Darializa Avila Chevalier railed against Democratic leaders and U.S. veterans, and co-hosted a podcast with Oct. 7 cheerleader
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Darializa Avila Chevalier
Add JewishInsider on GoogleNew York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s favored candidate to topple Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) has a history of extremist sentiments — with commentary assailing Israel, interracial relationships, “white liberals” and the U.S. flag and military.
Inflammatory posts by Darializa Avila Chevalier, that have received coverage in the New York Post, Politico, and AM New York, include: lambasting Black and Arab men for “fetishizing ugly colonizer women,” boasting of wiping her hand on the American flag, attacking former President Joe Biden as a “rapist,” declaring “f*** [Vice President] Kamala Harris,” demanding “No more police at all ever,” asserting Mayor Bill de Blasio “hates Black people” and is “a piece of shit” and calling American military veterans “child murderers” guilty of “war crimes.”
Jewish Insider reviewed additional tweets, including one announcing “I can’t stand white liberals” and another questioning whether watching a film with Israeli American actress Natalie Portman — a longtime critic of Israeli government policies and its leadership — would constitute “breaking the boycott.”
Her Twitter bio at the time of the latter tweet in 2019 was “how communist of you” and included the hashtag #FreePalestine. At the time, Avila Chevalier co-hosted a podcast called “They Are Just Deportees” with John Jay College instructor Nick Rodrigo, who attracted attention following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel when he offered multiple shout-outs at a rally to the Palestinian terrorists who murdered, sexually assaulted and abducted Israeli civilians.
“Shout out to the resistance! The resistance storming that wretched border wall on Oct. 7. They are doing their resistance and they are freeing themselves and in turn freeing us,” he said at the event.
Avila Chevalier herself later became a leader of Columbia University’s 2023 anti-Israel encampment movement.
Avila Chevalier did not respond to a question from JI about whether she agreed with this statement, or to any queries for this article. The Miami native recently told CNN, however, that she has “grown considerably” since writing many of her past posts.
But the candidate’s profile on The Story Graph, a social site page that allows users to share their reading habits, indicates an interest in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a U.S.-designated Marxist terrorist group that participated in the 2023 assault. The page lists her as “Currently Reading” Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz — and also The Trinity of Fundamentals, a novel by Wisam Rafeedie, a prominent PFLP member who once ran the organization’s publishing house.
The tome was translated and published by 1804 Books, an arm of the People’s Forum, itself part of Shanghai-based financier Neville “Roy” Singham’s international network of pro-China, pro-Russia, pro-Iran nonprofits.
Her “Recently Read” page, meanwhile, lists two books by PFLP spokesman Ghassan Kanafani. During Kanfani’s tenure, the PFLP became notorious for masterminding the slaughter of Israeli citizens and Puerto Rican Christian pilgrims at Lod Airport in 1972, and subsequently pioneering the terrorist practice of skyjacking.
Avila Chevalier is the latest and last of Mamdani’s endorsed congressional candidates, who also include Assemblymember Claire Valdez — seeking to succeed retiring Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) — and former city Comptroller Brad Lander, who is challenging Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY). Primary day is June 23.
Absent from the festivities was New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, while former Mayors Eric Adams and Mike Bloomberg marched in the procession
Haley Cohen
Israel Day parade in New York City on May 31, 2026.
As an estimated 50,000 New Yorkers stretched along Fifth Avenue waving Israeli and American flags and Hebrew music echoed through the streets, this year’s annual “Israel Day on Fifth” parade carried a palpable sense of relief. For the first time since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, attendees could swap out their hostage pins and “Bring Them Home Now” signs for simple flags — marking the first parade since the attacks in which all hostages held by Hamas have been released and Israel’s war in Gaza has ended.
Yet, the festivities unfolded against a remarkable backdrop: For the first time in more than six decades, the city’s mayor was notably absent from the bipartisan tradition.
At a press conference at One Police Plaza on Thursday, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani affirmed his longstanding vow to boycott Israel Day parade, organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, which every Gracie Mansion occupant since Mayor Robert Wagner has attended, starting in 1965.
“I said on the campaign trail that I wouldn’t be attending the parade, and I’ve made my views on the Israeli government abundantly clear,” said Mamdani, who ran on an anti-Israel stance in last year’s election. “While I will not be attending, our administration has been preparing for weeks to ensure the parade is safe for all those who take part.”
Mamdani’s police chief, Jessica Tisch, a self-proclaimed Zionist from a prominent New York Jewish family, served as grand marshal. Tisch and Mamdani together pledged a “comprehensive security plan” at the press conference to protect the celebration.
Tisch said this year’s parade saw the “largest number of officers ever assigned to the event,” which included NYPD patrol units, plainclothes cops and teams from the intelligence and counterterrorism bureaus, amid a heightened threat environment, including the recent federal indictment of a Kataib Hezbollah commander for a thwarted plot to bomb at a prominent Manhattan synagogue. Every participant, spectator and vendor along the parade route, which stretched from East 62nd Street to 74th Street, underwent metal detector screening, and steel barricades were installed along several of the city’s major avenues, obstructing pedestrians.
The Jewish community also mobilized its own security teams, deploying hundreds of volunteers from the Community Security Service, Community Security Initiative and Shomrim as well as Hatzalah emergency medical response.
“We are grateful that tens of thousands of participants and spectators were able to gather safely and proudly in the heart of New York City,” Mitchell Silber, CEO of CSI, a joint program of JCRC and UJA-Federation of New York, told Jewish Insider. Silber called the day a “success” and credited the NYPD for “ensuring that everyone could celebrate without disruption or intimidation.”
“The ability of the Jewish community and its supporters to come together openly and confidently is something we never take for granted. Today’s parade was a powerful demonstration of community pride, resilience and unity, and we thank all those who helped make it a safe and successful day,” said Silber, former director of intelligence analysis at the NYPD.
While Mamdani’s boycott was intended to make a strong statement — and received widespread criticism from mainstream Jewish groups — attendees appeared largely unfazed. Some parade participants even mocked the absence by carrying cardboard cutouts of Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, who is a fellow Israel critic. Instead, attendees seemed focused on the notable figures marching — from politicians from both parties to social media influencers and the largest-ever delegation from the Knesset, including Speaker Amir Ohana and members of both the governing and opposition parties.
“Today, we delivered a resounding answer to all those who hate Israel. This was the largest and most significant parade ever,” said Ofir Akunis, consul general of Israel in New York.
Spotted on the Jewish Agency’s float — receiving perhaps the loudest applause of the day — were Ronen and Orna Neutra, the parents of Omer Neutra, an Israeli American IDF officer killed on Oct. 7.
State Assemblymember Alex Bores, who is running in the Democratic primary for the 12th Congressional District, was in attendance. Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is challenging Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) in the 10th District, boycotted the event, stating he would not attend “so long as Israel continues violating international law and Palestinian human rights in Gaza and West Bank.”
Goldman and former New York City Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Eric Adams marched in the parade.
“This is Bloomberg sticking it to Mamdani,” a source familiar with the parade’s planning told the New York Post.
Moshe Davis, former executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism under the Adams administration — who marched Sunday alongside Adams — told JI, “There’s nothing like marching up Fifth Avenue at the Celebrate Israel Parade, tens of thousands of New Yorkers standing shoulder to shoulder for the unbreakable bond between Israel, the Jewish people and this city … To everyone who leads this city: this is what partnership looks like. This is what strength looks like. And it’s what builds a future for all New Yorkers.”
Surrounded by city leaders — including New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin and UJA-Federation of New York CEO Eric Goldstein — Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) addressed attendees.
“Today is a special day. We have this great parade, which I always attend, and it’s my granddaughter’s 4th birthday. The two are related,” said Schumer. “We must fight for her to grow up in a world that’s safe for the Jewish people. And I worry deeply about the future that they’re going to inherit.
“The Holocaust showed the world what Jews have known for millennia — that our security and safety is never safe as long as we lack a place of refuge, a homeland. We’re seeing an ugly resurgence of antisemitism across the world, driven by the same lies and libels that have tormented the Jewish people for generations. Except now, they’re transmitted at the speed of a fiber optic internet connection in 30-second clips on a phone in your pocket.”
Looking out into the sea of blue and white, Schumer continued, “This is why a Jewish state is as important as ever. Antisemitism isn’t going away; it always lingers, always stalks in the shadows, waiting for the right conditions to explode into violence.”
Two DSA-backed challengers have a credible shot at winning seats, while Rep. Dan Goldman is down in polls against Brad Lander
Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images
NY Assemblymember Claire Valdez
As an emboldened socialist wing of the Democratic Party gains traction across New York City in the aftermath of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s victory, Jewish leaders and moderate officials are bracing for the possibility of multiple upsets in key House races that could reshape the ideological orientation of the state’s congressional delegation.
Three races have drawn heightened attention in recent weeks, including a marquee House contest playing out largely in progressive Brooklyn where Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) is seeking to fend off a serious challenge from former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. Meanwhile, in upper Manhattan and the Bronx, Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) is facing what looks like an increasingly credible challenge from an anti-Israel organizer. And in the race to replace retiring Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), her favored primary candidate is struggling to compete against a democratic socialist endorsed by Mamdani.
“If you have two socialists and Brad Lander” who are elected, “that’s a real move to the left — and it’s a lot of people who are bringing down the seniority of the congressional delegation,” said Chris Coffey, a New York City Democratic strategist not involved in the races. “That is probably the biggest shift we’ve seen at the congressional level in generations,” he told Jewish Insider, adding that there are “a lot of ifs baked into that.”
A recent public poll showing Goldman trailing badly behind Lander underscored how an emboldened far left is asserting itself in a race that is hinging in large part on the candidates’ differences over Israel. The independent survey, released last week by Emerson College, strongly indicated that Goldman is in serious trouble in the closely watched June 23 primary, lagging badly behind Lander, who held a commanding 57% of the vote.
Goldman, a pro-Israel Democrat who gained prominence as an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, touts a relatively progressive record on domestic issues like healthcare, climate policy and immigration. But as he seeks a third term, Goldman has faced backlash from left-wing activists over his continued support for U.S. funding to Israel, which Lander, notably endorsed by Mamdani, has vowed to end, even for missile defense.
