Jewish

New York City, United States – Sitting in a room of hundreds of Jewish New Yorkers, Zohran Mamdani received cheers and applause at the Erev Rosh Hashanah service of progressive Brooklyn synagogue Kolot Chayeinu on a Monday evening last month.

This was one of the Democratic mayoral nominee’s recent appearances at synagogues and events over the Jewish High Holy Days, and a visible step towards navigating a politically charged line: increasingly engaging the largest concentration of Jewish people in any metropolitan area in the United States, and holding firmly anti-Zionist views before the general election on November 4.

Historically, Mamdani has held a strong stance on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, even founding a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine during his undergraduate days at Bowdoin College. A little more than a decade later, as Mamdani’s name began to gain recognition, his longstanding unapologetically pro-Palestinian stance became a rallying force behind his platform as well as a point of criticism from opponents.

Mamdani received endorsements and canvassing support from progressive Jewish organisations like Bend the Arc, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Action and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), organisations that have each confronted Israel’s role in the war in Gaza through statements on their websites.

Simultaneously, he has sustained attacks from far-right activists, Jewish Democrats on Capitol Hill and Zionist activist groups for his firm support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and refusal to call Israel a Jewish state.

But despite mixed responses, the polls are clear: Mamdani is leading among Jewish voters overall in a multiway race.

‘No group is a monolith’

In July, a publicly released research poll by Zenith Research found that Mamdani led with a 17-point lead among Jews and by Jewish subgroups. In the scenario of Mayor Eric Adams dropping from the race, Mamdani still dominated, 43-33.

“Me being Jewish, I understand that there are many cleavages within the Jewish community,” said Adam Carlson, founding partner of Zenith Research. “As a pollster, one of my big things is that no group is a monolith, and if you have a large enough sample size, you can break it out and glean some nuances … what we found was a better-than-expected result for Mamdani among Jewish voters in New York City.”

Beth Miller, political director of the political advocacy organisation Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Action and a member of Kolot Chayeinu, shared what it was like to witness a fraction of this support at the Erev Rosh Hashanah that Mamdani attended last month.

“He was basically swarmed at the end because people were so excited that he was there,” said Miller. “And that’s not because he’s a celebrity, it’s because people are excited about what we can all build together if he becomes mayor.”

JVP Action, a day-one endorser of Mamdani, represents one organisation among a growing group of Jewish supporters for Mamdani, like JFREJ, a group that has played a part in spearheading canvassing efforts among the diverse Jewish communities of NYC.

JFREJ’s electoral arm, The Jewish Vote, has supported Mamdani since he was first running for state assembly in 2020. Since then, JFREJ members and Mamdani have worked, canvassed and protested together.

Alicia Singham Goodwin, political director of JFREJ, has personally been arrested at protests alongside Mamdani.

“That’s the kind of thing that gives me faith in his commitments,” Goodwin told Al Jazeera regarding the arrests. “He’s willing to take on big risks for the things that matter.”

JFREJ has played a large role in spreading Mamdani’s message by knocking on doors and phone banking Jewish voters.

“We care about what our neighbours are worried about, excited and hopeful for — what they need for their families, and we’re ready to meet them there with our analysis of how the city needs to move to get to affordable housing, universal childcare, or to combat the real rise in anti-Semitism and hate violence,” said Goodwin. “We believe that Zohran is the strongest candidate for that, as well as for all the other issues we talk about.”

Courting the Jewish vote

While there is no doubt that the canvassing army of 50,000 volunteers has served Mamdani well, the mayoral hopeful has also been strategic in his pursuit of the Jewish vote.

“He has definitely modulated his rhetoric and has made a concerted effort to reach out to liberal congregations,” said Val Vinokur, professor of literary studies and director of the minor in Jewish culture at The New School. “This has made him more palatable to some progressive Zionists, much to the outrage of his anti-Zionist supporters.”

One example of Mamdani’s subdued rhetoric includes his response to continued backlash over the phrase “globalise the intifada”.

The phrase, used by pro-Palestinian activists, sparked tension between Mamdani and parts of the Jewish community. To some, it represents a call for solidarity with Palestinian resistance, while others view it as anti-Semitic and violent.

Mamdani resisted rejecting the phrase before the June election, but The New York Times reported that since then, he said he would “discourage” its use.

On the second anniversary of the Gaza war, Mamdani posted a four-paragraph statement on X where he acknowledged the atrocities of Hamas’s attack, and then called Israel’s response genocide and ended on a note of commitment to human rights.

“It got s*** on from all sides,” said Carlson. “He made nobody happy, which in my mind, is kinda the correct way to go about it … Sometimes, pleasing nobody is the job of the mayor, and I think he’s learning that now. It’s like a microcosm of what he’s about to face as mayor, assuming he wins. Sometimes, you have to piss off everybody a little bit for compromises.”

Anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism

As Carlson’s Zenith Research poll reflected, the NYC Jewish community has a wide diversity of opinion about politics and positions on Israel and Palestine. The community most clearly differentiates along lines of age, and secular versus conservative practice, but as Jewish support for Mamdani increases, it is evident that these divides are not always so distinct.

“While it’s true that there are major trends that younger American Jews are more progressive and sympathetic to Palestinians, it’s also true that for as long as Zionism has existed, there have been anti-Zionist Jews,” said Miller. “I learned a lot from elders who were in their 70s, 80s and 90s who have been anti-Zionist since Israel was created because they never felt that what they wanted or needed was an ethnostate to represent them.”

Alternatively, Zionist groups like Betar worldwide are troubled by these trends within the Jewish community of New York.

