Benjamin Landa, a New York businessman and the son of a Holocaust survivor, was nominated in October to be the U.S. ambassador to Hungary — a delicate assignment given tensions over the U.S.’ relationship with the country.

Landa, 69, is a yeshiva graduate and well-known philanthropist supporting Jewish, Israeli and other causes, including as founder of the Chabad of Port Washington. His father, Yehoshua Boruch Landa, served as a rabbi in prewar Czechoslovakia and survived the Nazi regime, but most of his family, who resided in Hungary, were killed in the Holocaust, according to Newsday. 

“My father, despite all the horrors he went through, he never lost his humanity, he never lost his sense of humor,” Landa told the New York Post. “It taught me the idea of resilience and starting from scratch – starting all over from the depths of hell to rise like a phoenix and that was my father – he never gave up.”

He’s also been a prominent donor to Republican political causes, and met in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump and advisor Roger Stone earlier this year. Landa was reportedly actively pursuing the role during that White House meeting.

He also met with right-wing Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir during the Israeli official’s visit to the United States in April.

But Landa’s confirmation process could be a tricky one — for multiple reasons. 

Landa and his business, SentosaCare, have been dogged by a series of scandals. Nursing homes affiliated with Landa’s company have repeatedly faced fines, violations and complaints over allegations of insufficient care, among other issues. A federal judge ruled in 2019 that Landa and his business partner had violated human trafficking laws, using threats to coerce more than 200 nurses to remain in their jobs. 

In 2022, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Landa, various business partners and a nursing home of which he was a part owner for “repeated and persistent fraud and illegality … including but not limited to violating several laws designed to protect nursing home residents and cutting necessary staffing in order to further enrich the owners and their families.”

Landa has disputed such allegations and sued media outlets that have alleged wrongdoing or mistreatment of patients in the past. Some lawmakers may bring up the scandals at Landa’s as-yet-unscheduled confirmation hearing.

Additionally, while the Trump administration and other conservatives have forged close relationships with Hungarian President Viktor Orbán, other Republicans have been deeply critical of Orbán and his government, particularly due to the Hungarian leader’s hostility to NATO and the Ukraine war.

In 2023, Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, blocked arms sales to Hungary over its refusal to approve Sweden’s entry into NATO.

Landa could face questions at his hearing on how he’ll navigate that relationship and work to persuade Hungary to cooperate with the U.S. on Ukraine and other priorities.

Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun is scheduled for a confirmation hearing to be the Trump administration’s antisemitism envoy on Wednesday, a last-minute addition to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee schedule.

Kaploun, an Orthodox Jewish businessman and Chabad rabbi, was a Trump campaign surrogate during the 2024 campaign and, though he has not yet been confirmed, has been a frequent fixture at D.C.-area events focused on combating antisemitism since he was first nominated for the post in April and has met with other Trump administration officials.

The previous special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, told Jewish Insider on Tuesday, “I wish him great good luck, for his sake and for ours. He has a challenging task in front of him as we witness antisemitism emanating from all ends of the political spectrum. Irrespective of one’s politics, we should all hope for his success.” 

Kaploun co-authored an op-ed in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in May with his two predecessors, Lipstadt and Elan Carr, following the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington — a show of bipartisan alignment on the issue of combating antisemitism.

“Above all, irrespective of where you stand on the political spectrum — left, right, center — do not use antisemitism as a political weapon to achieve other goals. That will only serve to debase and weaken our fight against this terrible scourge. This fight must be bipartisan and non-political,” the piece reads. “Now is the time for all to rise to the occasion in the face of a grave threat to us all. Our collective future depends on our success.”

The op-ed endorses the Global Guidelines to Counter Antisemitism, an international compact promulgated under Lipstadt’s leadership, and indicates that the current administration plans to continue that effort.

It goes on to describe antisemitism as a threat to the rule of law, security and society, and raises concerns about the “normalization of antisemitic rhetoric” on both sides of the aisle, and in anti-Israel activism.

The leaders of various mainstream Jewish organizations including the Jewish Federations of North America, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee have urged Senate leaders to move ahead with the confirmation process and move quickly to fill the post.

But Kaploun’s nomination is likely to encounter at least some resistance among Democrats: Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), a co-chair of the Congressional Jewish Caucus, urged Senate Democrats not to support Kaploun earlier this year, describing him as “divisive.”

State Department civil servants have continued to operate the office during the time that the ambassador role has been vacant, since the end of the Biden administration.

Several other nominees are also scheduled to appear at the hearing, including State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, nominated to be the deputy U.S. representative to the United Nations.

Daniel Rosen earned a unique distinction when he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate early this month to be Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor.

The 60-year-old lawyer and Orthodox Jewish community activist is one of the few Orthodox Jews to serve as U.S. attorney. And he is almost certainly the only chief federal law enforcement officer in the county who regularly studies the Talmud, a text, he says, that shares a “phenomenal” range of common principles with the American legal tradition.

“The more you study the Talmud, the more you see how rooted in our [Jewish] traditions American law, and the British law from which it emerged, really is,” Rosen explained in a recent interview with Jewish Insider.

