had lauded Wisdom’s selection, though she has alienated some Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish leaders over her work criticizing the secular education taught at yeshivas in the past.
Hoylman-Sigal’s assertion that the mayor’s heart “is in the right place” when it comes to the Jewish community was met with a chorus of “boos” from the audience.
Addressing the city’s long-standing Israel bonds investments, which Mamdani has called to end in a key source of tension for him and Levine, Levine said the investments “are not political [and] shouldn’t be political.”
“Israel bonds have never missed a payment in 70 years,” said Levine. “And by the way, we’ve had no protests about our investments in Saudi Arabia, our investments in Pakistan or China.”
All three Jewish leaders echoed the sentiment that despite a turbulent past few years, the New York City Jewish community remains resilient, and urged New Yorkers not give into the rising calls to decamp to Florida.
“Absolutely stay in New York,” said Menin. “This is not a time to lose hope. Hopefully the three of us here can embody the future of the commitment to fighting antisemitism, the commitment to supporting the Jewish community. This is a time to lean into it as opposed to shy away from it. New York is a city that has been a beacon of inclusion and tolerance; we need to make sure that it stays that way.”
“I believe the Jewish community in New York City is stronger than it’s ever been,” said Levine, who praised Mamdani’s decision to retain former Mayor Eric Adams’ NYPD commissioner, Jessica Tisch, who is Jewish and openly identifies as Zionist.
“In many synagogues, attendance is way up. Jewish New Yorkers are active in ways they haven’t been. We’ve seen new coalitions come together … This engagement gives me real hope for the future,” continued Levine.
“My wish looking forward to the next 25 years is that we see a community that fought — that didn’t move to Miami with its bad bagels — and that we kept this story going of what is really one of the most glorious Jewish communities.”
The department’s deputy commissioner acknowledged the City Council bill will formalize, not change, police policy
Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images
NYPD officers set up barricades separating pro-Israel and anti-Israel protesters on Sept. 25, 2025 in New York City.
The NYPD — part of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration — declared before the City Council on Wednesday that it has “no objections” to Council Speaker Julie Menin’s proposal compelling the department to develop a policy for establishing “buffer zones” outside houses of worship during protests.
The legislation formed the core of a suite of antisemitism-battling legislation that Menin, the body’s first Jewish speaker, rolled out in January. The bill, which obligates the NYPD to codify protocol for ensuring worshippers can enter and exit religious facilities without obstruction or harassment, initially contained language that would set the range of police barricades or tape at “up to 100 feet.”
However, an updated iteration of the legislation released Monday night eliminated any specific reference to distance, in response to objections that such language could actually constrict the NYPD’s range of protective activity. As a result, the department announced before a hearing of the Council’s Committee to Combat Hate that it has no issues with the bill, following the mayor’s previous allusions to unspecified concerns he and his NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch had with the proposal.
“We greatly appreciate that dialogue and collaboration,” said NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Legal Affairs Michael Gerber, who explicitly stated he was providing the opinion of Tisch. “The result is a bill that is consistent with the NYPD’s ability to protect people entering and leaving places of worship, as well as our commitment to facilitating First Amendment activity.”
The Menin bill is distinct from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s push for 25-foot buffer zones around houses of worship, which would subject violators to criminal penalties. Despite the controversy over the Council proposal, which inspired dueling rallies in opposition and support prior to the hearing, Gerber noted that the law would not impose new policies upon the NYPD but simply require Tisch to formalize and publish their procedures.
“To be clear, the policy will not alter our practices but rather will articulate and describe what we are already doing,” Gerber said. “I think the bill fosters transparency.”
A corollary piece of City Council legislation, introduced by Councilmember Eric Dinowitz — chair of the body’s Jewish Caucus — would apply the same standards to educational facilities. Gerber said his department could not offer the same carte blanche support for this proposal, because it would set uniform standards for police conduct on both public and private property.
Menin pressed Gerber regarding the NYPD’s failure to set up a clear path of access and egress to Park East Synagogue in Manhattan amid an anti-Israel protest in November spearheaded by openly pro-Hamas activists. Gerber reiterated a statement of regret that Tisch, a scion of one of the city’s most prominent Jewish families, also made at the time.
“We got that one wrong,” said Gerber. “We didn’t have the appropriate frozen zone at the entrance, and that led to a situation that should not have happened.”
But the deputy commissioner stressed that the NYPD must guarantee the right of protesters to demonstrate in sight and earshot of their targets, even if their message is hateful and even if the targets are entering or exiting a house of worship.
“The NYPD must protect the First Amendment rights of protesters,” said Gerber. “If individuals choose to protest against those entering a place of worship, the NYPD will ensure that they have sight and sound to the entrance of that location, consistent with the First Amendment. At the same time, the protesters will not be permitted to obstruct, impede or interfere.”
Several left-wing members of the Council pressed Gerber for statistics and responses to hypothetical scenarios, and to make a straightforward declaration of support or opposition to the measure.
Other council members shared their view that the bill does not go far enough. “My concern is that we’re putting forward a symbolic bill that doesn’t really address the real concerns and fears that are being expressed today,” said Councilmember Sandy Nurse.
Menin’s proposal now has 27 co-sponsors, two more than the needed majority of the Council’s 51 members — though seven short of the number required to override a mayoral veto. Mamdani has so far declined to say whether he would sign the bill if it reaches his desk.
City Council legislation to shield synagogues and other religious institutions pits Jewish groups against progressive activists — and sets up a potential fight with the Mamdani administration
Selçuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images
Anti-Israel demonstrators gather at 'No Settlers on Stolen Land' protest against a Nefesh b'Nefesh event at the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan in November 2025.
A bill introduced in the New York City Council in response to pro-Hamas demonstrations outside New York synagogues has sparked a battle between mainstream Jewish advocacy organizations and protest groups and their allies — and leaves New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the NYPD in an awkward spot.
At the center of the agenda to counter antisemitism that Council Speaker Julie Menin unveiled in January was her proposal directing the NYPD to establish a plan for “security perimeters,” demarcated with police barriers or tape, up to 100 feet from entrances and exits at religious facilities to prevent protesters from obstructing or harassing people attempting to enter or exit.
In response to feedback from the police department, the speaker’s office stripped out any specific reference to distance, and a new draft of the bill simply compels Commissioner Jessica Tisch to propose her own plan for “buffer zones” of sizes she deems appropriate “to address and contain the risk of injury, intimidation, and interference, while preserving and protecting protest rights.” Like the previous bill, the zones in the updated legislation could extend from both doorways and driveways.
The measure faces its first hearing in the council on Wednesday, but it has already accentuated and even deepened the split between long-standing Jewish institutions and the activist forces that elevated Mamdani to power last fall.
“Access to religious institutions must be protected so that people can enter their houses of worship without fear of harassment or intimidation,” said Eric S. Goldstein, CEO of the UJA-Federation of New York, which has sought to organize Jewish communal support for the bill. “Speaker Menin’s proposal advances that goal through a carefully designed framework that appropriately balances First Amendment rights with safety and prevention,” Goldstein said.
By contrast, a bevy of far-left groups — Jews For Racial & Economic Justice, the American Council for Judaism, Jewish Voice for Peace-New York City and IfNotNow NYC — several of which have ties to the mayor, collectively denounced Menin’s legislation earlier this month.