In a rare convergence on Middle East-related issues, the candidates opposed a successful effort this week to implement a boycott of Israeli products at a high-profile local food cooperative in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, which sits in the district. (In a sign of the times, the boycott vote passed by a 2-to-1 margin.) But they otherwise disagreed on whether the measure was antisemitic, as Goldman and other Jewish community activists, including an influential rabbi in the district, had described the divisive effort.
Both Goldman and Lander are slated to address Jewish community concerns on June 7 during off-the-record town hall events at Congregation Beth Elohim, a Reform synagogue in Park Slope that is led by that rabbi, Rachel Timoner, according to an email recently sent to members. They will answer questions from congregants independently in the back-to-back, hour-long forums.
Despite tensions over Israel, some strategists note that Lander’s dominance in the progressive district covering sections of Brownstone Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan can be attributed to his standing as a popular former councilman and citywide elected official who also ran for mayor last cycle — a level of name ID that marks him as a sort of de facto incumbent.
But other races have also sharply demonstrated how anti-Israel sentiment is fueling the rise of candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists America’s New York City chapter. The group, which has championed anti-Zionism as a core element of its platform, is now backing challengers in two high-profile congressional primaries as well as some down-ballot races for seats in the state Legislature.
The closest race, for an open House seat spanning parts of Brooklyn and Queens, pits Claire Valdez, a democratic socialist assemblymember who is known for her anti-Israel activism, against Antonio Reynoso, the progressive Brooklyn borough president boasting establishment support from the outgoing incumbent, Velazquez, and the state attorney general, Letitia James, among other elected officials and groups.
But even as Reynoso entered the race in a favorable position, well-known to voters for his reputation as a more traditional progressive, he has struggled in his campaign to gain traction, recently calling himself an underdog, thanks to Valdez’s support from Mamdani paired with the grassroots organizational muscle of a resurgent DSA. A recent poll showed Valdez narrowly leading Reynoso by two points, with 23% of the vote, even while she is comparatively new to the district as a first-term state lawmaker.
Valdez’s favorable position has come as she has made opposition to Israel a primary focus of her campaign, while facing some scrutiny over her decision to sit for a friendly discussion earlier this month with a Twitch streamer who was once suspended from the platform for calling Jews a “demonic ethnicity.” Her campaign did not respond to a request for comment concerning the interview.
In a separate House primary in upper Manhattan as well as parts of the Bronx, Jewish leaders have begun to raise alarms about an insurgent challenger to Espaillat, a veteran incumbent who, like Goldman, is backed by the pro-Israel group AIPAC. In the final weeks of the race, he is now facing what Democratic strategists say is an increasingly serious threat from Darializa Avila Chevalier, a DSA-endorsed organizer who helped lead campus anti-Israel demonstrations at Columbia University.
“Folks seem to be getting very nervous,” one Jewish leader following the race told JI, echoing others who relayed similar concerns about the contest as it enters its closing stretch.
An internal campaign poll conducted in March, for instance, put Avila Chevalier at 28% among primary voters, with Espaillat at 42%, a poor showing for an incumbent who has held office for close to a decade. Political observers suggested the race could be closer as the primary nears and Avila Chevalier rides a wave of anti-establishment, leftist sentiment now shaping several races across the country where the DSA is involved.
In addition to backing an arms embargo on Israel and efforts to boycott the Jewish state, both Avila Chevalier and Valdez pledged to “refrain from any affiliation with the Israeli government and Zionist lobby groups, including but not limited to AIPAC, J Street, or DMFI,” according to DSA questionnaires reviewed by JI.
Justice Democrats, the far-left group that has frequently targeted incumbents, has also endorsed both candidates and is now spending to boost their campaigns. On Wednesday, it dropped $260,000 on ads to help boost Avila Chevalier — suggesting it sees the race as in play. The group also made its first foray into Valdez’s primary this week, according to filings, spending $11,000 on digital ads to prop up her bid.
Reynoso and Espaillat, meanwhile, can expect seven figures spent independently on their behalf in the coming weeks, a Democratic operative familiar with the matter told JI, but did not disclose the source of such funding.
The upcoming expenditures foreshadow what is shaping up to be a bitterly contested fight between the Democratic establishment and the far left now seeking to supplant it.
Still, there are signs that the far left is struggling to gain traction outside of deeply progressive districts. For example, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), a pro-Israel stalwart facing a challenge from former state lawmaker Michael Blake, who has made opposition to AIPAC a key part of his messaging, is expected to prevail. A recent poll showed Torres with a commanding 60% of the vote share, far outpacing Blake, who held just 15% in the Bronx-based district.
Torres’ position “shows that if you are actually working hard in your district and are there and present and delivering, then you should be OK,” Coffey, the Democratic strategist, told JI, noting that the congressman also developed a positive relationship with Mamdani, despite their disagreements on Middle East policy.
Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democratic strategist in New York City, characterized the DSA’s strategy as part of a “long-term plan” to “take over legislatures” across the country and influence foreign policy at the congressional level, as other far-left candidates have made inroads in key House races in Philadelphia and Denver. “New York is just the beginning,” he told JI.
The UJA-Federation of New York and JCRC said they would skip the mayor’s Jewish Heritage Month event
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at a "Rental Ripoff" hearing at Fordham University in the Bronx borough of New York on March 11, 2026, in New York City.
Two of New York City’s leading mainstream Jewish organizations will skip a pre-Shavuot gathering at Gracie Mansion on Monday evening — with one directly pointing to a controversial video Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted to his official social media channels on Friday as the reason for refusing to participate.
The UJA-Federation of New York and Jewish Community Relations Council-New York, two of the largest groups serving the city’s nearly 1 million Jewish residents, will not participate in the Jewish Heritage Month event the mayor is hosting, a development first reported by the New York Post.
Leaders of both groups slammed the mayor’s decision to share a taxpayer-produced “Nakba day” video that they complained omitted key facts about the creation of Israel
JCRC-NY CEO Mark Treyger described the video and its oversights as a culmination of what he characterized as a broader failure of the mayor to forcefully condemn pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah demonstrations outside synagogues and through the streets of Jewish neighborhoods.
“That was certainly a choice that he made, and it certainly did not advance understanding. What it did is inflame tensions that were already inflamed,” Treyger told Jewish Insider, noting that Friday also saw federal authorities foil an alleged terror plot against a New York synagogue.
“We are just not receiving the type of leadership that New Yorkers deserve at this moment to lower the temperature, to bring people together, and to affirm that this is a City Hall that wants to be there for all New Yorkers, including Jewish New Yorkers,” Treyger said.
UJA-Federation of New York did not speak directly to the video, but said that its rejection of the mayor’s invitation to the Monday evening gathering sprang from his rejection of Israel’s legitimacy.
“UJA-Federation of New York will not attend tonight’s Jewish American Heritage Month event at Gracie Mansion being hosted by a mayor who denies a central pillar of our heritage — the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people,” the group said in a statement to Jewish Insider.
Mamdani, for his part, defended the decision to post the video at an unrelated press conference Monday.
“Acknowledging anyone’s people’s pain does not preclude you from the acknowledgement of another people’s,” Mamdani told reporters.
Several NYC community leaders accused the mayor of distorting history, days before he is set to host a Shavuot celebration
Screenshot/X/New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani
Inea Bushaq, a translator of Bosnian descent, features in the video New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted for “Nakba Day”
Shortly before the start of Shabbat on Friday — and days ahead of a Shavuot event at Gracie Mansion — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted a video for “Nakba Day” that sparked a wave of outrage among Jewish leaders for its failure to acknowledge crucial facts surrounding the birth of the State of Israel.
Mamdani’s video featured Inea Bushaq, a translator of Bosnian descent, part of a community that arrived in the Ottoman-ruled Holy Land in the late 19th century, contemporaneous with Zionist settlement. In his accompanying tweet from his official government account, the mayor referred to her as a “New Yorker and a Nakba survivor.”
“Today marks Nakba Day, an annual day of remembrance to commemorate the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians between 1947 and 1949 during the creation of the State of Israel and the year that followed,” the mayor wrote.
The term nakba, meaning “catastrophe” in Arabic, gained currency through the work of the midcentury Syrian writer Constantin Zureiq — who used it to broadly refer to the defeat of Arab countries in their attempted campaign of annihilation against the fledgling Jewish State in 1948-1949. Like many of his intellectual contemporaries, Zureiq viewed the Arabs as a single people and hoped that the loss might become the starting point for a program of modernization and unification across the Arab world.
But as Israel emerged victorious from several subsequent clashes with its rivals, and the pan-Arabist cause foundered, the term became a rallying cry for Palestinian nationalism in particular.
Jewish leaders noted that Mamdani’s account ignored the massacres and expulsions of Jewish communities that invading Arab forces carried out during the war — and the subsequent purges of Mizrahi Jewish populations across the Middle East in the years that followed. Israel took in more than 800,000 Jewish refugees from Muslim countries, who today form the majority of the country’s Jewish population, while Arab countries other than Jordan refused to grant citizenship rights to Palestinians.
“I have largely remained silent in public since January 1 because I believe criticism should be constructive and focused,” wrote Brooklyn Lubavitcher Rabbi Yaacov Behrman, recalling how the Jordanian military forced out the Jewish population during its conquest and annexation of the Old City of Jerusalem. “But this post about the Nakba is deeply disturbing, not only because of its one sided and dishonest characterization of history, but also because it attempts to delegitimize Israel as a state even before 1967.”
Others shared Behrman’s fears that the mayor’s post would further polarize the city at a time when anti-Israel demonstrators have massed outside synagogues chanting support for Hamas, waving the flag of Hezbollah and calling for Israel’s destruction — and when federal authorities recently thwarted an alleged Iran-linked plot to attack a New York synagogue.
