Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) offered a message of hope that peace in the Middle East is “as close as we have ever been,” in remarks before more than 2,000 people from 60 countries gathered in Midtown Manhattan on Monday for the second day of the American Jewish Committee Global Forum. 

Torres, who was honored with the group’s inaugural Nita M. Lowey Congressional Leadership Award, said that the “future of the Middle East does not belong to the Islamic Republic and its empire of terror.”

“The future of the Middle East belongs to Israel and the Abraham Accords. The future of the Middle East does not belong to hate. The future belongs to hope: hatikva,” Torres continued. “In the grand sweep of history, in the millennia-long Maccabean marathon that is the story of the Jewish people, we are as close as we have ever been to realizing the Abrahamic dream of a world where all the children of Abraham — Jews, Christians and Muslims — can coexist in peace and prosperity. A durable peace is possible, and we as Americans, in the greatest country on earth, have the power — indeed the responsibility — to make it so and make peace.”

Torres also denounced “academics, activists, politicians [and] journalists” who “downplay or even deny the genocidal ideology at the core of” the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel.

“You are not part of the solution,” the congressman said, addressing those he condemned. “You are part of the problem.” 

AJC has presented the Congressional Leadership Award at its global forums annually since 2001 to members of Congress who have demonstrated a commitment to Israel or the Jewish people. Past recipients include Sens. Joseph Lieberman, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, John Danforth and Richard Lugar as well as Rep. John Lewis.

Earlier this year, the group renamed the award to honor Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), who represented Westchester County for more than three decades. Lowey, who died in March at 87, was “a true friend” to AJC, according to its CEO, Ted Deutch.  

Other sessions on Monday included “Exposing Bias: The Truth Behind Media Coverage of Israel,” in which former Jerusalem-based Associated Press correspondent Matti Friedman explained that it’s unlikely mainstream media’s anti-Israel bias will change. In a panel on “The Role of the Jewish Community in Responding to Antisemitism on Campus,” University of Michigan Regent Jordan Acker, whose home in a heavily Jewish suburb of Detroit was targeted by anti-Israel vandals several times last year, said that the Trump administration’s federal funding cuts to universities that have not complied with government demands to crackdown on antisemitism risks putting “Jews as the victims.”  

Prominent Palestinian-American DJ and producer Farid Karam Nassar, who goes by the stage name Fredwreck, targeted Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) earlier this week with a series of explicit racial slurs, citing Torres’ support for Israel.

Nassar, who has worked with artists including Eminem, Britney Spears, Ice Cube, 50 Cent, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, won a Grammy in 2020 for an album with R&B artist Anderson .Paak and he assisted with the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show.

In response to a video of a recent public confrontation between Torres and a pro-Palestinian activist, Nassar described Torres as a “s@mbo koon,” using misspellings of two racial slurs for Black people.

Nassar also commented, “He’s lucky I didn’t run into him on the streets.”

The DJ followed up with a direct message to Torres’ Instagram account, shared with Jewish Insider by the congressman’s office, in which he called Torres a “sell out as House Slave” and made a remark referencing AIPAC and gay sex. Torres is openly gay.

“Violence is not a bug but a feature of the Free Palestine movement,” Torres said in a statement. “No amount of harassment and intimidation will deter me from standing up and speaking out against AntiZionism and antisemitism.”

Nassar did not respond to a message requesting comment.
Nassar accused Israel of genocide on Oct. 18, 2023, and posted on Instagram “From the River to the Sea… We will be free… #endapartheidisrael.”

In announcing his endorsement on Monday of Andrew Cuomo in the race for mayor of New York City, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) argued that the state’s former governor would be best equipped to confront what he called “a level of extremism unprecedented in the history of New York.”

Torres also singled out one candidate as a source of concern, citing Zohran Mamdani, an assemblyman from Queens, as unfit for office because of his close ties to the Democratic Socialists of America, which has faced backlash for promoting a rally after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks where some participants were seen glorifying the violence and voicing antisemitic sentiments.

In an interview with Jewish Insider on Tuesday, Torres suggested his words of caution had in some ways been confirmed as a new poll showed Mamdani emerging from the crowded field to claim second place behind Cuomo, who is preparing to announce a comeback campaign in the coming days.

Mamdani, whose outspoken criticism of Israel and support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement has raised alarms among the city’s Jewish leaders, claimed only 12% among likely Democratic primary voters, trailing Cuomo, with 38%, by a wide margin. But Torres still warned that the far-left candidate’s growing popularity represents a major threat as the June primary draws closer.