“The right to protest in this country is sacrosanct and must be protected,” the organizations said in a joint statement, arguing that the synagogues at the center of recent demonstrations had hosted “non-religious political events” — namely, for groups encouraging and facilitating immigration to Israel — that made them legitimate targets. “We urge our city leaders to take seriously that a free and open democracy is essential towards ensuring the safety of all New Yorkers, including Jewish communities.”
The Menin bill is distinct from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s push for 25-foot buffer zones around houses of worship, which would subject violators to criminal penalties, or from calls for similar actions on the national level. A corollary piece of City Council legislation, introduced by Councilmember Eric Dinowitz, would establish similar perimeters around educational institutions.
Alyza Lewin, president of U.S. affairs for the Combat Antisemitism Movement, noted that the Supreme Court had upheld electioneering laws barring campaign activity within 100 feet of polling places.
“It really shouldn’t be so controversial,” Lewin told JI. “They determined that setting up a 100-foot zone around the polling place did not impermissibly interfere with the speech rights of those campaigning. You have a similar situation here. And here you’re talking about a constitutionally protected right to the free exercise of religion.”
The speaker’s office acknowledged it had looked to the high court precedent Lewin cited while crafting the legislation. But Menin’s team stressed to Jewish Insider that the bill would not prohibit protesting within the buffer zones.
Menin’s office maintained that the legislation would compel the police department to have an official, public protocol for ensuring access and egress at places of worship during demonstrations.
“It does not limit protest activity,” said Menin spokesperson Henry Robins. “The bill directs the NYPD to develop and publish a plan to ensure individuals can safely enter and exit these institutions without harassment or obstruction, while fully respecting First Amendment rights.”
Mamdani has declined to express his opinions on the proposal from Menin, a Manhattan Democrat and the first-ever Jewish council speaker, frequently seen as representing moderate elements of the party that opposed his election. He has instead alluded to vague “concerns” with the proposal from Tisch, a scion of one of the city’s most prominent Jewish families and a holdover from his predecessor’s administration.
However, multiple sources asserted that concerns from the NYPD were not constitutional but logistical.
Moreover, former Mayor Eric Adams signed an executive order in December that directed the NYPD to consider instituting zones limiting protest from 15 to 60 feet from the doorways of religious facilities. Moshe Davis, who headed the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism under Adams, said his team developed this directive in concert with the NYPD and the city Law Department, which have not changed under the new administration.
Mamdani repealed Adams’ order, along with others the outgoing mayor signed just before his term ended, his first day in office — but then signed an identical decree into effect. His office did not respond to requests for comment from JI.
Menin’s bill currently has 20 co-sponsors, six short of the majority needed for passage. However, 34 of the 51 members of the council would need to back the bill to override a mayoral veto.
Speaking to Jake Tapper on CNN Monday night, Mamdani said he would reserve comment until his administration had conducted a legal review.
Her legislative proposals could be opposed by New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani
Julie Menin, speaker of the New York City Council and Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York, arrive for an announcement in the Brooklyn borough of New York, US, on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 (Photographer: John Lamparski/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Julie Menin, the recently elected speaker of the New York City Council, announced a comprehensive plan to confront rising antisemitism on Friday, unveiling several initiatives that notably include an emerging legislative proposal to establish buffer zones around houses of worship to keep protesters from harassing congregants.
The measure, which echoes legislation introduced last month by state legislators, comes in response to a recent series of anti-Israel demonstrations outside synagogues in New York City, including a protest in Queens last week where participants voiced support for Hamas — raising fears in the Jewish community amid a broader rise in antisemitic activity across the five boroughs.
But it could place Menin, the Council’s first Jewish speaker and a vocal defender of Israel, at odds with Mayor Zohran Mamdani, underscoring a tension in their new relationship on areas in which anti-Israel activism crosses a line into antisemitic behavior. In his statement addressing the Queens protesters, for example, Mamdani, a fierce critic of Israel who has long identified as an outspoken anti-Zionist, chose not to accuse them of antisemitism as several of his top allies on the far left had done, even as he made sure to call Hamas a terrorist group and denounce the slogans chanted by demonstrators as “wrong.”
While Menin has yet to confirm the exact distance of the barrier she hopes to impose around houses of worship, she has floated a possible perimeter of 100 feet, far surpassing a 25-foot zone proposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul in her State of the State address this week. Mamdani, who was in attendance during the governor’s speech in Albany, did not applaud when she mentioned buffer, stirring speculation over his support for implementing such restrictions.
Some critics have raised concerns that the efforts could run afoul of free speech protections, though one state legislator who introduced a bill to create buffer zones last month told Jewish Insider that the legislation had balanced those considerations with a need to safeguard congregants from intimidation in seeking to freely practice their religion.
“We’re not trying to stifle peaceful protests,” Menin said on Friday during a press conference held at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan. “What we are trying to do is protect congregants for any house of worship, of freely being able to enter and exit without fear of intimidation or harassment.”
Jack Lobel, a spokesperson for Menin, told JI that the legislation “establishing a safe perimeter around schools and houses of worship is being drafted, and we will have more to share in the future.”
Mamdani, meanwhile, has voiced interest in exploring the establishment of buffer zones that some Jewish leaders have urged him to consider. The mayor signed an executive order on his first day in office to instruct the police commissioner and the Law Department to assess “proposals for regulation of protest activity” outside houses of worship, citing a possible buffer “of at least 15 feet and up to 60 feet from the entrance.”
In a statement shared with JI, Dora Pekec, a spokesperson for Mamdani, said the mayor “is committed to fighting antisemitism, and ensuring that New Yorkers continue to be able to worship freely as well as exercise their First Amendment rights.”
“On the first day of his administration, the mayor directed the NYPD and Law Department to review the legality of a range of proposals, including those like Speaker Menin’s buffer zones proposal, and he will wait for the outcome of that review,” she added.
Jewish leaders who spoke with JI provided mixed predictions about how Mamdani would respond to the legislation, which came in addition to a range of proposals Menin announced on Friday — including $1.25 million in funding for the Museum of Jewish Heritage and a new hotline to help report incidents of antisemitism that would be overseen by the New York City Commission on Human Rights.
With the exception of Menin’s safety zones bill, one Jewish leader argued that there was “not much for” the mayor “to push back on,” calling the other new proposals “mostly monetary.”
The establishment of legally proscribed perimeters around houses of worship is “the only” issue where there is ongoing uncertainty, the Jewish leader told JI on condition of anonymity to address a sensitive topic. “But we don’t have her proposal yet,” he said of Menin’s effort, which marked the first legislative push of her new tenure.
Still, Josh Mehlman, the chairman of the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition, an Orthodox group in Brooklyn, said he was optimistic that the legislation would pass, noting his conversations with Menin as well as other supportive Council members indicated Mamdani would ultimately be amenable to the final version of the bill.
“It’s not something they feel that the mayor would not be happy with,” he told JI.
The admin is leaning on J Street alum Josh Binderman
Angelina Katsanis-Pool/Getty Images
Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani speaks during a mayoral debate at Rockefeller Center on October 16, 2025 in New York City.
