The perpetrator was reportedly music student Alexander Stepnowsky, who is being charged with a hate crime and trespassing
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Street view of New York University NYU in Greenwich Village Manhattan.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleThe NYPD arrested an NYU student Wednesday for raising a flag that displayed swastikas and a Star of David atop a university building last month.
The perpetrator was a fourth-year NYU student at the time of the incident and has not yet received a diploma, a university spokesperson told Jewish Insider on Wednesday. The New York Times reported that the man is named Alexander Stepnowsky, a music technology student.
He was charged with a hate crime and trespassing, among other charges. NYU will carry out its own disciplinary measures, which could include expulsion or degree revocation, the spokesperson said.
Appearing near Washington Square Park on May 13, the flag mimicked the purple NYU banners seen across campus, yet it was emblazoned with a Star of David flanked by two swastikas. It was flown on the roof of the Steinhardt building, named in honor of its Jewish benefactors, Michael and Judy Steinhardt.
“The University cooperated fully with the NYPD. We are grateful for their exhaustive work and for the efforts of the Manhattan District Attorney in identifying the person responsible for this heinous crime,” Wiley Norvell, senior vice president for university relations and public affairs said in a statement.
“The symbols that were represented are antisemitic and hateful to every person of conscience; this appalling act violated our sense of community and solidarity. In addition to criminal proceedings, we will immediately pursue our disciplinary procedures, which carry the most severe consequences.”
“I commend NYU for its unequivocal condemnation of this hateful act, its cooperation with law enforcement, and its commitment to full accountability,” said Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.
A spokesperson said the school was ‘shocked and deeply troubled that this hateful symbol expressing antisemitism was raised’ and is cooperating with police
Getty Images
Street view of New York University NYU in Greenwich Village Manhattan.
The NYPD is investigating an incident where a flag displaying swastikas and a Star of David was flown atop an NYU building on Wednesday.
Appearing near Washington Square Park, the flag mimicked the purple NYU banners seen across campus, yet it was emblazoned with a Star of David flanked by two swastikas. It was flown on the roof of the Steinhardt building, named in honor of its Jewish benefactors, Michael and Judy Steinhardt.
The NYPD said it became aware of the flag when it received a 911 call at 5:21 p.m. reporting harassment. The flag, which was hung near a graduation event, was removed about 15 minutes after it was reported, according to Washington Square News, NYU’s student newspaper. The investigation remains ongoing as of Thursday evening.
“We are shocked and deeply troubled that this hateful symbol expressing antisemitism was raised on a flagpole overlooking Washington Square Park. Campus safety responded immediately to remove it and we are working closely with the NYPD to identify whoever is responsible,” Wiley Norvell, spokesman for NYU, told Jewish Insider.
“We are one community. We protect each other. And we will not let hate and division find a foothold on our campus.”
JCRC-NY CEO Mark Treyger: ‘This is not normal, and we need city leaders to act now’
New York Assemblymember Sam Berger
Vandalism defaced the Rego Park Jewish Center in Queens, New York.
Multiple Jewish homes, a synagogue and a Jewish center in Queens — which contains a preschool — were vandalized with swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti overnight on Monday, leaving Jewish residents questioning their safety amid a spate of antisemitic incidents.
“When rabbis and congregants arrived to pray this morning, they expected to be met with their usual loving community. When a family woke up, they were prepared to begin an otherwise normal week. Instead, they were met with terrifying signals of hatred and threats of violence,” New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, the city’s first Jewish council speaker, wrote on X.
Menin, alongside Queens Councilmembers Lynn Schulman and Phil Wong, visited Congregation Machane Chodosh in Forest Hills, the impacted synagogue, on Monday morning. The Rego Park Jewish Center and two residential houses in Forest Hills were also targeted.
The NYPD is searching for at least four individuals responsible for the vandalism, according to Menin.