As he acclimates to his new role, Rosen, who had previously worked in private practice, said that one of his “primary motivations” for seeking the position was the “rapid escalation of violent antisemitism” in the United States, calling the “prosecution of violent hate crimes” a top priority for his office.

“Jewish history tells us that Jews fare poorly in societies that turn polarized,” he said, arguing that Jewish Americans, in particular, “have a profound and immediate interest in reversing the direction of the violent hatred that’s being expressed in many directions.”

Rosen, a Minnesota native who gave up his law practice to assume his government position this month, is a graduate of University of Minnesota Law School and a Navy veteran. He has long been involved in Jewish communal life and pro-Israel activism, having served as a board member of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas as well as a state representative for AIPAC.

Despite his lack of prosecutorial experience, Rosen was among three candidates for the job put forward by Minnesota’s four House Republicans — including Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), the majority whip. 

In their recommendation to President Donald Trump, Emmer and his colleagues praised Rosen’s advocacy on behalf of “community and charitable issues, especially matters of particular interest to the American Jewish community,” later describing him as “one of the sharpest legal minds in the entire country.”

Speaking with JI this week, Rosen discussed his expectations for the role he assumed just weeks ago and how his Jewish faith influences his approach to the law, among other things. 

The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Jewish Insider: How have you been acclimating to your new job after being confirmed earlier this month?

Daniel Rosen: It’s been profoundly interesting, above all. For me, who comes in without a prosecutorial background, it has required a considerable education in the specifics of criminal procedure. But far more interesting are all the inputs that go into every case. From all of the various participants in the investigation and the prosecution and the cases, I’m seeing a world that heretofore I had not seen, and I’m finding it absolutely fascinating. 

What really strikes home is the not only the number of bad actors out there, but the sheer nefariousness of all of those bad actors and the real need for what it is that U.S. attorneys’ offices are doing all over the country in order to help maintain safety in an environment when our society is tearing apart.

In Minneapolis, we are one of several locales around the country where the philosophy of the local prosecutor is really inconsistent with the kind of law enforcement that, in my view, the country needs right now. And accordingly, the burden on the U.S. attorney’s office here in Minnesota — to pick up the slack that’s left behind by the local prosecutor — is a heavy burden, and dealing with the additional burden that their reticence creates for us is something that I’m having to learn quickly on the job. But I’m adjusting to it. 

JI: Are there any noteworthy cases that your office is currently handling that you can mention?

DR: There are several cases that have achieved quite a bit of not only local but national notoriety that we are in the midst of right now. First of all, in Minnesota, this office has been prosecuting a COVID assistance fraud that is simply breathtaking in a scope and amount. It is generally known as the ‘Feeding Our Future’ case, or more accurately put its cases — where a large group of defendants and others that have not been charged have together stolen hundreds of millions of the taxpayers’ dollars in a brazen fraud. We’ve also uncovered and now charged frauds of similar character also involving taxpayer money and also involving breathtakingly large amounts of money.

We have a team here in our office that certainly has its hands full in completing the investigations and bringing those cases to trial. In addition to that, we of course had a political assassination here in Minnesota early in the summer, where the former speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives and the current leader of the House Democratic Caucus was assassinated, along with her husband, and another legislator was shot and left for dead but, thank God, he survived. The prosecution of that case is one of tremendous importance, particularly given our current times where bitterness in political discourse has turned to violence, and deadly violence, repeatedly.

JI: As you know, we’ve seen the rise of political violence across the country, some of it related to anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment. Is that on your mind as you take over this job?

DR: The rapid escalation of violent antisemitism in America is not only on my mind, but it’s one of my primary motivations for having sought this position. Jewish history tells us that Jews fare poorly in societies that turn polarized, and where that polarization evolves into factional hatreds in the non-Jewish societies within which we live. Those factional hatreds virtually always evolve into violent expressions of hate against the Jews. 

Accordingly, Jewish Americans have a profound and immediate interest in reversing the direction of the violent hatred that’s being expressed in many directions in the country. So for that reason, prosecution of violent hate crimes is certainly at the highest level of priority for me.

JI: In your lifetime, do you feel antisemitism has reached a level that you haven’t seen before?

DR: Yes. By my recollection, in the 1990s, if someone sprayed a swastika on the side of a synagogue in Omaha, it would probably be noted in The New York Times. Today, those kinds of antisemitic acts are happening, it seems, every single day, or nearly every single day, and they’re happening all over the country. It’s been a slow change, but now it’s rapidly escalating.

There is something else I can add. I don’t know if it’s directly responsive to the question, but it is something that I think about. In the 2,000-year odyssey of the Jews, through the diaspora, we have had other countries that have played host to us, and where the lives of the Jews were comparable to what they are here in America. In Spain, the Jews had what historically is referred to as the Golden Age in Spain. There was a Jewish Torah scholar who was the prime minister. There was another tremendous Jewish Torah scholar who was the finance minister to the king and the queen. Our life in Spain, everybody thought it couldn’t get better. And then, of course, it ultimately came to the point where every Jew in Spain had to choose to either leave, surrender their faith or die.