👋 Good Thursday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to Jewish leaders in New York City about Julie Menin’s election to be city council speaker and look at how New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s staffing decisions signal how he’ll work with the city’s Jewish community. We talk to legislators about the possibility of the U.S. recognizing Somaliland, and have the scoop on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s meeting today with survivors of the Bondi Beach terror attack in Sydney, Australia. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: MK Dan Illouz, Tony Dokoupil and Marc Molinaro.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- It’s the first day of New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin’s term after yesterday’s unanimous council vote. Menin, a centrist Democrat representing the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island, is expected to serve as an ideological counterweight to elements of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s agenda. More below.
- The Senate will vote today on a war powers resolution that would limit U.S. military action in Venezuela without congressional authorization.
- Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will meet today with survivors of the Hanukkah terror attack in Sydney, Australia. More below.
- Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) will officially announce his plan to retire from Congress in a floor speech today. The 86-year-old Hoyer, who served as House majority leader from 2007-2011 and 2019-2023, told The Washington Post that he “did not want to be one of those members who clearly stayed, outstayed his or her ability to do the job.”
- Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro — who kicked off his 2026 reelection bid this morning — and Lt. Gov. Austin Davis are slated to speak today in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
- The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center in New York City is hosting a screening this evening of “The Road Between Us,” a documentary about the efforts of Maj. Gen. (res.) Noam Tibon to rescue his son, journalist Amir Tibon, and Amir’s family from Kibbutz Nahal Oz during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks. Read our interview with Noam Tibon and director Barry Avrich, who will speak at the screening, here.
- In Beirut, Lebanese Armed Forces commander Rudolph Haikal is scheduled to brief Lebanese legislators on efforts to disarm Hezbollah in the southern region of the country, along Israel’s border. Lebanon’s army announced that it had completed the disarmament of Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon, with the exception of small areas under Israeli control. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office called the efforts “an encouraging beginning, but they are far from sufficient, as evidenced by Hezbollah’s efforts to rearm and rebuild its terror infrastructure with Iranian support.”
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MATTHEW KASSEL
As New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani draws increased scrutiny for picking some top appointees whose past incendiary social media comments have provoked controversy and raised questions over his vetting process, Jewish community leaders are now watching closely for signs of how the administration will make staffing decisions on key issues connected to Israel and antisemitism.
One person to keep an eye on is Josh Binderman, who served as Mamdani’s Jewish outreach director during the campaign and transition. He has largely maintained a low profile in his time working for the candidate and now mayor, garnering just a small handful of mentions in the press, despite his critical position leading engagement with a community that in many ways remains deeply skeptical of Mamdani’s hostile stances on Israel and commitment to implementing a clear strategy to counter rising antisemitism.
Binderman, most recently a communications manager for New Deal Strategies, an influential progressive consulting firm, served until 2024 as a PAC manager and a senior associate for J Street, the progressive Israel advocacy group, according to his LinkedIn profile.
While Mamdani notably refused to work with the organization when he led a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine as an undergraduate student at Bowdoin College, the mayor has since developed a friendlier rapport with J Street, which has defended him amid charges that he tapped transition advisors who engaged in anti-Zionist activism that crossed a line into antisemitism.
Mamdani’s decision to employ a former top J Street staffer during the election suggests he could follow a similar approach to key Jewish community posts for his developing administration. If so, it could help to at least dampen some concerns from Jewish leaders who fear the mayor will end up hiring even harder-left members in his coalition such as activists associated with Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Israel advocacy group that aggressively promotes boycotts targeting the Jewish state.
It is still an open question, however, how Mamdani will move forward on such issues. His decision last week to revoke two executive orders linked to Israel and antisemitism was widely seen as a discouraging maneuver that eroded goodwill among mainstream Jewish leaders — even as Binderman had reportedly given some advance warning to leaders about the effort before the inauguration.
MENIN’S MOMENT
New York Jewish leaders hope Menin will serve as check against Mamdani
Julie Menin’s election on Wednesday as speaker of the New York City Council was a reassuring sign to Jewish leaders who have long seen the 58-year-old centrist Democrat as a key ally and believe that she will act as a check on Mayor Zohran Mamdani with regard to issues involving Israel and antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Track record: Yeruchim Silber, director of New York government relations at Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox advocacy group, said that Menin “has a long history of working with the Jewish community,” calling her “an important part of the [former New York Mayor Bill] de Blasio administration,” when she led efforts to promote Jewish participation in the 2020 census. He told JI he was “confident she will be able to work collaboratively with” Mamdani’s administration “on all issues important to the community.”
FLASHPOINT AHEAD
Mamdani tested by planned protests targeting Jewish communities
A radical anti-Israel activist group responsible for the disruptive November protest outside of a historic synagogue in Manhattan announced it will hold a similar demonstration on Thursday, marking the first major test Mayor Zohran Mamdani will face in protecting the city’s Jewish community since he was inaugurated last week, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Details: The group, Palestinian Assembly for Liberation [PAL]-Awda, initially announced two demonstrations against Israeli immigration events in New York City this week. “Nefesh B’Nfesh settler recruitment fair on Wednesday at 7 pm in Manhattan and illegal Stolen Palestinian Land sale on Thursday at 6:30 in Queens,” the group wrote Tuesday on social media, adding that it would disclose event locations on Wednesday. The group, which never posted the location of the Nefesh B’ Nefesh event, wrote on Instagram on Wednesday evening, less than an hour before the event started, that “our planned action tonight to protest the settler recruitment event is being cancelled.” Thursday’s demonstration, which PAL-Awda said it is still planning to hold, is protesting an event held by CapitIL, a Jerusalem-based real estate agency.
SAUDI SPOTLIGHT
U.S. lawmakers weigh in on fears of Saudi Arabia accommodating Islamists
Lawmakers in Washington are largely downplaying recent developments suggesting that Saudi Arabia is pivoting away from moderation and entertaining more hard-line Islamism, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, who came away from the meeting indicating that potential disputes or shifts in the kingdom had been overstated.
In the room: Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) — who has been critical of Saudi Arabia in the past — told JI that Prince Faisal, in the meeting, sought to directly rebut claims that Saudi Arabia was pivoting away from a position of moderation. The overall message from Prince Faisal, Sherman said, was “the Saudis claim that they are anti-[Muslim] Brotherhood and that the disputes with the UAE are tactical, not ideological.”
Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mark Warner (D-VA), John Kennedy (R-LA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) and Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL).
SOMALILAND STRATEGY
Fetterman joins call for Somaliland independence, but many lawmakers remain wary
Some Republicans and at least one Democrat on Capitol Hill are voicing their support for the U.S. to follow Israel’s lead in recognizing Somaliland — but many lawmakers, even some who have supported expanded U.S.-Somaliland ties in the past, say such a step would be premature, if not misguided, at this point, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod, Emily Jacobs and Matthew Shea report.
The latest: Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), one of the most vocal pro-Israel Democrats in Congress, said in a statement to JI that he’s in favor of U.S. recognition of Somaliland, making him the first member of his party to do so publicly. “As an unapologetic friend of Israel, I fully support their decision on Somaliland. I support the U.S. doing the same,” Fetterman told JI. But others on both sides of the aisle — even some who have pushed for expanded U.S.-Somaliland ties in the past — are more reluctant, calling recognition either premature or a mistake entirely.
Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), James Lankford (R-OK), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ).