“With antisemitism on the rise here and across the globe, we will always stand up for our Jewish community and fight back against hate,” said Menin, adding that the graffiti will be removed once the NYPD completes its investigation.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement on Monday afternoon that he was “horrified and angered” by the vandalism, which he called “a deliberate act of antisemitic hatred meant to instill fear.”
“I stand in solidarity with our Jewish neighbors. Their safety, dignity, and belonging are non-negotiable,” Mamdani continued.
Gov. Kathy Hochul similarly condemned the “vile, targeted hate.”
Democratic state Assemblymember Sam Berger, who represents Queens’ nearby heavily Jewish neighborhood of Kew Gardens Hills, told JI that his grandparents, who are Holocaust survivors, “lived around the corner from this shul. It’s mortifying.”
“I have a Jewish community that is seriously questioning whether it is still welcome in this city,” said Berger.
“One of the sites houses a pre-K program, where young children, their families, and staff were greeted with swastikas and other hateful vandalism,” said Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.
“This is not normal,” said Treyger, “and we need city leaders to act now.”
Sydney Altfield, CEO of Teach Coalition — which oversees security grants for Congregation Machane Chodosh and most other synagogues and schools in the area — said in a statement, “Waking up to swastikas on a synagogue, homes, and a Jewish center that houses a preschool is not just vandalism, it is a direct act of intimidation against an entire community. We’re working closely with synagogue leadership and guiding next steps to protect families and strengthen security in the short term.”
“This is exactly why sustained investment in security for Jewish institutions is so critical. It also underscores how important it is not only to secure that funding but also to ensure institutions can access it,” Altfield continued.
In January, Queens played host to a pro-Hamas protest that caused nearby schools and a synagogue to close early, where dozens of masked protesters chanted “We support Hamas” near the synagogue.
The backtracking was sufficient for Sens. Jacky Rosen and Tammy Duckworth to announce they would release their holds on the Coast Guard commandant’s confirmation proceedings
Al Drago/Getty Images
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Subcomittee on Cybersecurity, speaks during a hearing on Artificial Intelligence cyber capabilities, on Capitol Hill on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC.
After pressure from Capitol Hill — including a blockade by Democratic senators of the confirmation of the Coast Guard commandant — the Coast Guard struck from its disciplinary policies language describing swastikas and nooses as “potentially divisive,” rather than as explicitly banned hate symbols.
The Washington Post initially reported that the language around displays of such symbols would be changed last month, prompting bipartisan outrage from Capitol Hill. Though Department of Homeland Security officials denied the changes, acting Coast Guard commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday issued new guidance to clarify that such displays were still banned hate symbols and repeatedly reassured lawmakers as such.
Yet, this week, the Post reported that the “potentially divisive” language had gone into effect anyway, prompting another wave of confusion and outrage from Capitol Hill, with some lawmakers accusing Lunday of misleading them. Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) said they would block Lunday’s confirmation in response to the latest change, and some Republicans expressed frustration at the continued flip-flopping and sought answers from DHS.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem denied any wrongdoing and attacked critics, but said Thursday on X, “The pages of superseded and outdated policy will be completely removed from the record so no press outlet, entity or elected official may misrepresent the Coast Guard to politicize their policies and lie about their position on divisive and hate symbols.”
Noem’s description of the “superceded and outdated policy” appears to refer to the “potentially divisive” language, but the language of policy now on the books remains unclear.
The Post reported that the Guard had indeed deleted the language downgrading swastikas and nooses from hate symbols to “potentially divisive,” and that the Coast Guard manual now includes a black bar covering the relevant portion of its table of contents and a reference to a separate civil rights manual.
Noem claimed that new Coast Guard policies, in addition to the Coast Guard’s existing civil rights manual, “strengthens our ability to report, investigate, and prosecute those who violate longstanding policy,” and that the updated policy and order issued by Lunday last month “double[d] down on that language and further clarif[ied] the display of divisive and hate symbols and flags prohibited as a violation of Coast Guard policy and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle had raised concerns that the updated policy issued by Lunday weakened investigative and accountability procedures for displays of swastikas as compared to the previous policy.