“It’s heartbreaking to see members of the Jewish community support Zohran Mamdani, who openly opposes Zionism — the national liberation movement of the Jewish people,” said Oren Magnezy, spokesperson of Betar worldwide.

Jonathan Boyarin, American anthropologist and Mann professor of modern Jewish studies at Cornell University, wondered whether anti-Zionism has done much to help Palestinians, but distinguished the line that Mamdani is walking.

“It’s been said that there are two kinds of people who confuse anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism: Zionists and anti-Semites. I don’t think Zohran Mamdani belongs in either of those categories,” said Boyarin.

‘New political moment’

Ultimately, experts like Vinokur predict Mamdani will win, barring a scenario in which Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa drops out. Regardless, Vinokur expects Mamdani to secure the Jewish vote.

“He will win the Jewish vote despite and not because of his anti-Zionist background,” said Vinokur. “Younger Jewish voters are overwhelmingly liberal, have been galvanised by the dynamism of his campaign, and ultimately want to make the city a more livable, affordable, and equitable place.”

Mamdani’s message and campaign were celebrated at the JFREJ annual gala fundraiser, the Mazals. NYC Comptroller Brad Lander and Mamdani were honoured together during a night filled with music, ritual and tradition with more than 1,000 attendees.

“I would say it was probably the largest single gathering of Jews for Zohran,” said Goodwin. “They cement this new political moment that we’re in, where people like JFREJ members, movements like ours, are not fringe or aspirational, but we are popular among a majority of New Yorkers.”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has become the target of a sustained right-wing backlash after the US-based Jewish advocacy group included an organisation founded by slain right-wing figure Charlie Kirk in its online database on extremism.

The blowback escalated sharply on Wednesday after FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the bureau would sever ties with the ADL, accusing the prominent advocacy group of spying on Americans.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s post calling the ADL a “hate group” set off a firestorm of criticism online, forcing the group to scrap the “Glossary of Extremism and Hate”, which contained more than a thousand entries on groups and movements with connections to hateful ideologies.

But that has not subdued the backlash from conservatives – the base of the governing Republican Party.

So, what’s ADL’s online database, and why has it triggered MAGA (Make America Great Again) rage? And how has the nonprofit, which backed the crackdown on pro-Palestine campus protests by the administration of US President Donald Trump, ended up ruffling feathers across the political spectrum?

What is ADL?

The ADL is one of the oldest and most influential Jewish advocacy groups in the United States. It was founded in 1913 by members of the B’nai B’rith – Hebrew for “Sons of the Covenant”, a Jewish fraternal organisation – to counter anti-Semitism and prejudice against Jews.

The group, which calls itself “a global leader in combating antisemitism”, started with its original mission, “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all”.

Over time, the ADL grew into a national force with branches spread across the country. It works closely with law enforcement agencies to train officers on identifying bias-motivated violence. It also develops programmes and resources on anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, partnering with schools, universities and communities.

Its monitoring of right-wing racist and anti-LGBTQ+ extremism also allowed it space within the US’s liberal Jewish community.

Since its inception, the ADL has argued that anti-Zionism could lead to anti-Semitism. But in the past couple of decades, the nonprofit has been pushing to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, which conflates some criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. The ADL has also backed a controversial resolution passed by the US Congress that defined anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism.

The ADL is a well-resourced civil society group, with around $163m in revenue last year alone.

What caused the backlash against ADL?

The recent backlash was triggered after several influential right-wing social media accounts began posting screenshots of the ADL’s entry on Kirk’s organisation, Turning Point USA, in its “Glossary of Extremism”.

Kirk, who is credited with galvanising young voters for Trump, was assassinated last month.

Though Turning Point USA was not listed as an “extremist organization”, the nonprofit had documented incidents where its leadership and affiliated members had made “racist or bigoted comments”.

ADL’s entry on “Christian Identity” – which the nonprofit identified as an extremist theology that promotes white supremacy – also drew widespread criticism from right-wing influencers.

The ADL has long positioned itself as a nonpartisan watchdog. But conservatives have increasingly argued that it has become politically aligned with progressive causes, including the group’s partnerships with social media companies in moderating hate-speech policies.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s CEO, has been accused of “weaponising anti-Semitism” to attack critics of liberal policies and of conflating right-wing populism with hate speech in the past.

In the weeks following Kirk’s assassination, the US has seen a wave of right-wing backlash against public figures who criticised him, with several commentators and journalists facing professional repercussions – including the brief suspension of a television show by comedian Jimmy Kimmel and the firing of Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah.

What was in ADL’s online database?

The ADL “Glossary of Extremism and Hate” was an online, searchable database launched in March 2022 by the organisation’s Center on Extremism. After the backlash from right-wing influencers, mostly from the MAGA camp, the ADL quietly moved to retire its database from the public.

The database contained more than 1,000 entries providing overviews and definitions of terms, symbols, slogans, tactics, publications, groups, and individuals associated with various extremist ideologies, hate movements, and related activities.

The resource covered a broad spectrum, including white supremacism, anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim bigotry, and extremism on the far right and far left. The glossary reportedly included groups like the Proud Boys, the Nation of Islam, the Oath Keepers, and others.

The ADL, in its statement, argued that “an increasing number of entries in the Glossary were outdated”, and “a number of entries [were] intentionally misrepresented and misused”.

The organisation further said that it wanted to focus on exploring “new strategies and creative approaches to deliver our data and present our research more effectively”.

The list is no longer publicly available on ADL’s site, and the original URL now redirects to the organisation’s home page.

How did Musk get into this?

The online smear campaign gained traction on Sunday night after billionaire Elon Musk started interacting with posts targeting the ADL.

Musk, who has more than 227 million followers on X, said, “The ADL hates Christians, therefore it is is [sic] a hate group.”