RED TAPE
Jewish House Democrats urge Noem to rescind new conditions on security grants
The members of the Congressional Jewish Caucus — every Jewish House Democrat — wrote to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on Wednesday urging her to rescind new conditions — presumably related to immigration enforcement and diversity programs — instituted earlier this year on recipients of Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Notable quotable: “[W]e reject any efforts to force Jewish and other houses of worship and institutions to choose between vital security funding and expression of their core religious freedoms, as well as their faith teachings and values,” the lawmakers wrote. “In this time of increased hate crimes against minorities, and in particular rising antisemitism, we believe it is crucial that NSGP remains a critical resource accessible to all communities in need and free from partisan politicization.”
SCOOP
Schumer to meet with survivors of Bondi Beach terror attack
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will meet at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday morning with two survivors of the deadly terrorist attack during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, Jewish Insider has learned. The two survivors are Rabbi Yehoram Ulman, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Bondi, and Ahmed al Ahmed, the civilian who tackled and disarmed one of the gunmen during the attack. Ulman hosted the Hanukkah event where 15 people were killed, including his son-in-law, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, JI’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod report.
On the agenda: Australian Ambassador to the U.S. Kevin Rudd, the country’s former two-term prime minister, will also be in attendance. A source familiar with the matter told JI that the Senate minority leader will “listen to their stories and discuss the work that he and the Australian government are doing respectively to combat antisemitism.”
Bonus: Al Ahmed was honored last night at Colel Chabad annual dinner in New York City, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports.
Worthy Reads
From Foggy Bottom to the Hill: Politico’s Jordain Carney spotlights Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s positioning on Capitol Hill, where he served as a senator for 14 years, as the point person for the Trump administration’s recent foreign policy moves. “Secretary of State Marco Rubio worked the phones in the wee hours of the morning and, in the days since, has played an outsize role in not only formulating the administration’s strategy in Venezuela but explaining it to skeptical lawmakers wary of a protracted military commitment. That outreach has been to his former Republican colleagues as well as Democrats, including those who see him as a rare Trump official with whom they can maintain a trusted and respectful relationship amid profound policy disputes. ‘Although I may disagree with him on a day-to-day or hour-to-hour basis … he has shown extraordinary competence,’ Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democratic leader, said in an interview. ‘I voted for him in this position; I still have confidence in his abilities.’” [Politico]
Silenced on Venezuela: The Atlantic’s David Graham considers the reticence of Vice President JD Vance and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, both of whom come from the isolationist camp, to give vocal backing to the White House’s arrest of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. “What all of these figures understand is the importance of staying on Trump’s good side. [Steve] Bannon was exiled from the first Trump White House; he has since mastered the art of diverging just enough from the president that he sometimes takes flak but never gets banished from the fold entirely. Gabbard already saw the dangers of getting crosswise with the president when she implicitly warned against the bombing of Iran this past summer, before quickly falling back in line. One more break might get her sacked. No one has as much to lose as Vance, though. … Vance may not like what’s going on in Venezuela, though unless he says so, no one knows. Until then, his willingness to keep his mouth shut speaks loudly. For Vance, deeply held principles are fine, but staying in power is even more alluring.” [TheAtlantic]
States’ Rights: In The Wall Street Journal, Guy Goldstein and Daniel Arbess argue that Israel’s recognition of Somaliland is in line with the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States that lays out the parameters for statehood — which the Palestinian Authority falls short of meeting. “[Somaliland] has a permanent population, a defined territory, effective government and the capacity to conduct foreign relations — the four tests of the 1933 Montevideo Convention. … Israel’s recognition of Somaliland affirms something deeply offensive to the professional virtue-signaling ‘peace’ industry. The entire regional narrative collapses once the Montevideo criteria are taken seriously. Somaliland passes. Kurdistan passes. South Yemen is close. Puntland isn’t far behind. The one project that dominates every United Nations agenda, every campus protest, every moral lecture, does not. Israel’s move isn’t a rejection of the two-state idea; it is a return of that idea to reality. It is what happens when you stop rewarding dysfunction and start recognizing good behavior.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump is expected to announce the members of the newly created Board of Peace next week amid efforts to move into the second phase of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas; Nikolay Mladenov, a former U.N. envoy to the Middle East, will serve as the board’s representative on the ground…
The White House announced its withdrawal from dozens of international organizations, including the Global Counterterrorism Forum, Global Forum on Cyber Expertise and more than 30 U.N.-affiliated groups…
The Senate passed, by unanimous consent, a resolution condemning the rise in ideologically motivated attacks against American Jews and condemning antisemitism…
FTA Administrator Marc Molinaro, who represented upstate New York in the House from 2023-2025, is mulling a run for the state’s 21st Congressional District, a seat being vacated by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) at the end of this year…
Qatar is the top country donating foreign funds to American universities, and Cornell University is its leading recipient, according to a new dashboard from the Department of Education that displays foreign gifts and contracts provided to U.S. educational institutions, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
The board of Warner Bros. Discovery recommended that shareholders reject a hostile bid by David Ellison’s Skydance Paramount, which had amended a previous bid in an effort to sway Warner Bros. from moving forward with a deal with Netflix…
People interviews Tony Dokoupil about his new role anchoring “CBS Evening News”…
The Richmond, Calif., City Council refused to take up an emergency resolution censuring the city’s mayor, Eduardo Martinez, for sharing conspiracies about the terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia, on social media…
The foreign desk chief of Spanish daily El País apologized for the newspaper’s characterization of Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who is presiding over the trial of deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro; the paper described Hellerstein as having “made efforts to maintain an impartial stance despite being a well-known member of the Jewish community,” a clause that was later deleted from the online version…
Reform U.K. leader Nigel Farage called allegations from numerous former classmates that he engaged in antisemitic and racist bullying as a teenager “complete made-up fantasies”…
Iranian army chief Maj. Gen. Amir Hatami threatened preemptive military action, days after Trump cautioned that the U.S. could act in Iran if protesters in the country were killed…
Iran said it executed a man convicted of spying on behalf of the Mossad, as the Islamic Republic continues its crackdown on alleged spies following the 12-day war with Israel in June 2025…
Deqa Qasim, the director of the political department in Somaliland’s Foreign Ministry, told Israel’s N12 that Jerusalem and Hargeisa are discussing setting up an Israeli military base in the African territory, contradicting a previous denial that such an agreement was on the table…
Likud lawmaker Dan Illouz, in a speech to the Knesset on Monday, warned the American right about the dangers of rising antisemitism within its ranks, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports…
The New York Solidarity Networkannounced that Sara Forman, the group’s inaugural executive director since 2022, will step down at the end of the month…
Josh Hammer is joining the David Horowitz Freedom Center as a Shillman Fellow…
Jay Stein, whose development of Universal Studios’ tram tour turned the company into an empire that competed with Disney, died at 88…
Swiss film producer Arthur Cohn, who won six Oscars for his films, including Best Documentary Feature for “One Day in September,” about the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, died at 98…
Rabbi Uri Lupolianski, the first Haredi mayor of Jerusalem and founder of Yad Sarah, died at 74…
Pic of the Day
Guillaume Cardy, the chief of the French National Police’s elite unit RAID (Research, Assistance, Intervention, Deterrence), paid his respects on Monday at Paris’ Hypercacher supermarket during a ceremony commemorating the 11th anniversary of the deadly Islamist attacks on the kosher market as well as the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper.
