• In New York, former Israeli hostage Emily Damari will sit in conversation this evening with Noa Tishby at Temple Emanu-El.
• The Jewish Institute for National Security of America’s U.S.-Israel national security summit begins today in Aventura, Fla.
• On the heels of last night’s election, New York Democrats are heading to Puerto Rico today for the 2025 Somos Conference. Will you be there? JI’s Matthew Kassel will be covering the conference — say hello if you see him.
• The two-day SALT conference kicks off today in London. Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci are among the speakers at the fintech-focused summit.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S Josh Kraushaar

Democrats scored sweeping victories across the country yesterday, with moderate lawmakers comfortably winning governorships in New Jersey and Virginia, while a democratic socialist prevailed in the closely watched New York City mayoral contest. California overwhelmingly voted to redistrict its congressional maps, a response to efforts in some red states to reconfigure congressional maps to give the GOP an edge. 

The results underscore the widespread backlash to President Donald Trump’s polarizing governance in the first year of his second term in office, and indicate the likelihood that Democrats have momentum heading into next year’s midterm elections, where the party is looking to retake control of at least one branch of Congress.

In Virginia, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee, easily defeated Republican Winsome Earle-Sears, the sitting lieutenant governor, by a double-digit margin (57-43%), bringing in a sizable Democratic majority in the state’s House of Delegates. Her victory was so sweeping that the Democrats’ scandal-plagued attorney general nominee Jay Jones, who was under fire for texts he sent several years ago wishing political violence against GOP colleagues, narrowly prevailed over the Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican.

In New Jersey, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) comfortably prevailed over Republican Jack Ciattarelli, outperforming polls suggesting a close race. With most of the vote reporting, Sherrill leads by a whopping 13-point margin, 56-43%. In Bergen County, a bellwether county with a significant Jewish population, Sherrill won over 55% of the vote, a dominant performance illustrating the breadth of her support.

In New York City, DSA-aligned Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani prevailed over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who was running as an independent, though by a narrower margin than polling suggested. Mamdani leads Cuomo by eight points, 50-42%, with Republican Curtis Sliwa only winning 7% of the vote. The outcome suggested that many GOP voters ended up switching their support to Cuomo, who won a last-minute endorsement from Trump.

The Jewish vote in New York City went heavily for Cuomo, 60-31%, according to the exit polling, but Mamdani won nearly one-third support despite a long record of anti-Israel hostility and refusal to condemn “globalize the intifada” rhetoric, among other positions that alienated the mainstream Jewish community.

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

Mamdani and the Machers: The New York Times’ Nicholas Fandos reports on New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s meetings with high-profile figures, including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg as he looked to shore up support in the weeks prior to his election. “The [NYPD chief] appointment would be one of the most significant he would make, and Mr. Mamdani needed to know he would have a partner to implement a series of progressive reforms he had pitched for the Police Department. Ultimately, both Ms. Hochul and Mr. Mamdani came around. … Mr. Bloomberg had privately told associates over the summer he was done with Mr. Cuomo after spending more than $8 million to back him in the primary. Mr. Mamdani left the meeting thinking he had done enough to keep it that way. He was wrong. Angry over Mr. Mamdani’s comments on Israel and worried about his inexperience, Mr. Bloomberg ultimately sent $5 million to two super PACs attacking Mr. Mamdani and re-upped his endorsement of Mr. Cuomo — but did so only six days before Election Day.” [NYTimes]

No to the Groypers: In The Wall Street Journal, Ben Shapiro argues that the conservative movement in the U.S. is “at a crossroads” amid an ideological split within the Republican Party over its embrace of Tucker Carlson and platforming of Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. “The Republican Party, like the Democratic Party before it, is at risk of being eaten alive by fringe actors. To allow it is both morally unjustifiable and politically obtuse. Americans reject this garbage. If Republicans cower before Nazi apologists and their popularizers, the GOP will lose — and deserve to. Our answer must be no. No to the groypers and their publicists like Mr. Carlson. No to demoralization. No to bigotry and antimeritocratic nonsense. No to anti-Americanism. This is our country, our party and our conservative movement. We can’t stand by while it is fractured by those who betray our most fundamental principles. If we lose the right, then we will surely lose to the left — and either way, we will lose our country.” [WSJ]

If Rabin Were Alive…: In The Atlantic, Dennis Ross, who worked closely with former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin while serving as the White House’s chief Middle East negotiator during the mid-1990s, considers how Rabin might have approached some of the country’s current challenges. “Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack and Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza have produced a mutual animosity that won’t soon disappear. But a more promising factor has also emerged: Arab states finally seem ready to assume some responsibility for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. … If Rabin were alive, he would spot this strategic opening and try to seize it. He would see in Trump’s 20-point peace plan an opportunity to rebuild a better Gaza and create a coalition with Arab states to oppose Iran and extremist forces in the region. Rabin would understand that Israel has to make some concessions to Palestinians in order to enhance the prospects of a regional coalition. But he would also require Palestinians to do their part by ensuring security and reforming the Palestinian Authority.” [TheAtlantic]

ABCs of Gaza Aid: In The Washington Post, Stony Brook University professor Todd Pittinsky calls for conditioning reconstruction aid to Gaza on education reforms in the enclave. “Every generation in Gaza grows up memorizing the language of martyrdom. Schools, summer camps, mosques and media channels work in concert to instill an uncompromising worldview: violence is virtuous, compromise is weakness and the annihilation of Israel is a sacred duty. Hamas’s rockets are the visible expression of decades of indoctrination of the next generation. Gaza’s children are the victims of this violent ideology. Few parents in London, Paris or Washington would tolerate their child being taught that violence is noble or that neighbors are subhuman. Yet the international community has subsidized precisely that curriculum for Palestinian children — and then has acted shocked when violence perpetuates itself. It’s time for that to end.” [WashPost]

President Donald Trump renominated Jared Isaacman to be NASA director, six months after pulling the Elon Musk ally’s initial nomination amid a spat with Musk…

The White House is seeking a full repeal of existing sanctions on Syria ahead of President Ahmad Al-Sharaa’s meeting with Trump in Washington on Monday…

The Pentagon is advancing its consideration of a request from Saudi Arabia to purchase up to four dozen F-35 fighter jets; at a Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs conference in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Israeli Security Cabinet member Avi Dichter said Israel is having discussions in Washington in which it is “shedding light on the threats” of the potential sale…

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) is mulling a challenge to Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA); if she enters the race, Pressley will also face Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), who announced his bid for the seat last month…

The Justice Department ended its antitrust investigation into Assaf Rappaport’s Wiz, clearing a key hurdle in Google’s effort to purchase the cybersecurity company for $32 billion…

Millennium Management CEO Israel “Izzy” Englander sold roughly 15% — valued at $2 billion — of his stake in the company the 77-year-old founded in 1989…

The Telegraph reports on a leaked BBC memo regarding the findings of an internal investigation by Michael Prescott, who until June was an independent external advisor for the network; Prescott’s 19-page report found “systemic problems” in BBC Arabic’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, which he said “pushed Hamas lies” and “minimised Israeli suffering”…

The New York Times interviews Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov about the torture and solitary confinement she endured over the two and a half years she was a hostage of the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah group in Iraq…

The U.N. Security Council voted to approve a resolution backing Morocco’s claim to the Western Sahara; the U.S., which led the measure, and 10 other countries voted in favor, while Russia, China and Pakistan abstained and Algeria voted no…

Israel received the remains of Staff Sgt. Itay Chen, the last remaining American hostage, who was killed on Oct. 7, 2023, while stationed along the Gaza border…

The Knesset is moving forward with legislation that would increase government oversight of the country’s media outlets…

Iran freed two French nationals who had been imprisoned in the country for more than three years; the couple had faced decades in prison after being convicted of espionage…

International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said that Iran must “seriously improve” its cooperation with nuclear inspectors, who have not been permitted to access the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan facilities that were damaged during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June…

Stanley Chesley, a class-action lawyer and philanthropist who prioritized Jewish causes and projects in his hometown of Cincinnati, died at 89, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher reports…

Julie Fishman Rayman (right), the American Jewish Committee’s senior vice president of policy and political affairs, interviewed the Department of Justice’s Harmeet Dhillon, who oversees the Civil Rights Division, on Tuesday at AJC’s National Leadership Council Advocacy Fly-In in Washington.

