House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is set to visit New Square, N.Y. on Sunday alongside Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), Johnson’s team confirmed to Jewish Insider. The trip will be Johnson’s third to the Hasidic village in Rockland County since becoming House speaker.

Johnson is set to meet privately with David Twersky, the grand rabbi of New Square, during his visit. 

The trip comes as Lawler gears up for his third congressional race, which is one of Democrats’ top target districts in next year’s midterms. New Square has proven to be a critical voting bloc in the battleground House district. Lawler received a crucial endorsement from the community in 2024.

Both Republicans and Democrats have worked hard to court New Square in recent years — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) also visited the community last October alongside Mondaire Jones, Lawler’s Democratic opponent in the 2024 election. Former President Joe Biden also reached out to Twersky in the runup to the 2022 midterms. 

During his time in the New York area, Johnson is also scheduled to participate in an event for Rep. Tom Kean (R-NJ) with the pro-Israel group NORPAC in Bergen County. Kean faces a competitive re-election in a northern New Jersey swing district.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) appeared at a fundraiser for Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) in Monsey, N.Y., on Thursday evening. 

Monsey, located in Rockland County, is home to one of the largest populations of Hasidic Jews in the country, second only to the Williamsburg, Borough Park and Crown Heights neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York. Lawler, who represents many of the Hasidic communities in Rockland County, relies on the heavily Republican Hasidic voting bloc to hold on to his swing district House seat. Lawler is one of only two House Republicans serving in districts that former Vice President Kamala Harris won last year, making him a leading target for Democrats.

Tickets to the event started at $250 for access to the general reception and went up to $7,000 for passes to a VIP roundtable with Cruz and Lawler. Guests could get a photo with Lawler for $500, and be named as a co-host of the event for $3,500. The gathering was organized by the Lawler Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee composed of Lawler’s campaign, his MVL PAC and the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP campaign arm. 

Video obtained by the Monsey Scoop showed Cruz and Lawler arriving at the event and shaking hands with VIP guests. 

A spokesperson for Lawler did not respond to JI’s request for comment on the fundraiser. 

Lawler’s campaign reported a $1.1 million fundraising haul in the third quarter of this year, leaving him with $2.8 million in cash on hand. The campaign said the numbers marked his strongest ever third quarter performance in a non-election year. Year-to-date, the New York Republican has raised $3.9 million.

“Powered by nearly 10,000 donations, the campaign continues to build the broad, bipartisan coalition needed to win and deliver for the Hudson Valley,” Lawler’s campaign said in a statement earlier this month on his third-quarter numbers. 

Eight Democrats have jumped into the primary to challenge Lawler in next year’s general election contest, including Cait Conley, a decorated special ops combat veteran; Peter Chatzky, the former mayor of Briarcliff Manor; and Rockland County legislator Beth Davidson. Conley raised over $500,000, Chatzky raised more than $340,000 and Davidson raised over $370,000 in the last quarter.
Lawler and Cruz, a prolific fundraiser in his own right who began laying the groundwork for a 2028 presidential bid this year, also appeared together on Thursday night at the New York State Conservative Party’s 2025 fall reception. Conservative commentator Joe Piscopo, a former “Saturday Night Live” cast member, was honored with the Ronald Reagan Journalism Award at the event, which took place in nearby New Rochelle, N.Y., at the Glen Island Harbour Club and featured Cruz as the keynote speaker.

Peter Chatzky, the deputy mayor of Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., and the latest of seven candidates to join the field of Democrats hoping to unseat Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) in New York’s Hudson Valley region, is standing out from the field with the comparatively critical stance he’s taking toward the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Though Chatzky called Israel a “critical ally of the United States,” he told Jewish Insider in a recent interview that he believes, from public information and reports he has seen, that Israel is violating conditions in U.S. arms sales law relating to humanitarian aid and international law — requiring the suspension of arms sales.

The district, New York’s 17th, has one of the largest Jewish constituencies in the country. Lawler has made his support for Israel a centerpiece of his time in Congress, and most of the Democratic candidates in the race are showcasing their pro-Israel bona fides.