Noem dismissed critics as promulgating a “demonstrably false story.”
The secretary’s announcement came after Rosen and Duckworth placed holds on Lunday’s confirmation, which was expected to be finalized this week, over the policy. Noem demanded an end to these delays and Lunday’s prompt confirmation.
The latest developments were sufficient reassurance for the two Democrats to announce they would be lifting their holds.
But Rosen said she’ll be placing a hold on another DHS nominee in a bid for accountability going forward.
“While I continue to have reservations about the process by which this happened and the confusion created by leadership at the Department of Homeland Security, I am pleased to see that the policy now directly refers to stronger language against swastikas and nooses,” Rosen said in a statement. “For this reason, I will be lifting my hold on Acting Commandant Kevin Lunday. I appreciate his lifetime of service to our country and look forward to working with him to continue to strengthen anti-harassment policy at the Coast Guard.”
To ensure the “ongoing implementation of the policy,” Rosen said she’d place a hold on Sean Plankey, nominated to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, who is currently overseeing the Coast Guard in a role at DHS.
“I will keep that hold in place until we see that this new policy works to protect our men and women in uniform from racist and antisemitic harassment,” Rosen said.
She also said that some at the Coast Guard and DHS have been “evasive, misleading, and elusive” about the policies being put in place since the scandal first began, and that there was “absolutely no valid reason” to alter existing policy in the first place.
She also highlighted that even after the Coast Guard initially agreed last month to drop the “potentially divisive” language, the new policy included changes that “would’ve weakened the Coast Guard’s standards and potentially allowed swastikas and nooses to be displayed.”
Duckworth said, “Swastikas and nooses are divisive symbols of hate. No gray area. No debate. Admiral Lunday told me he agreed with this statement — so it made absolutely no sense that the Coast Guard policy ever said otherwise. With this policy reversed, I will lift my hold.”
Plus, the Coast Guard quietly walks back anti-swastika policy
(Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump greets Rabbi Levi Shemtov and Holocaust survivor Jerry Wartski during a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025.
👋 Good Wednesday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report from Hanukkah receptions at the White House, on Capitol Hill and in New York, and cover concerns from U.S. lawmakers over Canberra’s failure to address concerns from Australia’s Jewish community prior to Sunday’s deadly attack in Sydney. We report on the Coast Guard’s quiet moves to reverse its policy on swastikas, and talk to Rep. Zach Nunn about his legislative work aimed at expanding the U.S.-Israel relationship. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Mark Zuckerberg and Galia Lahav.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- President Donald Trump will give a televised address at 9 p.m. ET.
- The Heritage Foundation is hosting a sit-down this afternoon between Heritage President Kevin Roberts and conservative commentator Ben Shapiro.
- Elsewhere in Washington, Jewish members of Congress are hosting the annual Capitol Hill Hanukkah party. Across town, the Israeli Embassy in Washington is hosting its annual Hanukkah reception tonight.
- Norman Podhoretz, the longtime editor of Commentary magazine and influential conservative thought leader, died on Tuesday. In a remembrance of his father, John Podhoretz wrote: “He bound himself fast to his people, his heritage, and his history. His knowledge extended beyond literature to Jewish history, Jewish thinking, Jewish faith, and the Hebrew Bible, with all of which he was intimately familiar and ever fascinated.”
- Australian police charged Naveed Akram, one of the suspects in the Sunday terror attack in Sydney, with 15 counts of murder in addition to dozens of other offenses, including committing a terrorist act; Akram is in stable condition at a Sydney hospital after spending two days in a coma.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH THE JI team
As Jewish communities are marking Hanukkah under the shadow of the deadly terror attack in Sydney that marred the beginning of the Jewish holiday, leaders in Washington and New York addressed growing concerns about antisemitism at several Hanukkah events held yesterday.