The ADL’s operations encourage murder, Musk said in another reply to a post on X, formerly Twitter, which he bought in 2022 after paying $44bn.

Musk’s attacks on the ADL still came as a shock to some. ADL’s Greenblatt has, in fact, praised Musk several times, including in 2023 for saying that X would block use of the pro-Palestinian slogan “from the river to the sea”.

That applause reportedly led to the resignation of a top ADL executive, Yael Eisenstat, who headed the nonprofit’s Center for Technology and Society, and the group lost several donors.

The ADL has also criticised Musk, saying X’s Grok chatbot promoted pro-Nazi ideology. The chatbot has praised Adolf Hitler, and called itself “MechaHitler”.

Former and current ADL employees have told Jewish Currents, a US-based progressive publication, that Greenblatt has repeatedly given a pass to Musk’s white nationalist sympathies if they help the ADL fight anti-Zionism – a pattern that reportedly escalated after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, followed by Israel’s now two-year-long war on Palestine, which has been dubbed genocide by an United Nations inquiry panel.

Then again, earlier this year, Greenblatt came to Musk’s defence after several Jewish lawmakers and civil society groups condemned Musk’s fascist-style salutes on stage during a speech after Trump’s re-election.

The ADL had posted: “It seems that Elon Musk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute.”

Why did the FBI snap ties with ADL?

The FBI’s decision to cut ties with the ADL also marks a sharp rupture in a partnership that had lasted for decades, at least since the 1940s, rooted in joint efforts to train law enforcement officers and monitor extremist threats across the US.

The move was announced by FBI chief Patel just 24 hours after Musk joined the online campaign, accusing the ADL of having “become a political front masquerading as a watchdog”.

Patel also targeted James Comey, an American lawyer who served as the director of the FBI from 2013 to 2017, during the era of US President Barack Obama.

“James Comey wrote ‘love letters’ to the ADL and embedded FBI agents with them – a group that ran disgraceful ops spying on Americans,” Kash said in a post on X, without offering any more clarity on this.

“That era is OVER. This FBI won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs,” he concluded.

Why is ADL accused of pro-Israel bias and of suppressing pro-Palestinian activism?

The ADL has also faced criticism from left-wing activists for exhibiting a pro-Israel bias and suppressing pro-Palestinian activism, particularly in the wake of widespread protests across US campuses over the Gaza war that has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians and turned the Palestinian enclave into ruins.

The advocacy group has dubbed grassroots protests against Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza as “pro-Hamas activism”, while its CEO Greenblatt has described the Jewish groups calling for a ceasefire as “the ugly core of anti-Zionism”.

The ADL also publicly campaigned against campus protests last year, describing some demonstrations as “antisemitic hate rallies”. The group urged university administrators and government officials to take action against protest organisers, and pressured institutions to censor or discipline dissenting voices.

ADL’s Greenblatt praised Trump for withholding $400m in grants to Columbia University after campus protests and complimented the arrest of Columbia pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil.

“We appreciate the Trump Administration’s broad, bold set of efforts to counter campus antisemitism – and this action further illustrates that resolve by holding alleged perpetrators responsible for their actions,” the ADL posted above a tweet about Khalil’s arrest.

The ADL’s collaboration with the US administration has dented its credibility, and several staff have resigned, citing the organisation’s overt emphasis on pro-Israel advocacy.

“The ADL has a pro-Israel bias and an agenda to suppress pro-Palestinian activism,” an ADL employee told The Guardian newspaper last year.

Oct. 1 (UPI) — Three men suspected of being Hamas members were arrested on a number of charges by authorities in Germany.

German federal prosecutors said Wednesday that three men arrested in Berlin on suspicion of being members of Iran’s terror syndicate Hamas were accused of gathering weaponry in order to carry out scores of planned attacks on Israeli or Jewish institutions, according to The Washington Post, CBS News and CNN.

“Since at least the summer of 2025,” prosecutors stated, the three have been “involved in procuring firearms and ammunition” for Hamas.

They added two of the men were German citizens and the third identified as Lebanese.

According to officials, the three were identified as 44-year-old Syrian national Ahmad I., Abed Al G., 36, and 43-year-old Lebanon-born Wael F. M.

Prosecutors in Berlin charged them with membership in a foreign terrorist group and organizing an act of anti-state violence after police seized a stockpile of ammunition and weapons, including a slew of pistols and AK-47 assault gun.

On Thursday, they will be in front a judge to determine if the three should be held in detention before a later trial.

The arrests came just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to a 20-point U.S.-backed plan to end the bloody war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, now with credible U.N.-backed accusations of genocide, after he met Monday with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington.

It followed last month’s United Nations General Assembly vote to back an independent Palestinian-run state that exists without leadership by Hamas militants as a condition.

The men are suspected of of being ‘foreign operatives’ for Hamas and will appear in court Thursday, prosecutors say.

German authorities have arrested three men suspected of preparing a serious act of violence against Jewish targets in Germany, allegedly on behalf of the Palestinian group Hamas.

Prosecutors say they suspect the three men of being “foreign operatives” for Hamas and of being involved in procuring firearms and ammunition for attacks targeting Israeli or Jewish institutions in Germany.

“In the course of today’s arrests, various weapons, including an AK-47 assault rifle and several pistols, as well as a considerable amount of ammunition, were found,” the federal prosecutors said in a statement.

The three men, identified under German privacy laws only as German citizen Abed Al G, Wael FM, born in Lebanon, and German citizen Ahmad I, were arrested in Berlin on Wednesday. A security source said the three were in their 30s or 40s.

The suspects are set to appear in court on Thursday, when a judge will determine whether the trio will be held in custody before trial.