Israeli singer and survivor of the Nova Music Festival, she won second place in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025, Yuval Raphael turns 25…

Singer, poet and actor, best known as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, Art Garfunkel turns 84… Co-founder and chairman of Rexford Industrial Realty, Richard Ziman turns 83… Television and film critic, Jeffrey Lyons turns 81… French public intellectual, media personality and author, Bernard-Henri Lévy turns 77… Economist and former director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University where he remains a University Professor, Jeffrey Sachs turns 71… Israeli ceramic artist and sculptor, Daniela Yaniv-Richter turns 69… Psychologist and wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Sara Netanyahu turns 67… Director at The Gottesman Fund, Diane Bennett Eidman… Music producer and entertainment attorney, Kevon Glickman… Former prime minister of Israel, now leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid turns 62… Former regional director of AJC New York, now CEO at Healthcare Foundation of NJ, Michael Schmidt… Research division director for JewishGen USA, Ellen Shindelman Kowitt turns 58… Senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, Benjamin Wittes turns 56… Host, anchor and correspondent for CBS News and CBS Sports, Dana Jacobson turns 54… General counsel of The Jewish Theological Seminary, Keath Blatt… Jerusalem-born pianist, she has performed with major orchestras worldwide, Orli Shaham turns 50… Director at the Domestic Policy Council in the first six months of the Trump 47 administration, now director  of federal education policy at America First Policy Institute, Max Eden turns 37… CEO and organizer of Los Angeles-based Aesthetics and Edits, Tara Khoshbin… Legal correspondent at Business Insider, Jacob Shamsian… Legislative assistant for Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), Talia Katz…

• Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav, CNN’s Dana Bash, Oct. 7 survivor Aya Meydan and former Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov are being honored tonight at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s annual tribute dinner in Los Angeles. Steven Spielberg will present Zaslav with this year’s Humanitarian Award, SWC’s highest honor.
• In Washington, Sony Pictures, the Motion Picture Association and the German Embassy are hosting a special screening of “Nuremberg.”
• Tikvah Ideas is hosting a conversation this afternoon between historian Jack Wertheimer and North American Values Institute founder David Bernstein about the challenges Jewish institutions face in combating antisemitism.
• The Future Investment Initiative wraps up today in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
• In Israel, we’re keeping an eye on the fallout from the announcement by the World Zionist Congress’ Likud delegation that it planned to appoint Yair Netanyahu, the son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to a top World Zionist Organization post. The announcement collapsed the coalition agreement that had been reached earlier in the day, prompting the WZC to vote to reconvene in two weeks. Read more from eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross here.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

A new Quinnipiac poll of the New York City mayoral race with less than a week until Election Day shows Zohran Mamdani on track to win, but with a narrow plurality that underscores the breadth and resilience of the political opposition against him. In short, he’s set to prevail thanks to a divided opposition and backing from an enthusiastic left-wing faction of the electorate — not because he’s winning over hearts and minds in Gotham.

If the polling is accurate, Mamdani would be the first New York City mayor to win without a majority of the vote since John Lindsay in 1969. Mamdani leads former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo 43-33% in the Quinnipiac poll, with Republican Curtis Sliwa tallying 14%. Mamdani, in a sign of his political ceiling, has lost several points of support since the pollster’s survey earlier this month. 

Among Sliwa voters, 55% said that Cuomo was their second choice, while only 7% said the same of Mamdani. If New York City utilized a ranked-choice voting system as it did in the primary, this race would be neck-and-neck.

The Quinnipiac poll finds Mamdani building an unconventional coalition of secular progressives and Muslims in New York City politics, running up the score with voters of no religion (71% support) or of a religion other than Christianity and Judaism (50%). Mamdani struggles badly with Jewish voters, winning just 16% support, while only receiving 28% of the vote among Catholics and 36% among Protestants. 

Mamdani is winning support from just 59% of Democrats, with 31% backing Cuomo — an unusually weak showing for a Democratic nominee. But Republicans are evenly divided between Cuomo and Sliwa, preventing the former governor from capitalizing on Mamdani’s deep unpopularity with GOP voters. Mamdani is tied with Cuomo among independents at 34% apiece. 

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

Adams on Mamdani: In an interview with Molly Ball for Time, New York City Mayor Eric Adams raises concerns about New York City mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani. “Adams considers Mamdani’s promises unrealistic; he predicts buyer’s remorse when the frontrunner’s supporters realize he can’t actually freeze most people’s rent, make buses free, or bring down the cost of living. Adams is also concerned about the threat of Islamic extremism, with which he thinks Mamdani is too comfortable, and perplexed by polls that show Mamdani getting a large proportion of the Jewish vote. … In 2023, Adams hosted Mamdani and his father, a scholar of post-colonialism at Columbia University, for dinner. ‘The frightening thing is, he really believes this stuff!’ Adams tells me as he mixes the veggies. ‘Globalize the intifada, there’s nothing wrong with that! He believes, you know, I don’t have anything against Jews, I just don’t like Israel. Well, who’s in Israel, bro?’ At the dinner’s end, Adams says he told the Mamdanis, ‘Listen, I just don’t believe what you do.’” [Time]

Poisoned (Big) Apple: In The Wall Street Journal, Bernard-Henri Lévy warns of what a Mamdani victory in the mayoral election could portend for New York City and beyond. “It would be a black day for the Jews of New York. An insult to the memory of Saul Bellow, Elie Wiesel and Leonard Bernstein. A spit in the face of Emma Lazarus, the poet whose words of welcome to the humiliated, afflicted, nameless and stateless who arrived at Ellis Island are engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. It would be a beginning of rupture of the age-old pact between the world’s most cosmopolitan city and the people of the Book. It would be an earthquake in the history of Judaism: At the hour when the threat of annihilation was everywhere, New York was the last place on the planet where Judaism and Jews could not only be saved, but reinvented. Beyond the Jews, it would be the entire Democratic Party turning its back on the legacy of Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton to rally to a faction that, under the cover of ‘intersectionality,’ confuses the green flag of Hamas with that of the workers.” [WSJ]

The Power of Prayer: In the Jewish Journal, Tevi Troy reflects on the prayers — by his estimate, in the billions — said over the course of the hostages’ captivity in Gaza. “Many of the hostages themselves prayed as well. Some of them were religious when they were taken hostage. Some became religious because of the experience. The sustaining of hope through prayer is often derided in Western liberal societies. But the hostages themselves have attested to the power of prayer in giving them not only hope, but agency. And that gave them a grasp on life itself. … Even as we prayed for the hostages, most people had little expectation that they would survive the horrors that Hamas had in store for them. I myself wondered whether these prayers would have any effectiveness, even as I dutifully said them, day in and day out, for two years. And while we mourn the 83 who did not make it, we must also celebrate the miracle that 168 of them have survived, an outcome no one would have imagined possible two years ago.” [JewishJournal]

Windows of the Soul: The Forward’s Benyamin Cohen spotlights the efforts of retired Illinois judge Jerry Orbach to salvage stained glass windows from shuttering synagogues. “‘I’ve heard many congregations describe their windows as the soul of their congregation,’ [Case Western Reserve University professor Alanna] Cooper said. She found in Orbach what her fieldwork had only theorized. ‘He’s creating an afterlife for these windows,’ she said at a dedication ceremony at Northbrook, where they both spoke [and where many of the windows are kept]. Standing before the crowd that day, Cooper described the scene she’d witnessed when windows were removed from Ahavath Israel in Kingston, New York, which Orbach also rescued and relocated to Northbrook. Cooper recalled workmen carrying the panels to their crates as the last members of the congregation looked on. ‘As they lowered the windows into the boxes,’ she said, ‘it felt like a burial.’ Now she gestured toward the sanctuary, the glass alive with color once more. ‘And this,’ she said, ‘is the afterlife.’” [TheForward]

The FBI is pushing back on an effort by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to make DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s office the federal government’s primary counterintelligence agency, underscoring tensions between the two agencies days after they clashed over National Counterterrorism Center head Joe Kent’s attempted investigation into the killing of Charlie Kirk…

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave $1.5 million to the Fix the City super PAC backing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, days before the city’s mayoral election…