President Donald Trump warned that Israel and the “Jewish lobby” have lost their influence in Washington and that Congress is “becoming antisemitic,” in a holiday message delivered to attendees at the White House’s annual Hanukkah party.
Speaking from the East Room to a gathering of lawmakers and prominent Jewish figures ahead of a ceremonial menorah lighting, the president repeatedly cautioned that the Jewish community and its allies “have to be very careful because bad things are happening” to Jewish people and to Israel’s global standing, citing the shooting in Sydney and the ongoing denials of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. Read the full story here.
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, speaking at a Hanukkah reception hosted by Israel’s U.N. mission at The Jewish Museum in Manhattan, said the U.S. “can and will confront antisemitism without apology, without hesitation and will do so everywhere around the world, including right here in the halls of the U.N.” Read the full story here.
On Capitol Hill, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s (D-FL) annual Hanukkah party featured remarks by Shira Gvili, sister of Ran Gvili, the last hostage in Gaza, JI’s Marc Rod reports. Gvili highlighted that her brother had always dreamed of being a police officer and ran into the fight on Oct. 7 — when he was killed — despite waiting for surgery for a broken shoulder. She also noted that he volunteered to support Holocaust survivors.
“On this celebration of light, of heroes, as we do on Hanukkah, Ran is not only my hero, he is our hero. For everyone lighting a candle tonight, may the glow of the menorah [brighten] the darkened moments. May the glow of the menorah’s light bring Ran home tonight,” Gvili continued.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) also delivered remarks, and nearly 40 lawmakers — a majority of them Democrats — stopped through the gathering. These included Reps. Ed Case (D-HI), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Daniel Goldman (D-NY), Craig Goldman (R-TX), Steny Hoyer (D-MD), David Kustoff (R-TN), George Latimer (D-NY), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), April McClain Delaney (D-MD), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Kim Schrier (D-WA), Shri Thanedar (D-MI), Grace Meng (D-NY), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) and Don Davis (D-NC).
Jeffries said that, after the attack in Australia, “it’s incumbent on all of us as leaders not just to, of course, authentically express our thoughts and prayers on behalf and directed at those families who have suffered from this unconscionable, unthinkable, unspeakable tragedy, but to make it clear that we all have a responsibility to combat antisemitism whenever and wherever it’s found, and make sure that no matter what it takes, we’re committed, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans, to bury antisemitism in the ground never to rise again.”
Jeffries continued, “At the same time, we’ll also make clear that we will continue to stand up for Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and Democratic state and a homeland for the Jewish people.”
ON THE HILL
Australian Jews’ warnings about rising antisemitism were ignored, U.S. lawmakers say
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, multiple Jewish lawmakers emphasized that the Sunday massacre that killed at least 15 at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia, came after many warnings from the Australian Jewish community, and Jewish communities around the world, about the rising violent threats they face — warnings that have often gone ignored, the lawmakers said, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Notable quotable: “That threat, those warnings, have fallen on deaf ears, and we are living with those consequences now,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) said. “I hope that this tragedy is the wake-up call that world leaders need to truly stand up and protect their Jewish communities from antisemitism, whether that manifests online or in person. … Lives are at stake. This is not pretend. These enemies of the Jewish people are not playing games. They mean to end our existence as a people.” Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), a co-chair of the Congressional Jewish Caucus, emphasized that the attack was “not predicted” but “it was predictable,” adding, “For too long, the Jewish community in Australia was saying to the authorities, saying to the government, ‘Antisemitism is a cancer eating away at the soul of the nation, and it’s going to result in the death of Jews in the land,’ and that’s what we saw on Sunday.”
Exclusive: The co-chairs of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism urged Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to act more forcefully to protect Australia’s Jewish community and implement months-old recommendations from the country’s antisemitism envoy. They likewise highlighted the string of “warning signs” that preceded the attack.
