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Jewish groups mobilize amid growing migrant crisis in NYC
(New York Jewish Week) — Outside a recently opened shelter meant to house some 2,000 migrants at Brooklyn’s Navy Yard, two modest tents are set up where volunteers hand out essentials like food, towels and toiletries, as well as provide items to pass the time, like cards, chess sets and books.
One tent is adorned with an American flag and a sign that reads “Welcome to NYC,” “Bienvenidos” and “Shalom Aleichem.” The other has two lines from “The New Colossus,” the famous poem by Sephardic Jew Emma Lazarus that’s etched into the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty (“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”).
The tents and the free products inside are courtesy of Masbia Relief, a Jewish communal disaster relief team that is an offshoot of the Masbia kosher pantry network founded by Alex Rapaport, an Orthodox Jew in Brooklyn.
“I was raised in a home where all four of my grandparents were Holocaust survivors,” Rapaport told the New York Jewish Week. “There was always that thought: Where was everybody else? Where was the rest of the world when all this was happening? To me, you cannot ignore a situation like this.”
Alex Rapaport, the executive director of Masbia, has been stocking tents with toiletries, clothes and food outside of the city’s migrant shelters. (Julia Gergely)
Rapaport and his team have been on the ground welcoming new arrivals to New York City since last August, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent his first busload of migrants to Manhattan’s Port Authority Bus Terminal and Masbia greeted them with gifts of free shoes.
Since last spring, more than 100,000 asylum seekers have arrived in New York City, putting a strain on the city’s resources and space. Earlier this summer, the breaking point became visible as hundreds of migrants were forced to sleep on the sidewalk outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown, a makeshift city intake center that had reached capacity.
In response, several emergency housing centers have opened in recent weeks, including large, tent-style shelters set up on soccer fields at Randall’s Island in the East River and in the parking lot at the state-owned Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens. A number of these facilities have opened in Brooklyn, too, including at the Sunset Park Recreation Center, the McCarren Park Play Center and previously vacant space at a block-sized building called The Hall at 47 Hall Street in the Navy Yard.
Mayor Eric Adams has estimated that the influx of migrants will cost the city $12 billion. Over the weekend, pro- and anti-migrant protesters clashed outside Gracie Mansion, and another protest by those opposing the shelter in their neighborhood is planned Monday evening at a former Catholic school on Staten Island.
Yet many New Yorkers remain committed to welcoming the new arrivals. The Synagogue Coalition on the Refugee and Immigration Crisis is a group of 36 synagogues and Jewish non-profit organizations that have come together to present a united front in advocacy efforts, education campaigns and direct volunteer service on behalf of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in New York. Participating institutions include synagogues B’nai Jeshurun and Ansche Chesed, T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights and the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan.
The coalition, said co-chair Judith Bass, “gives us, as part of the Jewish community, a voice and a presence to express our support for the asylum seekers and the migrants.”
The group was initially formed in 2016 with the support of HIAS, the Jewish immigrant aid society, in response to the Syrian refugee crisis. In addition to traditional resettlement practices — such as aiding refugees in finding apartments and jobs, and helping them fill out government paperwork — coalition members participate in volunteer efforts like greeting migrants and holding food and clothing drives.
“We used to do it because the people who needed help were Jewish and now we do it simply because we are Jewish,” Bass said, referring to how, over the years, HIAS’s mission has shifted from Jews helping Jews to a “multi-continent, multi-pronged humanitarian aid and advocacy organization” according to its website.
“There is a ton of activity that’s going on and there is not one single way of helping,” Charlie Davidson, the coalition’s other co-chair, told the New York Jewish Week. One such example is happening Monday afternoon: Volunteers, including former Manhattan borough president and SCRIC co-founder Ruth Messinger, will join Team TLC NYC, another volunteer group, to fill backpacks with school supplies for children of asylum-seekers ahead of the new school year. The initiative will take place at a donation-based, volunteer-run “store” on West 40th Street called the Little Shop of Kindness.
