The American Jewish Committee criticized President Donald Trump for his executive order barring travel into the United States for citizens of 12 countries as lacking “a clear connection to the underlying problem” of domestic antisemitism and potentially having “an adverse impact on other longstanding immigration and refugee policies.”

The administration framed the announcement as a response to the antisemitic terrorist attack in Boulder, Colo., carried out by an immigrant from Egypt who overstayed a work permit. The AJC’s response echoes the cautious, skeptical approach it and other major nonpartisan Jewish organizations have taken to other actions by the Trump administration to combat antisemitism, including revoking visas from international students and cutting funding from universities.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will announce on Monday that he is launching “an all-out push to shore up” $500 million in the fiscal year 2026 budget for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program in response to a spate of recent antisemitic terrorist attacks, he revealed to Jewish Insider in an interview on Thursday.

He said that key Senate Republicans have appeared amenable to that request and called the administration’s proposal for flat funding for the program a nonstarter.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee delayed an anticipated vote on Thursday on Joel Rayburn’s nomination to be assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs as he faces opposition from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), which could imperil his nomination.

The news is another setback for Middle East hawks who saw Rayburn, who held a series of national security positions in the first Trump administration, as more aligned with their worldview, as compared to the isolationists populating many senior roles throughout the administration.

A new coalition of pro-Israel LGBTQ activists is backing former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as its first choice in a ranked slate of candidate endorsements for New York City mayor, according to a statement shared exclusively with Jewish Insider on Thursday.

“Amidst the unprecedented rise in antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment and activity within our city, we, LGBTQ Zionists of New York, feel a deep responsibility to share our endorsements for the Democratic primaries,” the group said in its announcement. “We believe it is essential to elect champions of both the gay community and of Zionists — those who support the Jewish people’s right to self-determination and the existence of the State of Israel.”

Recently released Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander and his family endorsed Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) for governor of New Jersey and praised his advocacy for Alexander’s release in a letter to the congressman.

The letter, read out at a recent campaign event in Tenafly, N.J. by a family friend, reads, “We can’t wait to thank you in person and we can’t wait to call you Governor Josh in November.”

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) accused the search firm that oversaw the failed nomination of former University of Michigan President Santa Ono to lead the University of Florida of not properly vetting and disclosing the candidate’s record. 

“Clearly the search firm didn’t disclose everything to anybody,” Scott told Jewish Insider on Wednesday of SP&A Executive Search, the firm behind the search for UF’s new president. “It sure seems to me, just talking to people on the search committee, they didn’t know all this before their votes. That’s wrong. That’s on the search firm, they didn’t do their job. It appears to me that that’s what happened.”

Israel is providing weapons to an armed militia opposing Hamas, a defense source confirmed on Thursday.

Following reports in recent weeks that Israel was working with a gang led by Yasser Abu Shabab based in Rafah in southern Gaza, Avigdor Liberman, the former defense minister and current opposition lawmaker, said on Kan radio that “Israel provided assault rifles and light arms to crime families in Gaza, on [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s orders … These are the equivalent of ISIS in Gaza.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition was thrown into disarray on Wednesday night after the spiritual leaders of Haredi factions threatened to bring about an early election if penalties for yeshiva students avoiding military service are not canceled.

The leading rabbis of Agudat Yisrael, the Hasidic party of United Torah Judaism, told party leader Yitzchak Goldknopf on Tuesday to move forward with vote next week on a bill to dissolve the Knesset, calling an election, because Netanyahu did not keep a promise to pass a bill exempting young Haredi men from military service by Shavuot, a holiday that was observed on Monday in Israel. On Wednesday morning, the other part of United Torah Judaism, Degel Hatorah, received a similar directive from the senior rabbis of the “Litvak” non-Hasidic Haredi community, Dov Lando and New York-native Moshe Hillel Hirsch.