In Germany, there were Jews who said, ‘Forget Jerusalem. Berlin is our Jerusalem.’ There were Jews who thought, ‘Here we are at the height of culture, at the height of refinement, at the height of knowledge. What could be better for us than Germany? We Jews, a cultured and knowledgeable people, fit in here so well.’ But, of course, we know how that ended. 

So, we all have to ask ourselves, how’s it going to proceed here in the United States? And I believe the answer is, it depends on the good faith of the thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of elected and appointed officials all over the country who recognize the good that the Jews contribute to society and recognize the good that comes from being good to the Jews, and having the courage to stand by their convictions. If they lose their courage, it would not bode well for the Jews in the country. So it’s my view that, if nothing else, as an example to fellow Americans, sometimes we’re just called to do our part to contribute to the rebuilding of the society that we so desperately need. And so I gave up a law practice and here I am now, an appointed public servant.

JI: Can you elaborate on your own involvement in Jewish communal life and fighting antisemitism?

DR: When I was a young lawyer, my father had some political relationships. He was not a man of politics, but he had political relationships, and he was a person who was not for any organization or in any communally organized way, but he was an advocate for Jews, for the Jewish community and for Israel in the non-Jewish world in a very active way. I can remember as a teenager going with my father to an annual convention of all the employees of a company that he represented, and the chief executive officer of that company asked my father to speak to them about the history of Israel and the imperative of supporting Israel. By my recollection, there was not a dry eye in the house. But whether that recollection is precisely correct or not, what I can tell you is it had a profound impact on me.

Early on in my law career, my father encouraged me to develop political relationships, and I realized that if there was going to be a way that I could contribute to the welfare of the Jewish community, that was really the realm within which I could do it. That evolved into developing really important and long-lasting relationships with elected officials, especially federally elected officials. I acted a lot in partnership with AIPAC, and I did a lot, following my father’s example, on my own independent path. 

Over the years, I realized the importance of bringing members of Congress to Israel, showing them Israel through the eyes of members of the Jewish community who were committed to the welfare of the people of Israel and who were also committed to the welfare of the Jews of America. So I began to organize and lead trips to Israel for members of the U.S. House of Representatives. I’ve taken a good number of members of the U.S. House from the Upper Midwest to Israel, one or two or three at a time, and those members of the House have gone on to become governors and Cabinet secretaries and congressional leaders. Their exposure to Israel and to Jewish lay leaders on the trips that I have led, I think, has resulted in developing a very strong and, God-willing, unbreakable affinity, on their part, for the Jewish community.

JI: Were you raised in an Orthodox household? 

DR: I was raised in a traditional household where Shabbat was respected but not strictly observed. My evolution into Orthodoxy was a slow one through my early adulthood, but I became shomer Shabbat approximately 20 years ago.

JI: How do Judaism and Jewish values influence your own approach to the law?

DR: I study the Talmud every day. What I can tell you is, the more you study the Torah, and the more you study the Talmud, the more you see how rooted in our traditions American law, and the British law from which it emerged, really is. The common denominators are phenomenal. But why is that? That’s because the values that we hold dear, the values that the Torah instills in us, are the values from which the societies in which we live have derived their fundamental principles of justice.

JI: Are there any specific concepts you’d like to cite? 

DR: I guess my answer to your question is, Tzedek, tzedek tirdof — ‘Justice, justice, you shall pursue.’ I think that’s a good one for a U.S. attorney.

Rabbi Moshe Hauer, the executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, died suddenly on Monday evening after suffering a heart attack, his organization said. He was 60.

Jewish communal leaders remembered Hauer as a friend, a bridge-builder, a faithful and committed leader and a source of wise counsel.

Hauer had served in his role at the OU since May 2020, acting as the organization’s professional and rabbinic leader and primary spokesperson, as well as helping to lead the organization’s outreach to U.S. administration officials and lawmakers.

“Rabbi Hauer was a true talmid chacham, a master teacher and communicator, the voice of Torah to the Orthodox community and the voice of Orthodoxy to the world. He personified what it means to be a Torah Jew and took nothing more seriously than his role of sharing the joy of Jewish life with our community and beyond,” OU President Mitchel Aeder and Chief Operating Officer Rabbi Josh Joseph said in a joint statement.

“Rabbi Hauer’s leadership was marked by unwavering dedication, deep compassion, and a vision rooted in faith in Hashem, integrity, and love for Klal Yisrael,” Aeder and Joseph continued. “Whether through his inspiring words, thoughtful counsel, powerful advocacy, or quiet acts of kindness, Rabbi Hauer uplifted those around him and made an impact on every person he encountered.”

Prior to his role at the OU, Hauer served for more than 26 years as the lead rabbi at Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion Congregation in Baltimore.

William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told Jewish Insider he was “shattered by the sudden passing of my dear friend and partner, Rabbi Moshe Hauer.”