CBS News conducted a fresh round of layoffs that included Johannesburg, South Africa-based foreign correspondent Deb Patta, whom Puck described as “one of the most prominent voices on Gaza”…

A federal judge sentenced the two men convicted of attempting to kill Iranian dissident and writer Masih Alinejad on behalf of Iran to 25 years in prison…

An inquest into the attack on a synagogue in Manchester, U.K., on Yom Kippur found that one of the attack’s two victims was mistakenly killed by a single police bullet as he attempted to hold the synagogue’s door closed, while another congregant died of multiple stab wounds after being attacked by Jihad Al-Shamie…

DAZN is teaming up with FIFA to relaunch FIFA+, a global soccer streaming service; DAZN founder and chair Len Blavatnik and FIFA President Gianni Infantino inked the deal in Riyadh on Wednesday, joined by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman…

The IDF said it conducted an overnight raid in the southern Lebanon village of Blida targeting Hezbollah infrastructure…

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is mulling the possibility of moving the country’s capital to the southern coastal city of Makran, citing the degree to which Tehran, with a population of 10 million, has become “expanded and overloaded”…

International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said that inspectors have noticed movement around Iranian sites where enriched nuclear material is stored, but that the Islamic Republic does not appear to be actively enriching uranium…

Grossi’s comments come amid reports that Iran is working to rebuild its ballistic missile program following the 12-day war with Israel in June; European intelligence sources said that Iran has received thousands of tons of sodium perchlorate from China in the last month following the reimposition of snapback sanctions on Iran…

The New York Times looks at the mass displacement of hundreds of thousands of Syrians and sectarian violence around the country since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad last year…

Longtime NYPD Chief Chaplain Rabbi Alvin Kass, the oldest and longest-serving member of the department, died at 89…

The cast of Israeli satire show “Eretz Nehederet” performed David Broza’s song “Under the Sky,” accompanied by former hostage Alon Ohel on piano.

Winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for his biographies of Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert Caro turns 90…

Former president of the University of Minnesota and chancellor of the University of Texas System and current president of the University of California, Mark Yudof turns 81… Actor, best known for his portrayal of Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli in the “Happy Days” sitcom, Henry Winkler turns 80… NBC anchor, reporter and commentator, she is married to former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan, Andrea Mitchell turns 79… South African-born rabbi, now leading Kehillat Bnei Aharon in Raanana, Israel, David Lapin turns 76… Professor of physics at Syracuse University, Peter Reed Saulson turns 71… Former basketball player for five seasons with the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, now a managing director at CBIZ, Joel Bruce Kramer turns 70… Israeli violinist, violist and conductor, Shlomo Mintz turns 68… President of New York University since July 2023, she is the first Jewish individual and first woman to serve in that role, Linda Gayle Mills turns 68… Meatpacking executive, sentenced to 27 years in prison in 2009 for fraud, his sentence was commuted by President Donald Trump in 2017 after serving eight years, Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin turns 66… Former CEO and later executive chairman of Qualcomm, now CEO of Globalstar, he is a co-owner of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, Paul E. Jacobs turns 63… Partner in the D.C. office of Cadwalader, he previously served as the attorney general of Maryland, Douglas F. “Doug” Gansler turns 63… Partner and co-founder of the Irvine, Calif., law firm of Wolfe & Wyman, Stuart B. Wolfe… Global head of public policy at Apollo Global Management, David Krone… White House correspondent for The New York Times and a political analyst for CNN, Maggie Haberman turns 52… Principal in the D.C. office of Korn Ferry, Jeremy Seth Gold… Assistant secretary for investment security at the U.S. Treasury during the Biden administration, now a partner at Latham & Watkins, Paul M. Rosen turns 47… Public information officer of the City and County of Denver, Joshua Eric Rosenblum… Businesswoman, fashion designer, author and former White House advisor, Ivanka “Yael” Trump turns 44… Magician, author and lecturer, Joshua Jay turns 44… Founding director at Tech Tribe and director of social media for Chabad, Mordechai Lightstone… Bioinformatics scientist at Specifica, she earned a Ph.D in Genetics from Stanford and was on the 2010 U.S. Olympic Biathlon team, Laura Spector turns 38… Senior congressional reporter for Punchbowl News, Ally Mutnick… VP of public affairs at the American Petroleum Institute, Rebecca Schieber Brown… Senior spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, Mia Ehrenberg…

• President Donald Trump will be interviewed on “Fox & Friends” today at 8 a.m. ET.
• This evening, the president and special envoy Steve Witkoff are slated to meet with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, who arrived in the U.S. days after an Israeli strike in Doha killed several senior Hamas officials. Al-Thani is scheduled to meet this morning with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington.
• The U.N. General Assembly is set to vote today on a resolution calling for a two-state solution, the release of the remaining hostages and an end to Hamas’ rule in Gaza.
• In Sacramento, Calif., we’re keeping an eye on amended legislation targeting antisemitism in K-12 schools that passed out of committee earlier this week. The bill, AB 715, still needs to pass through both chambers today, the last day of session, before heading to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. The bill’s passage had been stalled amid pushback from the California Teachers Association and anti-Israel groups. Read more from JI’s Gabby Deutch on the legislation.
• On Sunday, the Capital Jewish Museum is holding its annual gala in Washington. This year’s event will honor Carlyle Group Chairman David Rubenstein and Esther Safran Foer.
• In Israel on Sunday, Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman and his wife, technologist Neri Oxman, will each receive honorary degrees from the University of Haifa at a gala dinner. Earlier in the day, Oxman and Ackman will deliver “master classes” on “material ecology and computational design” and leadership, respectively.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

We’re well into September, and the state of play in the New York City mayoral race hasn’t changed much in the last couple months, despite the many eye-catching developments. But a new New York Times/Siena poll released this week showcases an in-depth picture of the city’s electorate — one that is clearly wary of Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani’s brand of socialism, even as he remains the clear favorite to become the next mayor.

As has always been the case, the divided field of Mamdani opponents is the far-left candidate’s biggest asset. Mamdani leads former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo by 15 points among registered voters, 41-26%, with all the candidates on the ballot. But in a head-to-head matchup, Cuomo pulls narrowly ahead, 46-45%.

The results continue to underscore how the splintered field is the biggest reason Mamdani is favored. Hardly any of the supporters of Mayor Eric Adams, running as an independent, or Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa would support Mamdani over Cuomo if their candidate dropped out. Indeed, among those not supporting Mamdani, over half (52%) said they would never support him for mayor — higher than any other candidate.

Working in Mamdani’s favor is the relatively respectable favorability rating he holds with New York City voters, especially in comparison to his rivals. Nearly half (49%) of respondents viewed Mamdani favorably, with only 35% viewing him unfavorably. That means that despite holding a record far to the left of past New York City mayors, many voters aren’t (yet) holding that against him. But there’s been no significant outside advertising effort against Mamdani, as you would typically expect in the run-up to a high-stakes contest.

Without any effort to remind voters about his far-left record, it’s no surprise that the fresh-faced political newcomer has a respectable image. 

Cuomo, on the other hand, has an underwater favorability rating, with 42% viewing him favorably and 51% viewing him unfavorably — largely a result of the ethical scandal he faced that forced him to resign as governor. 

But on the issues, it’s easy to see how Cuomo remains competitive in a one-on-one matchup. Crime is the top issue for New York City voters, with 26% naming it as the most important problem facing voters, slightly ahead of affordability at 24%. One of Mamdani’s biggest vulnerabilities is his long record of public comments supporting defunding the police and others critical of the NYPD.