“[U.S. support for Israel is] incredibly important to people in this district, many like me, many are Jewish. Many have family in Israel,” Chatzky said. “I think all of us in this district believe that Jews have a right to feel safe, particularly in Israel, and I think U.S. policy has to recognize that. I think the safety of the Jewish people, the safety of an ally, is paramount, and should be paramount in everything we do.”

At the same time, Chatzky said he believes findings from international observers and media that Israel is in violation of U.S. laws conditioning arms sales on adherence to human rights law and support for humanitarian aid. He said he’s also been concerned by pictures and video coming from Gaza.

“Israel has a 100% right, 1,000% right, to defend itself. I recognize war is brutal,” he said. “We have an obligation in the U.S., we have a legal obligation, we have a moral obligation, to uphold our own standards, our own laws. … I think the U.S. could be doing a much better job, and we should do it with every ally. This is not an Israel-specific thing. Every ally should be held to our high standards of morality and support for humanitarian aid.”

Chatzky said that the U.S. should be “maximizing efforts to provide humanitarian aid” and doing “all we can” to protect innocent civilians.

He said that the issue is “sensitive” in the district, and that there are some constituents who are not willing to engage with any criticism of Israel or suggestion of wrongdoing. Chatzky said he has family in Israel, but said he has not had the opportunity to visit the Jewish state.

He said he would not support efforts to impose specific conditions on arms sales to Israel that aren’t applied to any other U.S. allies, though he said he might support efforts to expand congressional oversight over such matters globally.

Chatzky said he supports a two-state solution, but that such an outcome depends on having representative governments that are willing to negotiate — something that is not currently the case in Gaza.

“Hamas is certainly not representative of all the people who are living on the Gaza Strip, the Palestinians. I don’t think they have the same sort of democracy-focused interests that true leadership would require to establish that two-state solution,” Chatzky said. “It’s still a lofty goal. It would be great. I don’t have the magic formula to get there next week.”

Asked about the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, Chatzky said he doesn’t feel there has been enough “transparency” or “reliable information” available about the strikes, their effectiveness and the impact of those strikes on civilians. “It’s hard for somebody who doesn’t have access to all the privileged information to know what the facts are,” he continued.

He said he supports a negotiated solution to deal with Iran’s nuclear program, adding “nobody really wins if a nuclear war is initiated anywhere. And I think America always has to take whatever steps they can to limit that.”

While Chatzky said that he “can’t really defend” Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s refusal to fully disavow calls to “globalize the intifada,” he said that Mamdani “does seem to have tremendous support among some Jewish leaders.”

“I haven’t seen him taking actions I would claim to be antisemitic,” he continued. He said he thinks Mamdani understands and will do what is necessary to protect the Jewish community in New York City. “Making assumptions that he would somehow ignore such a significant chunk of his constituency — I’m not seeing anything in that in his campaign so far.”

Asked about the rise of antisemitism domestically more broadly, Chatzky said that “we have to take a critical look at everything governments are doing and make sure they’re not even accidentally inspiring more antisemitic behavior.”

“We have to just be careful about the policies we’re putting in place and who we’re blaming,” he continued. “We’re currently in an America that seems to be bent on divisiveness and finding people to cast blame on. And I’m worried some of the antisemitism we’re seeing is because of that sort of national attitude of ‘Who’s the bogeyman in this instance?’ And we have to avoid that at all costs.”

Chatzky, in his campaign, is highlighting past confrontations with President Donald Trump’s business as a private citizen, mayor and deputy mayor of Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. At different points in time Chatzky and the town successfully blocked or forced the Trump organization to modify plans for development and major events at Trump’s golf course in the district.

“I am the only one who’s actually battled toe-to-toe with Donald Trump,” Chatzky said.

Chatzky argued that he’s also the only candidate in the Democratic field with a decade of experience in elected office and 40 years of experience running a business, having founded a tech company.