“We just spoke this past Friday and texted on Monday, when he was overflowing with joy at the miracle of the hostages’ freedom and the unmistakable hand of Hashem in it. Rabbi Hauer was a trusted advisor, cherished colleague, and wise counselor to me, a bridge-builder whose faith, humility, and moral clarity inspired all who knew him. His loss leaves a deep void for all who loved and learned from him,” Daroff continued.

“He was a wise and thoughtful leader for so many dimensions of the OU’s activities — That included his partnership with me in advocacy,” Nathan Diament, the OU’s executive director of public policy, told JI. “Rabbi Hauer deeply believed in the imperative for the Orthodox community to be fully and proactively engaged with the world at large — not isolated from it. And for us to work to better society by advancing Torah values. In fact, the last time I was with him in person was just a couple of weeks ago — we met with senators and senior White House officials to discuss key issues and values.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog mourned Hauer as “a true leader and teacher in the Jewish world,” in a post on X.

“Each and every conversation I was privileged to have with him was so very meangiful [sic] and showed his warmth and kindness, and his unwavering love for Torah, Israel, Zionism, and the Jewish people,” Herzog wrote.

Despite ideological and theological differences, Hauer maintained friendships and partnerships with Jewish leaders across the ideological spectrum and rejected claims that progressive and liberal Jews were “self-hating,” telling eJewishPhilanthropy last year that he “bristle[s] and object[s]” to the canard.

Sheila Katz, the CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women, said in a Facebook post, “Some leaders shape institutions. Others shape hearts. Rabbi Moshe Hauer did both.”

“After October 7, we found ourselves advocating side by side at the Department of Education and Department of Justice, in Congress, in the White House, and in the Knesset, determined to show what Jewish unity could look like,” Katz said. “It wasn’t unity for its own sake, but unity in service of the Jewish people, to advocate together for Jewish women, for the Orthodox community, and for all of us. Him, an Orthodox male rabbi. Me, a Reform Jewish progressive woman. Together, we were an unlikely duo that came together to advocate against antisemitism, to promote safety in Israel, and for the return of the hostages.”

“I’m grateful he lived to see all the living hostages come home. But I’m heartbroken that we won’t get to be with him for all that’s next, for the rebuilding, the hope, and the unity he modeled so powerfully,” Katz continued. “All we can do is continue to build a better world with love, and with Jewish life and wisdom, to honor the memory of our dear friend, Rabbi Hauer.”

Hauer was ordained at Ner Israel in Maryland and received a graduate degree from Johns Hopkins University. 

According to the OU, during his time at Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion he “was active in local communal leadership in many areas, with an emphasis on education, children-at-risk, and social service organizations serving the Jewish community… led a leadership training program for rabbis and communal leaders, and was a founding editor of the online journal Klal Perspectives.”

eJewishPhilanthropy‘s Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.

“No more beardos,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared during his lengthy speech to top military commanders in Quantico, Va., last week, announcing new, stricter grooming policies for U.S. servicemembers, which had been gradually loosened in recent years to allow more soldiers to maintain beards and other facial hair.

“The era of rampant and ridiculous shaving profiles is done,” Hegseth continued. “Simply put, if you do not meet the male-level physical standards for combat positions, cannot pass a [physical training] test or don’t want to shave and look professional, it’s time for a new position or a new profession.”

The new rules, circulated in a memo to military members, would end most existing religious exemptions allowing troops to maintain beards, returning to pre-2010 standards — when the military first granted an exemption to a Sikh soldier to maintain a beard in uniform. The regulations would present a potential obstacle to Orthodox Jewish servicemen who maintain beards. The policy also prohibits sideburns below the ear openings, potentially impacting servicemen who wear peyot.

Religious facial hair waivers will be “generally not authorized” under the new policy, and will require “individualized reviews” with “documentation demonstrating the sincerity of the religious or sincerely held belief … sufficient to support a good faith determination by the approving authority,” according to the memo. They will only be authorized in “non-deployable roles with low risk of chemical attack or firefighting requirements.”

The policy cites the need for military personnel to be able to wear protective breathing equipment that may not seal safely in the presence of facial hair. Repeated non-complicance may lead to individuals being separated from the military.

“The military obviously has its need for discipline and uniform adherence,” Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad), told Jewish Insider. “At the same time, it has been, and we hope it will continue to be, cognizant that certain individuals, for them to serve and accommodation will be necessary, and as in the past, if everything else about that particular person adheres to military standards, then they should get the dispensation they need.”

“The military has shown an ability to balance its requirements with enabling Jewish personnel to serve with distinction. I hope they can do [so in] this case as well,” Shemtov added.

Rabbi A.D. Motzen, national director of government affairs at Agudath Israel of America, told JI that his group is also tracking the issue.

“If the new religious exemption procedures make it more difficult for soldiers or chaplains to maintain beards or sideburns that conform with their religious beliefs, it is a matter of concern for us,” Motzen said. “Agudath Israel has championed religious freedom in many settings including the military and has fought for those rights on the local, state and federal levels and in the courts. We have fought for the rights of Jews as well as members of other faiths such as Sikhs. We hope that this administration, which strongly supports religious freedom, will clarify the new guidelines and ensure that the same religious liberty principles will be applied to the new grooming guidelines.”

Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Brad Schneider (D-IL), the co-chairs of the Congressional Jewish Caucus, released a joint statement on the new policy with the chairs of the Congressional Asian American Pacific Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus.

The statement calls Hegeth’s comments “appalling” and an “insult to the millions of Sikh, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Americans who have answered the call to serve.” The lawmakers said that any attempt to “eliminate or stigmatize beard accommodations … risks marginalizing communities that have long faced discriminatory grooming standards in the military.”

“Time and time again, these brave men and women have shown that they can practice their faith while serving honorably and effectively,” the statement continues. “Freedom of religion is a fundamental right that our nation’s servicemembers defend and have the right to exercise themselves. Religious accommodations for beards, which were permitted under the first Trump presidency and repeatedly upheld by the courts, must remain in place.”

The Democratic lawmakers said that the administration must offer further clarity on how they will uphold religious liberty for servicemembers.

The policy is also expected to impact servicemembers granted medical waivers to maintain beards due to a skin condition that disproportionately affects Black men.

As the Senate closed out its marathon session of amendment votes on Republicans’ budget bill, the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, it added back a provision fought for by Orthodox Jewish groups, creating a major new national school-choice program, which had been stripped from the bill days earlier. 

The program, known as the Educational Choice for Children Act, passed through the House but was ultimately struck from the bill by a ruling of the Senate parliamentarian, a nonpartisan official responsible for ruling on whether provisions meet the standards for a reconciliation bill, which is limited to certain budgetary and tax matters.

The ECCA would create a tax credit for individuals who donate to scholarship programs for children that can be used for a variety of different purposes, including religious schooling. The latest version of the program included in the Senate bill allows individual states to opt into the program and approve the specific scholarship programs eligible to receive the money in that state, rather than automatically instituting the program nationwide.

It also removes the total nationwide cap on the program, but lowers the individual contribution cap to $1,700 per taxpayer.

Nathan Diament, the executive director of public policy for the Orthodox Union, said that Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tim Scott (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) had been negotiating with the parliamentarian since her initial ruling late last week to revise the legislation to address her objections.

“This really is historic,” Diament told Jewish Insider. “This is unquestionably the single largest federal school choice program ever passed. It’s been a long time coming. … It’s going to be helpful to countless numbers of families.”

“We thank Senator Cruz for his relentless efforts the last few days, but it really is a larger effort, whether it’s the House speaker or other Senate leaders … it was one of President Trump’s priorities, school choice, 50 states, and there are many House and Senate leaders and sponsors who made that a reality over the last few months,” Rabbi A.D. Motzen, national director of government affairs for Agudath Israel of America, said.

Though some state governments generally oppose school choice policies and have sought in the past to limit taxpayer funding to religious schools, citing First Amendment concerns, both Diament and Motzen argued that state opposition is less likely to happen in this case.

Diament said that the OU will be working with the Trump administration to ensure that the regulations implemented to govern the program will “lean into encouraging states to do this as broadly as possible.” He noted that recent Supreme Court rulings suggest that any state that tries to exclude religious school scholarships from the program would lose in court.

“Any governor who would choose not to opt in would seem foolish,” Motzen said. “This is all federal funds, it’s not taking away any money from the state. The money could be used by eligible families in public or private school, for a wide range of uses. Preventing a donor from contributing and a scholarship organization to operate in the state would be preventing families from using the money for tutoring or books or other approved expenses.”

He added, “If a state decides not to submit a list of [approved] scholarship organizations, the donors of that state will make a donation to scholarship organizations in other states. So not only are you leaving money on the table, and you’re not allowing your families, all families across the state — every type, public, private, religious school — but you’re actually leading to money leaving the state. What governor would want to do that?”

Motzen noted that the changes in the contribution limits mean that “the strategy of raising funds went from Wall Street to Main Street. It’s going to require a retail fundraising effort across the country, so that taxpayers who want to support scholarships, every one of them gives $1,700.”

With just under three weeks until New York City’s mayoral primary on June 24, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is slowly but surely securing commitments from a range of key leaders in the Orthodox Jewish community, a large and politically influential voting base whose widespread support is seen as crucial to his pathway to the Democratic nomination.

In the coming days, Cuomo is expected to garner endorsements from several prominent Orthodox leaders in Brooklyn and Queens, including major Hasidic sects in Borough Park and Williamsburg that can traditionally turn out thousands of votes, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to address private plans.

But as most top Orthodox leaders have not historically taken sides until relatively late in the primary season, some Jewish community activists are voicing anxiety about their continued delay in publicly backing Cuomo — as he increasingly faces competition to his far left from Zohran Mamdani, a Queens state assemblyman whose fierce opposition to Israel has drawn mounting accusations of fueling antisemitism.

“Now that the race has been essentially a two-man race for the past few months, what are they waiting for?” one Jewish leader, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told Jewish Insider. “Are they considering Mamdani?”

Mamdani, a longtime supporter of boycott and divestment campaigns against Israel, has stirred growing controversy over his extreme positions in recent months. Perhaps most notably, he has refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, an issue he skirted again during the first mayoral debate last night. “I believe Israel has the right to exist,” he said carefully, “as a state with equal rights.”