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

Violent Streak: The New York Times’ David French reflects on the assassination this week of commentator Charlie Kirk. “When I speak on college campuses, I’m often asked what single thing worries me most about American politics and culture. I have an easy answer — it’s hatred. Even vast political differences can be managed when people acknowledge the humanity and dignity of their opponents. At the same time, however, small conflicts can spiral into big ones when hatred and vengeance take away our eyes and ears. Every threat, every assault, every shooting, every murder — and certainly every political assassination — builds the momentum of hate and fear. … Assassination can cost us our country. We lose it when we stop seeing our opponents as human, when we crave vengeance more than peace, when the motivation for our political engagement stops being the common good of our constitutional Republic (or even just the security of our families), but is rather inflicting pain and anguish on our political enemies.” [NYTimes]

9/11 Reconsidered: The Free Press’ Niall Ferguson considers the evolution of his views about the Sept. 11 attacks, which he now sees as a clash of civilizations rather than a confluence of historical trend lines. “Over the past 24 years, I have valiantly tried to see 9/11 differently—not as a civilizational clash between Islam and ‘the West’ but as something that fit better into my own secular frame of reference. Raised an atheist, trained as an economic historian, I felt obliged to look behind what I took to be the facade of religious zealotry. … In short, comparing the world today with that of 24 years ago, I am tempted to say that bin Laden lost the war on terror but is winning the clash of civilizations. That’s not to say his particular brand of Salafist jihadism is winning; it can even be argued that it’s in decline. Bin Laden’s creed was always too uncompromising to form alliances of convenience. By contrast, the pro-Palestinian ‘global intifada’ is much more omnivorous, and can easily absorb the old left (Marxism and pan-Arabism) and the new (anti-globalism and wokeism).” [FreePress]

Blowing Up Assumptions: In The Wall Street Journal, Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh posit that the outcome of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran and U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities is markedly different than previous presidential administrations had warned. “This isn’t how many American officials expected the Islamic Republic to behave after being bombed. When selling his Iran nuclear deal, President Barack Obama dismissed those who thought that ‘surgical strikes against Iran’s facilities will be quick and painless.’ His deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes was more damning. ‘The default view in Washington is that if there’s a challenge in the Middle East, the U.S. has to solve it,’ he said. ‘Our basic point has been, no, sorry, we learned the opposite lesson from Iraq. It’s not that more U.S. military engagement will stabilize the Middle East. It’s that we can’t do this.’ … However much Americans incorrectly forecast the war’s results, the shock in Iran—the failure of strategic imagination—was far worse.” [WSJ]

The U.S. joined the rest of the U.N. Security Council in signing onto a statement condemning Israel for its attack on Hamas officials in Qatar earlier this week…

President Donald Trump said he will posthumously award Charlie Kirk with the Presidential Medal of Freedom…

The Pentagon announced its approval of a $14.2 million aid package to Lebanon to assist Beirut in disarming Hezbollah…

Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) accused House Republicans of having an “antisemitism problem” after Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) said in a social media post directed at Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA), who had just given a speech arguing that plastic surgery is “gender affirming care,” that she has “a good surgeon if you ever want to get your nose done”…

The House Foreign Affairs Committee released a series of bills aimed at reorganizing and reforming the State Department, ahead of a committee meeting next week where the lawmakers are expected to debate a host of amendments related to foreign policy and national security issues across the globe, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports… 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams signaled in a meeting with business leaders this week that he is open to dropping his reelection bid if he does not see a credible pathway to victory over front-runner Zohran Mamdani…

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg met with Mamdani on Thursday; Bloomberg had spent upward of $8 million opposing Mamdani’s primary bid earlier this year…

Mamdani said he would apologize for social media comments he made in 2020 calling the NYPD “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety”…

Josh Kraft dropped his Boston mayoral bid after a preliminary election showed him trailing incumbent Mayor Michelle Wu by 49 points…

Nadine Menendez, who earlier this year was convicted for her role in a corruption scheme involving her husband, former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison…

The University of California, Berkeley submitted to the Trump administration more than 150 names of students and faculty with “potential connection[s]” to antisemitic activity…

A Queens College Zoom lecture featuring an Israeli academic was disrupted by some attendees shouting antisemitic threats and displaying violent and sexually explicit images…

Amazon suspended a Seattle-based engineer who criticized the company’s business ties to Israel…

Paramount Skydance is reportedly moving toward making a majority cash bid for Warner Bros. Discovery that would merge the parent companies of HBO Max and Paramount+…

Jon Kelly’s Puck news company is finalizing an agreement to acquire Graydon Carter’s Air Mail…

An Iranian man living under a new identity in Central Florida is facing a $225 million lawsuit from three former political prisoners who allege the 89-year-old served as the head of the secret police during the reign of the shah of Iran before he was deposed in 1978…

Jewish Voice for Peace is suing the City of Miami Beach as well as its mayor and a city commissioner, alleging that the group’s First Amendment rights were violated by the passage of an ordinance on public protests…

The Mount Kisco [N.Y.] Recreation Commission reversed its denial of a permit to Chabad of Bedford to use a town park for the annual tashlich ceremony; the town originally cited a ban on the use of parks for religious purposes…

Relatives of Raphael Lemkin, a writer and lawyer who coined the term “genocide,” are pushing the Pennsylvania-based Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, which accused Israel of genocide 10 days after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, to stop using his name, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports…

Ireland’s public broadcaster said the country will opt out of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest if Israel is permitted to participate…

Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel told the country’s parliament that the government plans to implement a boycott of products from Jewish settlements in the West Bank…

Former English soccer player and BBC “Match of the Day” presenter Gary Lineker won the U.K. National Television Awards’ prize for best TV presenter, months after he left the broadcaster amid widespread criticism over his sharing of a social media post that compared Zionists to rats…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed off on a plan to move forward on a proposed E1 settlement expansion plan that would cut through the West Bank…

Two people were injured in a stabbing attack at a kibbutz hotel outside of Jerusalem…

Russian-Israeli researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov was reunited with family in Israel, days after being freed by an Iran-backed Iraqi militia that kidnapped her in Baghdad more than two years ago…

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Tehran and Paris were nearing a prisoner exchange that would release detained French nationals in exchange for an Iranian woman who was arrested in France earlier this year on charges of promoting terrorism online…

Senior officials in Jordan warned that Iran is increasingly posing a security threat in the Hashemite Kingdom…

David Halbfinger, who served as New York Times bureau chief in Jerusalem from 2017-2021, is returning to the role following the departure of Patrick Kingsley; longtime NYT correspondent Isabel Kershner was promoted to senior correspondent for the bureau…

Israeli President Isaac Herzog (left) met on Thursday with U.K. Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis in London during Herzog’s trip to the country, where he met with Jewish leaders as well as Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

President emeritus of the Democratic Majority for Israel, Mark S. Mellman turns 70… 

FRIDAY: 2020 Nobel Prize laureate in medicine, Harvey James Alter turns 90… Chairman at Waxman Strategies, he served for 20 terms through 2015 as a Democratic congressman from Los Angeles, Henry Waxman turns 86… 2017 Nobel Prize laureate in economics, University of Chicago behavioral economist, Richard H. Thaler turns 80… Director of Intergovernmental Affairs in the Obama White House, he was previously lieutenant governor of Kentucky and mayor of Louisville for 20 years, Jerry Abramson turns 79… Former president of AIPAC, Amy Rothschild Friedkin… Denver Jewish community leader, Sunny Brownstein… U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom during the Trump 45 administration, he was governor of Kansas and a U.S. senator, Sam Brownback turns 69… Miami-based chairman of American Principles Super PAC, Eytan Laor… Former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, he is now the global chair of the litigation department at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, Geoffrey Steven Berman turns 66… SVP of government and public affairs at CVS Health, Melissa Schulman… Internet entrepreneur and a pioneer of VoIP telephony, Jeff Pulver turns 63… Chair of ADL’s Board of Directors, Nicole G. Mutchnik… Attorney specializing in the recovery of looted artworks during the Holocaust and featured in the 2015 film “Woman in Gold,” E. Randol (Randy) Schoenberg turns 59… Senior paralegal and contract manager at The St. Joe Company, Sherri Jankowski… Senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Max A. Boot turns 56… Screenwriter, producer and director, he won three Emmy Awards for episodes of “Robot Chicken,” Douglas Goldstein turns 54… Chief advocacy officer at the Defense Credit Union Council, Jason Stverak… Israeli singer, songwriter and musician, Idan Raichel turns 48… Founder of the Loewy Law Firm in Austin, Texas, Adam Loewy… Venture capitalist and one of the co-founders of Palantir Technologies, Joe Lonsdale turns 43… AIPAC’s area director for Philadelphia and South Jersey, Kelly Lauren Stein… Actress, director and singer, she directed and starred in the 2022 Peacock miniseries “Angelyne,” Emmanuelle Grey “Emmy” Rossum turns 39… Former advisor to the prime minister of Israel for foreign affairs and world communities, now a venture capitalist, Sara Greenberg… Manager of operations communications at American Airlines, Ethan Klapper… National political correspondent at Politico and the author of The Bidens: Inside the First Family’s Fifty-Year Rise to Power, Ben Schreckinger… Product manager for pixel watch at Google, Natalie Raps Farren… Film and television actress, Molly Tarlov turns 33…