He said that a crucial job for Congress will be to rebuild the institutions and reputation of government disrupted by Trump and his administration. He said he also wants to see the U.S. build its social safety net, something he said he’s always done for his own employees in his business career.

At the same time, he said he’s had experience at the local level working across the aisle with Republicans and with colleagues to his left, explaining, “it’s about building coalitions, which I think is badly needed in American national-level politics today. I think we all have to start speaking together much more comfortably.”

As of the end of the third quarter, Chatzky fell in the middle of the pack of Democratic candidates in fundraising. Rockland County legislator Beth Davidson led with $855,000, followed by national security veteran Cait Conley with $816,000, Chatzky with $680,000, nonprofit executive Jessica Reinmann with $535,000, former FBI agent John Sullivan with $301,000, former journalist Mike Sacks with $212,000 and Tarrytown village trustee Effie Phillips-Staley with $152,000.

Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, is slated to host a breakfast conversation on Saturday in Southampton, N.Y., focused on global challenges including the Israel-Hamas war, as part of the Milken Institute’s Hamptons Dialogues.

Witkoff, who will sit in conversation with Michael Milken, is co-hosting the breakfast with his son Alex, two weeks after meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Abdulrahman al-Thani in Spain to discuss ceasefire and hostage-release efforts.

The breakfast is one of the few sessions during the weekend-long confab that will touch on the Middle East. According to an agenda viewed by Jewish Insider, the conversation between Witkoff and Milken will focus on how “[e]conomic, technological, and geopolitical competition is restructuring the global order” and notes that “[s]trategic rivalry with China, instability in the Middle East, the war in Eastern Europe, and shifting alliances are testing established frameworks for cooperation.”

On Friday, Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman will speak about K-12 education and the Alpha School, a project he has promoted in recent months that eschews DEI programming and focuses on AI-driven education. Later on Friday, former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin are speaking on a panel about the U.S.’ economic advantages.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is slated to speak on a Sunday morning panel focused on U.S. economic security, followed by back-to-back sessions about the future of American cities, featuring NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Carlyle Group cofounder David Rubenstein and Related Companies’ Stephen Ross.

Rubenstein will again take the stage Sunday afternoon for a conversation about sports investments, which will also feature Len Blavatnik. 

Other figures at the annual gathering include former First Lady Jill Biden, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Oaktree Capital’s Howard Marks, Alphabet President and CIO Ruth Porat and actor Jerry Seinfeld.

When interim U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro began her tenure as Westchester County, N.Y., district attorney on New Years Day in 1994, she walked into her new office to discover a backlog of antisemitism-related cases left behind by her predecessor. 

“One had to do with a swastika cut into the grass at Winged Foot Golf Club. I don’t know if you know Winged Foot, but it’s the creme de la creme of golf courses,” she remarked during an interview with Jewish Insider at her D.C. office on Tuesday. 

Pirro said learning of the scope of antisemitism in Westchester County, which has long been home to a sizable Jewish population, opened her eyes to “the trauma and the revictimization” of the Jewish people and prompted her to get involved with efforts to promote Holocaust education through the Simon Wiesenthal Center. 

“It’s almost like this thing that follows me,” Pirro said of prosecuting anti-Jewish hate crimes, calling it “so telling” that the fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington — by a 31-year-old suspect who witnesses said shouted “free Palestine” and “I did it for Gaza” — took place during her first week in her current role. 

“My introduction here was just stunning, and it kind of brought me back to where I started, as a local DA, right off the bat with antisemitism,” she said of her initial days as U.S. attorney for the nation’s capital.

President Donald Trump appointed Pirro, known colloquially as Judge Jeanine from her 11 years hosting “Justice with Judge Jeanine” on Fox News’ weekend lineup, to serve as Washington’s chief federal law enforcement officer in an acting capacity in mid-May. He formally nominated her for a full term in the position a month later.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines last week to advance Pirro’s nomination, and she’s expected to come before the full Senate in the fall, when the chamber returns from its August recess.