SANDERS’ STATEMENTS
Bernie Sanders pivots from sympathy toward Sydney shooting victims to criticizing Netanyahu
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, after Netanyahu linked the terror attack in which 15 people were killed at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia, to Canberra’s support for a Palestinian state, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What he said: Sanders issued a statement in response on Tuesday: “No, Mr. Netanyahu. Speaking out on behalf of the Palestinian people is not antisemitic. Opposing the disgraceful policies of your extremist government is not antisemitic. Condemning your genocidal war, which has killed more than 70,000 people — mostly women and children — is not antisemitic. Demanding that your government stop bombing hospitals and starving children is not antisemitic.”
BETRAYAL ON THE HIGH SEAS
Democratic lawmakers outraged by Coast Guard’s reported reversal on swastika policy
Weeks after the Coast Guard commandant personally called lawmakers to reassure them that swastikas and nooses would remain banned hate symbols within the service, the Guard quietly broke its pledge and diminished the severity of such displays as “potentially divisive” instead — the very language that had prompted outrage from lawmakers and the Jewish community, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
The latest: Leading Democrats erupted in outrage on the news of the Coast Guard’s policy shift, while Republicans have thus far been silent. Several Republicans who spoke out against the initial policy change did not respond to JI’s requests for comment on the latest development on Tuesday. “The shocking news from the Coast Guard exposes a crisis of conscience enabled by the Trump administration’s stunning lack of moral clarity,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) told JI. “The Trump Administration lied right to the American people’s faces when they indicated last month that they weren’t going through with this policy change,” Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) said.
BACKING BROOKS
Shapiro joins with progressives to back Dem recruit Bob Brooks in key Pennsylvania swing seat
With backing from both moderate Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and progressives like Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), firefighter union leader Bob Brooks has emerged as a front-runner in the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District, a critical swing district that Democrats are aggressively contesting for next year’s midterms, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Endorsement insights: Christopher Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College, said that Brooks’ background brings elements that appeal to various elements of the Democratic coalition, perhaps explaining his support from both sides of the party: his time as a leader in organized labor with a history on workers’ rights issues should resonate with progressive voters, while his “personal narrative fits if you’re trying to win over white working-class voters that might be more moderate or socially conservative.”
PUSHING PARTNERSHIP
Rep. Zach Nunn stands by U.S.-Israel relationship as ‘returning huge dividends’
At a time when an increasingly vocal minority on the right is questioning the future and the benefits of the U.S.-Israel relationship, Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA) led a pair of amendments to the 2026 defense policy bill aiming to expand the relationship, with a particular focus on new technologies. Asked how he responds to those on the right who question the value of the relationship, Nunn, the chair of the Republican Study Committee’s national security task force, said in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod, “Israel is the lone bastion of democracy, freedom and Western values in a region where the U.S. has vital national security interests. For decades, Israel has been a strategic partner in kinetic and non-kinetic action against bad actors like Iran.”
Tech talk: Nunn added that programs such as the ones he championed would prepare the U.S. for all manner of challenges. “As our adversaries embrace low-cost options like drones and cyberwarfare, it’s more important than ever that we not only coordinate closely on joint security, but also on the underlying technologies that will define the next generation of conflict,” the Iowa lawmaker continued. “My amendments are about ensuring that partnership continues to evolve. They are strategic investments that strengthen American security, deter our adversaries and deliver real returns for U.S. taxpayers.”