Mark Treyger, CEO of Jewish Community Relations Council-New York, highlighted that Israel accepted the 1947 United Nations partition plan that would have established neighboring Jewish and Arab states in the former British mandate zone — a proposal that both the U.S.- and Soviet-led blocs approved.
“Referencing this chapter of history without acknowledging the full history, including the post-World War II U.N. partition plan supporting two states for two peoples, which Jews accepted, does nothing to advance understanding,” wrote Treyger. “New Yorkers should expect leadership that lowers the temperature, brings people together, and makes every community feel seen, respected, and safe, including Jewish New Yorkers.”
Others were less conciliatory in their messaging.
“Still wondering why hatred against Jews is so high in NYC? We have a mayor who is using government resources to disseminate a narrative and incite hostile propaganda,” wrote Assemblymember Simcha Eichenstein. “Oh BTW, what about the 850,000 Jews that were forced to flee Arab countries during that period? Did that simply not make its way into the final video?”
Eichenstein’s former Assembly colleague, Dan Rosenthal — now the vice president for government relations at the UJA-Federation of New York — was similarly outraged.
“Every opportunity the Mayor has had to lead as a unifying and inclusive leader, he has instead chosen to deepen division, inflame tensions, and fail in his fundamental responsibility to bring people together,” he posted on X. “On the same day the feds indicted a terrorist for planning to blow up a NYC synagogue, the Mayor is busy putting out taxpayer-funded social media propaganda. This administration is not serious about Jewish safety.”
JCRC-NY CEO Mark Treyger: ‘This is not normal, and we need city leaders to act now’
New York Assemblymember Sam Berger
Vandalism defaced the Rego Park Jewish Center in Queens, New York.
Multiple Jewish homes, a synagogue and a Jewish center in Queens — which contains a preschool — were vandalized with swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti overnight on Monday, leaving Jewish residents questioning their safety amid a spate of antisemitic incidents.
“When rabbis and congregants arrived to pray this morning, they expected to be met with their usual loving community. When a family woke up, they were prepared to begin an otherwise normal week. Instead, they were met with terrifying signals of hatred and threats of violence,” New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, the city’s first Jewish council speaker, wrote on X.
Menin, alongside Queens Councilmembers Lynn Schulman and Phil Wong, visited Congregation Machane Chodosh in Forest Hills, the impacted synagogue, on Monday morning. The Rego Park Jewish Center and two residential houses in Forest Hills were also targeted.
The NYPD is searching for at least four individuals responsible for the vandalism, according to Menin.
“With antisemitism on the rise here and across the globe, we will always stand up for our Jewish community and fight back against hate,” said Menin, adding that the graffiti will be removed once the NYPD completes its investigation.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement on Monday afternoon that he was “horrified and angered” by the vandalism, which he called “a deliberate act of antisemitic hatred meant to instill fear.”
“I stand in solidarity with our Jewish neighbors. Their safety, dignity, and belonging are non-negotiable,” Mamdani continued.
Gov. Kathy Hochul similarly condemned the “vile, targeted hate.”
Democratic state Assemblymember Sam Berger, who represents Queens’ nearby heavily Jewish neighborhood of Kew Gardens Hills, told JI that his grandparents, who are Holocaust survivors, “lived around the corner from this shul. It’s mortifying.”
“I have a Jewish community that is seriously questioning whether it is still welcome in this city,” said Berger.
“One of the sites houses a pre-K program, where young children, their families, and staff were greeted with swastikas and other hateful vandalism,” said Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.
“This is not normal,” said Treyger, “and we need city leaders to act now.”
Sydney Altfield, CEO of Teach Coalition — which oversees security grants for Congregation Machane Chodosh and most other synagogues and schools in the area — said in a statement, “Waking up to swastikas on a synagogue, homes, and a Jewish center that houses a preschool is not just vandalism, it is a direct act of intimidation against an entire community. We’re working closely with synagogue leadership and guiding next steps to protect families and strengthen security in the short term.”
“This is exactly why sustained investment in security for Jewish institutions is so critical. It also underscores how important it is not only to secure that funding but also to ensure institutions can access it,” Altfield continued.
In January, Queens played host to a pro-Hamas protest that caused nearby schools and a synagogue to close early, where dozens of masked protesters chanted “We support Hamas” near the synagogue.
‘The keffiyeh wasn’t a slip. It was the point. And it’s disgraceful,’ an Eric Adams advisor said
Mayor Zohran Mamdani/X
Screenshot
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani drew criticism on Thursday from several prominent Jewish New Yorkers for releasing a social media video on rent regulation hearings that prominently featured a public employee sporting a keffiyeh, a checkered scarf associated with the Palestinian cause.
The video, which runs just over one minute long and doesn’t touch on Middle East issues, promotes a new door-to-door outreach campaign to encourage participation in upcoming meetings of the Rent Guidelines Board.
In it, one of staffers featured in the video, Mohamed Alharbi — deputy borough director of the newly established Mayor’s Office of Mass Engagement — wears a keffiyeh over his shoulders, visible for all but a few moments of the clip.
“Shameful video. The anti-Zionist messaging isn’t subtle — it fuels a broader climate that emboldens antisemitism,” wrote Todd Richman, a veteran Democratic Party operative and co-founder of Democratic Majority for Israel, highlighting the recent spike in hate crimes targeting Jewish New Yorkers. “Don’t ignore the pattern. This rhetoric has real consequences. The Mayor should take this down immediately.”
Benny Polatseck, who ran the creative communications team for former Mayor Eric Adams, also raised concerns.
“The keffiyeh wasn’t a slip. It was the point. And it’s disgraceful,” Polatseck asserted. “We would never have produced a video targeting a community in our city.”
Daniel Loeb, a hedge fund manager and major political donor in New York, questioned the entire initiative.
“Imagine if some guy wearing a terror Schmatta comes to your home unannounced and knocks on your door asking you a bunch of personal questions and demanding you appear at a government struggle session,” he tweeted, using a Yiddish word for rag.
The black-and-white patterned keffiyeh was the invention of English-born Lt. Gen. John Glubb, leader of the Arab Legion that seized the West Bank in 1948. Palestinian Liberation Organization head Yasser Arafat and terrorist hijacker Leila Khaled later popularized the garment as a political symbol in the 1970s.
The Mamdani administration did not respond to questions about the decision to feature a public servant displaying a political symbol in a publicly financed video.
Plus, British pols' 'thoughts and prayers' after another antisemitic attack
JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images
People cast their in-person early ballot for the 2024 general election at the Northwest Activities Center on October 29, 2024 in Detroit, Michigan.
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at what Carl Wilson’s special election win for a New York City Council seat portends for the agenda of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who backed a far-left opponent to Wilson, and talk to Rep. Mike Lawler about congressional efforts to push the White House to fill the role of special envoy for the Abraham Accords. We talk to Senate Republicans about whether Congress will authorize an extension of the Iran war, and report on yesterday’s terror attack in London in which two Jewish men were injured. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Noa Tishby, Mohamed Hagi and Zach Florman.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Danielle Cohen-Kanik. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper is set to brief President Donald Trump today on plans for potential renewed military action in Iran to break the deadlock that has paralyzed talks with Tehran. Options on the table, Axios reports, include “short and powerful” strikes on Iranian targets and a partial takeover of the Strait of Hormuz. The president said on Wednesday that he intended to continue the U.S. naval blockade after rejecting an Iranian offer to reopen the waterway in exchange for delaying talks on its nuclear program.
- Meanwhile, the State Department sent a cable to U.S. embassies this week pressing diplomats to encourage the countries in which they’re stationed to join a new U.S.-led international coalition to assist ships transiting through the strait.
- Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) is expected to force a Senate vote today on his war powers resolution, the sixth attempt to constrain the Trump administration’s military campaign targeting Iran.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine will testify this morning before the Senate Armed Services Committee, a day after appearing before the House Armed Services Committee. More on their HASC testimonies below.
- The Department of Justice is hosting this year’s annual Interagency Holocaust Remembrance Day event. DOJ Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues Ellen Germain and Holocaust survivor Frank Cohn are slated to speak this morning at the event, which will include prerecorded remarks from Jacob Helberg, the Trump administration’s under secretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment.
- King Charles III and Queen Camilla wrap up their trip to the U.S. today. They’ll visit Front Royal, Va., before departing for Bermuda.
- The annual Jewish pilgrimage to Djerba, Tunisia, begins today. Organizers said that this year’s events — three years after five people were killed in a terror attack during the pilgrimage — will be “open to everyone, Tunisians and foreigners, as part of a gradual return to normal,” following two years of scaled-down celebrations.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR
The combination of history and polling is pointing to the likelihood of a Democratic wave election in the 2026 midterms, which would give Democrats control of the House and a fighting chance to claw back a Senate majority.
Polls show Democrats holding a sizable edge on the generic ballot, their favored candidates are running competitively even in red states and congressional districts, all while President Donald Trump’s approval rating is sagging amid high gas prices, executive overreach and an uncertain outcome in the aftermath of the war in Iran.
But the one X-factor keeping Republicans competitive is the Democratic Party’s lurch leftward in the last year, leading to the emergence of extreme, exotic and out-of-the-mainstream candidates in pivotal battleground races.
Indeed, a new poll commissioned by The Argument magazine finds that the generic ballot shows Democrats have been stuck with a six-point lead for a while even as Trump’s job approval has declined precipitously in the last several months. They’re voting to put a check on the GOP’s dominance of Washington, without endorsing the direction of the Democratic party.
“Democrats still have tangible policy misalignments with many voters who dislike Trump,” The Argument concluded in its polling analysis.
All told, the question becomes: Will the anticipated Democratic wave closely resemble the Democrats’ version of the GOP Tea Party election of 2010? In that election, Republicans swept into power in the House but far-right and extreme Senate candidates in key races blew golden opportunities, costing Republicans the upper chamber.
SPECIAL ELECTION SIGNALS
Mamdani bruised but not beaten after City Council candidate loss
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani took a hit to his political credibility on Tuesday when his endorsed candidate in a special election for City Council went down in overwhelming defeat — but it’s not clear if the loss will lead to an override of his veto of school buffer zone legislation or further stall his political momentum, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.