SATURDAY: Retired motion picture editor, Avrum Fine… Columnist, author and etiquette authority known as Miss Manners, Judith Perlman Martin turns 87… Chairman of global brokerage at CBRE, a worldwide commercial real estate services company, Stephen Siegel turns 81… Folk artist, photographer and writer focused on European Jewish history, Jill Culiner turns 80… Retired after 57 years as a D.C. reporter for many print and broadcast media, he now writes a Substack focused on antisemitism and the Middle East, Richard Pollock… Ice dancer, who, with her partner Michael Seibert, won five straight U.S. Figure Skating Championships between 1981 and 1985, Judy Blumberg turns 68… Former executive director of the Maryland/Israel Development Center, Barry Bogage turns 68… Founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, he is the author of 16 books, Rafael Medoff turns 66… Executive director of Aspen Digital, part of the Aspen Institute, Vivian Schiller… Senior lecturer in Talmud at Ner Israel Rabbinical College, Rabbi Chaim Kosman… Comedian known as “Roastmaster General” for his Comedy Central celebrity roasts, Jeffrey Ross Lifschultz turns 60… Governor of North Carolina, one of three Jewish governors named Josh, Joshua Stein turns 59… Member of the Los Angeles City Council, Robert J. Blumenfield turns 58… Founder of United Hatzalah of Israel and president of its U.S.-based support organization, Friends of United Hatzalah, Eli Beer turns 52… Israel’s minister of health until this past July, he is a member of the Knesset for the Shas party, Uriel Menachem Buso turns 52… VP of state and local advocacy for the Anti-Defamation League, Meredith Mirman Weisel… Former nine-year member of the Colorado House of Representatives, Jonathan Singer turns 46… Advocacy strategist with experience in opinion research, Gary Ritterstein… Senior editor and elections analyst at the Cook Political Report focused on the U.S. House of Representatives and redistricting, David Nathan Wasserman turns 41… Founder and president of Reshet Capital, Betty Grinstein… Director at Finsbury Glover Hering, Walter Suskind… Policy associate at Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Sierra DeCrosta… Senior software engineer at Capital Connect by J.P. Morgan Chase, David Behmoaras… Managing director at Page Four Media, Noa Silverstein…

SUNDAY: Actor, writer and director, first known for his role as Chekov in the original “Star Trek” television series, Walter Koenig turns 89… The only basketball head coach to have won both an NCAA national championship and an NBA championship, Lawrence Harvey (Larry) Brown turns 85… Executive chairman of MDC Holdings (parent company to Richmond American Homes) until last December, and the principal supporter of the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem, Larry A. Mizel turns 83… San Diego-based attorney, a specialist in mass torts, Frederick A. Schenk turns 72… Mayor of Miami-Dade County, Daniella Levine Cava turns 70… Born in Chicago as Robert Francis Prevost, Pope Leo XIV turns 70… Plastic surgeon and television personality, Dr. Terry Dubrow turns 67… Chairman and chief investment officer of The Electrum Group, he is the world’s largest private collector of Rembrandt’s works, Thomas Scott Kaplan turns 63… Founder of Mindchat Research, Amy Kauffman… Founder of Vermont-based Kidrobot, a retailer of art toys, apparel and accessories, and Ello, an ad-free social network, Paul Budnitz turns 58… British secretary of state for defence until 2024 and knighted earlier this year, he was a national president of BBYO, Sir Grant Shapps turns 57… President of Strauss Media Strategies, during the Clinton administration he became the first-ever White House Radio Director, Richard Strauss turns 56… Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ketanji Brown Jackson turns 55… Managing director at Gasthalter & Co., he is a past president of the Young Israel of New Rochelle, Mark A. Semer… Comedian, television actor, writer and producer, Elon Gold turns 55… Managing partner of Berke Farah LLP, his clients include SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas, Elliot S. Berke… Senior White House reporter for CBS News, Jennifer Jacobs… CEO of San Francisco-based Jewish LearningWorks, Dana Sheanin… Senior booking producer at CNN’s Inside Politics with Dana Bash, Courtney Cohen Flantzer… Governor of Florida and former 2024 POTUS candidate, Ron DeSantis turns 47… Israeli-American actress, Hani Furstenberg turns 46… Artist, photographer and educator, Marisa Scheinfeld turns 45… Staff writer at The Atlantic since 2014, Russell Berman… Co-founder and co-executive director of the Indivisible movement, Leah Greenberg… Los Angeles based attorney working as a contracts supervisor at MarketCast, Roxana Pourshalimi… New York Times reporter since 2011, now focused on in-depth profiles, Matt Flegenheimer… EVP at Voyager Global Mobility, Jeremy Moskowitz… Founder and owner of ARA Capital, a British firm with holdings in e-commerce and energy, Arkadiy Abramovich turns 32… MSW graduate this past May at Yeshiva University, Julia Savel… Artistic gymnast, she represented Israel at the 2020 (Tokyo) and 2024 (Paris) Summer Olympics, Lihie Raz turns 22…

• The House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence will hold a hearing this morning probing the rising influence of anti-Israel extremist groups as a threat to U.S. national security. Representatives from the Anti-Defamation League, Secure Community Network, American Jewish Committee and Heritage Foundation are slated to testify. Read more here.
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will testify this morning before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the Pentagon’s FY 2026 budget, the second of three hearings for Hegseth this week.
• The House Ways and Means Committee is holding a hearing this morning with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. In the afternoon, Bessent will appear before the Senate Appropriations Committee to discuss the Trump administration’s FY 2026 budget for the Treasury Department.
• The Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation is celebrating its 25th anniversary gala dinner tonight in New York City, where the organization will honor CNN commentator Van Jones.
• Elsewhere in New York, United Hatzalah is holding its annual gala. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is slated to address the gathering, which is chaired by Dr. Miriam Adelson.
• In Israel, a preliminary vote will be held today on a motion to dissolve the Knesset. More on this below.
• Also in Jerusalem, Argentine President Javier Milei will be awarded the Genesis Prize at the Knesset this evening.

A QUICK WORD WITH JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) comfortably prevailed in New Jersey’s Democratic gubernatorial primary last night, translating strong fundraising and backing from numerous party leaders into a double-digit margin of victory in the six-candidate field. With most of the ballots tallied, Sherrill won just over one-third of the Democratic vote.

Sherrill, a pragmatic suburban lawmaker and military veteran, will face Republican former state Rep. Jack Ciattarelli in the November general election. Boosted by President Donald Trump’s endorsement, Ciattarelli easily won the GOP nomination.

Sherrill continues the trend of moderate-minded candidates prevailing in recent Democratic primary fights. Three of her Democratic opponents ran to the congressman’s left, with left-wing Newark Mayor Ras Baraka even getting arrested at a federal immigration facility. That activist messaging didn’t end up winning him much traction in the race.

Baraka’s anti-Israel record and past praise of Louis Farrakhan concerned Jewish leaders, but he ultimately finished well behind Sherrill, in second place with 20% of the vote.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) ran to the center in the race, spent heavily and worked hard to win over the significant Jewish vote in the state, landing key endorsements from several Orthodox groups. But aside from handily winning his home county of Bergen, he struggled to make inroads in other parts of New Jersey, tallying 12% of the vote. (In Ocean County, where the congressman picked up a key endorsement of the Lakewood Vaad, he lagged in third place.)