Birthdays
Member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a guitarist and founding member of the Doors, Robby Krieger turns 80…
Sociologist at the American Enterprise Institute, Charles Murray turns 83… Senior U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Florida, now on inactive status, Alan Stephen Gold turns 82… Moscow-born classical pianist, living in the U.S. since 1987, Vladimir Feltsman turns 74… Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning composer, he is a professor of music composition at Yale, David Lang turns 69… Founder and chief investment officer of Pzena Investment Management, Richard “Rich” Pzena turns 67… Israel’s ambassador to the Republic of Korea, Rafael Harpaz turns 64… Co-founder of Pizza Shuttle in Milwaukee, Mark Gold… Violinist and composer best known for her klezmer music, Alicia Svigals turns 63… VP of wealth services at the Alera Group, he was an NFL tight end for the Bears and Vikings, Brent Novoselsky turns 60… Founder and president of DC-based Professionals in the City, Michael Karlan turns 58… Lobbyist, attorney, patron of contemporary art and philanthropist, Heather Miller Podesta turns 56… Anthropologist and epidemiologist, she is a professor of pediatrics at UCSF, Janet Wojcicki turns 56… Former state senator in Maine (2008-2016), Justin Loring Alfond turns 51… Singer-songwriter, musician, and actress, she was the lead singer and rhythm guitarist for the indie rock band Rilo Kiley, Jenny Lewis turns 50… Former director of U.S. public policy programs for Meta / Facebook, now a partner in Lev Collective, Avra Siegel… Editor, investigative reporter and screenwriter, Ross M. Schneiderman… Actor, screenwriter and director, he is a son of film director Barry Levinson, Sam Levinson turns 41… Retired professional soccer player, he is now a partner in Columbus, Ohio-based Main + High Investments, Ross Benjamin Friedman turns 34… Principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, Skylar Paley Brandt turns 33…
Julie Menin was elected the first Jewish speaker of the New York City Council on Wednesday
Julie Menin/X
New York City Councilmember Julie Menin is unanimously elected Council speaker on January 7, 2026.
Julie Menin’s election on Wednesday as speaker of the New York City Council was a reassuring sign to Jewish leaders who have long seen the 58-year-old centrist Democrat as a key ally and believe that she will act as a check on Mayor Zohran Mamdani with regard to issues involving Israel and antisemitism.
In a unanimous vote, Menin, a pro-Israel lawmaker and veteran city official who lives on the Upper East Side, became the council’s first Jewish speaker, pledging in her victory speech to focus on “dissolving division” and to “calm tensions” as she prepares to work with a mayor whose hostile views on Israel have long been a defining characteristic of his political ascendance.
“We live in a day with the first Muslim mayor of New York City and now the first Jewish speaker of the council serving at the same time,” Menin said on Wednesday.
Despite the positive tone, Menin, who as speaker now holds the second-most powerful elected role in city government, is still facing the looming prospect of conflict with Mamdani over their differing stances on Israel, which has already animated their nascent relationship.
In her speech, Menin alluded to some tensions that could stoke divisions, insisting that “we must never jeopardize a New Yorker’s right to worship.”
“Because we cannot let what happened outside Park East Synagogue ever happen again, at any house of worship,” Menin said, referring to a protest outside a Manhattan synagogue in November that targeted an event about immigration to Israel and featured chants including “death to the IDF” and “globalize the intifada,” a slogan that Mamdani has refused to condemn.
Mamdani had faced intense criticism after he had admonished the synagogue for promoting what he called “activities in violation of international law,” a statement he later revised.
More recently, after Mamdani had repealed a pair of executive orders tied to Israel and antisemitism on his first day in office last week, Menin said in an interview with The New York Post that she called the mayor to voice her concerns, noting there will “obviously be continued conversation around this.”
Menin added in a separate interview with The New York Times published on Wednesday that she had a “productive conversation” with Mamdani regarding his decision to rescind an executive order issued by former Mayor Eric Adams that adopted a working definition of antisemitism used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which labels some criticism of Israel as antisemitic.
While Mamdani indicated during the election that he would seek to invalidate the order, the move triggered widespread backlash from Jewish leaders who said it raised questions over his commitment to effectively fighting antisemitism.
Menin, for her part, telegraphed a more diplomatic position to the Times, even as she had said she was “extremely concerned” by the repeals. “It’s one tool that can be utilized,” she said of the definition. “It’s obviously not the only tool.”
Her assessment underscores what Jewish leaders close to Menin characterized as an even-keeled and largely unflappable approach to governance, which could now be tested on issues she has described as intensely personal.
Menin, a daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, has long warned of rising antisemitism in New York and has advocated for increased funding to help promote Holocaust education. Menin visited Israel during a solidarity trip after the Hamas terror attacks of Oct. 7, 2023 — after which she introduced a program to send eighth graders to the Museum of Jewish Heritage to raise awareness about the global history of antisemitism.
Chris Coffey, a Democratic strategist who has served as an informal advisor to Menin, said she is “results-oriented and not focused on labels,” while predicting “she will work with the mayor when she can.”
“There may be times when they don’t agree and they will work through it,” he told Jewish Insider earlier this week, saying Menin is “more interested in results than drama.”
Yeruchim Silber, director of New York government relations at Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox advocacy group, said that Menin “has a long history of working with the Jewish community,” calling her “an important part of the [former New York Mayor Bill] de Blasio administration,” when she led efforts to promote participation in the 2020 census.
He told JI he was “confident she will be able to work collaboratively with” Mamdani’s administration “on all issues important to the community.”
Still, other related issues could emerge as a more challenging test, as Jewish leaders speculate about what actions Mamdani will take next. One point of major tension stems from the partnership between Cornell University and Israel’s Technion, which the mayor’s team had indicated during the election that he would reassess.
Menin, a staunch opponent of Israel boycotts, has praised the joint Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island, which sits in her district, as a crucial hub for local tech and business innovation. “That is an area, of course, of disagreement,” Menin said last month regarding Mamdani’s skepticism of the partnership.
A spokesperson for Menin did not respond to a request for comment from JI on her differences with the mayor.
Menin and Mamdani have in recent weeks largely struck a collaborative tone, appearing at their first joint press conference on Monday to sign executive orders to counter deceptive business practices such as junk fees. Menin has emphasized a shared focus on affordability goals including universal daycare, a key priority of Mamdani’s fledgling administration.
But their courteous public relationship belies other underlying tensions. For his part, Mamdani — who never formally voiced a preference in the contest for council speaker — had privately sought to thwart Menin’s effort as she consolidated backing from a range of members and locked up a supermajority several weeks before the Jan. 1 inauguration. Last month, in a notable snub, Mamdani also did not include Menin in a group of more than 100 elected officials he picked to advise his transition.
Menin, meanwhile, declined to endorse Mamdani, and during the primary chose not to join a summer meeting he had arranged with local Jewish elected officials to address their concerns about his critical views on Israel.
Now that they are working together, some Jewish allies of Menin said they expect that she will put her differences with Mamdani aside, unless provoked to take action with regard to key issues on which she is not aligned with the mayor.