Impact: Legislative aide Carl Wilson’s trouncing of Mamdani-backed Lindsey Boylan in a West Side district was not just a loss for Mamdani but a triumph for Council Speaker Julie Menin, sources told JI, noting she had lent Wilson not just her endorsement but an effective ground game turning out his voters. “It was a resounding dominant victory,” said Jewish Community Relations Council of New York CEO Mark Treyger, himself a former city councilmember. “It’s not just about one seat. It’s about the message it sends to the body, and the message it sends to New York, not to underestimate her and her operation.”
ENVOY WANTED
Lawler: Congress expected to push Trump to fill Abraham Accords envoy position
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) expects Congress to make another “big push” to urge President Donald Trump to fill the role of special envoy for the Abraham Accords once the Iran conflict subsides, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. The role was created in 2023, when Lawler and Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) introduced a bill to establish a Senate-confirmed, ambassador-level special envoy position dedicated to expanding the Abraham Accords and Middle East normalization.
State of play: The measure was ultimately signed into law as part of the FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). But despite the legal mandate, the position has remained open. The vacancy has drawn frustration from congressional Republicans, with 47 House GOP members sending a letter in January 2025 urging Trump to immediately fill the post while condemning former President Joe Biden’s failure to do so during his term.
WAR WEARY
GOP senators express uncertainty about authorizing extension of Iran war
Senate Republicans are increasingly skeptical about the future of U.S. military engagement in Iran as the 60-day deadline for the war mandated by the War Powers Resolution approaches this week. Under the 1973 law, the president cannot sustain military operations for more than 60 days without congressional authorization or a formal declaration of war, after which U.S. forces must be withdrawn. The White House can request a 30-day extension should it present “unavoidable military necessity,” Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Senators say: Four GOP lawmakers told JI they expect the White House to comply with the statute and notify Congress of a 30-day extension — though they remain uncertain and divided over whether they would support authorizing continued military action. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said he will not “quibble” over whether the exact deadline is met, however he stressed that the White House should respect the law on the books.
Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Mike Rounds (R-SD), Josh Hawley (R-MO) and John Cornyn (R-TX).
COMMUNITY TARGETED
Two Jewish men stabbed in heavily Jewish London suburb
Two Jewish men in a heavily Jewish suburb of London were stabbed on Wednesday in what police called a terrorist incident. The victims — one in his 70s and one in his 30s — remain hospitalized in stable condition, according to the Metropolitan Police, after the attack shortly before noon in Golders Green, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Details: The suspect, a 45-year-old man who allegedly also attempted to stab law enforcement, was arrested Wednesday afternoon on suspicion of attempted murder, police said in a statement. The man had “a history of serious violence and mental health issues,” Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley told reporters. “This has now formally been declared a terrorist incident,” said Laurence Taylor, London’s head of counterterrorism policing, adding that police are investigating “whether this attack was deliberately targeting the Jewish community in London.”
Cover conversation: Amid concerns over government inaction in the wake of regular attacks targeting the Jewish community, the latest print edition of the U.K.’s Jewish News, out today, pointedly calls out the rote statements from U.K. government officials, calling the comments, in a banner headline, “Bull$#@#bingo.”
EXCLUSIVE
L.A. school district recognizes Jewish American Heritage Month after Noa Tishby push
The Los Angeles Unified School District unanimously passed its first-ever resolution recognizing May as Jewish American Heritage Month, incorporating a new educational curriculum on Judaism and Israel provided by Israeli activist and author Noa Tishby, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
What it involves: Designed for middle and high schoolers, the curriculum is based on Tishby’s eight- episode YouTube series, “What is?,” which explores topics including Judaism, antisemitism, the Holocaust and Israel. “We decided the series needed to be a curriculum in schools,” Tishby, founder of the nonprofit media company Eighteen and Israel’s former special envoy for combating antisemitism, told JI.
FRIENDLY FACES
Somaliland’s new envoy to Israel praises the two countries’ ‘special relationship’
Mohamed Hagi, Somaliland’s newly appointed envoy to Israel, spoke on Wednesday about the country’s “special relationship” with the Jewish state, saying that the ties are built on mutually beneficial economic and security interests, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Podcast playback: “Our relationship with Israel should be understood as part of a purely strategic orientation,” Hagi said on the podcast “Ask Haviv Anything,” hosted by Israeli journalist Haviv Rettig Gur. “Somaliland is deliberately cultivating relationships with partners that value stability, innovation or responsible governance.” Hagi said that the relationship will be “based on economic development,” noting that the two countries could benefit from “practical cooperation” in areas such as technology, water management, agriculture and security.
Worthy Reads
That’s Oil, Folks: The Wall Street Journal’s Summer Said, Jared Malsin and Dov Lieber do a deep dive into the United Arab Emirates’ decision to break from OPEC — a move hastened by the Iran war, during which the Gulf state suffered more Iranian attacks than any other country in the region. “Confronted with Iranian attacks that imperiled its economic model and frustrated with what its leaders saw as a lack of support from its Arab neighbors, the Emirates doubled down on its partnership with the U.S. and its half-decade-old relationship with Israel — in spite of Arab unease with the instability flowing from the conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. ‘It came as a result of some deep thinking, in light of the 40 days of drones and missiles,’ said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a prominent Emirati political scientist.” [WSJ]
Let Down in London: The Jewish Chronicle’s Stephen Pollard slams the British government for having “bitterly failed British Jews” amid regular antisemitic attacks targeting the community. “We have authorities which have stood and watched as hate marches have taken over the streets and have allowed pure, unbridled Jew hate to run free. Make no mistake: the hate marches are the single biggest factor behind the escalation in Jew hate, not least because they comprise much of that escalation – and inspire the rest. And we have politicians as a class whose response to the rise of Jew hate is to mouth the obscene platitude that there is no place for antisemitism on the streets, when every one of these attacks shows that there is a very large place for antisemitism on our streets.” [JewishChronicle]
No Direction Home: The New York Times’ Jennifer Medina talks to Jewish Democratic officials who feel increasingly isolated by their party’s increasing tolerance for antisemitism. “They have faced antisemitic slurs and menacing voice mail messages, including threats of assassination. Protesters have called members of Congress ‘dirty Jews’ during town hall events and thrown red liquid — meant to look like blood — on their front lawns. For Jewish elected officials trying to navigate this shift, the atmosphere has felt alienating. ‘It is very isolating,’ said Representative Josh Gottheimer, who represents northern New Jersey in Congress. ‘It’s like you’re losing your home in the Democratic Party and in the country.’” [NYTimes]
Blaming Bibi: The Dispatch’s David Drucker talks to Democrats about the party’s leftward shift on Israel, finding that much of the animus toward the Jewish state is focused on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The blame for growing opposition to Israel on the left belongs entirely to Netanyahu versus some wholesale souring on the Israel-U.S. alliance, Democratic-aligned groups that exist to cultivate support for Israel inside the party asserted to The Dispatch. The prime minister has held Israel’s top post for 19 of the past 30 years and nearly all of the past 17 years, often aligning himself with the GOP during that latter period. And because Netanyahu has been in charge for so long, many Democrats view him as synonymous with Israel.” [TheDispatch]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to limit Israeli action against Hezbollah in Lebanon to “surgical” strikes amid a tenuous ceasefire between Beirut and Jerusalem…
Roll Call spotlights Zach Florman, the communications director for Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA) and creator of The Capitol Wire, an AI bot that tracks upcoming legislation…
Politico looks at efforts by — and challenges facing — Israeli opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as they seek to rebuild relationships with Democrats in the U.S. amid cratering support in the party for the Jewish state…
Rachel Goldberg Polin’s book When We See You Again, about her son, Hersh, who was murdered in Hamas captivity, debuted in the No. 1 spot on The New York Times’ Best Sellers list of hardcover nonfiction a week after its release; read our interview with Goldberg-Polin here…
Yeah That’s Kosher looks at how New York State legislation banning three food additives, including potassium bromate, could impact the state’s kosher baking industry, which relies on the oxidizing agent to give bagels and pizza dough their texture…
The Jewish Theological Seminary announced that Israeli President Isaac Herzog will deliver the school’s 2026 commencement address, and will receive an honorary degree alongside Rabbi Edward Feld, former Washington Post editor Ruth Marcus, actress Debra Messing and rabbinic Judaism scholar Peter Schäfer…
Authorities in Los Angeles are investigating as a hate crime the assault of a Jewish man outside of a synagogue earlier this week in the city’s Pico-Robertson neighborhood that was recorded on security footage…
An interim report from Australia’s royal commission into the December 2025 terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Bondi Beach, Sydney, issued more than a dozen recommendations, including calling for better coordination of security efforts for Jewish events, and establishing a full-time position within the federal government of a counterterrorism coordinator…
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will end its funding for LIV Golf when the season concludes, dealing a blow to players in the league who strained ties with the PGA Tour to join the Riyadh-backed circuit…
Organizers of the Global Sumud Flotilla heading to Gaza said that Israeli forces intercepted the flotilla’s boats, which departed from Spain earlier this month, in international waters off the coast of Greece…
The Jewish National Fund-KKL is halting most of its funding to West Bank programs at farming outposts for at-risk Israeli youth amid concerns that the outposts were becoming hubs for settler violence against Palestinians living in the enclave…
Pic of the Day
Swiss Ambassador to the U.S. Ralf Heckner spoke at an event in Washington on Wednesday co-hosted by the American Jewish Committee and the Embassy of Switzerland, the latter of which is currently chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, to discuss antisemitism across the OSCE region.