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

Name the Oct. 7 Terrorists: In The Washington Post, Patrick Desbois, a Catholic priest whose Yahad-In Unum organization investigates mass killings, calls for the names of the perpetrators of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack to be made public. “Every terrorist who has imprisoned, assaulted or killed a hostage has a name. An address. A job. A family. A life story that should be made public. Each murder, rape and kidnapping on or since Oct. 7 was a terrorist act, but it was also a crime. And while terrorists should be neutralized, crimes should be investigated. Otherwise, deniers will flourish because, without a criminal, there is no crime.” [WashPost]

Iran Deal Déjà Vu: The New York Times’ David Sanger and Farnaz Fassihi look at the similarities between the Obama administration negotiations with Iran that led to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and President Donald Trump’s efforts to reach a nuclear agreement with Tehran. “To Mr. Trump and his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, the negotiations with Iran are a new experience, and Iran’s insistence that it will never surrender its ability to enrich uranium on its soil threatens to scuttle an agreement that the president only a few weeks ago confidently predicted was within reach. But it is almost exactly the same vexing dilemma that President Barack Obama faced a decade ago. Reluctantly, Mr. Obama and his aides concluded that the only pathway to an accord was allowing Iran to continue producing small amounts of nuclear fuel, keeping its nuclear centrifuges spinning and its scientists working.” [NYTimes]

President Donald Trump said that Iran has been acting “much more aggressive” in recent days, ahead of the next round of nuclear talks, slated to begin on Thursday…

Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh threatened that Tehran could strike American bases in the region if nuclear talks fail and a military conflict with the U.S. arises…

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Bloomberg there is “no room for” a Palestinian state, “unless there are some significant things that happen that change the culture,” suggesting that such a scenario was unlikely to happen “in our lifetime”; Huckabee also suggested that a Palestinian state could be created elsewhere in the Arab world, rather than in the West Bank…

The House Appropriations Committee‘s proposal for 2026 Defense funding suggests providing a total of $122.5 million for U.S.-Israel cooperative development programs, in addition to the regular $500 million for joint missile defense programs…

Ben Black, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, had his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports… 

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsed former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ahead of the city’s upcoming Democratic mayoral primary; Bloomberg praised Cuomo’s for having “governed as a pragmatist, focused on solving problems rather than engaging in ideological or partisan warfare”…

The majority Satmar faction in Brooklyn, which represents the largest Hasidic voting bloc in New York City, is backing Cuomo for mayor, lending what is likely to be a major boost to his campaign in the final days of the increasingly competitive Democratic primary, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports…

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed legislation that would have prohibited educators in the state from, among other things, teaching or promoting antisemitism and advocating for antisemitic points of view…

A recently unsealed criminal complaint against a Pakistani national revealed that the man, who had been residing in Canada, had planned to carry out a “coordinated assault” on Jewish targets in New York City; Muhammad Shahzeb Khan was apprehended in September 2024, weeks before he planned to carry out an attack on the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack…

Protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations that have engulfed San Francisco’s streets this week took an antisemitic turn on Monday night when a local Jewish-owned civic engagement hub and community space had its windows smashed and walls defaced with slurs including “Die Zio,” “The Only Good Settler is a Dead One,” “Death 2 Israel is a Promise” and “Intifada,” Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports… 

Leaders of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry are suing a Muslim cleric in Sydney, Australia, alleging he used dehumanizing language in his sermons that “denigrate[d] all Jewish people”…

Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the U.K. jointly announced sanctions on Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, saying the two members of Israel’s ruling coalition had repeatedly “incit[ed] violence against Palestinians”…

The Wall Street Journal looks at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s operations amid mounting distribution, logistical and leadership challeges…

Andreessen Horowitz is looking to recruit veterans of elite IDF units for its a16z speedrun accelerator program…

Calcalist reports on the draft agreement between the Jewish National Fund and Gary Barnett’s Extell Israel that would exchange JNF’s rights to some of its land in Jerusalem for some of Barnett’s high-profile properties in the city, and the larger debate over housing and urban renewal in the Israeli capital…

Argentina’s Supreme Court upheld former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s six-year prison sentence and lifetime ban on holding political office; Kirchner is facing additional legal issues, including allegations that she conspired with Iran to hide its ties to the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires…

Israeli President Isaac Herzog (right) met with Argentine President Javier Milei on Tuesday in Jerusalem. Herzog presented Milei with a replica of a silver amulet that was discovered in the upper Hinnom Valley that contained a fragment of the Jewish “Priestly Blessing” prayer.

Columbus, Ohio-based retail mogul, chairman of American Eagle Outfitters, Value City Department Stores, DSW and others, sponsor of ArtScroll’s translation of the Babylonian Talmud, Jay Schottenstein turns 71… 

Heir to the British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s, minister in two British governments under prime ministers Major and Thatcher, Sir Timothy Alan Davan Sainsbury turns 93… Executive director of NYC-based government watchdog Citizens Union, she was elected as NYC’s public advocate in 2001 and reelected in 2005, Elisabeth A. “Betsy” Gotbaum turns 87… Chief spokesperson for AIPAC since 2012, Marshall Wittmann turns 72… Member of the Knesset for the Agudat Yisrael faction of the United Torah Judaism party, Meir Porush turns 70… Hedge fund manager and owner of MLB’s New York Mets, Steven A. Cohen turns 69… Past president and national board member of AIPAC, he is a senior advisor to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Lee “Rosy” Rosenberg… Former director of the Israeli Shin Bet, Yuval Diskin turns 69… Member of the Knesset for the Shas party, now serving as minister of labor, Yoav Ben-Tzur turns 67… New Windsor, N.Y., attorney, Barry Wolf Friedman… Political and social justice activist, she served as Illinois state representative and as human rights commissioner, Lauren Beth Gash turns 65… Opinion columnist for The Washington Post until earlier this year, now writing on Substack, Jennifer Rubin turns 63… Partner in the D.C. office of worldwide consulting firm, Brunswick Group, Michael J. Schoenfeld… President of J Street, Jeremy Ben-Ami turns 63… Deputy director of the CIA in the Biden administration, he held the same role in the last two years of the Obama administration, David S. Cohen turns 62… Deputy assistant secretary in the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education during the Biden administration, Matt Nosanchuk… Professor of Jewish thought at the University of Haifa, Josef Hillel “J.H.” Chajes turns 60… Founder of Shabbat[dot]com, he also serves as the national educational director for Olami Worldwide, Rabbi Benzion Zvi Klatzko… Dean of TheYeshiva[dot]net, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak (YY) Jacobson turns 53… Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration from 2017 until 2019, now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Dr. Scott Gottlieb turns 53… Budget director at the City Council of the District of Columbia, Jennifer Budoff… Israeli businesswoman and philanthropist, she participated in two seasons of the Israeli reality show “Me’usharot,” Nicol Raidman turns 39… Director of communications and programming at Academic Engagement Network, Raeefa Shams… Actor, performance artist and filmmaker, Shia LaBeouf turns 39… Retired figure skater who competed for Israel in the team event at the 2018 Winter Olympics, Aimee Buchanan turns 32… Olympic medalist in canoe slalom in London, Rio, Tokyo and Paris, Jessica Esther “Jess” Fox turns 31… Israeli attorney and CEO of Dualis Social Venture Fund, Dana Naor…

• We’re keeping an eye on ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations, amid reports yesterday that Israel and Hamas were close to reaching an agreement that would have included the release of 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 deceased hostages. A senior Hamas official last night rejected the U.S.-proposed ceasefire deal that had already been agreed to by Israel.
• Fox News Channel will air a wide-ranging interview tomorrow night with Sara Netanyahu, in which she’ll discuss with Lara Trump how life in Israel has changed since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks.

A QUICK WORD WITH JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Pore over the latest round of polling in the New York City mayoral primary, and it is something of a political analyst’s Rorschach test. The question is what will be a bigger turnoff for Gotham voters: extremism or personal scandal?

Will Zohran Mamdani’s radicalism make it difficult for the DSA-affiliated assemblyman — polling in second place — to win an outright majority of the Democratic vote? Candidates from the far-left wing of the party typically have a hard ceiling of support, but the latest polls suggest he’s not yet facing the elevated negative ratings that candidates in his ideological lane typically encounter. There hasn’t yet been a barrage of attack ads reminding voters about his record, as he slowly inches closer to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. 

Will Cuomo’s personal baggage ultimately be a bigger factor for Democratic voters? Cuomo has been leading the race since jumping in, but holds elevated unfavorability ratings, predominantly stemming from the scandal over sexual misconduct allegations, which he continues to deny, that forced him to resign as governor. 