Though he has otherwise denounced antisemitism and made some overtures to the Jewish community, mainstream Jewish leaders remain alarmed by Mamdani’s rhetoric and concerned by a poll that showed him uncomfortably close to Cuomo in the final round of ranked-choice voting. 

Some Jewish leaders believe that the Orthodox community, whose support could help tip the scales in a close election, is not recognizing the urgency of the moment as Mamdani continues to surge.

“The Orthodox Jewish community is not afraid enough,” Sam Berger, an Orthodox Queens state assemblyman who endorsed Cuomo in March, said in a statement to JI. “While the public generally takes its time to pay attention, we do not have that luxury this year. After two antisemitic attacks in under two weeks echoing the same rhetoric we have persistently warned against from the No. 2 mayoral candidate, we need to vote like our lives depend on it.”

Last week, Leon Goldenberg, an Orthodox leader in Brooklyn who serves as an executive board member of the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition, announced his support for Cuomo, preempting an endorsement from his own group that is likely to come in the next week or so. His personal endorsement, he told JI in an interview, was intended to raise awareness about the stakes of the primary.

Cuomo, who has frequently touted his support for Israel and called antisemitism “the most important issue” in the race, has activity courted the Orthodox community, in an effort to repair relationships that had deteriorated over policies he implemented amid the COVID pandemic, which many voters still recall as discriminatory.

“The meetings all went well, and I do believe that before this race is over that most of the Orthodox Jewish groups will support the former governor for his mayoral bid because we’re very concerned about the prospect of Zohran Mamdani becoming the next mayor,” said one Orthodox rabbi in Far Rockaway, Queens, who is part of a group of Jewish leaders endorsing Cuomo, speaking on the condition of anonymity to address the race. “I don’t remember a more important election for the Orthodox community in my lifetime.”

“If it hasn’t woken people up, hopefully it will in the next few weeks,” he told JI.

An influential coalition of Orthodox Jewish leaders in Far Rockaway, Queens, is endorsing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo for mayor of New York City, Jewish Insider has learned, the first official demonstration of support from a major Orthodox group in the race.

In a lengthy statement first shared with JI on Wednesday night, leaders of the Far Rockaway Jewish Alliance wrote that the “Jewish community in New York — particularly the frum community — faces a political crisis of historic proportions,” and urged voters to move past their lingering resentment over Cuomo’s COVID policies, which community members recall as discriminatory. 

“We still feel the pain of the unfair red zones imposed by Cuomo in 2020, which targeted our communities and restricted our way of life with heavy-handed measures,” the leaders acknowledged. “That wound lingers, a reminder of how quickly our freedoms can be curtailed. Yet, despite this pain, we must look forward and consider our future as Jews in New York City, where new threats loom larger than past grievances.”

The leaders, who represent a key voting bloc in Queens, suggested their support for Cuomo was motivated almost singularly by concerns with his top rival, Zohran Mandani, a Queens state assemblyman whose fierce opposition to Israel and close alliance with the Democratic Socialists of America have raised alarms in the Jewish community.

“If Zohran Mamdani and the movement behind him succeed, we risk losing everything we’ve built,” they write. “This isn’t a mere policy disagreement or politics as usual. Mamdani and his allies, backed by the DSA, have made their intentions clear: they aim to defund our yeshivas, strip our neighborhoods of police protection, and vilify support for Israel as a disqualifying offense. These aren’t empty threats. They’re drafting laws, redirecting budgets, and winning elections — all while projecting a facade of goodwill.”

The alliance members who signed the statement include Elkanah Adelman, Richard Altabe, Shalom Becker, Boruch Ber Bender, Rabbi Zvi Bloom, Jack Brach, Mordechai Zvi Dicker, Ruchie Dunn, Joel Kaplan, Moshe Lazar, Moishe Mishkowitz, Chaim Rapfogel, Baruch Rothman and Aaron Zupnick, according to the announcement.

“Cuomo is no tzaddik, and no one claims he is,” they write. “But we’re not choosing a rebbe — we’re choosing a shield. If we don’t seize the shield before us, we’ll be left utterly defenseless. The reality is stark: in the voting booth, only two candidates can win — Andrew Cuomo or Zohran Mamdani. No one else is close.”

Their new endorsement comes as Cuomo has sought to mend relationships in the Orthodox community that had soured during the COVID pandemic. As polling has shown a tightening race against Mandani, such support could prove crucial, promising to turn out thousands of votes.

In the coming days, Cuomo is also expected to win further endorsements from major Hasidic sects in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Borough Park, according to people familiar with the matter.

“Choosing not to vote for Cuomo isn’t neutrality — it’s handing Mamdani a victory,” the Queens leaders said in their own new endorsement. “That’s a risk our community cannot take. This moment demands action. If we fail to resist this radical, anti-Torah movement, we won’t be debating policies in ten years — we’ll be debating whether we can still live here at all. We cannot stay silent. We cannot stay home. Not now.”

“This isn’t about Cuomo,” they conclude. “It’s about us.”