One Jewish leader close to Menin, who asked to remain anonymous to speak candidly, said the new speaker “will be willing to partner with” Mamdani’s administration “to improve the city,” but suggested that it is in the mayor’s “hands to stop doing actions that isolate and antagonize the Jewish community.”
“She is definitely of a mindset of wanting to work together but doing what he did on inauguration day was definitely viewed as a first punch,” the Jewish leader told JI, referring to the executive orders that Mamdani revoked.
Jake Dilemani, a Democratic consultant who served as an informal advisor to Menin in her 2021 Council bid, said that the speaker “is focused on governance and delivering results, and has a strong track record on affordability and consumer protection issues.”
“So, the expectation is this will be a cornerstone of her speakership and that she will work with Mayor Mamdani to put points on the board,” he told JI. “She equally has a strong record on Jewish issues and fighting antisemitism, and it is something that is very personal for her. I fully expect that she will work productively with the mayor on many issues, but will stand up to the administration should she deem it necessary.”
Plus, House bill on Muslim Brotherhood goes further than Trump
(Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)
NYC Council Member Julie Menin attends the 92NY Groundbreaking Ceremony for Buttenwieser Hall on June 28, 2022 in New York City.
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how New York City Councilmember Julie Menin’s potential leadership of the council could impact Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s policies, and report on the upcoming House Committee vote on designating Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated groups as terror organizations. We preview today’s closely watched special election in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, and have the exclusive on Rep. Ritchie Torres’ new bill to codify the Coast Guard’s anti-swastika policy. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Eli Zabar, Marc Rowan, Josh Kushner and Sam Altman.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider 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
- In Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District today, Republican Matt Van Epps and Democrat Aftyn Behn face off in the special election to replace Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), who resigned over the summer. More below.
- In Washington, the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates is holding its annual National Day celebration.
- Elsewhere in Washington, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is hosting the premiere of “The Last Twins,” a documentary about the efforts of Erno “Zvi” Spiegel, a Hungarian Jewish man and prisoner at Auschwitz who protected twins imprisoned at the concentration camp.
- Israel Hayom is holding its first New York summit today in Manhattan. Speakers include the Israeli daily’s publisher Dr. Miriam Adelson, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams, U.S. Special Envoy for Hostage Response Adam Boehler, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder, TWG Global managing partner and former Biden administration senior official Amos Hochstein, the Justice Department’s Harmeet Dhillon and former hostages Guy Gilboa Dallal and Evyatar David.
- The Combat Antisemitism Movement is holding its 2025 North American Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism in New Orleans.
- In Miami, Art Basel kicks off today and runs through the weekend.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S Josh Kraushaar
Today’s special election in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District — covering parts of Nashville, its conservative suburbs and rural counties in middle Tennessee — was expected to be a sleepy affair, given that the district backed President Donald Trump with 60% of the vote in 2024. The state’s aggressively partisan redistricting in 2021 was intended to guarantee GOP dominance of the state’s congressional delegation, leaving just one Democratic district in Memphis.
But in a sign that Trump’s growing unpopularity is creating unforeseen problems for Republicans in conservative constituencies, the race between Republican military veteran Matt Van Epps, a former state Cabinet secretary, and Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn is highly competitive.
The fact that polls show the race tightening — with one Emerson College poll showing Van Epps in a statistical tie with Behn — is a sign of just how treacherous the political landscape has become for Republicans. Gallup’s latest survey found Trump with a 36% job approval, close to an all-time low throughout his two terms in office.
If Republicans are nervous about holding a seat that Trump won by 22 points, there’s a growing likelihood of a blue wave that would give Democrats comfortable control of the House and an outside shot at a Senate majority. (One useful benchmark: Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) carried the 7th District by just two points in her 2018 Senate race, the last election year when Democrats rode a wave to win back the House.)
The fact that Republicans are struggling to make the case that the unapologetically progressive Behn holds views out of step with the conservative district on everything from anti-police rhetoric to antipathy towards her home city of Nashville to a record of hostility against Israel is also a sign of how nationalized our politics have become. In today’s tribal world, candidate quality and specific policy views mean a lot less than the overall political mood (vibes) and the popularity of the president.
IDEOLOGICAL COUNTERWEIGHT
Likely NYC council speaker Julie Menin on a collision course with Mayor-elect Mamdani
Julie Menin, a moderate Jewish Democrat from Manhattan who last week declared an early victory in the New York City Council speaker race, is widely expected to serve as an ideological counterweight to the incoming administration of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. Some of their biggest clashes could stem from their sharply opposing views on Israel and antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Diverging approaches: Menin, who would be the council’s first Jewish speaker if officially elected in January during an internal vote, is an outspoken supporter of Israel and visited the country on a solidarity trip months after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. For his part, Mamdani, a 34-year-old Queens state assemblyman, has long been a detractor of Israel — whose right to exist as a Jewish state he has refused to recognize. He has indicated that he could move to enact some policies aligning with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting the Jewish state, even as he has also promised to protect Jewish New Yorkers by calling for a major increase in funding to prevent hate crimes, among other measures.
ON DECK
House Committee to vote on Muslim Brotherhood terrorist designation bill
Just over a week after the Trump administration announced moves to designate branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is set to discuss and vote on legislation that aims to classify the entire organization globally as a terrorist group on Wednesday, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Side by side: The bipartisan House legislation, led by Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), would instruct the Department of State to assess whether each branch of the Muslim Brotherhood operating globally meets the requirements for designation as a terrorist group. It would then use those determinations to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group in its entirety. The legislation may go further than the current executive action on the issue, which does not specifically mandate assessments of each Muslim Brotherhood branch and does not directly aim to proscribe the entire Muslim Brotherhood.
UNSAVORY ALLIANCE
Cori Bush poses for picture with influencer who defended Capital Jewish Museum killings
Former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who is challenging Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO) to reclaim her former seat in Congress, posed for a photo with Guy Christensen, an anti-Israel influencer who defended the Capital Jewish Museum shooting, in which two Israeli Embassy employees were murdered, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Background: The influencer posted a photo last week from what appears to be a recent American Muslims for Palestine conference — Christensen is wearing an AMP lanyard and speaker badge — alongside a smiling Bush, with the caption “We’re coming for you AIPAC.” Christensen, on TikTok, lauded Elias Rodriguez, who has been indicted for the D.C. shooting, encouraging his followers to support the alleged gunman, characterizing the shooting as “justified” and an “act of resistance,” and urging his followers to respond with “greater resistance and escalation.”
BAD MEDICINE
Jewish health-care professionals demand action against ‘anti-Zionism’ in medicine
Jewish medical practitioners have faced “two years of near-constant abuse and a far longer erosion of professional norms,” according to an open letter published this week decrying the reach of anti-Zionist ideology in the medical field. More than 1,000 health-care professionals signed onto the letter, the latest of several similar attempts by Jewish doctors, therapists and nurses to garner attention about the exclusion and harassment that many say they have faced in their fields since the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel two years ago, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Wider worries: But in this latest missive, its authors and signatories allege that anti-Zionism is a problem unto itself in the medical field — an argument that comes as many people who face accusations of antisemitism defend themselves by saying they are merely opposed to Israel, and not to Jews. The letter marks a rhetorical shift by medical professionals that reflects a broader set of concerns about the influence of anti-Israel ideas in medicine. Anti-Zionism, the letter’s authors write, presents a risk not just to Jewish patients but to the medical field’s integrity.