Pirro emerged as one of Trump’s most vocal defenders on the network, and is a personal friend of the president. She aggressively disputed allegations at the start of his first term of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to swing the 2016 election in the president’s favor. Her repeated on-air claims that Democrats had rigged the 2020 election for former President Joe Biden in the aftermath of Trump’s defeat was referenced several times in Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against the network, which Fox ultimately settled for $787.5 million in 2023.

She had been co-hosting Fox’s “The Five,” one of the network’s top rated programs, in New York in early May when she agreed to join the Trump administration. The decision came after Ed Martin’s nomination to the U.S. attorney role was pulled over collapsing support among Senate Republicans due to his lack of experience as a prosecutor, ties to alleged Nazi sympathizers and defense of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Within weeks, Pirro found herself speaking to the nation about the murder of two Israeli Embassy staffers, one of the highest profile antisemitic crimes in the nation’s capital — amid growing antisemitism taking place across the country. 

“What I want to be clear about today, since this is the first time you are hearing from me, is that this is a horrific crime. And these crimes are not going to be tolerated by me and by this office. A young couple at the beginning of their life’s journey, about to be engaged in another country, had their bodies removed in the cold of the night, in a foreign city, in a body bag,” Pirro said at a press conference the morning after the May 21 slayings of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky.

“I am not unaware, based upon my own background, of the repercussions of this kind of case. This is the kind of case that picks at old sores and old scars, because these kinds of cases remind us of what has happened in the past that we can never and must never forget,” she continued. 

In addition to prosecuting the alleged assailant, Elias Rodriguez, Pirro has been doing outreach to Jewish groups to find ways to offer her office’s resources and “highlight that I’m here. Call me.”

She recently connected with the family of Malki Roth, the 15-year-old Israeli American killed in a 2001 suicide bombing at a Sbarro restaurant in Israel, who informed her that they had never heard from anyone at her senior level in the Justice Department about their daughter’s death.

“I said to myself: I ain’t high up, but it’s sad they lost a daughter and they didn’t get the attention that they needed. They will get that attention now, and I am determined to do whatever I can,” Pirro said. 

As part of that commitment, Pirro said she’s “working on” securing the extradition from Jordan of Ahlam Tamimi, a Palestinian terrorist convicted by an Israeli court for her role in the bombing, to the U.S. in order to face federal charges for the attack, which Roth’s parents have been advocating for since their daughter’s death. 

Tamimi was released from Israel to Jordan as part of a 2011 deal. Jordan has repeatedly refused U.S. extradition requests for Tamimi since the DOJ indictment against her became public in 2017.

Pirro noted that Tamimi has expressed no remorse for her actions and is living a life of fame and freedom in Jordan, where she became well known for hosting a program on a Hamas-affiliated television network for years. “That hate has always been so incomprehensible to me, and that’s why this has always been a mission. Now I’m back at my roots, and I continue with the mission,” she said.

“I don’t want to look in anymore. I want to look out,” Pirro said. “I want the people on the outside to know that there’s someone on the inside that they have access to, that they can speak with, that they can go back into the community and say, ‘She’s taking a strong stand. She’s going to prosecute these cases. She feels strongly about them, and if you’re not sure, go talk to her.’”

Pirro said that the office’s national security division is also pursuing three active cases “in the Arab world.”

Asked about what tools she could utilize as U.S. attorney in the broader fight against antisemitism, Pirro said that she and her team were reaching out to Jewish organizations to encourage community leaders to contact their office directly on local matters where they could be of assistance.

She argued that her emphasis on direct community outreach, rather than solely engaging with “other federal agencies that talk to each other all day long,” marked a shift in approach.

“They’re acronyms,” she said of those agencies. “I don’t want to look in anymore. I want to look out,” Pirro said. “I want the people on the outside to know that there’s someone on the inside that they have access to, that they can speak with, that they can go back into the community and say, ‘She’s taking a strong stand. She’s going to prosecute these cases. She feels strongly about them, and if you’re not sure, go talk to her.’”