Leon Goldenberg, a prominent Orthodox Jewish leader in Brooklyn, is endorsing former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for New York City mayor, he confirmed exclusively to Jewish Insider on Friday.

“I am fully endorsing Gov. Cuomo,” Goldenberg said. “I think he’s the best candidate by far. He’s accomplished for the city and the state. We need somebody who’s going to get things accomplished and who’s going to fight antisemitism as a major issue.”

Goldenberg, who is an executive board member of the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition, said that he was backing Cuomo in his personal capacity, but he anticipated his group would also endorse the former governor after the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which concludes on Tuesday evening.

His early endorsement is among the first major signs of formal Orthodox support for Cuomo with just over three weeks until the June 24 Democratic primary. The former governor has in recent weeks engaged in proactive outreach to Orthodox leaders who represent sizable voting blocs that could prove crucial in the increasingly competitive race.

While polling has shown Cuomo leading the crowded primary field, his comfortable margin has narrowed as Zohran Mamdani, a far-left state assemblyman in Queens, has recently come within eight points of the former governor in the final round of ranked-choice voting, according to an independent survey released earlier this week.

Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israel who is the only candidate in the primary to publicly back the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, has voiced rhetoric that has raised alarms among many Jewish leaders as his campaign continues to surge. 

Recently, Mamdani faced scrutiny for declining to recognize Israel as a Jewish state while speaking at a town hall last week hosted by the UJA-Federation of New York. He also stirred controversy this week over his comments to a mosque in Queens in which he denounced Israel’s pager attack last year against Hezbollah in Lebanon without mentioning it had been aimed at the terror group’s operatives rather than civilians.

Goldenberg said his lone endorsement of Cuomo was in many ways meant to raise awareness about the stakes of what appears to have become a two-person race. 

“We’re trying to get the message out about how important it is to support Cuomo,” Goldenberg said. “Mamdani, who will do very well in ranked-choice voting where Cuomo will not do as well, is really gaining a lot of ground.”

Cuomo has also notched support from Sam Berger, an Orthodox state assemblyman from Queens who has accused Mamdani of stoking antisemitism. But leading Orthodox groups, whose endorsements can traditionally yield thousands of votes that have helped tipped the scales in close elections, have yet to weigh in on the primary.

In recent weeks, Cuomo has met privately with a range of Orthodox leaders to mend relationships that deteriorated over restrictions he implemented at the height of the COVID pandemic, which many community members still recall as discriminatory.

The former governor has voiced regret for creating “the impression that the community was targeted,” which he said was not his intention, and recognized that he “could have done more” to address concerns at the time.

Though Orthodox leaders have been receptive to his outreach, constituents are still bitter about Cuomo’s COVID record, even as he has expressed contrition, according to people familiar with the conversations.

For his part, Goldenberg, whose group in Flatbush met with Cuomo this month, said that he had been satisfied with Cuomo’s response to criticism during their discussion, but emphasized he is now engaging in outreach to younger voters who may not be closely following the primary. 

Mamdani “is not going to be a friend of the Jews,” Goldenberg told JI. “That’s the message that just has to get out more and more forcefully, especially in the Orthodox community, which is still incensed about COVID.”

Even as Mamdani has also sought to engage with the community, a recent poll showed his support at 0% among Orthodox voters, while faring better with other Jewish denominations. Cuomo, meanwhile, performs strongest in the Orthodox community, claiming 41% of the vote, according to the poll.

In the broader Jewish community, Cuomo, who has frequently touted his support for Israel while calling antisemitism “the most important issue” in the race, is leading the field with a relatively small plurality of the vote, recent polls suggest.

Despite leading all publicly available polls, Cuomo also holds high unfavorability ratings stemming in large part from his resignation as governor amid allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denies.

In a tight race, the Orthodox community could help close the margins for Cuomo, as previous primaries have shown. Mayor Eric Adams, now running as an independent, narrowly won the nomination in 2021 with critical support from Orthodox leaders, whose communities tend to vote as a bloc.

“The Orthodox community can make a difference,” said Goldenberg, whose group endorsed Adams last cycle. “If we come out forcefully.” 

He estimated there are at least 100,000 Orthodox voters in Flatbush alone, but was unable to share a party breakdown. “We have been pushing people to register as Democrats, and have had some success,” he told JI. “We’ll keep pushing it.”

In the meantime, Goldbenberg said he expects other Orthodox leaders will also soon fall behind Cuomo. “I think it really has to happen across the board,” he told JI. “So many others are holding back, but I think we have to get the momentum.”

“Sometimes there’s a choice and you’re wavering until you get near the end,” he said, but dismissed the other candidates as unviable. “There’s no other choice today.”

One Orthodox leader, who spoke anonymously to address private discussions, suggested that “by the end of next week” endorsements would likely begin to roll in. 

A major Satmar faction in Williamsburg, home to the largest Hasidic community in New York City, is currently planning to endorse Cuomo the week after next, according to a community leader familiar with the matter.

“Nothing is final until final,” the community leader clarified on Friday, “but that’s the expectation.”