Hamas is designated as a “terrorist” organisation by Germany, as well as the European Union (EU) as a whole.

In February, four Hamas members suspected of plotting attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe went on trial in Berlin in what prosecutors described as the first court case against members of the Palestinian group in Germany.

“Anti-terrorism” investigators observed the suspects meeting in Berlin for a weapon handover before operational forces intervened and discovered functional weapons, including a Glock pistol, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office said.

Forensic technicians are examining the arsenal, and searches have also taken place in the eastern city of Leipzig, where one of the suspects lives. Authorities also conducted a search in Oberhausen in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the spokesperson added.

Germany is one of Israel’s strongest allies due to the legacy of the Holocaust, and security is tight at synagogues and other Jewish institutions. It did not join France, the United Kingdom and several other countries last month in recognising Palestinian statehood.

Hamas has carried out hundreds of attacks against Israeli civilians over the years, but it has rarely operated outside Israel and the Palestinian territories. Questions will likely be raised over whether the suspects were acting on orders from Hamas’s leadership or if they were merely sympathisers with Hamas or the Palestinian cause.

The arrests come as Israel continues its genocidal war on Gaza despite mounting global outcry and repeated appeals for a ceasefire. At the same time, Israel has enforced a crippling aid blockade on the enclave, where most of its two million residents have been displaced multiple times and are now facing famine and extreme hunger.

Israeli forces have killed at least 66,148 Palestinians since the assault began nearly two years ago, according to local health officials, though experts warn the true toll could be three times higher.

The arrests also took place as Hamas said it would study US President Donald Trump’s peace proposal to end the war.

Tens of thousands of people have also recently rallied in Berlin, protesting German support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Demonstrators marched over the weekend following a call from a broad coalition of some 50 groups, including pro-Palestinian organisations, Medico International, Amnesty International, and the opposition Left Party, for a large demonstration.

They demanded “an end to German complicity” in Israel’s war and called for “an end to all military cooperation with Israel,” including “the import, export, and transit of weapons, ammunition, and other military equipment”.

“Long Story Short,” premiering Friday on Netflix, is the sweet, melancholy, satirical, silly, poignant, hopeful, sometimes slapstick cartoon tale of a middle-class Jewish family, told nonchronologically from the 1990s to the 2020s. For all its exaggerations — and unexaggerated portrayals of exaggerated behaviors — it is remarkably acute, and surprisingly moving, about relations between parents and children and brothers and sisters and about the passage of time and the lives time contains. The eight-episode season is bookended with funerals.

On a plane ride home, Avi Schwooper (Ben Feldman), his last name combining his parents’ Schwartz and Cooper, plays new girlfriend Jen (Angelique Cabral) a recording of Paul Simon’s “The Obvious Child,” in which a character goes from a baby to a married man in the space of a verse. “That’s time, right?” he says, setting a theme and a strategy. In the episodes that follow, we’ll see relationships begin and end; children born and grown, not necessarily in that order. Things change, things fall apart, things last.

Created by “BoJack Horseman” creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg — Avi is drawn to resemble him — and designed by Lisa Hanawalt (who inspired and designed the “BoJack” characters and created “Tuca & Bertie”), it has the look of a children’s book, bright, colorful and busy, aggressively two-dimensional, with wobbly bold lines and squiggly patterns. Deceptively sophisticated and wonderfully expressive, it is full of lifelike details, without being made to resemble life.

Avi’s parents are Naomi Schwartz (Lisa Edelstein), intense and serious, and Elliot Cooper (Paul Reiser), laid-back and humorous. Avi, who writes about music, will go on to marry Jen (blond, gentile); Hannah (Michaela Dietz) is their smart, socially isolated daughter. Avi’s sister Shira (Abbi Jacobson), the angry middle child, will start a family with Kendra (Nicole Byer), a Black woman who is Jewish by choice. Younger brother Yoshi (Max Greenfield) is a bit of a lost soul — “sometimes I just feel like the extra one,” he’ll say — diagnosed as an adolescent with ADD, dyslexia and executive function disorder. (“I never gave him enough attention,” Naomi says, rushing to claim the guilt. “Now he has a deficit.”)

Created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg and designed by Lisa Hanawalt, the series has the look of a children’s book, bright, colorful and busy, aggressively two-dimensional, with wobbly bold lines and squiggly patterns.

(Netflix)

Though each episode is a piece in the mosaic, each has its own story to tell: Yoshi selling mattresses that come in a tube; Avi mixed up with self-righteous parents as he campaigns to remove wolves from Hannah’s school (the wolves, by contrast, are drawn realistically); Kendra at work at a birthday arcade called BJ Barnacles; Yoshi on a nocturnal adventure in San Francisco — the show is set around the Bay Area — with a former friend of his sister, attempting to retrieve a lost bag; Shira attempting to make her mother’s knishes; an improvised shabbat in a desert motel. There are inside family jokes (“Is not a schnook,” Cousin Moishe) that will pay off after a while; a school holiday pageant (“Hanukkah, Ramadan, Kwanzaa too / We tolerate them all, but there’s nothing like Christmas,” runs a song in the background). Yoshi has a bar mitzvah; Naomi is honored for her charitable work. Occasional weird inventions are folded in: a “hambulance” delivering ham; food trucks selling potato ice cream and soup on a stick; something called Pacifier Shirt Syndrome, caused by rubbing a dropped pacifier on a short.