Birthdays
Screen, stage and television actress and singer, Dianna Agron turns 40…
Rabbi, scholar and professor of Jewish studies at Yeshiva University, Saul J. Berman turns 87… Founder and CEO of Kansas City-based American Public Square, he was the U.S. ambassador to Portugal during the Obama administration, Allan J. Katz turns 79… Brooklyn-based clinical social worker, Marsha S. Rimler… Psychologist, author of several children’s books and president of the Saban Family Foundation, Cheryl Saban turns 75… Israeli Supreme Court justice until 2021, he was previously attorney general of Israel, Menachem “Meni” Mazuz turns 71… Partner in the communications and ad agency GMMB, he served as an advisor to President Obama in both his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, James David “Jim” Margolis turns 71… London-based international real estate investor and developer, Zachariasz “Zak” Gertler turns 70… Cartoonist and illustrator, best known for his over 100 magazine covers appearing in The New Yorker and other publications, Barry Blitt turns 68… Former commissioner at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, she was a U.S. Supreme Court law clerk, Chai R. Feldblum turns 67… Professor of sociology at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris, she served as president of Jerusalem’s Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Eva Illouz turns 65… Senior fellow at Misgav: the Institute for Zionist Strategy and National Security, he is a diplomatic columnist for The Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom newspapers, David M. Weinberg… New York city comptroller, Mark D. Levine turns 57… CEO of Newton, Mass.-based Gateways: Access to Jewish Education, focused on children with special educational needs, Tamar Davis… Senior director for U.S. Jewish grantmaking at the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, David Rittberg… Executive director of federal affairs at General Motors, Eric Feldman… Senior advisor for policy and communications for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Omri Ceren… Chief operating officer of Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy, Ali Kaufman Yares… Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot turns 41… Senior policy advisor at Alston & Bird in Washington, D.C., Jonathan Jagoda… Chief communications officer at Business Insider, Ari Isaacman D’Angelo turns 41… Founder of Lubin Strategies, he is also an affiliate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center, Nathaniel “Nate” Lubin… Communications director for Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Rachel S. Cohen… Associate in the D.C. office of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Daniel E. Wolman… Elementary schoolteacher at Broward County Public Schools, Jenna Luks… Economics reporter at The Wall Street Journal, Rachel B. Wolfe… Director of WJC Elevate at the World Jewish Congress, Yonatan “Yoni” Hammerman… Co-founder of Impact Nation and Tech4Cancer, Idan Megidish… Global account sales manager for Isotopia Molecular Imaging, Noam Aricha…
New York Jewish Agenda, the progressive group Lander co-founded, said it was ‘disappointed’ by the veto
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and former Comptroller Brad Lander speak with members of the press as they greet voters on Broadway on June 24, 2025 in New York City.
Congressional hopeful and former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander — Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s favored candidate to dislodge sitting Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) — refused to comment on Mamdani’s veto of a bill that would set NYPD policy around security perimeters at educational facilities during protests, even as a Jewish group Lander co-founded denounced the mayor’s move.
Lander has not issued a public statement on the move and failed to respond to calls or text messages on his personal cell phone from Jewish Insider, while his campaign did not answer queries sent via phone and email regarding Mamdani’s controversial Friday veto, the first of his mayoralty.
Meanwhile, New York Jewish Agenda, a progressive group Lander co-founded, declared itself “disappointed” in the democratic socialist mayor’s decision to block the measure from becoming law.
“We strongly believe in the right to protest and the importance of free expression. But those rights must be balanced with the equally important right to access educational spaces safely and freely,” NYJA said in a Friday statement. “This bill represented a good faith effort to provide solutions during a tense moment in our city. We had hoped Mayor Mamdani would recognize that protecting these spaces and preserving civil liberties are not opposing values.”
NYJA’s former executive director, Phylisa Wisdom, currently leads the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism.
The bill Mamdani struck down was part of a package with a similar measure that would formalize NYPD policy for guaranteeing access and egress at houses of worship — both were a response to recent pro-Hamas protests targeting synagogues and yeshivas in the five boroughs. Both measures contained language compelling the police commissioner to establish official protocol for the use of security perimeters near doorways and driveways, and neither imposed significant conditions on what that procedure would look like.
The bill on houses of worship passed with a veto-proof majority after the police department, which falls under Mamdani’s office, said it had “no objections” to the measure. But the educational facilities proposal passed with a far smaller margin, and the mayor asserted that it defined educational facilities too broadly and might conflict with union activity, even though the language of the proposal contains a carveout for organized labor.
The city bills are both distinct from state legislation Gov. Kathy Hochul has endorsed that would make it a felony to come within 25 feet of the entry points to a house of worship or an abortion clinic. They also differ from new congressional legislation that would impose federal fines and even prison time on any person engaged in intimidation, obstruction, or harassment within 100 feet of a religious institution.
For his part, a spokesperson for Goldman told JI that the sitting congressman supports both the city and state proposals but withheld an opinion on Suozzi’s bill, which he promised to “thoroughly review.”
The organizations collectively called the mayor’s decision to block bill that would standardize NYPD policy around schools during protests ‘a profound failure’
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at a press conference during moving day at Gracie Mansion on January 12, 2026 in New York City.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani exercised his veto power for the first time since entering office on Friday to block a bill that would standardize NYPD policy around protests at educational institutions.
Mamdani had just one day left to block the two “buffer zone bills” that the City Council passed last month: the other measure, backed by Council Speaker Julie Menin and passed with a veto-proof majority, compels the police commissioner to develop formal protocol for security perimeters that ensure access and egress from religious buildings during demonstrations. That proposal went untouched and passed into law automatically — but the schools bill, which contains similar language but did not pass with a veto-proof majority, was struck down.
Speaking to reporters after an unrelated event Friday morning, the mayor cited what he described as “constitutional concerns” and union objections to possible infringement on their right to picket — even though the measure contained a carveout for labor action.
“It carries [these concerns] because unlike in the first piece of legislation, which is balancing the right to protest and the right to prayer — both of which are not just sacrosanct in our city but also constitutionally — the second does not have a counterbalance to the right to protest,” he said, suggesting that this exposed the proposal to legal challenge. “It also defines educational institutions in such a broad manner that it includes museums, libraries, teaching hospitals, things of that nature.”
The city’s leading Jewish groups issued a rare united response, highlighting the protests that have targeted yeshivas and gathering places for Jewish student groups in recent years.
“We are deeply disappointed by Mayor Mamdani’s decision,” said the UJA-Federation of New York, the Anti-Defamation League of New York/New Jersey, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, American Jewish Committee New York, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the New York Board of Rabbis, Orthodox Union, The Rabbinical Assembly, Union for Reform Judaism, StandWithUs and Teach NYS. “This veto is a profound failure of City Hall to demonstrate to all New Yorkers that our safety is a priority.”
Bronx Councilman Eric Dinowitz, the lead sponsor of the bill, highlighted that it would merely obligate the NYPD to create a uniform policy for security perimeters, already frequently enforced during protests. He pushed back on claims that it would infringe on First Amendment rights.
“Students deserve safety as they enter and exit their school buildings, and New Yorkers deserve transparency from the NYPD,” Dinowitz said in a statement. “The mayor promised to keep New Yorkers safe and increase police transparency. By vetoing this bill, he is breaking yet another campaign promise.”
Sources indicated to Jewish Insider that they would try to whip votes to secure the necessary support from the City Council to override the mayor’s decision. The city bills are distinct from state-level proposals Gov. Kathy Hochul has endorsed that would establish a felony penalty for protesters who come within 25 feet of the doorways and driveways of religious institutions and abortion clinics.
In testimony before the City Council’s antisemitism task force, an NYPD official said Mamdani played no role in a controversial change in reporting data from hate crimes
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at a "Rental Ripoff" hearing at Fordham University in the Bronx borough of New York on March 11, 2026, in New York City.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s antisemitism czar said on Wednesday that his administration won’t replace the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism he wiped off the books his first day on the job.
Speaking before the City Council’s Task Force Antisemitism alongside officials from the NYPD, the executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, Phylisa Wisdom, said that city agencies do not and will not work off any official definition of antisemitism. Mamdani’s predecessor, former Mayor Eric Adams, adopted the IHRA definition and established the office Wisdom leads amid a dramatic uptick in hate crimes targeting Jewish New Yorkers in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks and subsequent Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
“Across city government there is not a definition codified for any form of hate at all,” Wisdom told Republican Councilmember Inna Vernikov, one of the task force’s two co-chairs. “We don’t believe that there needs to be a codified definition at all.”
A total of 37 states, as well cities from D.C. to Los Angeles, have adopted the IHRA definition. But critics allege its assertion that certain antagonism toward the Jewish state can be classified as antisemitism serves to stifle criticism of Israel.
Instead of a formal, written classification, Wisdom, who previously led the progressive Zionist group New York Jewish Agenda, touted “an understanding that we share.”
“We understand broadly, in the universe of civil rights and combating antisemitism, it to be prejudice, violence and discrimination against Jews because they are Jewish,” she explained. “We understand usually what that looks like.”
Wisdom acknowledged the question of how the vast city bureaucracy recognizes antisemitism was “a hot one in the community.” When Vernikov pressed Wisdom on how the administration could address and rectify antisemitism without defining it, Wisdom acknowledged the difficulty, but fell back on equating it with other undefined forms of bigoted behavior.
She also alluded to previous testimony by NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Legal Matters Michael Gerber that the police department operates off a state-level hate crime statute, which does not feature definitions of prejudice, but only considers whether a victim was targeted because of their real or perceived identity.
“I think what you’re asking is a good question because it is hard,” Wisdom said. “In terms of bias and hate, it’s really sticky and extremely serious stuff, and it’s case by case.”
After the hearing, Wisdom avoided questioning from Jewish Insider about whether she considered it antisemitic to applaud the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel or the man behind them, late Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar — as Mamdani’s wife and other personnel in his office have done.
In his testimony, Gerber said Mamdani and his team had no input on a data-reporting change that drew controversy after the city logged a 152% increase in hate offenses in January over the same month last year, driven by a spike in reported incidents targeting Jewish New Yorkers — then changed its reporting criteria for February. The move drew criticism from experts and transparency advocates.
But Gerber asserted the old methodology was deeply flawed, and that NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who was originally appointed by Adams, had only recently learned of it and ordered it changed.