Referencing the Jewish tenet of “welcoming the stranger,” Davidson said that aiding New York’s refugee community is a particularly Jewish issue. “I can’t think of anything that’s more fundamental to who we are than recognizing that these people are in the same place that our grandparents were in when they got here,” he said. “These people are deserving of help and we’re required to provide them help.”
Rapaport said Masbia’s first supplies initiative was put into place on Aug. 5 outside the Sunset Park shelter.
“When we learned that they will be housing migrants in Brooklyn, we wanted to nurture a communal sense of sharing,” he said. “We coordinated with the powers that be to bring two tents outside, where people can pass by and see that we’re collecting personal hygiene and clothing for the people inside [the shelters], and people can express welcoming and good vibes for their new neighbors while they’re here.”
Last Thursday, on an overcast morning, Rapaport and two Masbia volunteers staffed the tents outside The Hall, the new Navy Yard shelter. The trio offered smiles and supplies to dozens of men who came to collect things they needed.
Rapaport plays chess with some of the men who are living at the The Hall in Brooklyn Navy Yard. (Julia Gergely)
Carlos, a 30-something man who declined to give his last name, had arrived from Venezuela six months ago. He took a towel, soap, deodorant and some peaches from the tents. “It hasn’t been going very well at the moment,” he told the New York Jewish Week in Spanish. “I can’t say we’re doing great, but we can’t blame New York for what’s happening. We’re thankful because they help us.”
Like many of his fellow migrants, Carlos said he came to New York seeking asylum from the economic and human rights crisis in Venezuela. He had served nearly two years in jail there for attending a protest against the government. While he was grateful for the toiletries, he said what he most needs is work. Once he gets papers, he hopes to bring his mother and his three kids to the United States as well. “I will do any type of work — whatever is available,” he said. “What I don’t know I will learn quickly. I have no choice.”
“These are people running away from horrors and persecution,” said Rapaport, noting that that fact can get lost in the standoff between the city, state and federal governments over responsibility for alleviating the crisis. “When that happens, it’s very hard to see the human side of the story. It’s very hard for people to understand that there is a real historic thing happening here. It’s a human issue and it’s a New York issue. And we can be welcoming towards new immigrants.”
Bass concurs. “This is a humanitarian crisis, this is not a political issue,” she said. “We need to respond as Jews, as New Yorkers and as concerned individuals.”
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The post Jewish groups mobilize amid growing migrant crisis in NYC appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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‘Totally Obliterated’: US Bombs Iran’s Nuclear Sites, Trump Declares Operation a Success
US President Donald Trump delivers an address to the nation alongside US Vice President JD Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the White House in Washington, DC, US, June 21, 2025, following US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria/Pool
The United States launched a large-scale military strike against Iran early Saturday, destroying key nuclear enrichment facilities, including the heavily fortified Fordow site.
US President Donald Trump said in a public address that the operation had “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities and urged Tehran to “make peace,” warning that any future aggression would be met with even greater force.
The multi-pronged strike combined stealth B‑2 Spirit bombers deploying bunker-buster bombs with Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from submarines. Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan — all central to the Iranian nuclear program — were targeted in a coordinated assault. US military officials said the campaign neutralized Iran’s main enrichment operations.
Trump praised Israel’s role in coordinating the response and hailed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a key partner, saying the two leaders worked “as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before.” Netanyahu, for his part, called the American action “unmatched” and said it signaled a shift toward restoring regional stability.
Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the operation as a breach of sovereignty and international law, vowing to respond with force. Hours after the strike, Iran retaliated by unleashing a salvo of roughly 30 ballistic and hypersonic missiles toward central Israel. Several missiles hit urban centers including Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Haifa, and surrounding areas, causing injuries to at least 25 civilians and extensive property damage. Israel closed its airspace and instructed residents in key regions to only venture out for essential activities. In response, Israeli jets struck military targets in Iran, including missile launch sites and rocket depots.