Although I suspect this subject is interesting only to (us) Jews, it took a long time for any sort of Jewish specificity to make it to the screen, especially given who built the movie business. (Assimilation was the name of the game for a people blamed for a scapegoated race.) Even now, it doesn’t happen all that much. You could sense it on “Seinfeld,” see it on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” a lot. There are the current Netflix rom-com “Nobody Wants This,” with Kristen Bell in a relationship with Adam Brody’s rabbi, and the recent Adam Sandler-produced “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.” And there is the odd Holocaust drama.

But in this moment, with its confounding mix of classical antisemitism, fake anti-antisemitism brandished as a weapon against universities and what gets called antisemitism simply because it’s critical of Israel, it’s not a bad thing to get a relatively straightforward look at a contemporary American Jewish family. Together, the characters represent the spectrum of religious attitudes — from atheist to convert, selectively to very observant — but all are steeped in the culture.

Hannah, whose gentile mother makes her “not Jewish,” wonders if her wanting a bat mitzvah might be “cultural appropriation.”

“Look, if Adolf Hitler saw you, I don’t think he’d be doing the math on technically how halachically Jewish you are,” says her father. “He’d throw you in the oven with the rest of us. … If you’re Jewish enough for Hitler, you’re Jewish enough for me.”

That the show can be a little obscure from time to time — I had to look up “Moshiach” to get one joke — just deepens its world. But anyone who’s ever shared a family joke, or wanted to ask a question of someone no longer around to answer it, or compared notes with a sibling on a parent never fully understood will recognize themself here.

Hundreds rally near Downing Street as delegation delivers letter to UK government calling for sanctions on Israel.

Leading Jewish figures in Britain have signed a letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper denouncing the government’s decision to proscribe the activist group Palestine Action as a “terrorist” organisation.

The delivery of the letter on Tuesday coincides with a protest organised under the slogan Proscribe Genocide, Not Protest. The rally outside Downing Street is expected to draw hundreds of participants, including figures from Britain’s Jewish community.

The letter, signed by about 300 Jewish British citizens, condemns the ban as “illegitimate and unethical” and calls for urgent government action against Israel over its conduct of the war in the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip and over escalating violence engulfing the occupied West Bank.

Among the signatories are human rights lawyer Geoffrey Bindman, filmmaker Mike Leigh, author Michael Rosen and writer Gillian Slovo. Jenny Manson, chairperson of Jewish Voice for Labour and one of the lead organisers, said the group was acting both as human beings and as Jews with a moral obligation to oppose genocide.

“We are Jews horrified by the genocide being carried out by Israel against the Palestinian people,” Manson said in a statement. “For us, ‘Never again’ does not mean only crimes against Jews but never again by anyone to anyone.”

Speakers at the rally include Andrew Feinstein, son of a Holocaust survivor and former South African MP; historian Joseph Finlay; documentary filmmaker Gillian Mosely; and comedian and author Alexei Sayle.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the United Kingdom have been protesting weekly against Israel’s genocidal war since October 2023, making it clear they feel their voices aren’t being heard.

Protest despite police warning

The rally comes as the rights group Defend Our Juries confirmed that more than 500 people have committed to “risking arrest” by participating in a related demonstration on Saturday aimed at overturning the ban on Palestine Action.

Those taking part are expected to hold placards reading, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”

The Metropolitan Police Service has warned that expressing support for Palestine Action could lead to arrest under the Terrorism Act 2000.

“Anyone showing support for the group can expect to be arrested,” a police spokesperson said.

Defend Our Juries, which coordinated the campaign, rejected claims that the demonstration is intended to overwhelm law enforcement or the courts. “If we are allowed to protest peacefully and freely, then that is no bother to anyone,” a spokesperson said.

More than 200 people were arrested in protests across the UK last month for displaying the same message.

The letter being delivered on Tuesday urges the UK government to move beyond “handwringing” over the situation in Gaza and take meaningful action.

It calls for the immediate recognition of the State of Palestine and the imposition of sanctions on Israel, including suspension of the UK-Israel trade agreement, an end to all exports used by the Israeli military and the termination of UK military and intelligence collaboration with Israel.

It also calls for a ban on all Israeli imports, legal accountability for UK citizens serving in the Israeli military and the summoning of Israel’s ambassador to the UK for her public support of military actions.

The letter states that opposing genocide, apartheid and ethnic cleansing in Palestine is not anti-Semitic and should not be criminalised.

“Criticising Israel and opposing the brutality … including taking direct action, are not terrorism,” it reads.

Palestine Action was banned in July after a high-profile incident in which the group claimed responsibility for damaging two Voyager aircraft at the Brize Norton air force base, causing an estimated 7 million pounds ($9.3m) of damage.

Last week, the High Court ruled that a legal challenge against the ban by Palestine Action cofounder Huda Ammori could proceed, citing several “reasonably arguable” grounds for review. However, the court declined to pause the ban before a three-day hearing set for November.

If upheld, the proscription means membership in or support for Palestine Action is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Aug. 1 (UPI) — The University of California, Los Angeles, has announced that it has lost research funding over federal accusations of anti-Semitism at the school.

The announcement comes days after the Justice Department said UCLA failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students during pro-Palestine protests that erupted on its campus, as well as those across the United States, in the spring and summer of last year in protest of Israel’s war in Gaza.

The prestigious university did not state the amount of federal funding it would be stripped of, but said it may impact hundreds of grants.

“In its notice to us, the federal government claims anti-Semitism and bias as the reasons. This far-reaching penalty of defunding life-saving research does nothing to address any alleged discrimination,” UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk said in the Thursday letter addressed to the school’s community.

Frenk said the funding affect is under the control of the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and other agencies, which will result in the suspension of certain research funding.

“This is not only a loss to the researchers who rely on critical grants. It is a loss for Americans across the nation whose work, health and future depend on the groundbreaking work we do.”