“The mainstreaming of extremism into the New York City mayor’s office is a greater danger than people realize,” he told JI, even as the 2024 presidential election showed a distinct shift to the right among voters across New York City. “The DSA candidate is treacherously smart and should not be underestimated.”

Torres, a Bronx representative who is among the fiercest supporters of Israel in the House, referred to Mamdani’s statement responding to the Hamas attacks, which drew criticism for equivocating over the violence. Mamdani, Torres argued, “could not bring himself to condemn” the terrorist group “for perpetrating the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.”

“If you cannot condemn with moral clarity a terrorist organization for perpetrating the mass murder, maiming, mutilation, rape, torture and abduction of Jews, then you have no business being mayor of the most Jewish city in the world” outside of Israel, Torres said. 

A spokesperson for Mamdani’s campaign declined to comment on Tuesday.

Mamdani has been a frequent critic of Cuomo’s pro-Israel advocacy, accusing him of “defending a genocide” by joining a legal team for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against the the International Criminal Court’s war crime charges. Mamdani, for his part, has said he would arrest Netanyahu after the ICC issued a warrant for Netanyahu.

In assessing the current primary field, which has drawn several left-wing candidates, Torres said he ultimately concluded that Cuomo, who resigned from the governorship in 2021 amid allegations of sexual misconduct that he denies, “has the courage to stand up to” what he called “the antisemitism of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America.”

“In a post-Oct. 7 world, we can no longer afford a political establishment that appeases antisemitism,” he said. “We need a fearless and formidable fighter like Andrew Cuomo. The nature of Andrew Cuomo is not to capitulate to the antisemitism of the far left. His nature is to crush it.”

Torres declined to comment on the other leading primary challengers to Mayor Eric Adams, who has faced mounting calls to resign as he fights a federal corruption case that has sunk his approval ratings and in many ways paralyzed his government. The Democratic primary field also includes Brad Lander, the city comptroller; Scott Stringer, the former comptroller; and state Sens. Jessica Ramos and Zellnor Myrie.

As he readies his campaign, Cuomo is building support in the Jewish community, even as he faces continued resentment among Orthodox leaders who viewed his crackdown on religious gatherings amid the COVID-19 pandemic as discriminatory. 

Torres, who is the first elected official to support Cuomo’s nascent campaign, is among a growing number of city leaders and groups to preemptively back the candidate in waiting, such as Carl McCall, the former state comptroller, and the New York City District Council of Carpenters.

Torres, who called for Cuomo to resign three years ago but has said he is not interested in “relitigating” his departure from office, backed Andrew Yang for mayor four years ago. The congressman is himself now weighing a campaign to challenge Gov. Kathy Hochul, a fellow Democrat, in next year’s election.

In the meantime, Torres said he is prepared to help Cuomo when he enters the race, which could come as soon as this weekend. He clarified that his early support is an “affirmation” of the former governor “rather than a negation of any other candidate” in the primary.

“Having said that,” the DSA “is a singular danger to the city,” Torres told JI, calling the group’s conduct in the wake of Hamas’ attacks “abominable” amid a recent surge in antisemitism sparked in part by the war in Gaza. 

“New York City is in danger of becoming ground zero for anti-Zionism and antisemitism in America,” Torres warned.

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik announced her resignation on Wednesday, days before the start of the school year — and months after the end of a chaotic school year that saw her testify before Congress about antisemitism and navigate the unruly fallout of the first anti-Israel encampment in the nation. 

Dr. Katrina Armstrong, CEO of Columbia’s Irving Medical Center, will serve as interim president, a university spokesperson confirmed to Jewish Insider. A source familiar said Armstrong has already been in touch with Hillel leadership at Columbia. 

News of Shafik’s resignation was first reported by the Washington Free Beacon’s Eliana Johnson. Shafik is the fourth Ivy League president to step down in the last year amid rising anti-Israel activism on campuses, following the University of Pennsylvania’s Elizabeth Magill, Harvard’s Claudine Gay and Cornell University’s Martha Pollack.

“I have had the honor and privilege to lead this incredible institution, and I believe that — working together — we have made progress in a number of important areas,” Shafik, who only started in the role in July 2023, wrote in an email to the Columbia community. 