A new campaign is targeting Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish voters in Monsey, N.Y., with ads calling on voters to contact Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) to oppose proposals cutting Medicaid funding. But the group behind those ads has its own checkered history with Jewish community issues.

The ads, which are running both in Yiddish and English in local Jewish community publications, direct viewers to a website to send a form email to their lawmakers, identifying themself as a member of the Jewish community and opposing cuts to Medicaid programs as particularly harmful to local Jewish communities. Republicans have said such cuts are likely as part of the upcoming budget reconciliation bill.

The campaign largely targets Lawler, who represents many of the Hasidic communities in Rockland County and has been fending off accusations from Democrats and liberal groups that he is backing cuts to Medicaid. He has pledged that he will “never cast a vote that takes Medicaid away from eligible recipients who rely on this vital program,” but instead wants to crack down on fraud within the program.

One of the groups behind those advertisements, healthcare union 1199SEIU, has a history of anti-Israel activism.

In December 2023, the group called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, while also condemning the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks and calling for the unconditional release of hostages. It suggested both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes.

In October 2024, the group called for an arms embargo on Israel, saying, “the Netanyahu government has used the October 7 atrocities to justify inexcusable destruction and killing in Gaza, creating an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe in the region.”

It also condemned Israeli operations in Lebanon, while also accusing both Israel and Hezbollah of war crimes.

The national SEIU umbrella organization has criticized crackdowns on antisemitic activity on college campuses. 

In their individual capacity, 1199SEIU staff and members have signed on to statements accusing Israel of genocide and supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel. Some leaders inside the national SEIU organization expressed support for Hamas.

A Lawler spokesperson suggested that it’s hypocritical for the group to attempt to appeal to the Jewish community given its history of Israel criticism.

“We strongly condemn SEIU1199 for targeting Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish voters in Rockland with blatantly false ads,” a Lawler spokesperson said in a statement. “The irony of SEIU1199 attempting to appeal to Jewish voters while having a history of supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, supporting pro-Hamas encampments on our universities, and pushing for an arms embargo on Israel is comical. SEIU1199 should immediately retract these advertisements and issue an apology.”

1199SEIU did not respond to a request for comment.

Paul Moshe Reichmann, the Orthodox Jewish real estate developer who made and lost billions of dollars while transforming the skylines of Toronto, New York and London, died on Friday in Toronto. He was 83.

From the New York Times

Mr. Reichmann and his brothers, Albert and Ralph, led Olympia & York, their family’s real estate development firm, which counted among its greatest projects the World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan and Canary Wharf in London’s East End. At their apex in 1990, the Reichmanns held about 8 percent of New York City’s commercial office space, more than twice as much as their closest rival, the Rockefellers.

 

Paul Reichmann, a tall, soft-spoken man who dressed in black suits, white shirts and dark ties, was clearly the family business strategist and chief decision-maker. He and his family were lavish contributors, mostly to Orthodox Jewish causes; they donated up to $50 million a year to yeshivas, synagogues and hospitals around the world.

 

The strains of commerce and religious orthodoxy were often inseparable in the family’s ventures. For example, Olympia & York closed its construction sites on the Jewish Sabbath, paying overtime for Sunday labor, and during the Jewish religious holidays, as well as Christian ones.

 

At the height of his business career, Mr. Reichmann sometimes spoke wistfully of the Talmudic studies and religious school building projects he undertook as a young man.

 

Paul Reichmann was born in Vienna on Sept. 27, 1930, the fifth of six siblings. His parents, Samuel and Rene, were Orthodox Jews who had moved from rural Hungary to Vienna, where they owned a prosperous egg export business. But Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938 forced the family to flee to Paris.

 

Two years later, when the Nazis overran France, the Reichmanns fled to Tangier, Morocco, where Samuel Reichmann became a successful currency trader.

 

When anti-Jewish riots broke out across the Middle East after the 1956 Arab-Israeli War, the Reichmanns uprooted themselves again, this time going to Canada. The family settled in North York, a suburb of Toronto, where Samuel and his sons, Paul, Albert and Ralph, started a small company producing tiles and other building material, which they called Olympia Tile. In 1958, it became the springboard for Olympia & York, which would erect close to 100 buildings in the Toronto area over the next 15 years.

From Bloomberg

In 1949, Paul Reichmann devoted himself to studying the Talmud in the U.K. and Israel. In 1952 in Israel he met Lea Feldman, who later became his wife.

 

From 1953 to 1956, he worked in Casablanca as the unpaid educational director of Ozar Hatorah, an American-sponsored group that runs schools for Orthodox Jews, according to Bianco. Reichmann later called that time “the most interesting years of my life.”

From the Toronto Star

Paul Reichmann was among the greatest land developers in history. Reichmann, who died Friday morning in Toronto at 83, was also among this country’s outstanding philanthropists.
It is unlikely that those of my generation, raised in Toronto in the 1960s and 1970s, will see Reichmann’s like again. With uncommon audacity, persistence and real estate acumen, Reichmann reshaped the skylines of Toronto, New York and London.

Faith and Fortune: The Reichmann Story from Handel Productions on Vimeo.