UCLA is one of dozens of American universities that have been targeted by the Trump administration with civil rights and constitutional investigations in connection to protests demanding the schools divest from Israel over its war in Gaza.

Since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump has been cracking down on institutions of higher learning, in particular elite schools, over a slew of allegations, from not protecting Jewish students to illegally enforcing diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department told UCLA in a letter that an investigation into its handling of the pro-Palestine protests found it had violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by “acting with deliberate indifference in creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students.”

That same day, the university reached a multimillion-dollar settlement that includes paying $6.13 million to three Jewish students and a professor who accused the school of violating their civil rights by permitting the pro-Palestine protests.

Frenk said UCLA shares the goal of eradicating anti-Semitism from society, and has taken actions to manage protests on campus as well as launched an initiative to combat anti-Semitism.

A federal task force threatens to cut all of Harvard’s federal funding over alleged violations of the rights of Jewish and Israeli students.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has accused Harvard University of violating the civil rights of its Jewish and Israeli students and threatened to cut off all federal funding to the institution.

The announcement on Monday is the latest action by the Trump administration against the United States’s oldest university after the institution rejected earlier demands to alter its operations.

In a letter sent to Harvard president Alan Garber, a federal task force said its investigation has concluded that “Harvard has been in some cases deliberately indifferent, and in others has been a willful participant in anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students, faculty, and staff”.

The letter went on to say that the majority of Jewish students at Harvard felt they suffered discrimination on campus, while a quarter felt physically unsafe.

It also threatened further funding acts if Harvard did not change course.

“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” it said, without elaborating what the reforms needed were.

In a statement, Harvard pushed back against the allegations.

The university said that it had taken “substantive, proactive steps” to combat anti-Semitism on campus, and had made “significant strides to combat bigotry, hate and bias”.

“We are not alone in confronting this challenge and recognise that this work is ongoing,” it said, adding that it remains “committed to ensuring members of our Jewish and Israeli community are embraced, respected, and can thrive at Harvard”.

At a White House briefing later, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said discussions between the Trump administration and Harvard were taking place “behind closed doors”, but offered no further details.

Protests against Israel’s war on Gaza

US universities have faced controversy over alleged anti-Semitism on their campuses since the eruption last year of nationwide student protests against Israel’s war on Gaza.

Trump has called such protests “illegal” and accused participants of anti-Semitism. But protest leaders – who include Jewish students – have described their actions as a peaceful response to Israel’s actions, which have elicited concerns about human rights abuses, including genocide.

The Trump administration has frozen some $2.5bn in federal grant money to Harvard, moved to block it from enrolling international students and threatened to remove its tax-exempt status.

It has demanded that Harvard end all affirmative action in faculty hiring and student admissions and disband student groups that promote what it calls criminal activity and harassment.

It also called for changes to the admissions process “to prevent admitting international students hostile to the American values”, including “students supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism”.

Harvard has rejected those demands, and sued the administration, calling its actions “retaliatory” and “unlawful”.

The Trump administration has also gone after top colleges, including Columbia, Cornell and Northwestern.

In early March, Columbia – whose protest camps were copied by students at colleges all over the country – had $400m in federal funding cut from its budget.

The school later agreed to a list of demands from the Trump administration. These included changing its disciplinary rules and reviewing its Middle East studies programme.

Separately, University of Virginia president James Ryan said last week he chose to step down rather than fight the US government as the Trump administration investigated the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Around the same time, the Trump administration also launched a probe into hiring practices at the University of California system – which enrols nearly 300,000 students – to determine whether they violate federal anti-discrimination laws.

The universities have, meanwhile, said that the Trump administration’s actions threaten academic freedom and free speech, as well as critical scientific research.

NEW YORK — In choosing Zohran Mamdani as their candidate for mayor, Democrats in America’s most Jewish city have nominated an outspoken critic of Israel, alarming some in New York’s Jewish community and signaling a sea change in the priorities of one of the party’s most loyal voting groups.

The 33-year-old democratic socialist’s surprisingly strong performance against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo makes clear that taking a stance against Israel is no longer disqualifying in a Democratic primary. The state Assembly member has declined to support the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state, refused to denounce the term “global intifada” and supports an organized effort to put economic pressure on Israel through boycotts and other tactics.

Yet he excelled in the city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, and with the support of many Jewish voters.

Mamdani’s success reflects the ideological realignment of many American Jews since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel that led to Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip. Many Democratic voters, including Jews, have grown dismayed by Israel’s conduct in the war and are deeply critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. That is especially true among younger, more progressive voters, many of whom have rejected the once-broadly accepted notion that anti-Israel sentiment is inherently antisemitic.

For others, Mamdani’s showing has spurred new fears about safety and the waning influence of Jewish voters in a city where anti-Jewish hate crime has surged. Last year, Jews were the target of more than half of the hate crimes in the city.

“Definitely people are concerned,” said Rabbi Shimon Hecht, of Congregation B’nai Jacob in Brooklyn, who said he has heard from congregants in recent days who hope Mamdani will be defeated in the November general election, where he will face Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent, Republican Curtis Sliwa, and possibly Cuomo if he stays in the race.

“I think like every upsetting election, it’s a wake-up call for people,” Hecht said. “I strongly believe that he will not be elected as our next mayor, but it’s going to take a lot of uniting among the Jewish people and others who are concerned about these issues. We have to unify.”

Veteran New York Democratic political strategist Hank Sheinkopf put it more bluntly, predicting a hasty exodus of religious Jews from the city and a decline in long-standing Jewish influence that would be replicated elsewhere.

“It’s the end of Jewish New York as we know it,” he said, adding: “New York is a petri dish for national Democratic politics. And what happened here is what will likely happen in cities across the country.”