Worthy Reads
⚠️ Shoulder to Shoulder: In The Times of Israel, Israeli President Isaac Herzog reflects on the Sydney terror attack and the meaning of Hanukkah. “Yet as we reflect on the miracle of the return home of our brothers and sisters, we also confront a deeply troubling reality beyond Israel’s borders. As the October 7th massacre in southern Israel was still ongoing, Jewish communities around the world began to experience a vicious wave of hatred. Institutional antisemitism, Holocaust inversion, conspiracies left and right, Jew-hatred platformed on social media, and moral bankruptcy masquerading as social justice have all disturbingly increased across the Western world. The deadly terror attack in Sydney this week demonstrates where these dangerous trends can lead.” [TOI]
👮 ‘Forever Changed’: In The New York Times, Alex Ryvchin, the co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, mourns those killed in Sunday’s terror attack in Sydney, as well as the sense of communal security that no longer exists for Australian Jews. “Now we have suffered a loss that is impossible to measure or articulate. It is a loss felt nationally for a country that is forever changed. It is a loss felt communally for a way of life defined by pride and open observance that no longer exists. And it is a loss we feel individually for the friends and relatives who died in our arms from hideous wounds inflicted by high-powered shells used for hunting game. … My community will never recover from this, I am sure. My rabbi, my friend, Eli Schlanger lived by a mission of being proud of who he was as a Jew. The annual Hanukkah event he hosted on the beach was the ultimate evidence of our acceptance, the proof that we were safe in our acts of community pride. That is all gone now. And with it, a man who had shown us the way.” [NYTimes]
⚖️ After Bondi: In the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack, The Atlantic’s Graeme Wood posits that governments need to take serious, tangible actions that go beyond antisemitism education to address threats to the Jewish community. “With an attack like this, the only effective response is the zealous prosecution of anyone who planned or supported it, and the protection of those who might be targeted in similar attacks in the future. Museum education is nice, but if an attack is under way, a police officer with a rifle has more stopping power. Self-study to determine whether Jews are systematically excluded or vilified is worthwhile but will take time. Restrictions on speech are another matter, and a distraction from real police work. It should not be a crime to inquire about the whereabouts of Jews, or even to say you wish to gas them. But if you spray-paint a Jewish school or set a car on fire, a government with its resources properly ordered will find and charge you before you graduate to violent crime.” [TheAtlantic]
Word on the Street
The Sudanese Armed Forces – backed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Egypt and Iran – are the subject of a new CNN investigation that found them responsible for mass killing of civilians and dumping their bodies into canals…
United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed re-upped a 2024 Atlantic piece by Palestinian political activist Samer Sinijlawi calling for leadership changes in Israel and the Palestinian Authority…
Turkey was excluded from a CENTCOM-hosted conference in Doha, Qatar, focused on putting together an international stabilization force in the Gaza Strip…
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said that the Trump administration needs to put forward a new nominee for the post of ambassador for religious freedom as former Rep. Mark Walker’s (R-NC) nomination remains stalled in the Senate…
The widow of a security officer who was killed in a mass shooting at the Park Avenue building housing the headquarters of the NFL is suing the league, the real estate firm that owns the building and the building’s security company over their failures to prevent the attack, in which philanthropist Wesley LePatner and two others were also killed…
The NYPD is investigating an incident in which a group of Orthodox Jewish men were harassed and assaulted on a subway car after video of the confrontation was posted to social media; police are also investigating as a hate crime a separate incident, also filmed, in which a visibly Jewish man was attacked while walking down the street in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood…
Two members of the Heritage Foundation’s board resigned amid a series of high-profile departures from the think tank over its embrace of Tucker Carlson and failure to denounce extremist views; Abby Spencer Moffat said Heritage was “unwilling or unable to meet this moment with the clarity and courage it requires,” while Shane McCullar said the think tank was “unwilling to confront the lapses in judgment that have harmed its credibility, its culture, and the conservative movement it once helped shape”…
Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to reject Skydance Paramount’s hostile takeover bid due to concerns over financing; Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, which had provided some backing to Paramount in its effort, withdrew its support for Paramount’s bid…
The Financial Times reports on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s efforts to build out AI infrastructure as he looks to compete with OpenAI and Google…
Qatar Sports Investments-owned Paris Saint-Germain was ordered by a French court to pay more than $70 million to former PSG star Kylian Mbappé resulting from unpaid wages and bonuses…
Actress Sydney Sweeney wore a gown by Israeli designer Galia Lahav to the premiere of her new film, “The Housemaid”…
Iranian victims of the Women, Life, Freedom protests that swept through the Islamic Republic in 2022 are suing more than three dozen Iranian officials in an Argentine court, alleging the officials committed or were complicit in crimes against humanity…
PBS reports from Hezbollah’s secretive military installations following their seizure by the Lebanese Armed Forces…
Wall Street investment banker Arthur Carter, who would go on to purchase The Nation and found The New York Observer, died at 93…
Pic of the Day
Actor Jonah Platt sat in conversation with former Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi on Monday night at the American Friends of Magen David Adom’s Miami Gala.