“That data did not reflect confirmed hate crimes. It did not reflect reported hate crimes,” said Gerber. “It was numbers pulled from an informal tracker that had a mix of reported hate crimes that had not yet been classified by the [NYPD Hate Crimes] Task Force and confirmed hate crimes. These were hodgepodge numbers, resulting in clarity about nothing.”
He added that the decisions did not come “at the initiative or direction of anyone at City Hall” — a point he stressed under questioning.
“These were decisions by the NYPD. We made these decisions and we stand by them,” he told Vernikov. “These were not decisions made by anyone at City Hall.” The NYPD is formally part of Mamdani’s administration.
Gerber further asserted the mayor’s team was “notified” of the reporting change, but “not consulted.” He further highlighted a recent NYPD announcement that going forward, it would disclose to the public both reported and confirmed bias crime incidents, the favored approach of good government and civil rights supporters.
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 Oct. 7 mastermind died in ‘heroic’ style, according to Donald Borenstein, director of video for the Mamdani campaign and City Hall
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is seen in a supporters mobile phone at his election night watch party on November 4, 2025 in New York City.
The architect of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s viral video campaign paid homage to the mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks in a series of tweets uncovered by Jewish Insider — posts in which the operative asserted that late Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar “gave his entire life until the end fighting for his people’s liberation.”
Records show Donald Borenstein got paid more than $90,000 last year by the Mamdani campaign for his services as director of video — a role in which, according to his LinkedIn, he served as “primary cinematographer” for the social media imagery that propelled the democratic socialist legislator into Gracie Mansion.
Borenstein’s Instagram indicates he has since assumed the title of “creative director” at City Hall, and he has been credited for official videos promoting the mayor and his agenda. Borenstein was also featured in a recent comedy sketch starring Mamdani and his top staffers that was shared on the official NYC Mayor’s Office YouTube channel.
Yet despite receiving attention from The New York Times and New York Post as a member of Mamdani’s inner circle, Borenstein’s profile online has largely escaped notice so far.
Archives of his X account show that in 2024, a day after Sinwar was killed by the IDF, Borenstein described imagery of his death, captured in Israeli drone footage, as “absolutely overflowing with symbolism.”
“[I]nsanely funny that israelis are so genocidally up their own ass that they have basically hand-delivered one of the most heroic possible images they could here lmao,” Borenstein wrote from his X handle @boringstein on Oct. 17, 2024, and just a few months before Borenstein began working for Mamdani’s campaign.
Borenstein appears to have deleted this tweet, and all others referenced in this story, at some later point, though archived images remain accessible.
Federal Election Commission filings show that a few months before the posts, Borenstein wrapped up work for another politician highly critical of Israel: then-Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), who was serving out the last few months of his term after he lost his reelection to a primary challenge from Rep. George Latimer (D-NY).
The cinematographer further mocked the Israeli decision to release the video of Sinwar sitting on a couch and tossing a stick at the drone moments before he was killed.
“‘[S]urely this man who gave his entire life until the end fighting for his people’s liberation with no proxy will look bad when we show footage of his last stand,’” Borenstein wrote sarcastically, concluding a third post with the phrase “From the river to the sea,” often understood as calling for the annihilation of the entirety of Israel between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, and three Palestinian flag emojis.
When one reply compared the terrorist with Tom Hanks’ character in the movie “Saving Private Ryan,” the cinematographer responded with enthusiasm.
“[I]n earnest!!! you could not direct this better lol,” Borenstein replied. “[I] am honestly so deeply moved.”
In another since-deleted tweet, Borenstein wrote that “the fascist state of Israel will fall in our lifetimes.”
Neither the video producer nor the Mamdani team responded to questions about the tweets.
Borenstein is one of several figures instrumental in Mamdani’s rise whose social media accounts feature explicit support for Sinwar and the terrorist organization he led, even though the mayor has condemned terrorism personally.
In February, JI reported that the co-founder of the independent “Hot Girls for Zohran” social media and canvassing campaign had also shared multiple pro-Hamas posts. In March, JI reported that Mamdani’s wife Rama Duwaji — whom The Cut described as a “de facto adviser” to the mayor’s campaign — had liked posts on Instagram celebrating the Oct. 7 attacks.
Plus, Witkoff equates hostages and Palestinian prisoners
Leonardo MUNOZ / AFP via Getty Images
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani arrives for a news conference at Gracie Mansion in New York City on March 9, 2026.
👋 Good Monday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the ties between New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration and the family of far-left, pro-China financier Neville “Roy” Singham, and report on White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff‘s comments at FII PRIORITY comparing the freeing of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas to the release of Palestinians from Israeli prisons. We look at how Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick’s potential expulsion from Congress over federal financial crimes could provide a pathway for a staunch Israel critic to take her seat, and report on the Israeli Knesset’s 11th hour passage of its 2026 budget, pushing off a potential early election. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Barry Diller and Jonathan Greenberger.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- We’re continuing to monitor a potential escalation in the Middle East after the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen launched several ballistic missiles at Israel over the weekend, marking the terror group’s entry into the latest conflict.
- More than 2,000 U.S. servicemembers are en route to the region as part of a mass Pentagon deployment. Yesterday, President Donald Trump said he wanted to “take the oil in Iran” — a move that would involve the seizure of Kharg Island. Before returning to Washington, the president told reporters on Air Force One that Tehran had agreed to allow 20 cargo ships carrying oil to transit through the Strait of Hormuz.
- Authorities in Haifa are responding to a fire at the Bazan oil refinery — the second time the site has been damaged since the start of the war a month ago — following a series of attacks this morning by both Hezbollah and Iran. Israel’s Environmental Protection Ministry said that there was no risk of hazardous leaks at the site.
- Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is in Berlin today, where he’ll meet with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz before traveling on to the U.K., where he’ll meet tomorrow with Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London. Al-Sharaa’s trip to Germany marks the first time in 25 years that a Syrian leader has visited the country.
- New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is slated to give remarks at Knitting Factory founder and music impresario Michael Dorf’s 33rd Annual Downtown Seder tonight at City Winery in Manhattan, with all proceeds from the event going to the Seeds of Peace nonprofit. Others in the lineup tonight include former CNN commentator Don Lemon, singer David Broza and comedian Modi.
- Ahead of the start of Passover on Wednesday evening, Jewish Insider wine columnist Yitz Applbaum is out with his recommendations for this year’s Seders. Read more here.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR
A useful rule of thumb to live by: Social media isn’t real life.
But one of the challenges in the brave new world of media is that extremist influencers can often create the perception of influence simply by dominating so much of the online discourse.
Hasan Piker, a far-left streamer who has been the subject of favorable media profiles despite a laundry list of antisemitic and terror-justifying rhetoric, is a case study in how traditional journalists normalize extremists — and how politicians conclude there’s a marketplace for radical views in the electoral marketplace, even when it’s typically a mirage.
In part because Democrats have been desperate to find anti-establishment voices that claim to speak for young men, Piker is seen as a popular, edgy podcaster by liberal leaders in both media and politics. (Nevermind the fact that Piker gets only about 36,000 viewers on a typical stream — about 1/25th of the typical nighttime audience of MS NOW, as The Atlantic’s David Frum pointed out.)
The New Yorker invited Piker to speak at its annual festival, treating the antisemitic streamer as just another one of the many thought leaders in attendance. Leading progressives, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), joined him at rallies and on his show.
And a handful of leading Democratic presidential contenders — most notably California Gov. Gavin Newsom — expressed interest in going on his show.
This, despite the fact Piker has justified Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks, forcefully denied some of the terror group’s atrocities, has called Orthodox Jews “inbred” and claimed America deserved 9/11.
Any one of those comments on their own would have typically disqualified anyone from playing a part in our political discourse. Yet in the wave of glowing profiles, Piker’s antisemitism and anti-Americanism didn’t even merit a mention.
It wasn’t until March 19, when Lily Cohen, a press advisor from the Third Way center-left think tank, took the initiative to co-write a column for The Wall Street Journal calling out Piker’s antisemitism without any caveats. The decision to call out the crazy — when few in the press or politics had the courage to do so — was a moment that proved that one principled voice in defense of normalcy can break the mirage of those who believe there’s a political marketplace for this garbage.
PHONE A FRIEND
Family of China-allied tech mogul embedded in Zohran Mamdani’s movement
Relatives of a Shanghai-based software magnate devoted to promoting Chinese, Iranian and Russian interests are operating inside the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, supporting Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s preferred candidates for Congress and playing significant roles in shaping and advancing key elements of his agenda, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman has found.
Family affair: Alicia Singham Goodwin, the political director of the far-left nonprofit Jews for Racial and Economic Justice — and niece of far-left financier Neville “Roy” Singham — spearheaded a Jewish outreach operation for Mamdani’s campaign, bundled thousands in donations and was publicly credited by the mayor with originating one of his signature policy ideas. Her parents, both members of NYC-DSA, have donated to his endorsed congressional candidates and she herself has collaborated with Mamdani himself on key organizational structures inside the group.
SANCTIONS SCRUTINY
Senate Dems blast Trump for waiving sanctions on Russian and Iranian oil
A group of 25 Senate Democrats criticized President Donald Trump on Friday for lifting sanctions on Russian and Iranian oil exports, sanctions which have seen broad bipartisan support, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Notable quotable: “We write with deep concern and confusion over your administration’s recent decision to ease sanctions on Russian and Iranian oil exports,” the Democrats wrote in a letter to the president. “These actions speak once again to the troubling lack of strategic foresight that has marked your administration’s decision-making prior to and during its war of choice with Iran, jeopardizing the lives of our servicemembers across the region and raising costs for Americans here at home.”
Lebanon front: A war powers resolution introduced by Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Delia Ramirez (D-IL) and Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) on Friday would block any U.S. participation in and assistance to Israeli operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
compare and contrast
Steve Witkoff draws equivalence between Israeli hostages and Palestinian security prisoners
White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff on Friday compared the release of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas to the release of Palestinians from Israeli prisons, stating that both experiences “feels like we’re changing lives.” He made the comment at the FII Priority summit in Miami, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
What he said: “People ask me: ‘Why do I like doing it?’ And I say because it feels worthy, it feels like we’re changing lives,” Witkoff said. “I remember when we met those families of the Israeli hostages and they were ecstatic because they didn’t think their children were coming home. But I was also in Gaza,” Witkoff continued. “I met Gazan families whose children were released from Israeli prisons in exchange, and they were just as grateful as the Israeli parents.”