Since taking over the role, Pirro has been connecting with D.C. leaders and other relevant stakeholders involved in efforts to address crime, domestic violence and antisemitism. 

Pirro said she needed to tread carefully, in light of her ongoing confirmation proceedings, on the subject of Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic mayoral primary in New York. She argued that his plans would be “a disaster for business, a disaster for crime victims … a disaster for quality of life in New York.”

She argued that cutting the New York Police Department  or trying to replace them with social services and mental health workers, as Mamdani has advocated for, would send the city in the wrong direction and make it more difficult to build business and community.

“When you see other Democrats joining, you say to yourself, it’s about power,” Pirro said. “And that’s why we’ve got Donald Trump in, because people heard him loud and clear — they want to be safe, and if they’re safe, then they can think about, you know, having a business, you know, making sure that maybe one day they can take a vacation, and, you know, their families can survive.”

Democrats, highlighting that Pirro is a longtime friend and ally of the president, have argued that she can’t be trusted to uphold the rule of law or the Constitution when they conflict with Trump’s agenda and desires.

Pirro said she’s had a positive working relationship with Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, and that she intends to work with city officials regardless of political differences. Still, she criticized the D.C. City Council for its approach to criminal justice issues. 

“My relationship with Muriel Bowser is good. I want to work with her. That’s the only way to make the city safe again. I think that the chief of police, Pamela Smith, is great. The mayor has a similar agenda. I think the mayor believes that D.C. needs to be safe,” Pirro explained.“I think we’ve got a city council that’s out of control, that is so defense oriented. They’re totally tolerant of criminals.”

While Pirro said that securing convictions in the Democratic stronghold was a tall task, she said she was undeterred. 

“We are in the center of the nation where laws are passed on a regular basis, and yet the enforcement of those laws is a very difficult thing to push in some areas,” Pirro said. “I mean, in the end, if we don’t have the determination and if we don’t have the will, then nothing happens, because there is a system that is geared toward the defendant.”

“I’m not going to worry about whether or not they’re liberal judges. I’m not going to worry about whether or not you know, juries in Washington are very defense oriented, and my staff won’t either,” Pirro said. “They know that it’s a hard fight in the district, but that’s our job, and you know what? That’s why I’m here. It’s a challenge, and it’s worth it.”

Pressed about the slow response by municipalities like D.C. to anti-Israel protest encampments on university campuses, and if the decision by city leaders to act in some cases but not in others was an indication that changes could be made in the nation’s capital, Pirro concurred. 

“All law is a matter of will, it’s all about enforcement,” Pirro said, adding that a longtime concern for her has been a lack of consideration for and rights of crime victims in the justice system.

“We are in the center of the nation where laws are passed on a regular basis, and yet the enforcement of those laws is a very difficult thing to push in some areas,” Pirro said. “I mean, in the end, if we don’t have the determination and if we don’t have the will, then nothing happens, because there is a system that is geared toward the defendant.”

Pirro said that the D.C. attorney’s office is “neglected” and understaffed — relying on contractors — and in need of additional full-time staff and resources. 

“I want more people, and I will get more people,” Pirro said. “I’m hiring people who want to fight the good fight and [are] competent.”

Trump, a longtime ally, has been “very gracious” in allowing her to hire more staff, Pirro said. She said she’d also spoken to senators about the resource crunch and they’ve been “very receptive, very interested in making D.C. safe.” She described the recent shooting of a congressional intern in the district as helping to motivate concern and interest from lawmakers.

Despite the lack of staff, Pirro lavished praise on the prosecutors in her office.

“What I’m most proud of in this office is the level of prosecutors and the level of talent. These are serious, well prepared, competent, aggressive prosecutors who are in a city that is not necessarily victim oriented. So we fight the good fight every day here. We fight it on behalf of many, many different segments of the community, whether it’s seniors, whether it’s just innocent victims, whether it’s people of the Jewish faith, whether it’s antisemitism, hate crimes of any type,” she said.