Birthdays
Grammy Award-winning songwriter and musician, Benjamin Goldwasser turns 43…
Retired attorney and vice chair of the American Jewish International Relations Institute, Stuart Sloame turns 86… Former CEO of multiple companies including the San Francisco 49ers and FAO Schwarz, Peter L. Harris turns 82… VP of strategic planning and marketing at Queens-based NewInteractions, Paulette Mandelbaum… Professor of Jewish history, culture and society at Columbia University, Elisheva Carlebach Jofen turns 71… Retired chair of the physician assistant studies program at Rutgers, Dr. Jill A. Reichman turns 70… Former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and senior foreign policy advisor to prime ministers Sharon, Barak and Netanyahu, Danny Ayalon turns 70… Longtime chairman and CEO of HBO, he now heads Eden Productions, Richard Plepler turns 67… Israeli film director, screenwriter, animator and film-score composer, Ari Folman turns 63… Former president of Freedom House, now the director at Voice of America, Michael J. Abramowitz turns 62… Chief of the General Staff of the IDF until this past March, Herzl “Herzi” Halevi turns 58… Founder and CEO of LionTree LLC, Aryeh B. Bourkoff turns 53… Pastry chef, television personality and cookbook author, Jeffrey Adam “Duff” Goldman turns 51… Israeli former soccer goalkeeper, then on the coaching staff for the national team, Nir Davidovich turns 49… CEO of the New Legacy Group of Companies, he is also founder and chair emeritus of Project Sunshine, Joseph Weilgus… Co-director of New Public, Eli Pariser turns 45… Senior writer at National Review and author of Unjust: Social Justice and the Unmaking of America, Noah C. Rothman… Director of foundation partnerships at the UJA-Federation of New York, Julia Sobel… National correspondent for Vanity Fair and author of the 2018 book Born Trump: Inside America’s First Family, Emily Jane Fox… State general manager for Maryland at Entyre Care, Daniel Ensign… Actor, singer-songwriter and musician, he starred in the Nickelodeon television series “The Naked Brothers Band,” Nat Wolff turns 31…
The move comes after the Coast Guard walked back a policy that loosened restrictions around displaying the symbol
Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Representative Ritchie Torres, during an interview in New York, US, on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) on Monday introduced legislation to codify a policy in the Coast Guard prohibiting displays of swastikas and other hate symbols, following backlash last week over a new Coast Guard policy that loosened the previous ban on such displays.
Amid bipartisan pressure from Congress and public outcry, the Coast Guard walked back the policy, which would have classified swastikas, nooses and other similar symbols as “potentially divisive” and would not have banned them outright.
Torres’ bill would prohibit the Coast Guard from issuing, without congressional approval, “any guidance that is less restrictive on prohibiting divisive or hate symbols and flags” than the updated policy issued following the public backlash, which partially, although not fully, reinstated the previous policy. The new policy states that “divisive or hate symbols and flags are prohibited,” including swastikas.
The legislation does not specify how “less restrictive” would be defined or determined in practice.
The latest iteration of the Coast Guard’s policy keeps in place changes made to the investigative process for such incidents — previously, they would be subject to a full investigation, now they are subject to a potentially less stringent inquiry by the relevant commanding officer.
Torres’ bill is not likely to move forward in its current form given the unified GOP control of the government.
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