EXCLUSIVE
Ritchie Torres introduces bill to codify Coast Guard’s anti-swastika policy
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) on Monday introduced legislation to codify a policy in the Coast Guard prohibiting displays of swastikas and other hate symbols, following backlash last week over a new Coast Guard policy that loosened the previous ban on such displays, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What it does: Torres’ bill would prohibit the Coast Guard from issuing, without congressional approval, “any guidance that is less restrictive on prohibiting divisive or hate symbols and flags” than the updated policy issued following the public backlash, which partially, although not fully, reinstated the previous policy. The new policy states that “divisive or hate symbols and flags are prohibited,” including swastikas.
VETO VISION
U.N. member states push to eliminate Security Council veto
Members of the United Nations General Assembly are renewing their push to curb or eliminate the Security Council veto, intensifying concern over whether such a reform would make it easier for the international body to target Israel, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Eye on Israel: The “veto initiative,” adopted in 2022, requires the General Assembly to convene a debate any time a permanent member of the Security Council — the United States, United Kingdom, France, China or Russia — blocks a resolution. During the war between Israel and Hamas, the Security Council attempted multiple times to pass resolutions calling for an “immediate” and “unconditional” ceasefire in Gaza. The United States often cast the lone veto, arguing the measures were one-sided and would ultimately benefit Hamas. “Anti-Israel bias at the United Nations is pervasive, and the U.S. veto is the only thing standing in the way of the body passing binding resolutions that would pose a danger to the Jewish state,” said David May, a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Worthy Reads
Target on Their Backs: The New Yorker’s Benjamin Wallace-Wells spotlights the rise in political violence targeting U.S. officials on both sides of the aisle, including the Passover firebombing of the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion targeting Gov. Josh Shapiro. “[Cody] Balmer had pleaded guilty in mid-October, not just to arson and terrorism but to attempted murder. But Shapiro was still reluctant to focus on his attacker. ‘The prosecutor felt it was important to introduce into evidence the bomber’s claims that he did that because of “what I did to the Palestinians,” so clearly there was some motivation because of my faith,’ Shapiro said. ‘But I think it is dangerous for you or anyone else to think about those who perpetrate these violent attacks as linear thinkers, meaning that they have a left-wing ideology or a right-wing ideology, or that they have a firm set of beliefs the way you might or I might. These are clearly irrational thinkers. And I think that’s true of others who have claimed lives, whether it’s [Minnesota] Speaker [Melissa] Hortman’s or Charlie Kirk’s.’” [NewYorker]
Bearing Arms: The Atlantic’s Isaac Stanley-Becker reports on Germany’s moves to rebuild its offensive military capabilities amid concerns over increased Russian aggression on the Continent and moves by Washington toward neo-isolationism. “[Colonel Dennis] Krüger told me about traveling to Tel Aviv to fine-tune a missile-defense system purchased from the Israelis that can intercept and destroy long-range ballistic missiles in space. … For decades, Germany has been a top exporter of arms to Israel, its commitment to the security of the Jewish state a legacy of the Holocaust. Arrow 3, the largest defense deal in Israeli history, reverses that logic by making Israel a guarantor of German safety. Krüger said that work on the weapons system turned representatives from the two militaries into a ‘family,’ and that they built camaraderie when his staff waited out missile attacks in Tel Aviv’s belowground shelters with their Israeli counterparts. The weapons acquisition from Israel is ‘one next step,’ Krüger said, ‘in overcoming our history.’” [TheAtlantic]
Word on the Street
Following a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump called on Jerusalem to “maintain a strong and true dialogue with Syria” and warned Israel to avoid scenarios “that will interfere with Syria’s evolution into a prosperous State”…
U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, the U.S.’ Syria envoy, met in Damascus on Monday with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in an effort to calm tensions between Syria and Israel following weekend clashes…
Politico looks at concerns among Republican Jewish donors over increasing antisemitism on the right…
Sam Altman’s OpenAI is taking an ownership stake in Josh Kushner’s Thrive Holdings and will integrate its AI tools into Thrive’s companies, which were acquired with an eye toward consolidating them and incorporating AI into their processes; Thrive had previously invested billions of dollars in OpenAI…
Private equity firm Apax Partners acquired Israeli online marketplace Yad2 for $950 million…
Harvard hired a recent divinity school graduate who was filmed in late 2023 assaulting a Jewish student at a “die-in” at the Cambridge campus…
The New York Times spotlights Eli Zabar’s egg salad sandwich…
Israeli filmmaker Rachel Elitzur interviews religious Jewish couples about their first night of marriage in her short documentary “The First Night”…
The Norwegian government is struggling to reach a consensus on issues regarding oil drilling and Oslo’s sovereign wealth fund’s investments in Israel in its draft budget for the coming year ahead of a vote scheduled for Friday…
A synagogue and memorial in Rome to a 2-year-old Jewish victim of terror were vandalizedearlier this week, drawing condemnations from the city’s Jewish community and Italy’s foreign minister, who called the vandalism “unacceptable”…
Colombia expelled more than two dozen members of the Lev Tahor sect, including 17 children, after a raid on the hotel in which they were staying…
Israel’s Iron Beam system, which intercepts missiles with lasers, will be delivered to the IDF for initial operational use at the end of the month, Brig.-Gen. (res.) Daniel Gold, head of the Israeli Ministry of Defense Research and Development Directorate, said at the International DefenseTech Summit at Tel Aviv University on Monday, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports…
Iran sentenced award-winning filmmaker Jafar Panahi to a year in prison in absentia; Panahi, whose “It Was Just an Accident” won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, is currently in the U.S. promoting the film…
The Sudanese Armed Forces offered Russia a 25-year naval base deal along the East African coast that, if Moscow accepts, would be its first position in Africa…
Pic of the Day
Apollo Global Management CEO and UJA-Federation of New York Board Chair Marc Rowan was honored with the Gustave L. Levy Award last night at the 50th UJA-Federation Wall Street Dinner in Manhattan.
Referencing New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s comments regarding the recent protests outside an aliyah event at the Park East Synagogue, Rowan declared Mamdani an “enemy” of the Jewish community, vowing that his organization would “call him out.”