Israel was a key campaign issue

Mamdani’s top Democratic rival, the former governor, had called antisemitism and support for Israel “the most important issue” of the campaign.

Mamdani’s backers repeatedly accused Cuomo of trying to weaponize the issue. Many drew parallels to the way President Trump has cast any criticism of Israel’s actions as antisemitic, claiming Jews who vote for Democrats “hate Israel” and their own religion.

For some Mamdani supporters, the election results signaled a rejection by voters of one of Cuomo’s arguments: that an upstart socialist with pro-Palestinian views posed a threat to New York’s Jewish community.

Many were focused on issues such as affordability in a notoriously expensive city, or were flat-out opposed to Cuomo, who was forced to resign amid sexual harassment allegations.

Aiyana Leong Knauer, a 35-year-old Brooklyn bartender who is Jewish and backed Mamdani, said the vote represented “New Yorkers, many of them Jewish, saying we care more about having an affordable city than sowing division.”

“Many of us take really deep offense to our history being weaponized against us,” she said. “Jewish people all over the world have well-founded fears for their safety, but Jews in New York are safe overall.”

Others agreed with Mamdani’s views on Israel.

Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, a progressive anti-Zionist group that worked on Mamdani’s behalf, said the candidate “was actually pretty popular among a lot of Jewish voters.”

“That is not in spite of his support for Palestinian rights. That is because of his support for Palestinian rights,” she said. “There has been a massive rupture within the Jewish community, and more and more Jews of all generations, but especially younger generations,” now refuse to be tied to what they see as a rogue government committing atrocities against civilians, she said.

Polls show support for Israel has declined since the war began. Overall, a slight majority of Americans now express a “somewhat” or “very” unfavorable opinion of Israel, according to a March Pew Research Center poll, compared with 42% in 2022. Democrats’ views are particularly negative, with nearly 70% holding an unfavorable opinion versus less than 40% of Republicans.

Beyond the mayoral race

Mamdani’s wasn’t the only race where Israel was on voters’ minds.

In Brooklyn, City Councilwoman Shahana Hanif, who represents Park Slope and surrounding areas, drew criticism for her Palestinian advocacy. Some said she had failed to respond forcefully to antisemitic incidents in the district.

Yet Hanif, the first Muslim woman elected to the City Council, easily beat her top challenger, Maya Kornberg, who is Jewish, despite an influx of money from wealthy pro-Israel groups and donors.

That outcome dismayed Ramon Maislen, a developer who launched Brooklyn BridgeBuilders to oppose Hanif’s reelection and said antisemitism did not seem to resonate with voters.

“We were very disappointed with our neighbors’ response,” he said.

While campaigning against Hanif, he said he was routinely screamed at by residents and accused of supporting genocide.

“I think that those of us in the Jewish community that are attuned to that are cognizant that there’s been some kind of cultural sea change that’s occurring,” he said. “What we’re seeing is a legitimatization of hatred that isn’t happening in any other liberal or progressive space.”

Mamdani’s record and rhetoric

Mamdani has repeatedly pledged to fight antisemitism, including during an appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” where he was asked about his stance. He was joined on the show by city comptroller and fellow candidate Brad Lander, the city’s highest-ranking Jewish official, who had cross-endorsed him. He has also said he would increase funding for anti-hate crime programming by 800%.

But many of his comments have angered Jewish groups and officials, most notably his refusal to disavow the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which has been used as a slogan in recent protests. Many Jews see it as a call to violence against Israeli civilians. In a podcast interview, Mamdani said the phrase captured a “a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights.”

Given another opportunity to condemn the phrase, Mamdani on Sunday told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that it was not his role to police speech and pledged to be a mayor who “protects Jewish New Yorkers and lives up to that commitment through the work that I do.”

Mamdani also supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which aims to pressure governments, schools and other institutions to boycott Israeli products, divest from companies that support the country, and impose sanctions. The Anti-Defamation League calls it antisemitic and part of a broader campaign to “delegitimize and isolate the state of Israel.”

Mamdani has also said that, as mayor, he would have Netanyahu arrested if the Israeli leader tried to enter the city.

The ADL in a statement Thursday warned candidates and their supporters not to use “language playing into dangerous antisemitic canards that time and time again have been used to incite hatred and violence against Jews.”

In his victory speech, Mamdani alluded to the criticism he’d received and said he would not abandon his beliefs. But he also said he would “reach further to understand the perspectives of those with whom I disagree and to wrestle deeply with those disagreements.”

Colvin writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Jake Offenhartz contributed to this report.

Authorities are investigating the fatal shootings outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, as hate crimes and ‘terrorism’.

Following the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington, DC, last week, some social media users claimed the incident was a “false flag” because of when and where it happened.

“So you’re telling me two Israeli diplomats got killed across the street from an FBI field office outside a Jewish museum that had *closed* 4 hours earlier,” said a May 22 X post. “And one day after Israel fired at European diplomats and Europe was talking sanctions and you don’t think it’s a false flag?”

Other X posts similarly speculated about the deadly shooting on May 21.

The “false flag” phrase stems from the misuse of literal flags. Historically, a false flag operation referred to a military force or a ship flying another country’s flag for deception purposes.

Some confirmed false flag operations have occurred throughout history. But they have been outpaced in recent years by conspiracy theories that label real events as “false flags,” or an attack that’s designed to look like it was perpetrated by one person or party, when in fact it was committed by someone else.

Unfounded false flag claims often follow mass violence incidents, including Israel’s war on Gaza, the 2022 Uvalde school shooting and the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

Historians warn that social media rumours alleging that big news events are “false flags” should be viewed sceptically. Real false flag operations are logistically complex and tend to involve many people.