The city’s ranked-choice voting system requires the winner to receive an outright majority of the vote, and build a broader coalition than would be necessary if one only needed a plurality to prevail. In theory, that would advantage Cuomo, given his high name identification, moderate message and ample fundraising resources. In nearly every contest held under a ranked-choice system across the country, moderates have gotten a significant boost, including in the 2021 NYC mayoral primary, when Eric Adams prevailed. 

But if there’s a broad antipathy to Cuomo that goes beyond ideological lines, it’s plausible that any alternative to Cuomo could benefit, simply because they’re running as a candidate of change. It’s hard to overlook Cuomo’s underwater favorability rating among primary voters; a new Emerson poll found a near-majority (47%) of NYC Democrats viewing Cuomo unfavorably, with 40% viewing him favorably.

Cuomo’s lead over Mamdani in the final round of ranked-choice voting, according to the poll, stood at eight points (54-46%). It’s a lead that is outside the margin of error, but a little too close for comfort considering Cuomo’s other advantages. The poll found Mamdani winning more of the votes from the third-place finisher (Comptroller Brad Lander) in the final round, suggesting that Cuomo could be vulnerable to opponents framing their campaigns as part of an anti-Cuomo coalition.

Cuomo’s strongest support comes from the Black community (74% support over Mamdani), voters over 50 (66%) and women (58%). Mamdani’s base is among younger white progressives, leading big over Cuomo with voters under 50 (61%). 

Cuomo’s margin for success could end up coming from the city’s sizable Jewish community — many of whose members view Mamdani’s virulently anti-Israel record and pro-BDS advocacy as a threat — even though he’s currently winning a fairly small plurality of Jewish votes, according to a recent Homan Strategy Group survey.  

Cuomo only tallied 31% of the Jewish vote, according to the poll, but has a lot of room for growth, especially since he still has potential to make inroads with Orthodox Jewish voters, many of whom became disenchanted with him as governor due to his aggressive COVID restrictions. (For instance: A significant 37% share of Orthodox Jewish voters said they were undecided in the Homan survey; 0% supported Mamdani.)

If those Cuomo-skeptical Orthodox voters swing towards the former governor in the final stretch, especially as the threat of Mamdani becomes more real, that may be enough for Cuomo to prevail. But it’s a sign of the times — and the state of the Democratic Party — that this race is as competitive as it is, given the anti-Israel record of the insurgent.

Gaming Out the Jewish Future: eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross spotlights an initiative launched by philanthropist Phil Siegel using “war games” that simulate potential future scenarios facing the American Jewish community to get leaders to think more about long-term planning. “The Jewish community may not have direct control over nuclear war, global demographic trends or international trade wars, for instance, even though these have a profound influence on the Jewish community. (Most of the scenarios include a geopolitical element as well, such as peace in the Middle East in the first one or an acute housing crisis in Israel that prevents American Jews from emigrating despite harsh conditions in the U.S. in the third scenario.) However, the Jewish community does have control over creating new organizations and initiatives or coordinating existing ones. ‘The game itself and the scenario itself were less important. It was more about how people think — What types of things influence us? Do we have more or less agency over them?’ [Israeli educator Barak] Sella said. ‘Is there an optimal scenario and does the Jewish community have a 2050 outcome that we are working toward?’” [eJP]

Delay of (End) Game: The Washington Post’s David Ignatius calls for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, positing that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has for a year rejected subordinates’ suggested strategies for winding down the conflict. “What’s agonizing is that Israeli military and intelligence leaders were ready to settle this conflict nearly a year ago. Working with U.S. and Emirati officials, they developed a plan for security ‘bubbles’ that would contain the violence, starting in northern Gaza and moving south, backed by an international peacekeeping force that would include troops from European and moderate Arab countries. … The Israeli-Palestinian dispute might seem intractable, but ending this conflict would be relatively easy. I’m told that Israeli military officials keep working on ‘day after’ plans, honing details as recently as this week. But they have had no political support from Netanyahu. ‘The “exit ramp” has been staring us in the face for a long time,’ argues Robert Satloff, director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. It’s a mix of Arab states and Gaza Palestinians, operating under a Palestinian Authority umbrella, he explains. “It is messy, with overlapping responsibilities and lots of dotted lines. But it checks all the boxes to enable the process of reconstruction and rehabilitation to get off the ground.’” [WashPost]

Mumbai Makeover: In The Wall Street Journal, Howard Husock interviews Rabbi Yisroel Kozlovsky of the Chabad House of Mumbai, India, about the city’s Jewish revival since the terror attack in 2008 in which Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife and unborn child were killed. “Now in his 12th year in Mumbai, the rabbi recalls his unease upon receiving the assignment from Chabad’s headquarters in New York. He arrived in 2013 to find the building untouched since the terror attacks, its walls still bloodstained. His successor had been forced to live and hold services in rented apartments for the Jewish visitors and expats. (There are reportedly no more than 5,000 ethnic Indian ‘Bene Israel’ Jews in the country.) ‘Imagine our feelings when we walk in and see the destruction firsthand. It was still one big mess,’ Rabbi Kozlovsky says. ‘We knew immediately, though, we wanted to bring life back to the building.’ … Rabbi Kozlovsky has nevertheless decided not to shy away from the events of 26/11, as the locals refer to the attack, but to make it the basis of a mission. He has set out to build an artistic multimedia memorial to educate the hundreds of visitors, almost all non-Jewish Indians, who come here each week, mainly through class trips. ‘Restoration and resilience are not good enough responses to terror,’ he says of the project. ‘We are building a memorial and museum to teach history, to be a beacon of light.’” [WSJ]

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Thomas Barrack, who is also serving as Syria envoy, said in Damascus on Thursday that relations between Syria and Israel are a “solvable problem” that “starts with a dialogue”; Barrack also raised the U.S. flag over the ambassador’s residence in Damascus for the first time since the embassy’s closure 13 years ago…

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that any nuclear agreement with the U.S. must include the full lifting of sanctions and preservation of Tehran’s enrichment capabilities…

Saudi, Qatari and Emirati leaders reportedly told President Donald Trump during his trip to the region last week that they opposed military strikes on Iran’s nuclear program…

The Wall Street Journal reports on Israeli concerns over Washington’s ongoing nuclear talks with Iran, positing that a deal could put Israel “in a bind with its most important ally on its most pressing national security question”…

Columbia University reached a settlement with a Jewish social work student who had filed a lawsuit against the school alleging antisemitic discrimination…

California’s state Assembly unanimously advanced antisemitism legislation backed by Jewish groups in the state; AB715 would improve the process for making discrimination complaints, as well as create an antisemitism coordinator position for the state’s K-12 schools…

A Yonkers, N.Y., man was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to attacking a Jewish barber last year…

A Michigan man who in 2022 threatened parents and students at a synagogue preschool pleaded guilty to a federal gun charge…

The Wall Street Journal reports on the efforts of small wine importer and distributor Victor Owen Schwartz to challenge the Trump administration’s tariffs in court…

The board of Ben & Jerry’s issued a statement labeling Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide, setting up another battle with parent company Unilever, which has for years clashed with the ice cream company’s independent board over its approach to social issues, including Israel…

CBS News profiles Karin Prien, the first Jewish federal cabinet member to serve in post-WWII Germany; the daughter of Holocaust survivors who was born in the Netherlands, Prien moved to Germany with her family when she was 4 and now serves as the country’s minister for education, family affairs, senior citizens, women and youth…

Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg met with United Arab Emirates National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan for a conversation largely focused on the opportunities presented by AI technology…

The Associated Press reports on efforts to free Israeli-Russian Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was kidnapped by an Iranian-backed militia group in Iraq in 2023…

Iran’s embassy in India said it is investigating the disappearance of three Punjabi men who went missing earlier this month in Tehran while transiting through Iran en route to Australia, where a local travel agent had promised them jobs…

An increasing number of oil tankers are turning off their transponders as they near Malaysia, an area used to transfer Iranian oil bound for China, as Tehran continues to work to evade U.S. sanctions…

Missouri philanthropist Bud Levin died at 88…

Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, who headed the NYPD during the 9/11 terror attacks, died at 69…

Dr. Robert Jarvik, who oversaw the design of the first artificial heart, died at 79…

Following her return to Israel, Mia Schem — who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and spent 55 days in Hamas captivity — famously had the phrase “We will dance again” tattooed on her arm. On Thursday night, approximately 800 New Yorkers joined Schem in dancing again at the sold-out inaugural Tribe of Nova Foundation benefit held at Sony Hall, a concert venue in Times Square.