SEAT SHAKEUP
Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick’s scandal could send another Israel critic to Congress
The scandal surrounding Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) could send another far-left Israel critic to Congress, after a House Ethics Committee panel found her guilty on Thursday of 25 charges and lawmakers now move toward expelling her from the chamber, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Cherfilus-McCormick was also indicted last year for a range of financial crimes.
The latest: Even before the indictment and Ethics Committee inquiry, Cherfilus-McCormick faced primary challenges including from Elijah Manley, a young progressive who has been critical of Israel. Manley, 27, who has leaned into Cherfilus-McCormick’s indictment as fuel for his campaign, sat prominently behind her at her Ethics Committee trial last week. Dale Holness, the candidate who lost by a hair to Cherfilus-McCormick in 2021, is also running again. A poll of 300 likely primary voters in Pensacola in February found Manley leading the field with 38% of the vote, followed by Cherfilus-McCormick with 35% and Holness with just 10%. In a head-to-head matchup with Holness, Manley held a double digit lead, 45%-33%.
CHANGING TACK
Lagging in polling and fundraising, Lawler challenger hardens anti-Israel stance
Speaking to Jewish Insider last July, Effie Phillips-Staley, one of the Democrats aiming to take on Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) in suburban New York this fall, said that she wanted to be “very clear that the U.S. has to continue to be a critical ally to Israel” and that she wouldn’t support additional conditions or restrictions on U.S. aid to Israel. But as support for Israel has declined with the Democratic base, the progressive candidate has flip-flopped on her views towards the Jewish state, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
The latest: She received an endorsement this month from the virulently anti-Israel group TrackAIPAC, which has garnered accusations of antisemitism and dishonest tactics even from elected Democrats who are themselves critical of Israel. In a statement to JI, a spokesperson for Phillips-Staley said that her initial stance was a result of “the typical boilerplate advice from establishment Democrats to stay away from critiques of US aid to Israel.” This week, she faced criticism from local Democratic Party leaders for appearing on Hasan Piker’s stream. Her trip to Israel also included a conversation with Rev. Munther Isaac, a virulent antisemite who has justified Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
EARLY ELECTION AVERTED
Israel passes 2026 budget, avoiding early election
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition narrowly beat a deadline that would have led to an early election, passing the 2026 state budget early Monday morning, a day before the March 31 deadline, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Remaining issue: The budget passed after the coalition granted NIS 800 million ($255 million) in benefits to Haredi institutions, and promised Shas and United Torah Judaism that the government would pass a law that, in effect, would continue yeshiva students’ exemption from military service, even as Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF chief of staff, raised “10 red flags” about insufficient military manpower.
Worthy Reads
The Hawks’ Blind Spot: The Atlantic’s Jonathan Chait raises concerns about the possibility that a negative outcome in the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran could further boost the ascendent far-right isolationist wing of the GOP. “Trump’s populist allies have learned that their most poisonous ideas have a potent audience. Figures such as [Tucker] Carlson, [Nick] Fuentes, and the far-right influencer Candace Owens have developed mass followings by supplying the forbidden fruits of anti-Semitic paranoia that the old establishment withheld. They have tapped into a deep desire to blame Israel and a Jewish cabal for the world’s problems. If Trump is seen as having failed because of a war fought alongside Israel that was urged on him by the hawks, Carlson’s case against the Republican elite will become trivially simple.” [TheAtlantic]
The Alt-War: In The Washington Post, University of Pittsburgh professor Jennifer Murtazashvili, who moved to Israel as a Fulbright scholar in January, observes how online propaganda has altered the way in which the war in the Middle East is being understood by broad swaths of the West. “We are living through the first alt-war: a conflict in which the war fought online and the war fought in reality have diverged so completely that they might as well be happening on different planets. … The liberal internationalist left and the isolationist right — two camps that have agreed on almost nothing for decades — have suddenly found themselves in lockstep, racing to declare the war a failure before it had barely begun. … Together they are the most powerful engine of the alt-war.” [WashPost]
From Karachi to Palm Beach: Bloomberg’s Faseeh Mangi profiles Bilal Bin Saqib, the Pakistani cryptocurrency expert and “key player” in Karachi’s efforts to build fiscal ties with the U.S. “Last month, Saqib posted a selfie with Zachary Witkoff and other company executives at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. That came around the same time that Pakistan reached an agreement with the US to revamp the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, a deal negotiated by Steve Witkoff. … Starting in March of last year, he was appointed to a series of positions in quick succession: The finance minister’s chief adviser on crypto, chief executive officer of the Pakistan Crypto Council, special assistant to the prime minister on blockchain and crypto. Finally he ended up as chairman of the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority.” [Bloomberg]
Word on the Street
The U.S. is reportedly making preparations for a weekslong ground operation in Iran that would likely fall short of a full-scale invasion but would consist of smaller raids conducted by special forces…
Separately, the White House is mulling a plan to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium from Iran that would include troops on the ground…
The Wall Street Journal looks at Pakistan’s effort to position itself as a mediator between the U.S. and Iran; over the weekend, Karachi hosted foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt to discuss efforts to deescalate tensions in the Middle East…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was in the Middle East over the weekend, said that Ukrainian intelligence revealed that Russia took photos of a U.S. air base in Saudi Arabia on three separate occasions shortly before three soldiers were injured in an Iranian attack on the base; the finding comes as, The Wall Street Journal reports, Moscow steps up its backing for Iran in part “to salvage what’s left of its shrinking web of partnerships”…
The Financial Times reports that Iran is increasingly relying on its “resistance economy” that functions through domestic production and sanctions evasion in an effort to stave off economic collapse, as The Wall Street Journal does a deep dive into Tehran’s “tentacled ecosystem that controls more than half of the economy” and keeps the regime afloat…
The White House issued a statement honoring Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A., honoring the “life, legacy, and vision of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson,” the late Lubavitcher Rebbe…
Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Peter Welch (D-VT) introduced a resolution to block certain arms sales to the United Arab Emirates…
Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Van Hollen, Welch and Sanders introduced a bill that would require the affirmative consent of Congress for any nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia…
Every Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee wrote to the committee’s chairman requesting a public briefing on the Iran war, saying they are “deeply troubled by the lack of transparency” from the administration…
The Democratic National Committee is expected to vote next month on a resolution opposing outside “corporate-backed independent expenditures” that explicitly criticizes AIPAC and its affiliated United Democracy Project super PAC…
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, signed into law legislation formally adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, becoming the 37th state to do so…
Politico published, and then removed, a cartoon with antisemitic imagery that included Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with an outsized nose and members of Congress wearing bloodied Jewish prayer shawls…
The cartoon was published a day before Politico reported on the “frustrations and anger” with the U.S. war in Iran that “were on full display” among young male MAGA adherents at last week’s CPAC conference, despite a straw poll at the Dallas confab that found overwhelming support for both the Trump administration and the U.S. involvement in the war…
The Wall Street Journal looks at San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s effort to address the city’s anticipated budget shortfall of $900 million through private contributions and the creation of the San Francisco Downtown Development Corporation to raise funds to revitalize the area…
The Information reports on last week’s JPMorgan Chase’s Tech100 gathering in Montana, where attendees included White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared and Josh Kushner, Michael Dell and Dario Amodei…
Apollo Global Management is planning to open a second U.S. headquarters, with Austin, Texas, South Florida and Nashville reportedly among the shortlisted cities; Apollo plans to make the “bulk” of its future hires from the area it selects for the second HQ…
Barry Diller purchased an $11 million duplex penthouse frequented by President John F. Kennedy at New York’s Carlyle Hotel; Diller purchased the property from Karen Pritzker, who with her husband paid $12.5 million for it in 2007…
Nursing home owner Daryl Hagler sold off five properties in Brooklyn and Queens for $332 million, months after a report from New Jersey’s state comptroller found that Hagler and his business partner owed $124 million to the government for redirecting Medicaid funding and understaffing two N.J. nursing homes…
A New Jersey man was charged with plotting an attack on Within Our Lifetime founder and anti-Israel activist Nerdeen Kiswani…
The University of Florida chapter of College Republicans is suing the school for forcing the group’s disbandment after the circulation of an image of a member doing a Nazi salute, citing its First Amendment rights…
Semafor spotlights the work of the New York Post’s “runners” — reporters without a specific beat who are dispatched to cover all manner of stories — by shadowing Reuven Fenton, “one of eight siblings, three of whom are rabbis” and “one of a number of people with arguably the oldest job in American journalism, and perhaps one of the only ones that will survive AI”…
Yeah that’s Kosher released the 2026 edition of its annual guide to kosher ballpark eating…
The U.K.’s Liberal Democrats suspended the mayor of Bath after he shared social media posts calling a recent arson attack on Hatzola ambulances in London’s heavily Jewish Golders Green suburb an Israeli false flag operation…
A day after Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and three other senior Latin Patriarchate officials were denied access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Israel Police announced an agreement that will allow Catholic Church officials access to the site; the accord came after intervention from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called for Pizzaballa to be granted “full and immediate access” to the church…
The IDF withdrew the Netsah Yisrael battalion from the West Bank following a weekend confrontation between reservist soldiers and a CNN crew in which reporter Jeremy Diamond alleged his cameraman was put in a chokehold by one of the soldiers…
The Atlantic spotlights the Kurdish Peshmerga forces along the Iran-Iraq border that are preparing for possible military action in Iran…
Politico Executive Vice President Jonathan Greenberger was named the publication’s new editor-in-chief; Greenberger, who was previously the Washington bureau chief at ABC News, will assume the new role in May…
Dr. Kurt Gitter, who as a baby fled Nazi Europe with his family and would go on to become a pioneer in the field of eye surgery, as well as an avid collector of Japanese art, died at 89…
Dr. Judith Rapoport, whose work brought widespread awareness to obsessive-compulsive disorder, died at 92…
Pic of the Day
IDF Sgt. Moshe Itzhak HaCohen Katz, a U.S.-born IDF soldier from New Haven, Conn., who was killed in combat in Lebanon on Friday, was buried on Sunday in Jerusalem.