PolitiFact found no credible evidence to support the claim that the Israeli embassy employees’ shooting is a false flag.

What we know about the shooting

The X post said the shooting, which happened on a Wednesday, is a “false flag” because the museum had closed four hours earlier. The museum usually closes at 5pm on Wednesdays, except for the first Wednesday of each month, when it closes at 8pm.

However, the American Jewish Committee hosted an event on May 21 at the museum, scheduled to end at 9pm.

Preliminary investigations say the shooting happened after 9pm local time when the two victims, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were exiting an event at the Capital Jewish Museum, said Pamela A Smith, the Metropolitan Police Department police chief, at a May 21 press conference.

Police identified the suspect as Elias Rodriguez, a 31-year-old man from Chicago, Illinois. Rodriguez chanted, “Free, free, Palestine” after he was arrested, Smith said. The Justice Department charged him with the murder of foreign officials and other crimes.

The shooting, which has widely been criticised, came as Israel’s actions in Gaza has caused a global outrage and protests calling for ceasefire.

Jeanine Pirro, interim US attorney for the District of Columbia, said on May 22 that the incident is being investigated as a hate crime and “terrorism”.

The Capital Jewish Museum is diagonally across the street from the FBI’s DC field office. FBI Director Kash Patel and the Israeli government have condemned the shooting.

There is no evidence that the shooting was a false flag. We rate this claim False.

NEW YORK — The Trump administration is accusing Columbia University of violating the civil rights of Jewish students by “acting with deliberate indifference” toward what it describes as rampant antisemitism on campus.

The finding was announced late Thursday by the Health and Human Services Department, marking the latest blow for an Ivy League school already shaken by federal cutbacks and sustained government pressure to crack down on student speech.

It comes hours after the Department of Homeland Security said it would revoke Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, a major escalation in the administration’s monthslong attack on higher education.

The civil rights division of HHS said it had found Columbia in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which blocks federal funding recipients from discrimination based on race, color or national origin. That final category, the press release notes, includes “discrimination against individuals that is based on their actual or perceived Israeli or Jewish identity or ancestry.”

The announcement did not include new sanctions against Columbia, which is already facing $400 million in federal cuts by the Trump administration over its response to pro-Palestinian campus protests.

A spokesperson for Columbia said the university is currently in negotiations with the government about resolving its claims of antisemitism.

“We understand this finding is part of our ongoing discussions with the government,” the spokesperson said in an email. “Columbia is deeply committed to combatting antisemitism and all forms of harassment and discrimination on our campus.”

The civil rights investigation into Columbia was based on witness interviews, media reports and other sources, according to HHS. The findings were not made public. A spokesperson did not response to a request for further information.

“The findings carefully document the hostile environment Jewish students at Columbia University have had to endure for over 19 months, disrupting their education, safety, and well-being,” Anthony Archeval, acting director of the HHS civil rights office, said in a statement.

Last spring, Columbia became the epicenter of protests against the war in Gaza, spurring a national movement of campus demonstrations that demanded universities cut ties with Israel.

At the time, some Jewish students and faculty complained about being harassed during the demonstrations or ostracized because of their faith or their support of Israel.

Those who participated in Columbia’s protests, including some Jewish students, have said they are protesting Israel’s actions against Palestinians and have forcefully denied allegations of antisemitism.

Many have also accused the university of capitulating to the Trump administration’s demands — including placing its Middle East studies department under new leadership — at the expense of academic freedom and protecting foreign students.

At a commencement ceremony earlier this week, a speech by Columbia’s acting president, Claire Shipman, was met with loud boos by graduates and chants of “free Palestine.”

Offenhartz writes for the Associated Press.

May 21 (UPI) — Two Israeli Embassy staff members were shot dead Wednesday night outside Washington’s Capital Jewish Museum where an event was being hosted by the American Jewish Committee, officials and authorities said.

“Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC,” Department of Home Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on X.

Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith told reporters in a press conference that one person, the suspected shooter from Chicago, is in custody.

Police were notified of shots fired at 9:08 p.m. EDT outside the museum near the intersection of 3rd and F. Street Northwest.

Officers found two people, a man and a woman later identified as Israeli embassy staff, unresponsive and suffering from gunshot wounds, injuries that they succumbed to, she said.

“A young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem,” Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., said. “They were a beautiful couple.”

Smith said the suspect was seen pacing back and forth outside the museum before approaching a group of four people, pulling out a handgun and shooting both victims.

Event security detained the suspect who then entered the museum, she said.

“The suspect chanted, ‘Free, free Palestine’ while in custody,” she said, identifying the suspect at 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez.

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser suggested the attack Was terrorism.

“We will not tolerate this violence or hate in our city,” she said. “We will not tolerate any acts of terrorism, and we’re going to stand together as a community in the coming days and weeks to send a clear message that we will not tolerate anti-Semitism.”

This is a developing story.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

US Secretary of Homeland Security vows to bring ‘depraved perpetrator’ to justice.

Two staff of Israel’s embassy in the United States have been shot dead, US authorities have said.

The embassy workers were fatally shot on Wednesday outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, according to authorities.

US Secretary of Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem said the staff had been “senselessly killed” in attack near the museum.

“We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share,” Noem said in a statement.

“Please pray for the families of the victims. We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice.”

The American Jewish Committee, which had hosted an event at the museum, said it was “devastated that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the venue”.

“At this moment, as we await more information from the police about exactly what transpired, our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families,” the organisation said.

US Attorney General Pamela Bondi said she was at the scene of the shooting and was “praying for the victims of this violence as we work to learn more”.

More to come…