“However, it has also been a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community. This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community. Over the summer, I have been able to reflect and have decided that my moving on at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead,” she wrote.

Following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, Columbia, like other American universities, saw an uptick in antisemitism and targeting of Zionist students. But in an April hearing before the House Education and the Workforce Committee, Shafik avoided the kind of viral moment that dogged her colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

But when she went back to Manhattan, she faced the first anti-Israel encampment at an American university. Her decision to call in the police to break up the demonstration set off a wave of anger among many students and faculty members on campus and sparked dozens of other solidarity encampments at other universities. 

From there, her leadership was under a microscope. Following a number of antisemitic incidents related to the encampment, several members of Congress from both parties went to Columbia to speak to Jewish students and show solidarity.

In a statement, the Anti-Defamation League said it is “saddened that the leadership of another flagship university has crumbled under the weight of antisemitism on its campus,” calling on the school to move quickly to fill the leadership vacancy before the fall semester.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), in a statement first shared with JI, cheered Shafik’s decision to step aside: “As a result of President Shafik’s refusal to protect Jewish students and maintain order on campus, Columbia University became the epicenter for virulent antisemitism that has plagued many American university campuses since Hamas’ barbaric attack on Israel last fall.” 

“I stood in President Shafik’s office in April and told her to resign, and while it is long overdue, we welcome today’s news. Jewish students at Columbia beginning this school year should breathe a sigh of relief…We hope that President Shafik’s resignation serves as an example to university administrators across the country that tolerating or protecting antisemites is unacceptable and will have consequences,” Johnson added.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), the chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, said that, under Shafik’s leadership “a disturbing wave of antisemitic harassment, discrimination, and disorder engulfed Columbia university’s campus” and students were allowed to break the law with impunity.

“Columbia’s next leader must take bold action to address the pervasive antisemitism, support for terrorism, and contempt for the university’s rules that have been allowed to flourish on its campus,” Foxx continued, 

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a prominent member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, crowed, “THREE DOWN, so many to go,” adding that her “failed presidency was untenable and that it was only a matter of time before her forced resignation.”

She added, “We will continue to demand moral clarity, condemnation of antisemitism, protection of Jewish students and faculty, and stronger leadership from American higher education institutions.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) told JI that the resignation was “long overdue.”

“I have been calling for President Shafik to be ousted or resign ever since her abysmal failure to condemn Columbia’s antisemitic outbursts or ensure the safety of Jewish students on her campus,” Lawler said. “Let this be a lesson to all who waver in the face of evil.”

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) said that “when President Shafik failed to enforce the code of conduct and protect Jewish students just trying to walk to class safely, she failed at her job and allowed a hostile, antisemitic environment to escalate.”

He asserted that similar treatment of any other minority group would have been quickly stopped by school administrators and that signs reading “go back to Poland” displayed just outside Columbia’s gates when he visited the campus have stuck with him.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) called Columbia “ground zero for campus antisemitism in NYC,” urging the new leadership to “summon the moral clarity and the moral courage to confront the deep rot of antisemitism at Columbia’s core.”

But Columbia’s problems didn’t stop with the encampment. In late April, student protesters occupied a campus administrative building, leading to hundreds of arrests by police. (The charges have since been dropped against most student protesters.) 

Two days later, President Joe Biden condemned unlawful protests at U.S. universities. “Destroying property is not a peaceful protest. It’s against the law. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation — none of this is a peaceful protest,” he said in a White House address in May. “It’s against the law.”

In May, the faculty of arts and sciences — which was mostly supportive of the anti-Israel encampment — approved a vote of no confidence in Shafik. 

Columbia made news earlier this month when three deans who had been placed on leave over exchanging antisemitic text messages resigned. 

And as recently as this week, lawmakers demanded that the school reimburse the New York Police Department for costs incurred in clearing the encampment on the Columbia campus.

Brian Cohen, executive director of Columbia/Barnard Hillel, declined to comment on Shafik’s departure but praised Armstrong’s appointment as interim president. 

“I think very highly of Dr. Armstrong and I know many colleagues feel the same way,” Cohen told JI. “She is a strong leader — when there were issues that needed to be addressed at the Medical Center, Dr. Armstrong was quick to respond and to address the issues.”

Jewish Insider Congressional correspondent Emily Jacobs contributed to this report.

Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Cori Bush (D-MO) blamed U.S. military aid to Israel for contributing to the massive Hamas terror attack on Israel yesterday, which has left more than 700 Israelis dead. Tlaib also described Hamas’ actions as “resistance” to Israeli “apartheid.”

The comments come as most U.S. lawmakers have offered strong support to Israel in the conflict, without many of the typical calls for cease-fires and de-escalation by both sides in the hours following the onset of the attack. The exception to this has been members of the far-left Squad and a handful of other lawmakers aligned with them.

“I am determined as ever to fight for a just future where everyone can live in peace, without fear and with true freedom, equal rights, and human dignity,” Tlaib said in a statement on Sunday. “The path to that future must include lifting the blockade, ending the occupation and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance.”

Tlaib added that “as long as our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue.”

Bush, in a similar statement on Saturday, said she was “heartbroken” by the violence and loss of life, “following attacks by Hamas militants on Israeli border towns and Israeli military bombardment of Gaza.”

“As part of achieving a just and lasting peace, we must do our part to stop this violence and trauma by ending U.S. government support for Israeli military occupation and apartheid,” Bush continued.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) condemned the comments by his colleagues.

“U.S. aid to Israel is and should be unconditional, and never more so than in this moment of critical need,” Torres told Jewish Insider in a statement. “Shame on anyone who glorifies as ‘resistance’ the largest single-day mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust. It is reprehensible and repulsive.”

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) highlighted the barbarism committed by Hamas terrorists in his own response.

“Two of my colleagues called for America to end assistance to Israel, despite the countless images of Israeli children, women, men, and elderly, including Americans, murdered by radical Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists,” Gottheimer told JI. “It sickens me that while Israelis clean the blood of their family members shot in their homes, they believe Congress should strip U.S. funding to our democratic ally and allow innocent civilians to suffer.”

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), who serves in the Michigan delegation with Tlaib, distanced herself from Tlaib’s comments in a statement to JI.

“We must continue to come together as a Congress and a country to disavow terrorism and support the Jewish state, our democratic ally, Israel,” Stevens said. “Israel has a right to exist and defend herself.”

None of the other Democratic members of Michigan’s House delegation responded to requests for comment.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog responded directly to Tlaib, in an impassioned statement on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“How much more blood needs to be spilled for you to overcome your prejudice and unequivocally condemn Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror organization?” Herzog wrote. “Hundreds of innocent Israeli civilians massacred in cold blood on a holy day. Babies kidnapped from their mother’s arms and taken to Gaza. An 85-year-old woman in a wheelchair and a Holocaust survivor taken hostage. Is that not enough, @RashidaTlaib?”

At the same time, a number of New York Democrats condemned a Democratic Socialists of America rally on Sunday in New York’s Times Square expressing “solidarity with the Palestinian people and their right to resist 75 years of occupation and apartheid.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called the rally “ill-timed” and “cold-hearted.”

“We’ve seen unprecedented viciousness coming from Hamas aimed at innocent families and children,” Schumer said. “Everyone — no matter your views — should condemn this brutal act.”

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) said, “The NYC-DSA is revealing itself for what it truly is — a deep rot of antisemitism.”

He added, “There is a special place in hell for those who glorify the cold blooded murder of civilians and children… The DSA should be universally condemned for its genocidal celebration of Israel’s destruction.”

Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) called the rally “an absolute disgrace” and “blatant antisemitism.”

“These actions are an insult to the memories of the innocent men, women, and children brutally murdered,” Ryan continued.

Through a spokesperson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) also condemned the rally.

“Leader Hakeem Jeffries strongly and unequivocally condemns the hate-filled rally held by the DSA in [NYC] and any effort to support the barbaric, inhumane and despicable terrorist attack by Hamas on the State of Israel and its citizens,” spokesperson Andy Eichar said.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the rally was “abhorrent and morally repugnant.”

Former Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY), who is currently running for a House seat in the New York City suburbs, said that “no one should support terrorist attacks against Israel” and that “today’s rally by the NYC DSA is despicable.” He added that “Hamas alone is responsible for this heinous violence.”

Brad Lander, the left-wing NYC comptroller who has in the past called for conditioning U.S. aid to Israel — and is affiliated with the DSA — disavowed the group’s rally.

“Today’s DSA rally — which effectively celebrated Hamas’ murder & kidnapping of hundreds of Israeli civilians, including children & grandparents — was abominable,” Lander said. “There is no place for glorifying terror, left, center, or right.”