The event was held with the goal of raising at least $1 million to aid families of victims and survivors of Nova, where 411 festivalgoers, mostly young people, were killed and 44 were taken hostage, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. 

Medical director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s Ethiopia spine and heart project, Dr. Richard Michael Hodes turns 72… 

FRIDAY: Santa Monica, Calif.-based historian of Sephardic and Crypto-Jewish studies, Dolores Sloan turns 95… Real estate developer, landlord of the World Trade Center until 9/11, former chair of UJA-Federation of New York, Larry A. Silverstein turns 94… Partner in the NYC law firm of Mintz & Gold, he is also a leading supporter of Hebrew University, Ira Lee “Ike” Sorkin turns 82… Board member of the Collier County chapter of the Florida ACLU and the Naples Florida Council on World Affairs, Maureen McCully “Mo” Winograd… Cape Town, South Africa, native, she is the owner and chef at Los Angeles-based Catering by Brenda, Brenda Walt turns 74… Former professional tennis player, he competed in nine Wimbledons and 13 U.S. Opens, now the varsity tennis coach at Gilman School in Baltimore, Steve “Lightning” Krulevitz turns 74… Former chief rabbi of France, Gilles Uriel Bernheim turns 73… Encino, Calif.-based business attorney, Andrew W. Hyman… Literary critic, essayist and novelist, Daphne Miriam Merkin turns 71… Israeli physicist and philosopher, Avshalom Cyrus Elitzur turns 68… Former member of Congress for 16 years, since leaving Congress he has opened a bookstore and written two novels, Steve Israel turns 67… Former science editor for BBC News and author of six books, David Shukman turns 67… Founder of Krav Maga Global with 1,500 instructors in 60 countries, Eyal Yanilov turns 66… Editorial writer at The New York Times, Michelle Cottle… Film, stage and television actress; singer and songwriter, she sang the national anthem at Super Bowl XLIX in 2015, Idina Menzel turns 54… Writer, filmmaker, playwright and DJ, known by his pen name Ithamar Ben-Canaan, Itamar Handelman Smith turns 49… Member of Knesset who served as Israel’s minister of agriculture in the prior government, Oded Forer turns 48… Director of engagement and program at NYC’s Congregation Rodeph Sholom, Scott Hertz… Chief of staff for Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Reema Dodin turns 45… Tsippy Friend… Israeli author, her debut novel has been published in more than 20 languages around the world, Shani Boianjiu turns 38… Rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer, known professionally as Hebro, Raphael Ohr Chaim Fulcher turns 38… Senior counsel at Gilead Sciences, Ashley Bender Spirn… Ice hockey defenseman, he has played for four NHL teams and is now in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, David Matthew Warsofsky turns 35… Deputy chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Miryam Esther Lipper… Senior reporter for CNN, Eric Levenson… Challah baker, social entrepreneur and manager at Howard Properties, Jason Friend… 

SATURDAY: Investment advisor at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, Alfred Phillip Stern turns 92… Businessman and philanthropist, Ira Leon Rennert turns 91… Professor at Yale University and the 2018 winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, William Dawbney Nordhaus turns 84… Food critic at Vogue magazine since 1989 and judge on “Iron Chef America,” he is the author of the 1996 award-winning book The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten turns 83… Founder and retired CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council, Alvin “Al” From turns 82… Author, political pundit and a retired correspondent for HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” he has won 14 Emmy Awards during his career, Bernie Goldberg turns 80… Comedian, actress and TV producer, Susie Essman turns 70… Founder and chairman of the Katz Group of Companies with operations in the pharmacy, sports (including the Edmonton Oilers), entertainment and real estate sectors, Daryl Katz turns 64… Reality television personality, best known for starring in and producing her own matchmaking reality series, “The Millionaire Matchmaker” on Bravo TV, Patti Stanger turns 64… Jerusalem-born inventor, serial entrepreneur and novelist; founder, chairman and CEO of CyberArk Software, one of Israel’s leading software companies, Alon Nisim Cohen turns 57… Entrepreneur, best known as the co-founder of CryptoLogic, an online casino software firm, Andrew Rivkin turns 56… Former Democratic mayor of Annapolis, Md., now head of policy at SWTCH, Joshua Jackson “Josh” Cohen turns 52… Program director of synagogue and rabbinic initiatives at the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, Melissa York… Israeli actress, singer and dancer, she played a Mossad agent in the espionage TV series “Tehran,” Liraz Charhi turns 47… Author of the “Money Stuff” column at Bloomberg Opinion, Matthew Stone Levine turns 47… Freelance writer in Brooklyn, Sara Trappler Spielman… Attorney and NYT best-selling author of the Mara Dyer and Shaw Confessions series, Michelle Hodkin turns 43… Senior advisor at the U.S. Department of Commerce until earlier this year, Bert Eli Kaufman… Senior product manager at Tel Aviv-based Forter, Zoe Goldfarb… Stephanie Oreck Weiss… Chief revenue officer at NOTUS, Brad E. Bosserman… Senior rabbi and executive director of Jewish life at D.C.’s Sixth & I, Aaron Potek… Managing editor at Allbritton Journalism Institute, Matt Berman… Medical student in the class of 2027 at the University of Nicosia Medical School, Amital Isaac… Brad Goldstein… Basketball player in Israel’s Premier League until recent years, while at Princeton he won the Ivy League Player of the Year award, Spencer Weisz turns 30… Professional golfer on the PGA Tour, Max Alexander Greyserman turns 30… Rapper, singer, songwriter and producer, known by his stage name, King Sol, Benjamin Solomon turns 27…

SUNDAY: Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, pianist and conductor, he has taught at Yale, SUNY Purchase, Cornell, Brandeis and Harvard, Yehudi Wyner turns 96… Holocaust survivor as a child, he served as the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel for 10 years and twice as Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv for 16 years, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau turns 88… NYC-based attorney, author of two books regarding the history and operations of El Al, owner of 40,000 plus pieces of memorabilia related to El Al, Marvin G. Goldman turns 86… Grammy Award-winning classical pianist, Richard Goode turns 82… Former member of the Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Shimon Ohayon turns 80… Retired attorney in Berkeley, Calif., Thomas Andrew Seaton… Pediatrician in the San Francisco Bay area, Elliot Charles Lepler, MD… Former member of the Knesset for the Shinui and the Hilonit Tzionit parties, Eti Livni turns 77… Founding editor of The American Interest, Adam M. Garfinkle turns 74… Former editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News and co-author with Michael Bloomberg of Bloomberg by Bloomberg, Matthew Winkler turns 70… Contributing editor at The Free Press, Uri Paul Berliner… Founding rabbi of Congregation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, N.Y., Rabbi Moshe Weinberger turns 68… Former IDF officer and now a London-based political scientist and journalist, Ahron “Ronnie” Bregman turns 67… Member of the Knesset for the Shas party for 16 years ending in 2015, Amnon Cohen turns 65… Owner of MLB’s Athletics (temporarily playing in Sacramento), he is the chair of Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) Foundation, John J. Fisher turns 64… Poet, performance artist and essayist, Adeena Karasick turns 60… Founding editor and publisher of the Dayton Jewish Observer, Marshall J. Weiss… Television personality and matchmaker, Sigalit “Siggy” Flicker turns 58… Actress, voice actress and film director, Danielle Harris turns 48… Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and writer, Spencer J. Ackerman turns 45… Comedian, writer, actress, director and producer, Amy Schumer turns 44… Partner in Oliver Wyman, a global management consulting firm, Daniel Tannebaum… President and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Yael Eckstein turns 41… Musician, songwriter, author, actor and blogger, Ari Seth Herstand turns 40… CEO of The Good Food Institute, Ilya Sheyman turns 39… Political reporter for NBC News and MSNBC until earlier this year, now a newspaper editor in Maine, Alex Seitz-Wald… Senior writer at Barron’s covering the Federal Reserve, Nicole Goodkind… Former engineering lead at Palantir Technologies, now in a MPP program at Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, Naomi S. Kadish… Executive business partner at Lyft, Isabel Keller… NYC-born Israeli pair skater, she competed for Israel at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Hailey Esther Kops turns 23…