Birthdays
Actress best known for playing Special Agent Kensi Blye in 277 episodes of CBS’ “NCIS Los Angeles,” Daniela Ruah turns 42…
Former director of the Mossad and then head of the Israeli National Security Council, Efraim Halevy turns 91… Professor of rabbinic literature at Yeshiva University’s Gruss Institute in Jerusalem, Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff turns 88… Real estate executive and founder of the Sunshine Group, she was an EVP of The Trump Organization until 1985, Louise Mintz Sunshine turns 85… Sociologist and human rights activist, Jack Nusan Porter turns 81… Partner at Personal Healthcare LLC, Pincus Zagelbaum… Former drummer for a rock band in France followed by a career in contemporary Jewish spiritual music in Brooklyn, Isaac “Jacky” Bitton turns 78… EVP at Rubenstein Communications, Nancy Haberman… Author of more than 15 volumes of poetry, he is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Pennsylvania, Bob Perelman turns 78… French historian, professor at Sorbonne Paris North University and author of 30 books on the history of North Africa, Benjamin Stora turns 75… Retired associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Barbara A. Lenk turns 75… Professor emerita at Montana State University, she was a member of the Montana House of Representatives and a board member of Bozeman’s Congregation Beth Shalom, Dr. Franke Wilmer turns 75… Canadian fashion designer and entrepreneur, he is best known for launching the Club Monaco and Joe Fresh brands, Joe Mimran turns 73… Partner in the Madison, Wis., law firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland, she is a class action and labor law attorney, Sarah Siskind… Rabbi of Baltimore’s Congregation Ohel Moshe, Rabbi Zvi Teichman… Celebrity physician and author of diet books, he is the president of the Nutritional Research Foundation, Joel Fuhrman turns 72… Advertising account executive at the Los Angeles Daily Journal Corporation, Lanna Solnit… Cleveland resident, Joseph Schlaiser… Emmy Award-winning actress, Rena Sofer turns 57… Publisher and CEO of The Forward, Rachel Fishman Feddersen… Identical twin sisters, known as The AstroTwins, they are magazine columnists and authors of four books on astrology, Tali Edut and Ophira Edut turn 53… Lecturer of political science at Yale, she was formerly a White House staffer, Eleanor L. Schiff turns 49… Television writer and producer, Murray Selig Miller turns 49… Former member of the Knesset and then Israel’s ambassador to the U.K., Tzipi Hotovely turns 47… Director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation, Annie Fixler… Managing director with Alvarez & Marsal in Atlanta, she was a sabre fencer at the 2004 Summer Olympics, Emily Jacobson Edwards turns 40… Actor, best known for playing Trevor in the coming-of-age film “Eighth Grade,” Fred Hechinger turns 26…
If elected in January, Menin would be the first Jewish speaker of the New York City Council
Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
Council member Julie Menin speaks during rally of 240 Holocaust survivors for 240 hostages kidnapped by Hamas during terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Julie Menin, a moderate Jewish Democrat from Manhattan who last week declared an early victory in the New York City Council speaker race, is widely expected to serve as an ideological counterweight to the incoming administration of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist hoping to advance a range of far-left agenda items.
Some of their biggest clashes could stem from their sharply opposing views on Israel and antisemitism.
Menin, who would be the Council’s first Jewish speaker if officially elected in January during an internal vote, is an outspoken supporter of Israel and visited the country on a solidarity trip months after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. The daughter of a Holocaust survivor, Menin, 58, has advocated for Holocaust education funding and warned of rising antisemitism as a three-term city councilwoman.
For his part, Mamdani, a 34-year-old Queens state assemblyman, has long been a detractor of Israel — whose right to exist as a Jewish state he has refused to recognize. He has said that he will not participate in the Israel Day parade up Fifth Avenue, which Menin regularly attends, and indicated that he could move to enact some policies aligning with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting the Jewish state, even as he has also promised to protect Jewish New Yorkers by calling for a major increase in funding to prevent hate crimes, among other measures.
Their diverging approaches to such issues were on display late last month, when Menin and Mamdani each shared contrasting statements responding to a demonstration outside of a synagogue in her district during an event about immigration to Israel.
While Mamdani admonished the synagogue for promoting “activities in violation of international law,” a comment he revised after facing backlash, Menin condemned the protest as “not acceptable,” saying “congregants must have the right to worship freely and to enter and exit their house of worship without impediment.”
Jewish community leaders suggested that Menin, whose district includes a wide swath of the Upper East Side, could find herself at odds with Mamdani if he chooses to act on some of his campaign pledges that raised red flags among pro-Israel advocates. The mayor-elect has said, for instance, he intends to revoke the city’s embrace of a working definition of antisemitism used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. He has also indicated he will reassess the partnership between Cornell University and Israel’s Technion, potentially kicking the joint Cornell Tech campus out of its home on Roosevelt Island, which sits in Menin’s district.
A spokesperson for Menin said that she was not available for an interview with Jewish Insider on Monday.
In a recent conversation with Errol Louis of NY1, Menin defended the Cornell-Technion partnership, saying that it has “created thousands and thousands of tech jobs.”
“I was just there last month. They’ve created hundreds of new tech companies, innovative tech companies that are now housed in New York City, that are really the future of our great city,” Menin added. “I think, look, we need to really try to come together on these issues, and I think it’s absolutely possible to do so.”
One Jewish leader close to Menin, who spoke with JI on condition of anonymity to address a sensitive issue, said that “the community sees her as a check and a safeguard” against Mamdani’s administration and that she “understands the historical importance of this moment,” as she is poised to become the first Jewish speaker. “She is a proud Jewish woman who represents a proud Jewish district.”
Still, the Jewish leader noted, Menin is “not the type to look for any fights,” stressing she is more likely to first seek common ground on divisive issues, unless she has “no choice but to push back.”
In recent public statements, Menin has struck a collaborative tone in regard to Mamdani, who will be the city’s first Muslim mayor, stressing their shared focus on affordability goals such as universal childcare, one of the mayor-elect’s top priorities.
Menin announced last week that she had secured enough backing to become the next speaker, touting votes from at least 36 members of the council. Though allegiances could shift in the coming weeks, Menin, who added endorsements Monday, is not expected to fall below the minimum threshold of 26 votes required to win in the 51-seat body. Her chief rival, Crystal Hudson, a progressive from Brooklyn who was seen as more closely aligned with Mamdani’s agenda, conceded the race last week.
In a statement last Wednesday, Menin, who did not make an endorsement in the mayoral race, said she was “honored and humbled by the trust and faith that my colleagues have put in me to lead the City Council as a force of action for New York families.”
“With this broad five-borough coalition, we stand ready to partner with Mayor-Elect Mamdani’s administration and deliver on a shared agenda that makes New York more affordable through universal child care, lowers rent and health care costs and ensures that families across the city can do more than just get by,” she continued.
A spokesperson for Mamdani, who did not publicly take sides in the speaker race, did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Dora Pekec, a spokesperson for the mayor-elect, said in a statement last week that Mamdani “looks forward to working with her and the entire City Council to deliver on our affordability agenda for New Yorkers.”
Lynn Schulman, a Jewish councilwoman from Queens and an ally of Menin, said she believed her colleague “will be an excellent speaker” and “fair to everybody,” especially as she prepares to negotiate a massive, $116 billion budget.
“The Council is made up of a very broad and diverse group,” she told JI. “I think that there is going to be a lot of collaboration. Julie is someone who’s always brought a lot of people together. We have to work as a collegial body.”
Sydney Altfield, CEO of Teach Coalition, an Orthodox advocacy group, said that she was “encouraged” that Menin locked up a super majority among council members, adding that she had “worked closely” with the likely speaker and trusts “she is someone who can turn policy into progress.”
“As New York moves forward with a Muslim mayor, a Catholic governor and now the potential of a Jewish council speaker, we have the chance to see something powerful,” Altfield said in a statement to JI. “Leaders from every faith standing shoulder to shoulder for our children.”
Despite looming tensions over Israel, Sara Forman, executive director of New York Solidarity Network, a local pro-Israel group, said it was “premature” to speculate about any possible friction with Mamdani, focusing instead on how Menin is poised to become the first Jewish speaker — which she called “hugely significant in this moment” of rising antisemitism.
“It gives the community some reassurance moving forward that there’s somebody just like us,” Forman said.
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