Domestically, Trump’s decision exposed sharp political divisions in Washington. Republican hawks applauded the move as decisive, while isolationists and some constitutional conservatives questioned the legality of bypassing Congress, demanding oversight before further military escalation. Meanwhile, the United Nations and key US allies, including Britain and France, urged caution and a swift return to diplomatic solutions.
Iranian state media reported that most nuclear material was evacuated from Fordow ahead of the strike, the Reuters news agency reported. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, said it detected no spike in off-site radiation.
According to Arab sources cited in The Wall Street Journal, the United States sent messages via regional intermediaries to reassure Tehran that the strike was a one-off and not part of a campaign to topple the regime. A senior US official confirmed that the administration clarified it had no intention of pursuing regime change and that the door remained open to renewed negotiations.
US Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), co-sponsors of a bipartisan resolution to block unauthorized military action in Iran, criticized Trump’s strike as unconstitutional. Massie called the move illegal, while Khanna urged Congress to immediately vote on their Iran War Powers Resolution “to prevent America from being dragged into another endless Middle East war.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), meanwhile, called for Trump’s ouster, claiming it violated the US Constitution and as such was an impeachable offense.
“The president’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers. He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment,” she said.
Arsen Ostrovsky, a leading human rights lawyer and CEO of the International Legal Forum, rejected the criticism. He said Trump was acting well within his powers under Article II of the Constitution, which grants the president authority as commander-in-chief to protect national security.
“This is not without precedent,” Ostrovsky told The Algemeiner, pointing to former President Barack Obama’s operation to kill Osama bin Laden and former President Joe Biden’s airstrikes on Iranian proxies in Syria.
“Trump did not need the authorization of Congress in order to initiate a military strike,” he said, adding that the action was also supported by the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and Article 51 of the UN Charter, which affirms a nation’s right to self-defense.
Ostrovsky also defended the legality of Israel’s involvement, saying its campaign was not a sudden act of aggression but a response to a protracted armed conflict initiated by Iran.
“Faced with an existential and imminent threat from a nuclear Iran, the Jewish state had no choice but to act before it was too late,” he said. He described the strikes as “lawful, necessary, and proportionate under the Laws of Armed Conflict against a genocidal regime that had vowed to destroy the world’s only Jewish state and stood on the cusp of acquiring the means to do so, had Israel not acted.”
“In striking Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Israel and the United States made the world a safer place. They did it not only in their own defense, but in defense of the free world,” he concluded.
The post ‘Totally Obliterated’: US Bombs Iran’s Nuclear Sites, Trump Declares Operation a Success first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi lays a wreath as he visits the burial site of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, June 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A member of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tehran alongside a member of an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group, a senior Lebanese security source told Reuters and the Iraqi group said on Saturday.
The source identified the Hezbollah member as Abu Ali Khalil, who had served as a bodyguard for Hezbollah’s slain chief Hassan Nasrallah. The source said Khalil had been on a religious pilgrimage to Iraq when he met up with a member of the Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada group.
They traveled together to Tehran and were both killed in an Israeli strike there, along with Khalil’s son, the senior security source said. Hezbollah has not joined in Iran’s air strikes against Israel from Lebanon.
Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada published a statement confirming that both the head of its security unit and Khalil had been killed in an Israeli strike.
Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli aerial attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs in September.
Israel and Iran have been trading strikes for nine consecutive days since Israel launched attacks on Iran, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran has said it does not seek nuclear weapons.
The post Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip
Israeli soldiers operate during a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, July 3, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), in cooperation with the General Security Service (Shin Bet), announced on Friday the killing of Ibrahim Abu Shamala, a senior financial official in Hamas’ military wing.
The operation took place on June 17th in the central Gaza Strip.
Abu Shamala held several key positions, including financial officer for Hamas’ military wing and assistant to Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing until his elimination in March 2024.
He was responsible for managing all the financial resources of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza, overseeing the planning and execution of the group’s war budget. This involved handling and smuggling millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip to fund Hamas’ military operations.
The post Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip first appeared on Algemeiner.com.