Birthdays
Actress, director, producer and ballerina, Juliet Landau turns 61..
Partner of Rose Associates, a real-estate firm in the NYC area, Elihu Rose turns 93… Professor of international trade at Harvard and winner of the Israel Prize in 1991, Elhanan Helpman turns 80… Cherry Hill, N.J. resident, Zelda Greenberg… Film and television director, Michael Stephen Lehmann turns 69… Comedian, actor, television personality, screenwriter, author and musician, Paul Reiser turns 69… Host of Public Radio Exchange’s “The World,” Marco Werman turns 65… District attorney of Philadelphia since 2017, Larry Krasner turns 65… U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria under Presidents Obama and Trump, he is a past president of the American Foreign Service Association, Eric Seth Rubin turns 65… Actor best known for his role as Steve Sanders on the television series “Beverly Hills, 90210,” Ian Ziering turns 62… Owner and founder of D.C.-area’s Ark Contracting (what else can you call your company if your name is Noah), Noah Blumberg… U.S. special representative for international negotiations in the first Trump administration, now at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Jason Dov Greenblatt turns 59… Regional director in the Washington office at AJC: Global Jewish Advocacy, Alan Ronkin… Associate dean of students at Bard College, she helped 350 people escape Afghanistan amidst the U.S. withdrawal, Danna Harman… Tel Aviv-born actress, she appears on television and film in both Israel and the U.S., Mili Avital turns 54… Mexican-American chef, she won a James Beard Award for her PBS television series “Pati’s Mexican Table,” Patricia “Pati” Jinich turns 54… Financial services professional, he was formerly treasurer of Oakland County, Mich., Andy Meisner turns 53… Iranian-born LA-based retired actress, best known for her roles in “Crash” and the “Saw” franchise, also as the mother of the inspirational amputee Ezra Frech, Bahar Soomekh turns 51… Communications consultant, Gabriela Schneider… Jerusalem-born documentary photographer for the Associated Press, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography in 2007, Oded Balilty turns 47… Detroit-area Jewish leader and founder at Multifaith Life, Alicia Chandler… Best-selling author of The Oracle of Stamboul and The Last Watchman of Old Cairo, Michael David Lukas turns 47… Former senior advisor to then-Ambassador David Friedman at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, he is now a diplomatic advisor to the Board of Peace, Aryeh Lightstone turns 46… Chief program officer at Jewish Democratic Council of America, Robert J. Saferstein… Founder and editor-in-chief at Standard & Works, Zach Silber… Senior reporter at The Huffington Post, Jessica Schulberg… Third baseman for MLB’s Chicago Cubs, he was the MVP of the 2018 MLB All-Star Game, Alex Bregman turns 32… Associate at Arnold & Porter, she is a granddaughter of the late Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Leora Einleger…
The sister, niece and brother-in-law of Maoist magnate Neville ‘Roy’ Singham have gained influence in New York’s ascendant socialist movement
John Lamparski/Getty Images
Then-New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during the Jews For Racial And Economic Justice's Mazals Gala on September 10, 2025 in New York City.
Relatives of a Shanghai-based software magnate devoted to promoting Chinese, Iranian and Russian interests are operating inside the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, supporting Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s preferred candidates for Congress and playing significant roles in shaping and advancing key elements of his agenda, Jewish Insider has found.
Onstage with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) last September, Mamdani credited one of his signature campaign promises to the political director of the far-left nonprofit Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.
“The idea of making buses fast and free was not my idea,” the video posted to JFREJ’s Instagram account shows the then-Democratic nominee announcing. “It was an idea I had given to me in a meeting with another New Yorker who was passionate about transit, Alicia Singham Goodwin.”
The name prompted applause from the crowd at Brooklyn College, and the mayor quickly added that he and his team had solicited Singham Goodwin’s input. What he did not mention was that just months earlier, the New York Post had identified Singham Goodwin — who spearheaded “Jews for Zohran,” an independent canvassing initiative targeting Jewish New Yorkers — as the niece of Maoist financier Neville “Roy” Singham, who has poured the fortune from the sale of his software firm, Thoughtworks, into undermining the interests of the U.S., Israel and Ukraine.
Besides running Jews for Zohran, Singham Goodwin bundled thousands of dollars in contributions for Mamdani’s campaign, including $1,000 each from her father, Daniel Goodwin, and from her mother, Shanti Singham, an academic and sister of the far-left financier.
Mamdani’s team did not respond to repeated questions about his relationship with Singham Goodwin and his reasons for consulting her as a candidate. No member of the Singham-Goodwin family replied to JI’s inquiries regarding their personal, political and financial relationships with Roy Singham, their interactions with Mamdani or their status and influence in NYC-DSA.
Business ties further link the New York-based clan to Singham, whose network of propaganda- and protest-spreading nonprofits was the subject of a recent congressional hearing: Records show that Daniel Goodwin served as Thoughtworks’ CFO and general counsel. Meanwhile, the Singham siblings have also long been politically aligned, having joined their names to the same petitions and collaborated with the same “third-worldist” scholars.
They also share a relationship with Chinese government interests. The New York Times found Neville Singham had collaborated with the country’s propaganda apparatus, while Shanti Singham holds a post at the state-controlled East China Normal University — which hails her instruction on “Pan-Africanism, Marxism and Socialism” and its “profound impact on Chinese academia” — and she has advocated for the Beijing-backed Confucius Institutes across Africa.
Singham Goodwin, meanwhile, posed for photos at a 2022 protest with her uncle’s wife, Jodie Evans, co-founder of far-left outfit CODE PINK, which the Times identified as part of her husband’s global influence operation.
Days after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, Singham Goodwin and Mamdani, then a member of the state Assembly, were among a raft of activists arrested for protesting outside the Brooklyn home of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) over his support for Israel. A few months later, she took a photo with the future mayor at a 5K fundraiser for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
Meanwhile, records show how Singham Goodwin and her parents have worked behind the scenes to advance leftist causes in New York City. Materials from NYC-DSA meetings show the trio, all members, have collaborated on resolutions shaping the group’s practices and policies, including its candidate endorsement process.
Joining the family on this last initiative was Mamdani. Singham Goodwin and Mamdani also collaborated in shaping NYC-DSA’s Socialists in Office Committee, a key instrument of its influence, through which its supported candidates agree to take direction on legislation and votes. The future mayor was an early and abiding participant of the committee during his time as a state lawmaker.
NYC-DSA did not respond to repeated queries about the family’s membership and leadership roles in the organization.
But materials reviewed by JI show that Singham Goodwin and her parents’ efforts on Mamdani’s behalf did not end with his victory last November. One week after the mayor’s January swearing-in, Singham Goodwin helped lead a DSA call with current state legislators in the Socialists in Office program on developing a “pressure campaign” to secure needed approval from the state Senate and Assembly for the mayor’s proposal to raise taxes on high-earners to finance social programs.
“We need to understand how Albany works in order to know how to push the players in Albany to get what we want,” Singham Goodwin says on a recording of the call obtained by JI. “We have to figure out what tactics we believe are going to effectively get them to do what we want.”
More recently, the Singham-Goodwin clan has been involved in the campaign of former city Comptroller Brad Lander, Mamdani’s endorsed candidate against Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY). Singham Goodwin is featured in multiple photos Lander has shared on social media of his canvassing team, while her parents have both donated to his campaign.
Federal Election Commission filings also show Shanti Singham and her husband have given money to Assemblywoman Claire Valdez, the mayor’s endorsed candidate to succeed Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) in Congress.
Neither the Valdez nor Lander campaigns responded to questions for this story.
Council Speaker Julie Menin says the mayor ‘hasn’t indicated’ he will veto her signature legislation
John Lamparski/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Julie Menin, speaker of the New York City Council, left, and Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York, during an announcement in Brooklyn, New York, on Jan. 12, 2026.
The New York City Council passed a suite of legislation Thursday intended to battle antisemitism — and to formalize NYPD policy toward protests at religious and educational facilities — leaving it up to Mayor Zohran Mamdani to try to block the bills or let them become law.
Council Speaker Julie Menin told reporters before the vote that she’s received no signal that Mamdani would veto her signature bill, which would compel the city’s police commissioner to lay out official department procedure for its longstanding practice of establishing buffer zones around religious institutions during protest activity.
Mamdani has repeatedly refused to take a stand on the issue, though he has acknowledged concerns against the bill from civil rights organizations and left-wing activists in his base who have targeted synagogues and yeshivas with anti-Israel demonstrations.
“I have many conversations with the mayor, we meet one-on-one all the time. He hasn’t indicated to me that he will do that,” Menin said when asked about the potential for a veto.
The NYPD told the Council it had “no objections” to a revised version of the proposal at a council hearing in February, which would typically signal the mayor, who oversees the police department, intends to sign the legislation, or take no action, at which point it would automatically become law after 30 days. The bill had 35 co-sponsors and passed with 44 of 51 council members voting in favor, well in excess of the two-thirds majority needed to override a mayoral veto.
Far closer was the vote on a bill advanced by Bronx Councilman Eric Dinowitz, chair of the body’s Jewish Caucus, which would similarly obligate Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch to create formal protocol for police security perimeters — but near educational institutions rather than religious ones. Michael Gerber, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for legal affairs, expressed hesitation as to this measure at last month’s hearing, arguing that a single uniform policy may not be appropriate to police actions around private property.
Dinowitz maintained after the vote that the bill’s language makes clear the NYPD should only establish perimeters around entrances and exits onto public parks and sidewalks, not school facilities themselves.
“We wanted to be clear that the intent of the bill is not to police what’s going on at college campuses,” Dinowitz told reporters.
Still, the bill passed with just 30 votes, four shy of what it would require to overcome a veto.
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.
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