A national anti-Israel group for university faculty and staff is reportedly urging its activists to call Senate lawmakers to oppose steps by the Trump administration to combat antisemitism, ahead of  Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the issue.

A National Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine email circulated to supporters urges faculty to lobby senators against the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, the Trump administration’s executive order on antisemitism and the recently announced investigations by the Trump administration’s antisemitism task force.

In an otherwise well-received address, Rep. Elise Stefanik faced booing at the Anti-Defamation League’s Never is Now conference opening plenary on Monday morning when she claimed that the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks would not have happened if President Donald Trump had been reelected in 2020. 

“I believe that it’s quite obvious to the world that if President Trump had remained in office, Oct. 7 would never have happened,” she said. 

Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and a longtime foreign policy advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — whose diplomatic expertise was credited with moving the Abraham Accords forward — died on Monday in Jerusalem from an undisclosed illness. He was 71. 

Born in Hartford, Conn., Gold made aliyah in 1980 after receiving a doctoral degree from Columbia University. He went on to break barriers for olim by serving at the highest levels of the Israeli government — positions that included director-general of the Foreign Ministry, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations and political advisor to two prime ministers, Ariel Sharon and Netanyahu. 

The atmosphere for Jewish students on college campuses nationwide has somewhat improved in the last year, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s second annual Campus Antisemitism Report Card, released on Monday.

Several universities saw significant improvement in their scores compared to last year’s report card — which was released as antisemitism roiled campuses in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and ensuing war between Israel and Hamas.

The almost 180-degree shift on Ukraine from the Biden administration to the Trump administration — from vocal support and a flow of weapons to the threat of a halt of arms shipments and a call to abruptly end the war without security guarantees, is almost a mirror image of the change in Washington when it comes to Israel — where there were freezes on some weapons and a cease-fire plan that would keep Hamas in power and now $4 billion in arms were approved and the White House supports Israel blocking aid to Gaza.

Yet, after President Donald Trump’s confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week, some experts are warning that the implosion of ties between Washington and Kyiv could have ramifications for Israel.

Tamar Ish Shalom was among the most recognizable faces on Israeli television, anchoring one of Israel’s few nightly news programs for a decade. But last month, Ish Shalom traded in TV cameras for a podcaster’s microphone, hosting “Jewish Crossroads: Jewish Identity in Times of Crisis” from the Jewish People Policy Institute.

Ish Shalom’s journalism career goes back to her childhood, when she hosted news shows for children, and then the IDF, where she served as a reporter for the popular Army Radio. But she’s best known for her many years at Channel 10, which later became Channel 13, as anchor of the nightly news and, in recent years, the Saturday night newsmagazine. 

Facing scrutiny and increasing criticism from some in the New Jersey Jewish community, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop is suggesting that his top opponents in the state’s Democratic gubernatorial primary aren’t reliable allies against antisemitism and in support of Israel — and is also taking aim at the state’s current governor, accusing him of failing to adequately address the issue.

“When people try to portray me as anything other than a person that understands and supports the Jewish community here, it’s like a laughable accusation, considering my family’s background and my personal trajectory and personal backgrounds,” Fulop told Jewish Insider. “I stand alone in the sense that I’ve been an advocate for the Jewish community and Israel with no support financially or politically from that community. I do it solely because I believe that what I say is on the right side of the issues. That’s not the same place that the congressional candidates are.”

House Republicans who traveled to Israel last month told JI last week that, based on their conversations with Israeli leaders and others, they believe Israel is likely to return to combat operations in Gaza.

Reps. Randy Weber (R-TX), Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) and Mike Flood (R-NE) traveled for a week to Israel during the President’s Day congressional recess as part of a delegation led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and organized by the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation. The full group included nearly a dozen lawmakers.